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Nine Bar Basics product guide

Ninja Luxe Café Premier ES601GM Espresso Machine

Households that want espresso, drip and cold brew from one grinder

The gunmetal ES601GM adds cold brew and cold-pressed espresso to the Premier grinder-and-scale package, with four hands-free froth styles and a queued froth option. Expect a rinse cycle when you switch from hot drinks to cold, hand-washing between shots, a short clean cycle and a roughly ninety-minute descale. Check the carton, because the parts lists we read disagree.

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Published specifications

  • Model ES601GM, gunmetal; espresso, drip coffee, cold brew
  • Guide and listing: 120V, 1,650 watts, 70-ounce reservoir
  • Conical burr grinder, 25 settings, 1 finest to 25 coarsest
  • Guide doses: 9 g single, 18 g double, 40 g quad espresso
  • Coffee and cold brew in 6 to 18 ounce sizes, seven steps
  • Maker block: 12.95 x 13.39 x 14.57 in, 25.73 lb, 43-in cord

Fit and limits

Strengths

  • Cold brew and cold-pressed espresso share one grinder and scale
  • Froth can be queued to start as the brew finishes; cold foam overlaps
  • Owner's guide gives exact doses, outputs and drink sizes

Caveats

  • Switching from hot to cold drinks forces a rinse cycle first
  • Listing and maker page disagree on included parts and width
  • Maker spec block shows a peak wattage below its running wattage

What the gunmetal ES601GM actually does

This is the Premier version of the Luxe Café in the gunmetal colorway, and the maker's own page for it carries the model code ES601GM. It grinds whole beans, weighs the dose, and brews espresso, drip coffee or cold drinks. The owner's guide supplied with the listing is the ES600 Series guide, which covers the machine family rather than this colorway alone.

The guide's volume tables set out what the drink list means in practice. Espresso runs as a single at nine grams for about 0.8 ounce, a double at eighteen grams for about 1.6 ounces, and a quad at forty grams for about 3.5 ounces, with cold-pressed versions of the double and quad using the same doses. Drip coffee and cold brew run in seven sizes from six to eighteen ounces.

The maker's model comparison lists the ES601 row as semi-automatic with an assisted tamper, and the guide has you tamp, unclip the funnel and lock the portafilter into the group head yourself. The Amazon details table instead records the operation mode as fully automatic, and neither document explains the difference.

Cold drinks come with a rinse penalty

Cold brew and cold-pressed espresso are handled as a separate temperature path in the guide. It states plainly that temperature control is not available for over-ice coffee, cold brew or cold-pressed espresso, so the brew temperature setting applies to hot drinks only.

Switching direction costs you a cycle. If you ask for a cold drink straight after a hot one, the guide says a RINSE notification appears, you put a cup holding at least twelve ounces under the machine, and about eight ounces of water runs through. Its own advice is to brew the cold drinks first.

Over-ice coffee and cold brew also need ice already in the cup before the brew starts, according to the volume table. If two people want opposite drinks each morning, the rinse step and the ice-first rule are the parts of the routine worth thinking about before you buy.

Hands-free froth, with conditions

Milk runs through a jug with an integrated whisk that sits on a platform with the wand inserted, and the guide lists steamed milk, thin froth, thick froth, extra-thick froth and cold foam as the styles, noting that extra-thick is not available on all models. A MILK TYPE button switches between dairy and plant-based before you press START FROTH.

You can queue froth so it begins as the brew finishes, and the guide says cold foam can froth while the machine is brewing. A manual route also exists: on the steamed-milk setting, hold START FROTH for three seconds with the wand about a finger's width from the jug wall.

Cleanup is built into the sequence rather than optional. The guide tells you to wipe the wand immediately, and pushing the wand back down starts an automatic purge. It also warns that the machine will not purge when the reservoir is empty, so you press PURGE after refilling.

Two parts lists and two footprints that disagree

The maker page's in-the-box list for the gunmetal unit names a portafilter, milk jug, double basket, Luxe basket, assisted tamper, funnel, cleaning brush, cleaning disc, descaling powder and a hard-water testing kit. The listing's own what's-included bullet adds cleaning tablets and an instructions and inspiration guide to that same list, while the listing's separate included-components field names only a cleaning brush, cleaning tablets, descaling powder and a filter.

That matters because the guide's clean cycle needs a cleaning tablet and its accessory diagram shows both tablets and descale powder, and because the guide also pictures a single basket while saying it is not compatible with all machines. Neither maker document we read confirms a single basket in this box, so check the carton against the guide's accessory page rather than assuming.

The measurements do not line up either. The maker page gives 12.95 inches long by 13.39 wide by 14.57 high for the gunmetal unit, and the listing gives 12.95 by 13.99 by 14.57. Both agree on roughly 25.7 pounds. Allow for the wider of the two figures, plus room above for the hopper and reservoir and to the right for the jug.

Power figures, and one that cannot be right

The owner's guide states 120 volts, 60 hertz and 1,650 watts, and the listing's table repeats 1,650 watts at 120 volts. The reservoir holds seventy ounces in the guide, which is also what the listing's capacity field records. The maker page adds a 43-inch cord and an amperage figure of 13.75.

The same maker specification block lists peak wattage as 120 watts, which is lower than the 1,650-watt running figure on the line above it. We are not guessing at the reason, and the guide and the listing both give 1,650 watts. The guide also forbids extension cords, sockets below a counter, use under a wall cabinet and use inside a cabinet while running.

The Luxe basket has its own requirement worth knowing before a large drink: the guide says eighteen ounces of water must be in the reservoir when that basket is used, while the double and single baskets only need the minimum line. ADD WATER is one of the notifications the guide lists.

Daily cleaning, long descales and a limited warranty

The guide's daily routine covers wiping and purging the steam wand and emptying the main drip tray. Dishwasher-safe parts are listed specifically as the funnel, whisk, cleaning disc, water reservoir, bean hopper and all drip tray components.

Two machine cycles sit behind lit buttons. The guide puts the clean cycle at about six minutes using the cleaning disc and a tablet, and the descale cycle at about ninety minutes with a countdown on the panel. We are not reproducing the descaling mixture or the step order; follow the owner's guide for that. The burr grinder is brushed out with the supplied brush only, and the burrs must never touch water.

Warranty terms are one year, limited to purchases from authorized retailers and to the original owner, and are not transferable. Wearable parts named in the guide, including the funnel, water reservoir and lid and the bean hopper and lid, are excluded, as are commercially used or tampered units, misuse or skipped maintenance, unauthorized repairs and products purchased, used or operated outside North America. A shipping fee applies when a repaired or replacement unit is sent back to you. We have not used this machine and make no claim about taste, noise or longevity.

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Primary sources

  1. SharkNinja ES601GM product page: gunmetal specification block and in-the-box list
  2. ES600 Series owner's guide PDF supplied on the listing

Primary sources checked .

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