The Ninja CREAMi is essentially a Pacojet at a tenth the cost and designed for occasional use in the home. The Pacojet was designed for use in a professional kitchen like a restaurant where durability and reliability during repeated constant use are important. Operating the Deluxe is very similar to the original CREAMi with only slight changes. For example, the process of inserting the outer bowl into the CREAMi is easier. Instead of inserting the bowl diagonally as you had to do with the original CREAMi, on the Deluxe the insertion is straight from the front. One wonders if this change was inspired by the on-air QVC situation where the hosts had issues inserting the bowl, but it’s easy to get the hang of the insertion process on the original once you’ve tried it a few times. I love my Ninja CREAMi. It makes homemade ice cream making a breeze! Not only is it easy to use, but it creates a dense and creamy texture that I have not been able to replicate on other consumer ice cream makers.

Last year, Ninja came out with the CREAMi Deluxe (NC501), which promises more features and larger capacity. More recently, Ninja released the Ninja CREAMi Breeze 7-in-1 (NC201), which promises to be more space efficient. The Ninja CREAMi Breeze also comes in a 5-in-1 version. But is it really worth upgrading to these new Ninja CREAMi models?The Ninja CREAMi Deluxe (left) is a tighter fit under the kitchen cabinets than the original CREAMi (right) 3. Operating Processes So, the bottom line is if you don't already own a Ninja CREAMi then it's definitely worth spending a little more to get the Ninja CREAMi Deluxe. A less obvious but important incompatibility is that most recipes you’ll find online were written for the original CREAMi’s 16 ounce pints. You can still use those recipes unchanged in the Deluxe but they won’t fill the Deluxe’s 24-ounce pints which defeats one of the Deluxe’s signature benefits. If you want to adapt a regular CREAMi recipe to fill a Deluxe pint, you’ll need to multiply the ingredients by 1.5. We’ve updated all of our Ninja Creami recipes to have a 1.5x button to make the recipes easier to adapt, as seen in the image below.

Surprisingly, it also lets you make less ice cream per batch thanks to a new setting that lets you process only the top or bottom half of the pint if you want. These are nice conveniences, but not must-haves. If you want more ice cream in the original model you can just buy additional pints and it just takes a few extra minutes to make. And if you want less ice cream in the original model, you can always flatten and refreeze what you don’t eat for later. The larger Ninja CREAMi Deluxe pint (left) and the original CREAMi pint (right) Design-wise it’s a weird one. It looks a lot like a classic filter coffee machine and, as such, it’s a tad bulky. It measures 16.5 x 27 x 40.5cm (WDH) so you’ll need a lot of vertical space above it, and you’ll probably want to avoid lugging it around too much as it weighs nearly 6.5kg. If you do have the space though, it’s a good-looking machine and one you’ll be happy to have on display. Upgrading to the Ninja CREAMi Breeze may be worth it if you have a small kitchen and want to save valuable kitchen counter space. With the Ninja CREAMi Breeze, you get all the features of the 7-in-1, but with a smaller footprint.The names “5-in-1”, “7-in-1”, and “11-in-1” refer to the number of one-touch programs the model supports. For example, the 5-in-1 has 5 programs for different types of functions: Ice Cream, Lite Ice Cream, Sorbet, Milkshake, and Mix-in. The 7-in-1 added new programs for Gelato and Smoothie Bowl to the original 5. The 11-in-1 adds programs for Frozen Yogurt, Creamiccino, Frozen Drink, Slushie, and Italian Ice to the CREAMi’s repertoire while removing the Smoothie Bowl program. For most of this review, we’ll be comparing the Deluxe 11-in-1 to the 7-in-1 since the 7-in-1 is the most common model at the time of writing and it’s also the other model of CREAMi we own.