Keirugs? I think I want one. Not the 2.0 version though. Thoughts?

[dballance]

I'm thinking of buying one of the entry-level Keirugs, the K40 for myself as my Xmas gift to me. It's only about $100 and I have a store discount card I can use. So it doesn't seem I'm being too extravagant.

Any thoughts, opinions, suggestions?

[Kingofalldems]

1. I have one and love it.

Some sort of filtered water is preferred though.

[Arkansas Granny]

2. I received one for Christmas a couple of years ago and I love it.

It is more expensive per cup, but the convenience, freshness and variety of flavors is worth it to me. I installed one of the filters in the tank and I've had no problems with mine and it's used daily.

[mcar]

3. I have the mini

And the reusable pod so I can use my own tea. I'm not a coffee drinker but I prefer to use loose tea leaves.

I really like it.

[FoxNewsSucks]

4. The coffee they make is adequate, but

I decided against one a couple years ago.

I actually bought one, and the fill-it-yourself cup so I could use the coffee beans I grind myself instead of the high-priced cups. I'm not any kind of "coffee snob", I just like the bulk coffee from the grocery store and grind it as needed. Anyway, what came out of that cup was so weak it looked like tea. So I took it all back. Since then, I've been at friends' houses and used theirs with the different k-cup kinds of coffee they come with. It wasn't too bad, but still, they're expensive.

I got a single-mug size french press, and there is nothing that makes a better cup of coffee. Using good coffee and bottled water can't be beat.

The only advantage to a Kuerig I see is if you have a lot of guests and people tend to want different things, coffee, tea, hot choc etc. It would be good for that purpose. But if it's just for me I'll take the french press any day.

[dballance]

5. Thanks for your input! I appreciate that you didn't love it and told me why.

I'm thinking the Keriug would be good because I'm single and live alone. I'm not into fancy coffee. Just ease of use.

You are making me consider getting a grinder and keeping the wonder Krupps coffee make I've had for years.

[auntAgonist]

6. I had one and I dropped the tank, it broke. I replaced it with a Bunn My Cafe. LOVE IT!

The Bunn My Cafe is a smaller footprint. You put the amount of fresh water you want into the tank each time you make a cup of beverage. That replaces the heated water that's already there.
It uses, k-cups, tea bags, loose tea, loose ground coffee, and also makes plain hot boiling water.

I wouldn't trade it for a Keurig. I'm lovin' it.

http://www.amazon.com/MCU-Single-Multi-Use-Coffee-Brewer/dp/B009PLQ5H2/ref=lp_2474054011_1_6?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1418426079&sr=1-6

aA

[TuxedoKat]

8. Question about your Bunn

Is the water reservoir removable or is there a way to clean it?

[auntAgonist]

10. Not removable. You can run vinegar and water for a couple of cycles as you would with

a regular drip coffee maker.

aA

[pipi_k]

7. I love mine, BUT...

it's had to be returned and replaced four times in the past five years or so.

It's always the same thing...the pump craps out.

It was originally bought from Costco, and they are excellent about replacing it for free, no trouble at all.

It's not like I don't clean it or anything. Many people have had the same problem.

So if you get one and don't mind potentially having to return it about once a year, then I say go for it.

Oh, and while Mr Pipi prefers the K-cups which he buys for himself, I don't have a problem with those reusable plastic thingies.

[DawgHouse]

24. This happened to me several times too.

When the pump started acting wonky, I learned to flip it upside down and smack the crap out of it. This seemed to help with the pump problem.

Costco's return policy is awesome!

[GeorgeGist]

9. I have the K10 Mini and love it.

It's simple, effective, reliable.

I descale about once a month with medium hard water.

[astral]

11. I used to use keurigs when they were cheaper to use.

I recommend the mini rather than the kinds with the holding tanks. Takes three minutes instead of one but simpler to just add fresh water each time you use it. Had both. But they used to be around 33cents a cup and after that the price was no longer worth it to me. A good quality single serve maker works better now, i use a kitchen aid brand and love it forever.

Of course the regular keurig might be worth it too if you like access to a frequent easy cup of hot water, i used to use mine to make a 'spot of oatmeal' and the best thing was grabbing a cup to go when headed to the car ... Hmmm now you've made me miss my keurig...

Bunn my cafe was quite nice too, i just dont bother with pods either anymore, but there was a quick and easy way to make your own.

With the my-k-cup dealy the keurig is nice and cheaper to use but then a stovetop espresso pots nicer and just as much work to use...

But yeah, you'll love it, even if the k cups themselves arent that cost effective anymore.

[Jetboy]

12. I have an old coffee percolator from the 1960s. It is fast and makes great coffee.

Pick one up for under $10 at a thrift store and spend the rest of the $100 on a bulk purchase of coffee. You'll be waaaaay ahead. Coffee is coffee!

[pipi_k]

21. We actually have

two of those at my house (one of us drinks regular, the other drinks decaf)

Found them in an antique store nearly 20 years ago.

When the power goes out, that's what we use to make coffee on the (propane gas) stove.

Smells great

[ProdigalJunkMail]

13. at about $50/lb

the K-Cup coffee is WAY too expensive... get good beans, a quality coffee grinder and a french press and you'll make better coffee and save money in the long run!

sP

[csziggy]

14. My mother in law got one for Christmas last year

She hasn't expressed an opinion but the brother in law who lives with her doesn't like it. He objects to the amount of waste with all the little cups. They got refillable cups, but they don't filter as well and there is sludge at the bottom of the cup of coffee he says.

[kath]

15. VERY high cost per cup, and incredibly bad for the environment

Because of all the packaging, much of which is NOT recyclable.

[LynneSin]

16. Not really - you can make you own and some machines come with the setup.

I have Cuisinart's version of the Kcup machine and I love it. Mine came with its own 'create your own' kcup which I can fill with my favorite coffee and I can toss the kcups in the dishwasher and use it again (or wash in the sink).

If your kcup machine does not come with it you can buy them in the store too.

i prefer it that way although i do keep a few pre-made kcups on hand when i am rushing around.

[CrawlingChaos]

17. One thing I would point out, just in case

If you drink a significant amount of coffee and you're watching your cholesterol, it might be worth sticking with a drip coffee maker that uses a paper filter. Apparently there's a substance in oily part of coffee that can raise LDL cholesterol slightly, if consumed in quantity. Using a paper filter traps the substance and eliminates the problem. More info here:

http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/benefits-using-coffee-filters-7625.html

So french press, percolated and, I assume, Keurig would all contain the potentially harmful substance. I drink a ton of coffee, so I stick with the paper filter. If I were a one-cup-a-day person, I probably wouldn't even worry about it.

[Miles Archer]

18. Convenient, but ridiculously expensive

If you look at the actual cups of coffee you'll get from a box of K Cups (versus buying a pound of coffee), you have to decide how much "convenience" is worth to you.

Flavor is not bad, although I do think it pales in comparison to fresh ground beans and spring water.

You'll pay more than using a traditional coffee maker and less than daily trips to Starbucks or Peets.

[tabbycat31]

20. a $2.99 plastic K-cup solves that problem

Then you buy your own coffee (I buy ground or grind it in store because I don't have a grinder) and use it. Much better variety too.

[onecent]

26. I bought one of those for 19.99 K cups and tried to use up my old coffee in a can,

but it simply made the worst, dishwater tasting ever. The coffee is getting OUT OF SIGHT for one cup,
but I usually only drink about 2 a day and I used to throw a lot of coffee away when I brewed a pot after I
had to live alone..as some days I would want 4 or 5 cups, other days just one or 2...

I agree it's not environmentally friendly with those cups.

[tabbycat31]

27. I was confused by the name brand one

But with the red ones, they work great for me (best investment EVER). I've had no problem with it but perhaps it's finding the right brand. The Keurig brand one SUCKS but some of the knockoffs are great. The one I have was about $2.99 at Shop Rite in the impulse buys section. My cousin has the As Seen on TV ones and swears by them.

I live alone too and if I lived with other coffee drinkers, I'd brew a pot (I do when I'm at my parents as my dad and I both drink a lot of coffee).

I recycle my grounds (give them to plants or use them as air freshener) and feel bad about doing anything not eco friendly. I was very happy to discover a good reusable cup.

[onecent]

29. Thanks for the tip, I will keep an eye out for a cheap one. Thanks. You are right, the

Keurig one sucks......

[tabbycat31]

19. Have one and LOVE it

However, after a month or so my K-cup habit got expensive, so I bought a reusable K-cup and fill it with my own coffee and it saves me a lot of $$ (and gives me a better coffee selection).

My cousin got a new one and gave his old one to me. I'm forever in debt to him for it.

[Iggo]

22. Damned convenient.

I feel guilty about all that plastic, though.

[whistler162]

23. try

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/hot-deals/1414163/

[Xyzse]

25. I don't know, but I have never had a decent cup from a Keurig.

I'm happy with my Instant and the free cups of coffee I get from work.

I don't drink coffee after 2 pm, and never on the weekends, so, yep.

Go for it if you want, I just don't like the taste. It is like blandly flavored water when I get anything from Keurig.

[digonswine]

28. I had a fairly simple one-

First--It is HARD to get a good strong cup of coffee out of this thing. I had the K10 mini.

Mine was a POS from the get-go. If you want a consistent machine-get something else.

One funny thing--I used filtered water from my fridge, which produces great water verses my well water.

I would pour it in and try to brew---nothing would happen.

I called support--the dude went through the normal "did you, etc." stuff. He then asked if I was using water filtered from a refrigerator. I answered in the affirmative.

He told me that-I shit you not--the water from the fridge was too cold for the device to heat it up. The device would not heat cold water. He suggested I leave the filtered water out on the counter so it was not so cold.

WTF? The thing needs to BOIL WATER--how could water be too cold for it to do this??

His suggestion worked, though.

The machine gave out soon after, at any rate. It is a piece of crap--not worth the money.

French press, baby!!!

[Major Nikon]

30. Here's the pluses and minuses and some info on the K40

The Keurig is very well suited for the office environment where ease of cleanup and convenience are big pluses. Some people really like them for home use for the same reasons. They work really well if you need or want a variety of different things like different roasts, flavored coffees, tea, hot chocolate, etc.

The biggest down side is the expense. A pound of coffee will yield about 55 cups when brewed the traditional way. So let's say you pay $11 for a 2 pound can at the supermarket. That works out to about 10 cents per cup. The Keurig will easily cost you 5 times that, if not more. While it's true that you can use one of the reusable cups and fill with your own coffee, the use of those things has mixed reviews as you can see from this thread, and even if you like the coffee produced, it still defeats many of the advantages of the Keurig.

Here's an Amazon review on the K40 which contains some information that might interest you:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R13R4C5A9O2RCV/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B004978NKY

I'll offer some alternatives if you decide against the Keurig. I'll assume that ease of cleanup and the convenience of making one cup or one large mug at a time are your primary requirements.

All of the options I'm going to list require some way to produce hot water. This can be as simple as a stovetop tea kettle, or a microwave. If you want to buy a kettle, this is a nice one to get:
http://www.sweetmarias.com/store/brewing/accessories/kettles/bonavita-electric-pour-over-kettle-3310.html

1) The Aeropress is a very nice single serve coffee maker and at $26 they are pretty cheap. I have two of them. They are very simple to use and cleanup is very quick and easy. The coffee they produce is excellent. In fact, I don't know of any better way to make brewed coffee in terms of quality in the cup. Short of going with a true espresso machine or making Turkish coffee, there's no better way to extract more flavor from ground coffee beans. It really is just that good.
http://www.sweetmarias.com/store/brewing/coffee-brewers/aeropress/aeropress-coffee-maker.html

My other suggestions are various single or double cup pourovers which offer ease of cleaning and convienience:

2) http://www.sweetmarias.com/store/brewing/coffee-brewers/filtercones/clever-dripper-with-lid-3068.html

3) http://www.sweetmarias.com/store/brewing/coffee-brewers/filtercones/porcelain-immersion-filtercone-by-bonavita.html

If you want to grind your own coffee (and I recommend you do), here's a nice little complete kit that will set you back about half of what a K40 will cost:
http://www.sweetmarias.com/store/brewing/coffee-brewers/filtercones/small-clever-coffee-dripper-brew-kit.html

[dballance]

31. Thank you for the detailed response.

I really appreciate it!

I have an electric kettle. All those systems at Sweet Maria's look pretty good. The whole $50 system with the grinder, filters and brewer looks pretty interesting.

[Heddi]

33. Mr Heddi has an Aeropress, and loves it

Says it makes the best coffee ever. We got the idea from some folks I worked with in Seattle who actually roasted their own beans at home. They were TRUE Coffee people. They only used an aeropress. By the time I left my job, EVERYONE there had an Aeropress.

[Major Nikon]

34. I'm very impressed by the cheap little device

It's particularly nice if you pair it with a little hand burr grinder. That way as long as you have hot water, you can have great coffee anywhere. I take mine camping.

[Heddi]

35. Yep. My coworker firstly told me about it

because he was like "i can make the best cup of coffee you've ever had using microwaved water." I thought he was being an ass but nope! Awesome coffee.

BOught one for Mr. Hed a few Xmases ago. It's stood the test of time AND, we got a kit off Amazon and it came with a scoop and some filters and a nifty carrying case. I don't know that it needs a carrying case, but I keep my makeup in it

we were both skeptical---how could a plunger make great coffee?

Family came in a few times "do you have a coffee maker"---no, we have an aeropress. Let me show you how to use it. They're very skeptical. Look at us like we don't know how to make coffee (despite living in seattle for 13 years). They were all amazed. One is getting one for xmas this year. Replacing the Mr. Coffee

It's also good for loose tea.

[Major Nikon]

36. Different coffee making devices produce coffee with different character

There are literally hundreds of flavors in a coffee bean and different extraction methods extract different flavors. The Aeropress produces coffee that is very similar to a commercial coffee maker called the Clover, which costs upwards of $10,000 and are found in some of the best coffee houses. So it's pretty cool that a device that costs $26 can pretty closely replicate a cup produced in a $10,000 machine.

If you check the youtubes, there's plenty of videos about alternate methods of using the Aeropress. They are pretty popular with the coffee geek crowd.

[Heddi]

37. We also have a stove-top espresso kettle we got from Ikea years ago

I think it was $10, certainly less than $20, and we've had it for-ev-er. It's great when you want a very concentrated coffee. I like to use that if I'm making mocha or espresso flavored baking. Or if I want a particularly strong mocha. Still use the home-ground store-bought beans, but it's just a bit more concentrated.

YEARS ago my father in law got us some super duper espresso machine. It steamed and had all these bells and whistles. What a pain in the ass to clean up. I'll leave that to the baristas. PLUS it was like the size of a microwave. HUGE. It was a nice thing, expensive (or at least more than I would pay) but in the end we used it like 8 times and donated it to goodwill or gave to a friend.

I did like playing with the steamed milk, tho.

[Major Nikon]

38. My espresso machine is a Dream

I also have a commercial grinder that's bigger than most blenders. Espresso is my preferred type of coffee, but I still love my two Aeropress coffee makers.

[Heddi]

39. Do you roast your own beans?

One of my coworker did in his garage. He'd buy green beans and roast himself. He also collected watches. You're not him, are you??

[Major Nikon]

40. I used to roast my own beans and I also have a few watches

But I never roasted in my garage or in the house. It makes a lot of smoke and chaff. These days there are too many great choices for mail order fresh roasted coffee, so I just order it online and it's roasted either the day before or the day of shipping. After you roast the coffee it needs to rest for a couple of days to a week anyway.

[csziggy]

32. If you want a single serve coffee maker, how about one with no cups, no filters

After this discussion, my cheap 5 cup coffee maker quit. It was a Mr. Coffee, standard drip type and had replaced a 6 cup Hamilton Beach Brewstation that developed a leak/drip that made a mess every day. It's odd since my 12 cup BrewStation has never leaked or dripped and it is a lot older than the smaller one.

So I wanted something different. I looked at the Hamilton Beach FlexBrew - it can use K cups, pods or ground coffee - but it only brews 10 ounces at a time. So I bought a Hamilton Beach The Scoop for myself yesterday (http://www.hamiltonbeach.com/single-cup-coffee-makers-the-scoop-single-serve-coffee-maker-49981.html). It comes with a permanent filter, uses ground coffee and brews 14 ounces at a time (can brew less). I set it up last night, had one cup of coffee after the initial cleanings, and today have had my normal (large) two cups.

I'm really happy with this coffee maker - it's simple to use, no filters or cups to mess with, no holding tank to leak (like the BrewMaster did), and makes reasonably strong coffee in less than 2 minutes. I just pour in the appropriate amount of water, put the correct amount of coffee grounds, push the button, and walk away for a couple of minutes.

My only complaint is that the cup stand only has two height settings. The high setting was too short for my cup and the low setting was so low the coffee was splattering out. So I got out a little container that lifted the cup to just the right height and all is good.

The complaints about it overflowing are likely from people who didn't read the directions. The video that Hamilton Beach has about it show the woman scooping coffee into the filter, but doesn't explain you don't fill the filter to the top, only about halfway or less. If the filter is too full, the water will just run off the top - it needs that space at the top to let water collect before it drips through the grounds.

Take a look at this one - so far I am really happy with it and love that there are no filters or proprietary pods or cups to mess with! Disclaimer - I am just a happy customer and have no interest in Hamilton Beach.