Keurig is a complete piece of crap....don't buy it

justoffal

Diamond Member
Jun 29, 2013
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Like many before me I was beguiled at the thought of a cup of coffee on demand with the help of the Amazing new Coffee Machine when it first hit the markets. I held out for quite some time but finally broke down and got one. Big Mistake. My house drinks gallons of coffee so we use whatever coffee machine we have A LOT. This is not a good fit for the Keurig which has an awful tendency to scale up inside even with regular descaling.

Now I work with water chemistry as part of my job so I understand a little bit more about scaling than most and even I was confused by the way this machine claims to work out this problem. It claims that if you descale regularly based on total usage it will not be a problem. WRONG..... Turns out that even with normal earth salts content in local drinking water supplies you can't descale enough to keep the darn thing working. The Calcium and magnesium deposits get harder and harder and more removal resistant in some of the smaller grooves and channels on the interior of the machine where the heat sensors and flow sensors are located. Once this happens no amount of descaling will work. You can try disassembling it and manually scaping it out....but that is a massive task with no guarantee of getting it back together correctly.

Tried to use demineralized water to compensate but get this.... If the machine detects demineralized water it will shut down...lol... It depends on the conductivity of the mineral ppm to make certain adjustments to its running conditions. Sooooo...... conclusion:

The $19.99 Mr coffee maker that I have always depended on that usually lasts about two years Even in my house costs about 20% of the K cup Klunker...is much less expensive to own. Have you seen the prices on the damn K cups lately? Also many of the k cup firms purposely underfill the units to cut on overhead. Not worth it at all. Back to Mr Coffee or to the electric tea kettle and NesCafe....

The Keurig may be useful for households that use it sparingly over the course of the year or so it seems to be good for....but definitely not for heavy usage and it definitely needs a clean out redesign to be worth the trouble.
 
Meh, mine works just fine.

Sounds like the OP needs one of these instead.

il_794xN.4659700035_ht35.jpg


We ran two of them at hunt camp every morning.
 
Sill using my basic coffee maker for 12 years running.
I think it is this brand, similar to this. It was $20.
81ee32neRlL._AC_SX679_.jpg
 
Like many before me I was beguiled at the thought of a cup of coffee on demand with the help of the Amazing new Coffee Machine when it first hit the markets. I held out for quite some time but finally broke down and got one. Big Mistake. My house drinks gallons of coffee so we use whatever coffee machine we have A LOT. This is not a good fit for the Keurig which has an awful tendency to scale up inside even with regular descaling.

Now I work with water chemistry as part of my job so I understand a little bit more about scaling than most and even I was confused by the way this machine claims to work out this problem. It claims that if you descale regularly based on total usage it will not be a problem. WRONG..... Turns out that even with normal earth salts content in local drinking water supplies you can't descale enough to keep the darn thing working. The Calcium and magnesium deposits get harder and harder and more removal resistant in some of the smaller grooves and channels on the interior of the machine where the heat sensors and flow sensors are located. Once this happens no amount of descaling will work. You can try disassembling it and manually scaping it out....but that is a massive task with no guarantee of getting it back together correctly.

Tried to use demineralized water to compensate but get this.... If the machine detects demineralized water it will shut down...lol... It depends on the conductivity of the mineral ppm to make certain adjustments to its running conditions. Sooooo...... conclusion:

The $19.99 Mr coffee maker that I have always depended on that usually lasts about two years Even in my house costs about 20% of the K cup Klunker...is much less expensive to own. Have you seen the prices on the damn K cups lately? Also many of the k cup firms purposely underfill the units to cut on overhead. Not worth it at all. Back to Mr Coffee or to the electric tea kettle and NesCafe....

The Keurig may be useful for households that use it sparingly over the course of the year or so it seems to be good for....but definitely not for heavy usage and it definitely needs a clean out redesign to be worth the trouble.
Any tips on descaling a regular coffee maker?
 
I'm with AMart: just put the grinds in and brew it. There's a K machine at work and I use it but prefer my own magic to the pop-tart coffee.
 
Like many before me I was beguiled at the thought of a cup of coffee on demand with the help of the Amazing new Coffee Machine when it first hit the markets. I held out for quite some time but finally broke down and got one. Big Mistake. My house drinks gallons of coffee so we use whatever coffee machine we have A LOT. This is not a good fit for the Keurig which has an awful tendency to scale up inside even with regular descaling.

Now I work with water chemistry as part of my job so I understand a little bit more about scaling than most and even I was confused by the way this machine claims to work out this problem. It claims that if you descale regularly based on total usage it will not be a problem. WRONG..... Turns out that even with normal earth salts content in local drinking water supplies you can't descale enough to keep the darn thing working. The Calcium and magnesium deposits get harder and harder and more removal resistant in some of the smaller grooves and channels on the interior of the machine where the heat sensors and flow sensors are located. Once this happens no amount of descaling will work. You can try disassembling it and manually scaping it out....but that is a massive task with no guarantee of getting it back together correctly.

Tried to use demineralized water to compensate but get this.... If the machine detects demineralized water it will shut down...lol... It depends on the conductivity of the mineral ppm to make certain adjustments to its running conditions. Sooooo...... conclusion:

The $19.99 Mr coffee maker that I have always depended on that usually lasts about two years Even in my house costs about 20% of the K cup Klunker...is much less expensive to own. Have you seen the prices on the damn K cups lately? Also many of the k cup firms purposely underfill the units to cut on overhead. Not worth it at all. Back to Mr Coffee or to the electric tea kettle and NesCafe....

The Keurig may be useful for households that use it sparingly over the course of the year or so it seems to be good for....but definitely not for heavy usage and it definitely needs a clean out redesign to be worth the trouble.
We love coffee! Best coffee maker for people that drink a lot, of coffee, that I have experience with was a Bunn Coffee maker, we had in our office, before corporate shut down our branch. It was a plumbed coffee maker (basically stainless inside and out with two warming burners, came with three full sized urns and used the pre-measured pouches in standard drip/filter like a cheap Mr. Coffee. Being plumbed and stainless was key, as the water stayed full and heated when set to auto, so the moment you pushed the start, water started to pour through the coffee giving a consistent brew. We were coffee fiends in that office, going back to the days when we could actually smoke at our desk, a steaming mug usually present, and for me that was on more days average 10 to 12 hours, than 8.
PJ and I are using a Keurig. For consistency and speed, without an urn sitting there over-heating cooking the coffee in the urn, it is great! We are not having the problem you speak of, though putting countless boxes of Keurig cups through it over the last 5 years, though obviously we have had to descale many times. Only thing I would change if buying now, would be to make it a plumbed model, so we didn't have to pour in the water, where it stays under the cabinet above. Our Starbucks, Pike Place Roast expenditure is significant.
 
Meh, mine works just fine.

Sounds like the OP needs one of these instead.

il_794xN.4659700035_ht35.jpg


We ran two of them at hunt camp every morning.
The one I take camping is similar.
 
Back in the 90's and maybe 2000's Gevalia would mail you a free coffee makes and once a month you would receive a different type of ground expresso coffee. Everyone had those free Gevalia coffee makers.
 
Any tips on descaling a regular coffee maker?
White vinegar. Run it through the machine. Let it cool down a bit. Run it through again. then run at least once pot of water through it. You may need to do that twice, also.

I don't use tap water for drinking or for coffee, because it has so much damn scale. I have a Pur dispenser on the counter and one in the refrigerator for cold water to drink. Costco now makes filters for it, 10 for $20 which beats $8 per filter for Pur branded.

GUEST_02e389c2-2599-4337-aefb-29057eab9b50
Kirkland_Signature_W_01e375680320d30a4b0c4850a23514e3_700x700.jpg


I bought this from Costco, but haven't gotten a plumber over to install it yet. It not only breaks down the scale before it gets to all of your pipes, over time it also will remove all the built up scale already in your pipes, which could eventually clog them to the point where you either get very low flow, or they burst.


imageService



 
I found some of those 90s era Gevalia coffee makes that were free with a mail order coffee subscription. LOL

s-l300.jpg

GEVALIA KAFFE 10 Cup Coffee Maker Model "GM-41OW" New In Box - NEVER USED!
US $14.99

I had of these green ones lol
s-l1600.jpg
 
I generally drink one cup in the morning. My Keurig works absolutely fine for that. It's lasted quite awhile now. I only used bottled water though. Might be expensive that way if you drink a lot.
 
I've had my Keurig now for around five years and it still works like the day I bought it.
I've never had to descale mine. Of course I only run bottled water through it.

We just recently bought a De'Longhi espresso maker and they send some test strips along with the unit to see whether you need to run the filter it comes with.
Ozarka water didnt even show a slight bit of hardness so no filter necessary.
Same with my Rancilio Silvia Espresso machine,and my Technivorm drip coffee maker.

If you run good quality water through them you never have to descale.
 
We had one at work that was used multiple times a day and never needed descaling until about 8 years of use. Bought some scale remover from Amazon, used as directed, good as new. I prefer using my drip coffee maker, as I prefer specialty coffees, but have a single use Keurig when I only want one cup. I'm now drinking as much tea as coffee these days.
 
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Back in the 90's and maybe 2000's Gevalia would mail you a free coffee makes and once a month you would receive a different type of ground expresso coffee. Everyone had those free Gevalia coffee makers.
.

I enjoyed the novelty of Gevalia but outgrew it in a couple of years. Their coffees were great!

.
 
.

When I got my Culligan system installed, I added the reverse osmosis filter under the kitchen sink and now my kettle stays amazingly clean and free of scale. It's so convenient to have the little auxiliary tap for the R/O water right next to the regular tap.

.
 
coffee drinkers are a menace to society...the total shut down until you have those cups of coffee in the morning...wtf is wrong with yall...have to have a chemical to even start in the morning...kinda sad
.

As opposed to the benzo you need to get to sleep at night?

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