Keurig ?? Am I doing something wrong?

[cvjw]

I bought the Keurig mini plus in January (2012) at Kohl's. It was hardly used - maybe 3 times per week, and by May it had quit working. I boxed it up and took it back to Kohl's and they exchanged it for a new one. The new one lasted from last May until yesterday. The second one was hardly used either - is there a trick to keeping your Keurig running that I don't know about? Has anyone else had trouble with their Keurig?

It just seems to me that 3 Keurigs in 13 months is a little extreme! Thank goodness Kohl's has a great return policy, because I would not pay the $100 for another one.

 

[katied718]

Maybe it needed to be de-scaled? Keurigs require regular care. De-scaling is very easy-done with vinegar. They are very sensitive to mineral build-up from tap water. When u do use it, make sure to use filtered water & get a keurig carbon filter to put in the tank as well. On the other hand, if de-scaling doesn't do the trick, the folks at keurig are top-notch and they also have an excellent replacement policy.

 

[Marionnette]

I bought the Keurig mini plus in January (2012) at Kohl's. It was hardly used - maybe 3 times per week, and by May it had quit working. I boxed it up and took it back to Kohl's and they exchanged it for a new one. The new one lasted from last May until yesterday. The second one was hardly used either - is there a trick to keeping your Keurig running that I don't know about? Has anyone else had trouble with their Keurig?

It just seems to me that 3 Keurigs in 13 months is a little extreme! Thank goodness Kohl's has a great return policy, because I would not pay the $100 for another one.

I agree with the PP. If you are not using the Keurig on a regular basis and you are not draining the water from it between uses, you are most likely getting a build up of mineral deposits from the water.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I was thinking it might be a buildup or something. *knock on wood* I have never had any trouble with mine. I always use bottled water and use it regularly.

 

[vacationer1954]

We use filtered water, and we make sure we use it every day, even if it is just to pump some water through the system and discard.

 

[LSchrow]

keurig replaced DH's, after it started having problems.
he did as told with the new machine: use only filtered water, and haven't had any problems.

 

[Judique]

I've had the Keurig platinum for 2 years plus now.

It is used once a day.

It has never been descaled.

I use regular tap water.

So far - no problems.

Now - watch it stop working after I post this.

I also have Tassimo which I don't use regularly. (I used it for 2 years before the Keurig so it is 4 years old.) I use it maybe once a week to make a latte or espresso or something special.

It's probably your water - with maybe a high mineral content. Buildup of minerals will kill many types of coffee makers.

 

[dominiondad]

I'm with Judique on this. I have two Keurigs, one at home and one in my office. The home machine has been used multiple times a day for several years. The office machine is used five days a week for almost five years. Neither have been descaled and I only use tap water (Virginia and DC). Never had a problem other than the older machine is a bit loud. It sounds like the minimal use may be part of the issue.

 

[scard192]

We have a commercial grade one at work and the tech recommended running it through a brew cycle with no Kcup to clean it out; I do get brown water when I do this.

 

[cvjw]

Thanks all - I do use filtered water with the Keurig. My refrigerator makes filtered water - I guess that counts? Maybe I will just run some water thru it on the days that I don't use it for coffee.

 

[bdcp]

My mini is 2 years old and still works fine. It gets used on average several times a month. I use tap water and we have hard water but I have never had a problem and I have never descaled it. A guy at work recently followed instructions and used vinegar and after that all he could taste was the vinegar, even after multiple times of running plain water through. So, I'm not doing that anytime soon. I've done it on my regular cofffeepot, but not very often and had no problem. Keurig's have a bit of a history with just stopping working. There have been other threads here in the past about them.

 

[njcarita]

i got my keurig in 2006........... so 7 years ago...... and no issues..... we stopped using it regulary 6 months ago cause my husband wanted a " real brewed cup of coffee" and honestly got tired of using the my k cup.......... we never used distilled........ always used tap.......... and we only had to descale once in those 7 years..............

 

[KNJWDW]

We have a mini as well and it probably is used 5 times a week with well water. We have had it about 14 months with no problems. Every once in a while, we run some vinegar through it. The vinegar has never bothered the taste of the coffee - we clean our regular coffee pot with vinegar as well.

 

[CatesRDisneyFans]

I got a Keurig for Christmas...I'm the only coffee drinker in my family. I only used filtered water and used it 1-2 times a day. It wasn't even a month later and I was barely getting any coffee (water) in my cup...not even half a cup. I got out the Keurig instructions and followed all of the troubleshooting steps to clean and descale it. The descale process took forever because I wasn't even getting 1/4 cup to come out at a time. Descaling didn't solve the problem. I was very frustrated and about to return the Keurig when I decided to search online for any tips. At first I found a lot of complaints where the Keurig makers would just stop working (adding to my own frustration) but I finally came across a tip from someone who said to start the machine and when water starts to come out to tap the top of the machine. You don't want to hit the top so hard that you break it but you need to give it a good tap. I thought I'd give it a try and it my surprise it worked. Coffee grounds ended up in my hot water. I brewed a few cups of hot water with my love tap until I didn't get any more coffee grounds in the hot water. I have no idea how coffee grounds would get stuck in the machine because I only use Keurig coffee kcups. Anyway, since that time I try to remember to brew a cup of hot water with a love tap once a week. My machine has been working fine since then (although it's only been a little over a month since then).

 

[princesspwrhr]

I have no idea how coffee grounds would get stuck in the machine because I only use Keurig coffee kcups. .

The needles that poke the holes in the kCups are hollow. Sometimes when it pierces the cup, grounds get stuck in the needle. When it happens repeatedly, they get further clogged. I don't drink coffee, but my husband and teen do. When I use the kuerig for hot water (tea, cocoa, oatmeal, any other use for hot water...) after they've had coffee, particularly strong coffee, I always have to brew the smallest size cup of hot water or my beverage ends up having a faint coffee taste.

 

[Dorisk3]

I hate to say this, but Keurigs are garbage. We went through 4 in one year, always sent by the company. We did the descaling, the pin silliness their customer service will tell you about. Bottom line, the machine is just not well made, particularly for its high price point. It actually amazes me that they are still in business.

 

[pooh4evr]

We have had ours for just over a year, never a problem. I did find a video on pinterest about how to take it apart and clean it , have done it once, but other than that it gets used about once a day, usually for hot chocolate, tea or cafe mocha.

 

[robsmom]

I love my keurig and just got a second one for upstairs. Have had the first one for 3-4 years. I use a Britta pitcher to fill the container so the water is filtered first. I also have the keurig filter add-on that I change periodically (not as often as I am suppossed to). Finally, I flush the machine with white vinegar and clean all the parts I can about twice a year. This seems to be working.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

Well, ours quit on us and Keurig replaced it. They told us to throw the old one away, so we did what pretty much any other engineers would do and we took the thing apart before discarding it We were both somewhat surprised by the "guts". IMHO Keurig needs to design these such that the case can be removed and then put back on without destroying the appearance of the machine. There are a bunch of different ways that these machines can fail, and yet there is no way to access what should be an easy repair. The insides are not as robust as I would have guessed, and I can see why so many fail and are then just tossed into a landfill. I can also see why so many leak. That said, I still have one lol.

 

[MichelleVW]

I've had the Keurig platinum for 2 years plus now.

It is used once a day.

It has never been descaled.

I use regular tap water.

So far - no problems.

Now - watch it stop working after I post this.

I also have Tassimo which I don't use regularly. (I used it for 2 years before the Keurig so it is 4 years old.) I use it maybe once a week to make a latte or espresso or something special.

It's probably your water - with maybe a high mineral content. Buildup of minerals will kill many types of coffee makers.

Same here...mine works great and I almost never clean it.

I hate to say this, but Keurigs are garbage. We went through 4 in one year, always sent by the company. We did the descaling, the pin silliness their customer service will tell you about. Bottom line, the machine is just not well made, particularly for its high price point. It actually amazes me that they are still in business.

Lol, I've had the same one for 4 years, works great, use it every day and hardly ever clean it. Not sure why yours didn't hold up.