Keurig My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Keurig My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter
Customer Review: Water Delivery System Leaks on Some Models
Summary: 1 Stars
I received my Keurig Brewer as a Christmas gift from a daughter who already had a Brewer and loved it; she only uses the K-Cups and doesn't have a My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter. Another daughter also has a Keurig Brewer model which came with a My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter; she reported that she never had a problem with her Keurig Brewer using the K-Cup or the My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter.
When I received the Keurig Brewer, as a gift, the model did not come with a My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter, which is an after market accessory. I immediately ordered the My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter from Amazon and it arrived in a few days. When I installed the My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter and turned the Keurig Brewer on, it began to spray clear water from the top of the My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter lid as is being reported on the Keurig and Amazon websites. The cup of coffee which was dispensed was weak and tasted terrible.
The Amazon website has a number of very creative fixes for resolving problem but before I started rearranging the plumbing on my Keurig Brewer, I decided to call Keurig Customer Support which recommended that I move the top rubber-seal, which surrounds hollow-punch that perforates the K-Cup, down a fraction to create a better seal with the My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter lid. That appeared to do the trick and I was able to brew a decent cup of coffee without getting sprayed. Another family member then decided to brew a cup of coffee using a conventional K-Cup and when I went to use the My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter the spray problem had returned. Apparently the standard K-Cup forces the rubber-seal up the hollow-punch and the My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter was again performing poorly.
If you look at the reports on Keurig and Amazon websites about half the people love the My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter and the other half hate it. I talked to my daughter who uses the My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter and she indicated that she never had a problem switching between to two filtering methods with her Brewer.
I strongly suspect that some models of the Keurig Brewer are slightly incompatible with the My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter and others are not. It is only a question of a fraction of an inch but my Keurig Brewer produces a terrible cup of coffee when using the My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter unless you reposition the rubber-seal before each use, which I am not going to do every time I brew a cup of coffee. Keurig has to identify the engineering problem and fix it. It is unacceptable that a high-end coffee brewer performs this poorly. There are two possible engineering solutions:
1. Increase the thickness of the rubber-seal which secures the water delivery system.
2. Raise the effective level of the lid on the My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter.
I will contact Keurig Customer Support and report that their first workaround is not acceptable under conditions of normal use.
Customer Review: 6-Month Owner and Heavy User of "My K-Cup"
Summary: 5 Stars
So I, like everyone else, bought the Keurig because it was the only unit on the market that offered the choice of either using the proprietary coffee pods or your own coffee. I am a heavy user (grad student) and would simply not be able to afford the actual k-cups all the time. I now keep them around for visiting friends or those days when I need to brew a quick cup before going somewhere (of course I splurge every now and then and have a couple of cups of Coffee People Jet Fuel or Black Tiger).
My K-Cup has saved me loads of cash and to date, it has lasted 6 months of heavy use (6 to 10 cups per day) I am not sure how folks are breaking theirs regularly. Below are some hints that I use for brewing a strong cup of coffee.
1. Best Cup of Coffee. First you must start with good coffee to brew good coffee. Max-house just isn't going to do the trick. The strongest mass-market brand I have found is Folgers Black Silk which may be good for those who like it semi-strong. I find, however, that purchasing premium coffee by the pound is still much cheaper than the branded k-cups. For real strong coffee you should experiment with "SB" Italian Roast, French Roast and Espresso Roast found in your local grocery store or here on Amazon. Not to mention if you read the coffee bag closely you will discover that an empty bag can be traded for free cup at your local SB store. I also find that if I buy the bag in whole bean and use the store's self-serve grinder to grind it down to the setting right between drip (course grind) and espresso (fine grind), I get a better brew out of the My K-cup. Be advised however, at the bottom of your coffee cup will likely have some very fine grinds in it (not at all like getting regular grounds in your coffee, these will be very fine and mostly noticeable by sight alone when all the coffee is gone).
2. Rapid Fire Use of a Single My K-cup. Now, everyone knows that when the big name coffee chain store makes your espresso, they do not wash out the little handle thing that the grounds go in. instead, they simply bang it in the trash and refill it with fresh grounds and then brew. So why would we insist on rinsing with water every time we want to make a successive cup of coffee. Instead, here is what I do: Take the filter basket over to your trash can and hold it upside down with two fingers. Now flick the plastic between the screens (all 4 of them) a time or two. Then give one final flick on the bottom and it should be clean enough to simply fill it back up again and brew another cup. For the first brew of the day, I usually do a full cleaning of My K-Cup. An additional hint is that I bought a nice stainless steel canister to hold my bulk bought coffee and I use a stainless steel teaspoon measuring spoon as my scooper. Using a teaspoon scooper allows me to get coffee into the filter basket without getting it all over the sides of My K-cup and the counter.
Customer Review: Poor Design - Intentional?
Summary: 2 Stars
The product does work but poorly. The design is such (see the picture of the filter basket on the advertisement) that the bottom of the filter basket is a flat circle about the size of a quarter and made of solid plastic, only the side walls are fine mesh for the liquid to pass through. This poses a problem because the basket is designed to go into a complete housing with the hot water pouring in from a small hole in the center of the top. When the water forces its way through the center of the coffee, it pushes all the grinds up to the top of the filter basket leaving a gap of empty space between the bottom of the basket and the top. The water only touches a small portion of the grinds momentarily while the water passes through the center of the grinds. This then creates the gap and the water goes through the bottom of the mesh basket touching very little of the grinds giving very weak coffee. No matter how many coffee grids you put in the basket this will happen. When you open the lid you and touch the grinds they are mostly dry. It is my belief that this had to have been designed poorly intentionally...or at the very least not redesigned to correct the problem. Why? To make people return to purchasing the more expensive k-cups because using the filter basket makes you realize that you are wasting coffee so you actually end up defeating your original purpose of saving money. I purchased the B-60 and love the machine and its innovation for the most part, I just detest it when big business does things like that. Although it is not American made (usually an American greedy corporate ploy), this is why the Japanese are killing all other countries with manufacturing design and customer satisfaction. Sorry if I sound like a fanatic! To correct the problem all Keurig has to do is redesign the filter basket to the shape of a cone tapering off to an almost point at the bottom, like the filter basket of the Krupps coffee maker (I took photos of the Krupps filter to illustrate but just learned I cannot attach them here). I find it hard to believe that engineers as brilliant as the ones that engineered this machine cannot fix an obvious poor design like this. I say obvious because all products are tested and this would have been seen in the early stages of the design and testing phase. Anyway, the machine is well made and is convenient for one cup brewing. Oh, just in case a corrective action has escaped the engineers at Keurig I will go to their site next and pretty much repeat this to them with the photos...lets see if they do anything. If they do I will buy it. Keep in mind, the product does work but poorly! If you like strong coffee you will not be happy, but if you like weak coffee you may be satisfied.Customer Review: A Homeschool Experiment For The Perfect Cup...
Summary: 4 Stars
My 10 year old, Lil, and I realized that the k-cups that came with our Keurig where almost gone, so we decided to pull out the My K-Cup that came with it. However, there were no directions within the box, so the experiment began. Not wanting to open one of the last few from the presious variety pack, we checked out what the grounds looked like from one already brewed. They definitely seemed packed in with a rather fine grind.
We started by grinding our beans in the old trusty $14.95 superstore special grinder for a slow count of 15 & then adding 2tbsp of the grounds to the filter, always brushing off the top with our hands before screw-on. This resulted in light brown water, eventually turning clear, as we watched it come out. Pretty weak looking for my standards. When we checked out the grounds after pulling the whole thing apart, we noticed that the spray from the water went right through the grounds and out the filter as well as a decent size space at the top of the filter.
Rinse. Try Again.
Attempt two was a slow count to 20 with 2˝tbsp (just for reference, 1 tbsp = 3 tsp). The thought was to make it harder for the water to push through with a finer grind for a denser consistency and more grounds to fill the space. This time our brown water was darker, but excess water poured over the top, causing splashes from from the over flow along with a nice mess. However, the grounds left in the filter looked closer to what we wanted. The water did not pierce all the way through and they were packed to the top. We still wanted it to be a little denser, but not quite as full.
Rinse. Try Again.
We made one more attempt, this time with great success. We ground the bean at a slow count to 30 and added 2 1/3 tbsp. Completely perfect: Wonderfully dark brown liquid with absolutely no flow over, very smooth & not bitter ( which, by the way, is caused from two things: 1- burnt beans 2- too much water or too weak. Yup, that's right, if your coffee is bitter it's because your not adding enough grounds. Most packages read 1 tbsp for one cup of coffee. But, a coffee cup, as well as a tea cup, used to be much smaller than what we know today. Only 6oz is one cup of coffee (2oz=1 shot, 4oz=2 shots, 6oz=1 cup)). So Lil and I finally enjoyed a cup together, which ultimately was to goal of our morning.
A RECAP: Very fine grind, which turns out to be about 35 seconds with a cheap, generic grinder. Add 2tbsp & 1tsp to the filter; do not pack.
I hope this has helped and that you enjoy your My K-Cup and Keurig as much as my family.
Happy Brewing!
Lynz
Customer Review: Re-Use your K-cup instead of using Gold Screen
Summary: 4 Stars
I purchased this reusable filter and really was not very impressed. Now I never had an issue with leaking but thought the brew was not strong enough. No wonder- the gold screen does not retain the water, and the large hole just lets the weak coffee just leak out.
I was going to purchase the My-Cap but I am a cheap [...] and was mad I wasted the money on the Keurig reusable filter.
BUT WAIT- brilliant, I removed the foil and emptied the used coffee from an Extra Bold K-Cup and filled it with with coffee from an unused Extra Bold K-Cup (as a test) and it worked flawlessly and the brew was very close to the originial K-Cup.
Cool- for tomorrow , I will setup a 'new' K-Cup with a slightly smaller hole in the bottom, remove the foil but leave the coffee in the filter and test again using the (I already know the taste and feel of the Emerald's Extra bold so I can compare quite easily). The idea of the slightly smaller hole is the water will be retained just a little longer creating a stronger brew BUT still not backup and overflow. Careful not to put too much in to bust the weakened paper filter too. Anyway the hole is a little bigger once the pin punctures the bottom of the cup. I think I have some leeway here for experimentation.
Finally- I will try fine grinding my own coffee (Italian roast) and test it out with my custom used reusable filter knowing that I am going my little extra bit to reduce environmental impact.
Incidently, I credit My-Kap for their idea of useing the paper filter again. Also- I read one comment about someone who was concerned with some type of germs in the space between the paper filter and the bottom of the cup. I rinse mine pretty well. But my real response would be- please grow all the food you eat yourself because if you only knew the details of the food you already eat from no matter what source you are getting it from. Pahleease....
So far I am going to press the idea because the little inconvenience is still less than the espresso machine I had before this and just maybe, just maybe I can get a little closer to that experience.
Thanks- anyone else trying this plesae let me know. I would like to know whats best to get the strongest cup of brew of my B70- which I give the nod to Emerald's Bid Easy K-Cup as my favorite.
[...] (thomas)