K-Mini

Please note that I am writing this review more than 4 years of purchase and daily use. It's the perfect size and capacity for folks who just grab a cup or 4 a day. A perfect cup of coffee what ever works flavor you choose. But its endurance is what's really notable. After over four years of nearly perfect performance, it's started to fail randomly, i.e., stops drawing water in the middle of brewing, start button is worn out and needs to be pressed several times to start, sometimes stays on, even unplugged, for 15 or 20 minutes just making creepy, intermittent gurgling sounds, lol.I'm still using it now, but am shopping for a replacement. If there's still nothing better out there for the price, I'll buy this coffee maker again.

Several reviews mention that this coffee maker takes a long time -- up to two minutes -- to brew a cup of coffee. Some reviews suggest you go do a little something else while you wait. Other reviews say (and a few show) that the machine splatters water everywhere. Some say it's loud.I'm not saying that those scenarios are not true. Some pictures even prove it. In fact, I was a little hesitant to hit the "order" button for fear of these issues.However, none of these issues has been a problem since this little machine was plugged in at our newly outfitted dining room coffee bar. This machine brews INSTANTLY, as fast as our big Keurig in the kitchen. And NO SPLATTER. Clean as a whistle. And noise? Well, I don't remember the noise, which means it's the same as or even quieter than our big kitchen Keurig.I was also pleasantly surprised to feel how heavy the machine is. I don't know what I was expecting. Maybe something that was as lightweight (disturbingly so) as our new, very basic toaster. But this thing has sufficient heft to it, looks great on our coffee bar cabinet, makes coffee in a snap, and I think it even has an auto-off after brewing. (I say "I think" because I don't remember turning the machine off after brewing my cup and when I returned to the machine a few minutes later, the "on" button wasn't lit.)This little machine just makes my day, one cup at a time. I love it!UPDATE: The machine failed this morning. I've only had the coffee brewer since September 19, 2024, which as of this writing, is only a month and a half.I brew one cup per day in the machine, so I would say it gets light use. This morning, distracted, I forgot to put water in the reservoir prior to hitting Brew. As soon as I realized that there was no water, I lifted the lid to stop the brewing, put water in the reservoir and hit Brew. It failed to brew and instead, turned off. I tried a new K-Cup and started over. Still turned off. I unplugged the machine. It still turned off and would not brew.I called Keurig customer service to troubleshoot, figuring there is an easy solution to this issue. After a few questions, they determined that the machine is faulty and said to return it.The upshot: it worked well up until it didn't. Maybe it was operator error, as I forgot to put water in the reservoir. But our big main Keurig machine doesn't have that issue. After some reading, we discovered that this little machine, in its stripped-down design, doesn't have a "water low" warning and the elements burn out easily/quickly. So I don't know if it was operator error that caused the issue or if the machine is prone to this issue and it would have burned out anyway.We take good care of our appliances and gently/carefully use them. I am now hesitant to reorder this machine. It seems sensitive and not able to take regular, human use without breaking down.

I chose this one because I didn't want a bunch of features I wasn't going to use. Each feature is something that can break and make you need a new one. If you aren't gonna use that feature, then why bother?Right away I didn't want a reservoir that comes out. This one doesn't. Perfect! They can be a pain to put back in. The k-mini plus has an 8 ounce reservoir that comes out and supposedly a 12 ounce cup size??? A couple things wrong there.I didn't want to have to select a cup size. With this one I just pour in as much water as I want using the cup I'm gonna be drinking out of and it brews with all of it. Great! The cup size selector can limit your options. For starters, what if I want an 11 ounce cup? It's also a feature that can break. No thanks.Some of the more advanced models give an "oops" error I've seen complained about. It can make it very tempermental when it comes to starting the brewing process. NO THANKS. This model doesn't seem to have any internal computer that can give an error and cause issues. Either that or this novice has just had no isues to date. That useless feature seems broken to start with.Some models have a "stronger brew" button, a water filter and a temperature control to make it either hotter or cooler. If there's any way they could add those to this model without changing a single thing about it, I'd be in heaven. Take note keurig: ADD, BUT DO NOT CHANGE! Patiently waiting for my k-mini elite that they'll probably screw up like the k-mimi plus. <sigh> I'm not saying it doesn't brew the coffe hot enough or strong enough, but it's a couple features I might actually like and use.This is my first keurig or single serve coffee pot of any kind. Since I brew one cup at a time, it was a pain using anything larger. There wasn't enough coffee in the filter to really keep it from falling over. I had issues with it dripping after the brewing was done down onto the hot plate. Fixing those two issues is what drove me here in the first place. So far, so good.I use the universal reusable k-cup filter. I'll try to save anybody reading this some time. There is no such thing as a reusable coffee filter that doesn't leave a little sediment in the bottom of your cup. Some people just stop drinking and throw away the last mouthful. I use a paper filter inside the reusable one and that catches the sediment. I'll try to save you a little more time. If you use the universal filter by keurig, there are no paper filters quite tall enough to fill the whole thing. That reusable filter is taller than almost all of them and therefore any company making a paper filter that size is eliminating all users of shorter ones as potential customers. I just put the paper filter in the reusable one and fill it. Push it down into the bottom with my finger and finish filling it. Works perfectly. Never any grinds or sediment. Paper filters also make cleaning the reusable one much easier.