Keurig coffee maker warning.

RSKY · Nov 30, 2015

If you have a Keurig coffee maker be sure to descale it after it sits for a while. For instance if you take a long vacation. We were gone the month of October and mine quit day before yesterday. Pump would barely force water thru it. I have run two gallons of vinegar and a bottle of descaler thru it and it finally started working. Guess the water evaporated inside and left a residue. Looked like birdshot coming out after the vinegar sat in it overnight. Had to run LOTS of water thru it to get the vinegar out.

Coffee flavored with vinegar is not good. Take my word for it. NOT good.

RSKY

Terry1040 · Nov 30, 2015

I wonder if this is a problem with all Keurigs ? Does an owners booklet shed any light on this issue ? Anything on a website about this. Have a great day

davesl708 · Nov 30, 2015

RSKY said:
If you have a Keurig coffee maker be sure to descale it after it sits for a while. For instance if you take a long vacation. We were gone the month of October and mine quit day before yesterday. Pump would barely force water thru it. I have run two gallons of vinegar and a bottle of descaler thru it and it finally started working. Guess the water evaporated inside and left a residue. Looked like birdshot coming out after the vinegar sat in it overnight. Had to run LOTS of water thru it to get the vinegar out.

Coffee flavored with vinegar is not good. Take my word for it. NOT good.

RSKY

That is one of the negatives on Keurig. You cannot drain that tank for storage. Mold and bacteria are another concern if you do not use the machine regularly.

Terry1040 · Nov 30, 2015

Ouch. Does not sound good !

tcartwri · Nov 30, 2015

Friends quit after a couple of months use. She could not get it descaled to the point that it would work properly again.

I would say you should be running vinegar through it pretty routinely.

chad22 · Nov 30, 2015

RSKY said:
Coffee flavored with vinegar is not good. Take my word for it. NOT good.

RSKY

Coffee with Jalapenos don't taste very good either.

My sister put Jalapenos juice in a coffee cup one day and I had to throw the cup out as I could never get the taste out of it.
Also I was at my parents house one day and my mom made some coffee for me and my dad to drink.

I noticed the coffee didn't taste very good. I asked her did she just clean the coffee pot. She said she did but must've not gotten out all the vinegar.

So we dumped the coffee out and ran the water through it for quite awhile.

I have an uncle who used to be a police officer in New Jersey. He's my dad's older Brother.

One day when I was 5 years old "22 years ago" He took us shopping for toys. He had come to Kansas from New Jersey to visit us on his time off for a week.

He bought a few bottles of vinegar and as we were on our way back to my house he was drinking the vinegar straight from the bottle.

I was grossed out by it at the time. lol

He said he daily drinks a bottle of vinegar when at home too.

He's a vinegar A Holic.

He offered me some but I wouldn't take it.

dmccarty · Nov 30, 2015

My old coffee maker would require the use of vinegar from time to time to clean out the hard water minerals. However, the coffee maker eventually died which I think was caused by the use of the vinegar. I suspect that the vinegar would steam and that the acidic steam eventually killed the coffee maker.

I have not completely flushed the vinegar from the pot a couple of times and vinegar coffee is not pleasant. :confused2:

However.....

One time I cleaned the pot, made coffee and went to work with the coffee in a vacuum bottle. Got to work, poured the coffee and all but spewed the vinegar coffee over my desk. :shocked: YUCK. So I went to the cafeteria and bought their coffee which I think was Starbucks brand. That stuff was horrible. The cafeteria coffee was so bad I drank my vinegar coffee. :shocked: I am not kidding either. :laughing::laughing::laughing: Vinegar coffee was better than the swill they were selling in the cafeteria.

Later,
Dan

Coyote machine · Nov 30, 2015

Simple solution: Use soft water.

cdaigle430 · Nov 30, 2015

RSKY said:
If you have a Keurig coffee maker be sure to descale it after it sits for a while. For instance if you take a long vacation. We were gone the month of October and mine quit day before yesterday. Pump would barely force water thru it. I have run two gallons of vinegar and a bottle of descaler thru it and it finally started working. Guess the water evaporated inside and left a residue. Looked like birdshot coming out after the vinegar sat in it overnight. Had to run LOTS of water thru it to get the vinegar out.

Coffee flavored with vinegar is not good. Take my word for it. NOT good.

RSKY

I use double filtration, one in the Keurig water resovoir and one in a Braun water filter picture. I dont think this will help it if we dont use it for long periods of time though. I wonder if maybe adding distilled white vinigar into the keurig until all the water is out would help for long periods of not using them?

Gary Fowler · Nov 30, 2015

Keurig does sell a cleaner for the pot for like $15 for two packs. I did the vinegar deal once and it took several hours of running water thru to get the vinegar smell out. I wont do that again.

KiotiKowboy · Nov 30, 2015

Keurig dies ... take it to Bed Bath & Beyond. If you have a receipt, it's a straight exchange. Without a receipt, you still get a pretty good discount.

cqaigy2 · Nov 30, 2015

My Sister's keurig was having problems so i opened up what i could to see if it was fixable. OMG what a filthy mess. They had run it for a few years and over that time, there was a build up of rotten coffee stuff in areas that can't be easily dissembled. I admit i did like the coffee out of it, but then im not known for good taste. :laughing:

KiotiKowboy · Nov 30, 2015

I find the Version 2 model much easier to clean.

I've held off on moving to the new models because of Keurig's attempt to lock consumers into their PRICEY pods. When my last unit died, I went ahead and made the switch.

There are numerous methods posted on the Internet to get around Keurig's protection. They work. The best/easiest, however is this:

carafepod

The link is for a "carafe" size pod, and they do make the regular "single" size. BUT - get the "carafe" version. It can use the same paper filters as the single pod. It's biggest advantage though is it triggers the brewer to heat the water another 5 degrees.

Retiredguy2 · Dec 1, 2015

Coyote machine said:
Simple solution: Use soft water.

Our well water is somewhat hard although being softened...we use bottled spring water for the Keurig machine and have had no issues despite daily use for two years now.

Soundguy · Dec 1, 2015

my buddy has one. he just fills it with 1g jugs of bottled water.

he drinks a cup a day, so not too spendy.

me? I'm using a 20-30? year old mr coffee that still works.

Retiredguy2 · Dec 1, 2015

KiotiKowboy said:
Keurig dies ... take it to Bed Bath & Beyond. If you have a receipt, it's a straight exchange. Without a receipt, you still get a pretty good discount.

We have the receipt for ours and it is from BB&B...never really paid attention to the warranty details as ours was a gift.

dmccarty · Dec 1, 2015

Soundguy said:
...

me? I'm using a 20-30? year old mr coffee that still works.

After my expensive coffee maker died and I saw how much a replacement would cost I bought a 2 quart Pyrex "cup" and a stainless steel funnel. Heat the 2 quarts of water in the microwave, put my reusable coffee filter in the funnel which is sitting in the coffee pot and pour hot water over the grounds. The only part that takes time is the pour. Not a big deal though. Easy to clean too. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Funny thing is that I am reading a book on how to cheaply travel on a boat written by a woman who built a boat with her husband that they have sailed around the world and as far north and south as one should prudently go. :thumbsup: They use the funnel and coffee filter method too. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan

Toyboy · Dec 3, 2015

I remember back in the day mom just used a simple percolator to make coffee every morning. I'll bet there's a lot of those old coffee pots still in use today by people not caring about the latest fad way of taking a simple procedure, and making it into a expensive complicated one.
In some things the old way is better.

kco · Dec 3, 2015

A cleaning alternative to vinegar is to use ascorbic acid. We learned this years ago from our local appliance repair man. He was up repairing the stove and we mentioned the spots on glassware from the dishwasher. He said to use ascorbic acid (vitamin C powder) rather than the commercial (and expensive) dishwasher additives. Adding a bit(teaspoon?) each time works great to prevent spots and keep the dishwasher free of scale.

We also use it for descaling everything else such as water tap fittings, coffee pots, etc. For badly scaled items use a higher concentration and let it soak a few hours. Like vinegar, you do have to rinse well to get rid of the bitter taste.

It is in some commercial cleaners and can be expensive in the fancy packs. Our repairman is also a cattle farmer and told us to buy bulk from the feed store, which is a fraction of the price.

chad22 · Dec 3, 2015

Toyboy said:
I remember back in the day mom just used a simple percolator to make coffee every morning. I'll bet there's a lot of those old coffee pots still in use today by people not caring about the latest fad way of taking a simple procedure, and making it into a expensive complicated one.
In some things the old way is better.

I still use an electric percolator that was given to me. Works great. The best percolator is the one that you can use on a fire.

No electrics to go out on it.

I like simple things.