Keurig B60 Special Edition Gourmet Single-Cup Home-Brewing System
by Keurig
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List Price: Our Price: $139.49 You Save: $50.46 (27%) Availability: Usually ships in 2-3 business days Buy Used: from $94.99 (click here) Category: Kitchen See more product details |
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Keurig B60 Special Edition Gourmet Single-Cup Home-Brewing System
Customer Review: B60 or B70, that is the question
Summary: 5 Stars
I've had a B40 for over a year. The machine has operated flawlessly. I used it in my cigar store and it brewed at least 10 cups a day, that's a lot of use.
There is no better engineered single-serve coffemaker. My B40 has never let me down for over a year and it looks and works as good as the day I bought it (except for the calcium buildup on the inside of the water tank, but that's not the Keurig's fault). The K-cups cost about $.40 each through Amazon and they have a long shelf-life. The coffee will never be as good as fresh ground at home or Starbucks, but it's pretty, pretty, pretty, good (to quote Larry David).
Cleanup is as good as cleanup will ever get, this point is not emphasized enough, there's no mess whatsoever. Just remember to tilt the k-cup sideways when taking it out after brewing. "No runs, no drips, no errors."
I only buy "extra-bold" cups myself and I find them just right. Tully's French Roast is one of my favorites, the Timothy's extra bold are a close second. I've read complaints about the coffee not being strong enough, but I just don't buy that. It's plenty strong for me, I like strong coffee, and I drink my coffee black. It's not as strong as a coffee shop, but it's not stale either. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten an old cup at local coffee shops. My wife finds the extra bold too strong and I run a second cycle using the same K-cup, and create a nine or ten ounce cup for her.
As far as the noise, I'm confused by some of the comments I've read. It makes noise, but its not unbearable and its takes less than a minute. I've never had an issue with the noise or vibration. Yes it's fairly noisy, but that noise is the pump. What do these people expect? I've had a few manual pump-driven espresso machines and they're just as noisy, please disregard comments about noise.
Bottom line, best single-serve coffeemaker on the market by a landslide. Now the only question for me is B60 or B70. The B70 looks great, but the main difference seems to be an extra large cup selection and a larger water tank. I'm going to buy one of them for sure.
If Keurig ever designs an E.S.E. pod machine I'm buying one of those too. Do you hear me Keurig?
Customer Review: Awesome Product
Summary: 5 Stars
I own the Keurig B60 [ASIN:B000AQSMPO Keurig B60 Special Edition Gourmet Single-Cup Home-Brewing System] which I believe to be the best value/quality combination of the Keurig line. If you're shopping for a new coffee maker, I would highly recommend this one. My reasons aren't different than the others here: makes great coffee, no waste, no mess, easy, fast, and has a wide variety of coffees and other drinks so you can mix it up or deal with different preferences in your home.
Or get one for your office or small business. My friend has one for his five person office and loves it. Same benefits as above. Compared to a traditional coffee pot you completely avoid that lousy feeling where you need to choose between drinking that last burnt out cup or remaking the pot when you're busy. Plus others are sometimes slobs. Everybody gets what they want like caf/decaf. And if you have an administrative assistant doing the coffee in a pot she's trying to be a professional but is being treated like a maid. So the office Keurig solves lots of problems.
So if you're sold on the single-cup idea, why get a Keurig? They sell 80% of the single serve makers for a reason: they work the best and have the widest selection of drinks. Hundreds of different coffees, teas, hot chocolates and a really good all-natural hot apple cider. Its an open system so they sell GMCR plus Dunkin Donuts, Paul Newman, Celestial Seasonings, everything but Starbucks.
And speaking of Starbucks, a cup from your Keurig is a lot cheaper. And the owner company of Keurig, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, is not a megacorporation like Starbucks or Nestle. They started out as a little company in Vermont and each year is named best corporate citizen because, among other things, they give 5% of profits to charity. So you feel good about drinking their coffee and its fun. They're not a giant food business pretending to be green, they really are. Go to their website, its fun. Or when you call you really talk with some enthusiastic girl in Vermont trying to help you...she's probably wearing a flannel shirt.
Anyway, its one of my favorite things. You should get one.
Customer Review: Great... once you figure out how to make it strong enough! And amazing customer service!
Summary: 5 Stars
The Keurig appealed to me because I'm the only one in the house who drinks coffee and using my Mr. Coffee wasted a lot of coffee even when I didn't brew a whole pot and I really only got a good cup of coffee from the pot right after it was done brewing. My husband gave me the Keurig for Christmas and I'm having lots of fun trying different K-Cups and getting a fresh cup of coffee at a moment's notice.
It took some figuring to discover a K-Cup and brew size to make me happy however. I like my coffee strong. I enjoy flavored creamers in my coffee (Coffeemate), but I want it to taste like strong coffee once I've added my creamer. To get a brew I like in my 12-oz travel mug, I brew two K-Cups set on the 6-oz setting (I ~just~ fits the cup) one after the other (my favorites so far are Tully's Kona Blend and Newman's Own Extra Bold). I'm certainly not saving any money using two K-Cups for one cup of cofee, but I am very pleased with that one big "wake-up" cup of coffee every morning and that's what matters to me.
I have had a small glitch with my brewer a couple of times now, where it seems like the system gets a vapor lock or something, I can hear the pump working but it isn't pulling any water from the tank when it goes to refill after a brew cycle. Happily, all I've had to do is pull the water tank off the machine and re-seat it and the water started glugging through like it should right away.
**EDIT** The pump failing to draw water into the machine continued to happen, which was frustrating and concerning, so I called Keurig. After an easy ten minute conversation with a customer service representative, they said "we're sending you a new brewer, it should arrive in seven to ten working days." They don't even want me to send the broken one back. How awesome is that?
I love setting the machine to come on just before I get up in the morning and going into the kitchen to find it waiting for me. That blue glow when it's on is pretty bright, it makes quite a night light! I've set it to turn itself off again an hour later. It's nice you can turn it off to save energy but it heats up to useable temperature really fast.
Customer Review: Makes drinking coffee pretty fun!
Summary: 5 Stars
To preface this review, let me state that I was neither a big fan of drinking coffee to begin with nor was I a big fan of single-cup coffee makers (out of ignorance).
After receiving this machine for Christmas, I have spent roughly $100 in k-cup cartridges alone! (good job Keurig marketing team). The brewer is very well made, with excellent attention to detail and ergonomics. The simple, yet techy design inspires you to make coffee or tea or hot chocolate all the time (...cha-ching!). Luckily the k-cups for these machines are somewhat affordable, although at the high end of the affordability spectrum.
As for the brewer itself, I couldn't be any happier. It is simple, autonomous, ergnomic, and brews great coffee/tea/hot chocolate super fast! As a gadget guy, the machine is also pretty fun to use. Make no mistake about it, this is not your 1930's technology drip coffee maker... The Keurigs come with a built-in water pump which automatically keeps the standby water reservoir ready for brewing at a moments notice, temperature sensors, descale sensor, automatic flow metering, auto on and off programming, and brew temperature adjustment. All of these features are integrated into the design to allow for a very seamless operation (something you might expect of a $140 coffee maker).
I don't have any gripes with the brewer itself. The design is very solid. I do however have a minor complaint with the availability of non-coffee k-cups in stores. Most stores only seem to sell a very limited variety of coffee k-cups. The tea and hot chocolate k-cups are hard to find barring their availability online. I often use my brewer for hot chocolate and tea, so the limited selection of these k-cups at brick-and-mortar stores is somewhat annoying. Your best bet for a decent selection is Bed Bath and Beyond based on my experience. This is the only store so far that sells the tea and hot chocolate cups.
Regardless, I think everyone should try these machines out! Many people would be fairly shocked at how versatile, and fun these things are to use. They are little costly, no doubt, but I believe worth every penny.
Customer Review: Do not use TAP water and this should last for a good long time
Summary: 5 Stars
Been a month, no problems at all. My neighbor has had his for over a year, not an ounce of trouble.
First off, I'm going to tell you right off the bat, put Filtered or drinking water into the budget when buying this system. I've read people having trouble with their brewers breaking down over time. While not saying every instance for sure, I do think the majority of issues are caused by the type of water they are using. While Keurig said they recommend using filtered water, I say it should be required. Most water, especially from the tap obviously, will have abnormalities in it, chlorine, flouride, minerals, carbon, etc. I think it eventually will destroy the intricate mechanisms inside the best coffee makers. I used to work at a coffee shop. The big no no for making coffee was NEVER to use tap water in any type of instant brewer.
I say without question, do not use TAP water out of your faucet. Obviously it depends on your location, but most tap water will eat things like coffee brewers up. My water is really bad. I have instant water heater. I had my previous one replace after 2 years. The water literally ate up the tank and started leaking. It's basically a corrosive over time. This is the same premise for your coffee brewer, any coffee brewer for that matter, especially the ones that use internal heating for the k cups. So if you're going to get this amazing brewer, you gotta consider filtered water into the budget. Yes, you're going to pay more, but it will prolong the life of your Keurig brewer and most importantly, it will taste better too!
About the only things I've had come across, -- occasionally I noticed the brewer will give out different amounts of coffee, sometimes it uses more water, sometimes less. But it's very sporadic and the amount is pretty miniscule, so didn't affect the taste hardly at all. The best part about this brewer is the speed. I can wake up in the morning and in about 3 minutes time, I'll have the best tasting coffee in my hand ready to drink. Highly recommended. Just don't forget that water!