Keurig K45 Elite Brewing System, Black (Discontinued)

Keurig K45 Elite Brewing System...Review-Purchase Received 3/5/15Over the past 11 years I have owned 4 very inexpensive coffee makers...a Proctor Silex, Mr. Coffee, Black and Decker, and another Mr. Coffee. The last Mr. Coffee made a good cup of coffee...I have my special 70% acid-free-hazelnut coffee. It is reported that the acid is not removed from the coffee; rather the beans they harvest are already 70% acid free, just passing along for your information, should anyone be interested.After about 3 years, the burner on which the carafe is placed rusted out, leaving burnt crust on bottom of carafe, which I had to clean off every day. This obviously didn’t affect the taste of the coffee, but I simply do not wish to do this every day. The other issue with Mr. Coffee as well as the other ones I purchased is this: The filter basket where you put your grounds is a royal pain to clean out...takes lengthy rinsing. So I used paper filters. This also is not something I wish to deal with each day, as sometimes the filter folds over during brewing, gets wet, and therefore I had coffee grounds in the filter basket or even worse in the coffee. I hate grounds in my coffee!!!! This resulted in the paper filter being difficult to get out of the basket without coming apart, leaving you with a yucky mess!!.For about the past three months I have searched for a new coffee maker. Have looked at many coffee makers, including stove-top and electric percolators, dripolators, Keurigs, as well as other brands operating the same as Keurig. I have spent hours and hours of reading reviews. Actually, in one review I read one comment about Keurig company that really bashed them, saying that they once had a good product, but have now let things slide...no longer making a good product, and that in the future they would be selling Keurigs for the same price as the inexpensive dripolators. I followed a link on this comment and read many other responses, which were pretty much in agreement with the original comment.At this point, I had no clue what I wanted to buy. So, as the old adage says, when in doubt, don’t. And so I waited and waited, with ongoing research. Both my daughters have Keurigs, and they love them. One daughter kept giving me positive comments about Keurig and encouraging me to get one.Here is the thing: I make one large mug (10 oz.) every day for myself. My husband will occasionally have a cup with me. So did I want to pay this much for a coffee maker which would be used mostly for myself? I finally said yes...bought the Keurig K45...began using March 4, 2015. Here is my take on it so far.Pros:Makes a really good-flavored cup of coffee and definitely hotNice to pop in a K-Cup and not mess with groundsHaving an array of coffee pods at your disposal and choosing the types and flavors of coffee without buying a whole can of coffee.The following information has been taken from the Keurig instruction manual. I have no issues with either, but since each is a time-consuming task, I would like to pass along, hoping that it may be of help for a potential customer.Purging the Brewer: This should be done once a week. This involves filling the reservoir, turn brewer on, without inserting a K-Cup, place a mug or cup on the drip tray plate and then press brew button. Repeat this 3 more times to completely purge water from tank. So you’re going through this process just for water, not coffee.Cleaning external parts: Should be done once a week.This includes the K-Cup pack holder assembly, the funnel, the exit needle, water reservoir and water reservoir lid. Keurig is relatively easy to clean with a damp, soapy, non-abrasive cloth.Descaling Brewer: You will need descale solution, which can be purchased on Amazon.The mineral content of your water will determine how often you do this. Calcium deposits or scale may build up in your brewer. Scale is non-toxic, but left unattended can hinder brewer performance. Regularly descaling every 3-6 months is recommended.Descaling involves pouring entire bottle of Keurig Descaling Solution into water reservoir, then fill the empty bottle with water and pour into water reservoir. Press power button on. Place a large mug on the drip tray plate and run a cleansing brew using the largest brew size. Then pour contents of mug into sink. Repeat this process until add water is indicated. Let brewer stand for at least 30 minutes while still on. After 30 minutes, discard any residual solution and rinse the water reservoir thoroughly. Now the rinse cycle...fill the water reservoir. Place a large mug on drip tray plate and run a cleaning brew using the largest brew size. Pour contents of the mug into sink. Repeat brew process until you have completed at least 12 brews using the largest brew size. You may need to refill the water reservoir at least one time during this process.If the red Descale light is still illuminated after completing the procedure, repeat the descaling procedure. Turn off and unplug the brewer. If there is Keurig Descaling solution in the water reservoir, discard the contents, rinse the water reservoir thoroughly and refill with water. Plug the brewer back in, power on, and repeat the fresh water rinse cycle. This would be a biggie for me, but since I do have a water filtration system, would not concern me .Thoughts in general:To my knowledge, most coffee makers are made of cheap plastic and made in China...so what else is new? The Keurig K-45 is a nice looking coffee maker...not too large, looks nice on my counter and fits well under my cabinets. Takes about 4 min. for initial-water fill of the reservoir to heat up. Provides a very good-flavored, hot cup of coffee quickly. The key to a really good cup of coffee depends largely on the quality of coffee used.The K-Cups work well...insertion and removal easy. I do love herb teas, but have not tried any as yet, so cannot make comment at this time. I find absolutely no negatives with the Keurig K45. So far, everything is running smoothly, and I feel really happy about my purchase.The Keurig K-45 is a nice looking coffee maker...not too large, looks nice on my counter and fits well under my cabinets.Right now I am totally in love with this Keurig k45, giving it a 5 star rating. Should my opinions change at a later time, I will definitely post an update.

Prior to this purchase, I did a lot of research on the different Keurig models. My husband and I don't do a whole lot of entertaining so this size seemed to be the best for us. Great choice! We each drink 2 cups of coffee every morning and this size reservoir works fine. The brewer came with a 12 K-cup sample pack, plus I ordered a 20 K-cup sample pack as well. The many reviews I had read indicated that in the beginning, you had to "kiss a lot of toads before kissing a prince", and they were right. Our preference is medium-dark coffee and it took a lot of sampling to find the right K-cup brand for us. The "Original Donut Shoppe" brand won out for us. A lot of the bold and extra bold were too bitter and a lot of the light-medium ones were too weak.One of the reasons I was interested in the Keurig was the ability for me to have flavored coffee and my husband could stick to his black, without my using flavored Coffeemate. So far I have been disappointed in the flavored coffees I've tried. They just don't have enough of the flavoring and are very weak tasting. So I've gone back to my Coffeemate and add the right amount for my taste.This review is for the Keurig itself, but I must add two more in conjunction with it: The re-usable K-cup option and the paper filter option.In my research, I had also read many many reviews about the expense of the K-cups, all that plastic going into landfills, etc., and that many people had gone the route of the re-usable K-cup. The Ekobrew Stainless Steel Re-usable K-cup seemed to have the best comments, so I ordered 4 of them. Another great choice! It is very well made and the stainless steel is good quality. We can now use our medium-dark ground coffee we get at the grocery store. I ordered 4 so we could use a clean one for each of our 4 cups of coffee. I had read that if loose grounds were left under the lid, it wouldn't seal properly and the water flow would be affected. After each brew, after dumping the grounds, I rinse the Ekobrew in hot water and drop it into a big bowl with sudsy water to soak. When we have finished our coffee for the morning, I clean them with a toothbrush, rinse well, lightly towel dry and sit them out to finish air drying.The product info said no paper filter was needed and we started out not using any. The coffee brewed perfectly, but after a while I got tired of the mess in dumping the grounds so I started looking at the different paper filter selections. There is one in particular that is specifically for the Ekobrew so I ordered a box of 300. And again, another great choice! The filter fits inside the Ekobrew nicely and the coffee actually brews better with it. It seems that the paper puts more resistance for the water to pass through and we get more coffee in our cup than before. (We only use the middle size on the Keurig, which is "small mug 7.25 oz".)Summary: We love our Keurig. It took a couple of months going through the above steps to finally settle into a good coffee routine in the morning. We still keep K-cups on hand for the occasional guests. And it may sound to some people that the system of using the Ekobrew, paper filter, cleaning, etc. is too much work but I don't feel that way at all. I actually find it's not as much work as using the regular coffeemaker and a whole lot less waste. By the way, I had also ordered a K-cup storage drawer along with the Keurig--the Mind Reader "Anchor". See that product for my review as well.

What can I say, it's a Keurig! If you've drank coffee from one, you know the quality. This isn't a newer model with all the bells & whistles but it works great, isn't complicated to operate & produces a fantastic cup of brew!CONS:There's no carafe size optionIt seems like I have to fill the reservoir fairly oftenIt does take a couple minutes to heat up when it's first turned onInstructions state to remove used pod right away. After the top is closed, the cup selection lights all flash which can be irritating it you're not brewing another cup but they stop flashing after a couple of minutesPROS:You can use ANY K-cup pods, even ones without the logo. (I just found my new favorite {non-licensed} coffee which I wouldn't be able to use if I'd bought a 2.0. It's packaged in a short pod with a filter bottom vs. plastic, so will leave less non-biodegradable material in our landfills)The reservoir is easy to get at & you don't have to remove the entire thing to fill it like on some brandsReservoir is clear so you can see when water is getting lowLow Water indicator light comes on to remind you to fill reservoir in case you don't noticeWon't brew if low on water so you don't wind up with a wasted pod & half a cup of coffeeWater filter feature is great if you have hard water like I do, don't have filtered water and don't want to use bottled waterReplacement filters are very inexpensiveRemovable cup stand gives you room to brew directly into a travel mugSo convenientCoffee tastes soooooo good