On Tue, 24 Jun 2014 13:26:06 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 6/24/2014 9:52 AM, H*a*r*r*o*l*d wrote:

I wonder if Krause still loves his. There seems to be a lot of
complaints, on the internet, about them.


Apparently hit or miss in terms of reliability. Mrs.E. has gone
through two or three machines in the past four years.

I have a basic model in my "man cave" that I use often (meaning five or
six times a day). It's over four years old and works fine. I've done
the vinegar cleaning thing once on it.

One thing I noticed is that it would occasionally not brew the water
through the cup acting as if the pump is bad. Turns out not to be the
case. The small needle that penetrates the top of the cup to inject
water gets plugged from time to time. When that happens cycle the system
without a K-cup in it (runs hot water through it only) and it clears
the needle. Only happens once in a while.

I also discovered that K-Cups vary slightly in size depending on the
manufacturer. There is one brand (forget which) that the cup is
slightly shorter than others and the needle that pokes a hole in the
*bottom* of the cup doesn't always penetrate fully. I got in a habit of
pushing the cups in by hand to ensure the needle penetrates the bottom.



====

I guess there is some kind of automated coffee machine movement going
on that I'm not aware of - probably the result of not watching much
television, spending too much time on the boat, and ignoring most
internet commercials. We have been using the same coffee maker for
years. It is cheap, reliable, environmentally friendly, easy to
clean, and last but not least, it makes darn good coffee. It's
called a Melita filter cone. Just put a fresh filter in it, a few
tablespoons of your favorite ground coffee, pour some boiling water,
and it's good to go for pennies a cup. We start the day with a pot of
it and save the leftovers for making iced coffee later in the day.