Keurig K Café K-Elite Single Serve Coffee Maker

I have had my new whiz bang Keurig for less than 24 hours – it replaced my previous one which lasted a good many years – so I decided to go with the K-Café unit so I could make lattes and cappuccinos. I set it up last night washed the reservoir and the frother cup let them dry. Then I filled the reservoir with water and placed in on the unit. Once I turned the unit on it drew water into the unit itself and I topped off the reservoir before running 12 oz through the unit without a K cup to run any impurities out of the machine.

I made my first cup of coffee and the unit performed beautifully . . . So far so good . . . or so I thought. I then decided to make a latte, put in a new K-Cup, 2% milk in the frother and pushed the latte button on the frother . . . it was supposed to beep, the button illuminate and then take three minutes or so to heat the milk and froth it. Zip, Zero, Nada – I pushed the button again – no go. I turned the machine off and on again then tried again – still nothing. I called the number on the instruction supplied with the machine and spoke to Paula. She asked if I had an account and offered to set it up for me since I did not have one. (There is more to that story but I won’t bore you with it, there is enough ammunition ahead to accomplish that.) She had me try different things, asked me a bunch of questions and decided when all was said and done that she would have to send me “an entire new frothing unit” and that I would also get instructions on how to replace that part of the unit as well. She said I could call customer service if I had a problem. OK great I thought I was done. Not so fast – I then get an email telling me” good things are coming your way.” – I opened it and was informed I was getting a new frother cup and lid – WHAT ? – The frother cup and lid were not the problem. I was in the middle of something on my phone so decided to use the Keurig chat feature and got a virtual assistant, so I typed “please get me a live rep” – the virtual assistant replied with six people are ahead you and you will be connected in 3 minutes. After several voice announcements telling me to be patient, as there were now only five people ahead of me and that it would be another few minutes, an hour had passed. I finished my other call and redialed customer service. I spoke to a very polite young lady who said her name was “Sweet” she is based in the Philippines call center and was happy to help. She listened to my saga and went away to investigate. When she returned she said she saw the order for a new frother cup and lid and agreed that would not solve my problem. She also stated that the machine frother unit was not detachable and that the entire machine would be replaced. Here is all you have to do . . .

1. Take a picture of the serial number on the side of the unit.
2. Take a screen shot of the amazon invoice
3. Take a picture of the machine itself with a piece of paper showing my name, the date, the reference number, which she was going to send me by email, in the picture.
4. A picture of my birth certificate and my automobile pink slip.

The last item I added – she didn’t really ask for it although I anticipated it.

So, before I jumped through all those hoops, I called Amazon to request their help. The automated assistant informed me that I would have to reach out to the seller since although I bought it THROUGH Amazon, and not directly FROM Amazon, I would have to contact the seller. I repeated “representative” numerous times before I was connected to an Amazon representative. In the middle of explaining why I was calling, I was suddenly disconnected. SO NOW I’M PISSED – so I called customer no-service again and repeated “representative” again to the virtual attendant, (I was determined not to be made to go away a second time).

I decided to keep my cool realizing the new rep, Norman was not at fault. Norman explained that since it was purchased through Amazon that the seller should be willing to replace the unit and that he would contact them and ask them to contact me to resolve the issue. I will keep Keurig corporate’s solution in my back pocket just in case.

So, what I have learned is sometimes you get a lemon. And when you do get a lemon, unless you bought it – FROM – Amazon and not – THROUGH – Amazon, you will have to contact the third-party seller. If you elect to contact the manufacturer be prepared for some rep to misidentify the problem and not fix the problem. When you reach someone who can fix your problem, you may need to jump through hoops to prove to them you aren’t some con artist trying to score a free machine.

Fair enough . . . I am told I should hear from the seller in two business days. The silver lining is that I can make a regular cup of coffee while I wait to hear back. (I have a tendency to be a crankasauris without it.) I hope I can give the seller 5 points for customer service when all is said and done. I don’t know where I can go to get the last frustrating six hours of my life back though. I hope this helps you if you encounter problems with your new Keurig.

I really would like to step up from this machine as I love coffee and coffee drinks so much, but you get a really great machine for the price and is super easy to clean. If you like to use PODS, and if you like to steam milk for lattes, this really works great.

Amo mi keurig coffee machine, tiene variedad de oz, y la espuma del capp y latte que prepara es excelente. Desde la primera vez que intenté preparar cappuccino quedó a la perfección. Súper fácil de usar.

Love the item but find that I like my milk frothed more thickly. Am left with lots of just warm milk and not enough froth. I use 2 percent milk. My little inexpensive milk frother does a superior job of it. Otherwise I love my K coffee and the easy way to work the machine. Great.

I love the ease of a Keurig coffeemaker and the super easy to clean milk foamer!! Just rinse and ready for the next cup! I’ve tried the makers with a steamer, but they are cumbersome and very difficult to clean easily. This is just one quick rinse.
If i had to give any negative, it would be the hard to see lines inside the cup for latte or cappucino. Wish they had made the lines easier to see.
But overall, I love this brewer!

Overall great machine and one bad mother frother! This unit replaced my previous Keurig that I had for 10 years. I’ve had this one for 3 months now. I mostly use it to make a cup of coffee using frother to add 1/2 & 1/2 – kind of Americana style. I have only made a cappuccino and latte a few times. Coffee is just my personal preference. I use Neuman’s Own organic special blend k-cups coffee for reference.

Pros:
1) makes an amazing cup coffee! Wow! Huge improvement over my previous model. Flavor is incredible- tastes better than starbucks or Pete’s. This unit offers 6, 8, 10, 12 ounce and a shot. I like my coffee relatively strong. My previous Keurig needed to be set to 6 ounces in order to be strong enough for me using the same coffee (Neumanns own organic special blend). It’s amazing how much more efficient this machine is. I regularly brew 10 ounces on the strong setting and it’s just as strong but more flavorful as my old one 6 oz. I have had several 12 ounce cups on the strong setting and it’s still a pretty darn strong cup of coffee.

2) I love the frother (with the exception of the cons listed below). I was hesitant to get this unit because of all the bad reviews about the frother breaking shortly after receiving a brand new unit. I thought it would be a nice thing to use when guests came to visit. Lol. But I use it for every single cup! The frother adds amazing flavor to the coffee. My life has been transformed. I use add 3 tbsp of 1/2 & 1/2 to fill just above spindle way below fill line use cappuccino setting. Yum! There is a cold and hot setting on the frother + latte and cappuccino options. The cold setting barely froths at all which is fine. I’m sure it has something to do with the temperature but it comes out cold for my iced coffee – which tastes just like a nitro brew at Starbucks – by filling up a coffee cup with ice and using the shot setting on the coffee maker. Cold setting + cappuccino option on frother. Again life transforming in the summer!

I hope it doesn’t break as many reviews I have stated. So far so good knock on wood!

Cons:
1) needs smaller frother. One improvement I would definitely suggest is a smaller sized frother to allow for less milk/half & half for a cup of coffee. It’s way too much cream to fill to the fill line of smallest setting which is cappuccino for one cup of coffee. It still will froth pretty well when I put in just enough to cover the black spindle inside but (1/3 of minimum fill line of cappuccino) but it would be even better if could accommodate smaller amounts of milk.

2) the lid of the frother is very thin and flimsy on the sides. Several of the plastic pieces have broken on the side while carefully hand washing, one broke the day after 2nd use.

3) Already rust forming inside the frother. I wash and dry it immediately after each use and leave the lid off.

3) Sometimes the frother does not froth much at all and other times it froths incredibly well. Again I am using way less half & half than the minimum fill line amount. But it’s always the same amount, 3 tablespoons.

4) the unit itself is very light – a fraction of what my older unit weighed. As other reviewer‘s have mentioned, the parts are flimsy and the water reservoir is cheaply made and you need to be careful when attaching it to the unit so it doesn’t break. I usually have to give it a few tries before it will lock into place.

This is quite an improvement over past models. For the regular coffee drinker, I find this to be a very versatile machine with the essential features for brewing good cappuccino, latte, and coffee. The learning curve is very short for getting acquainted with the machine and the process steps for brewing. It may not be as complex as a barista machine but it serves the purpose. The frothing mechanism is neat and really works with plain milk, in fact. Overall, it is a treat to use it every time. Keurig also provides some coupons, too.