Although I love my Starbucks Skinny Vanilla Latte to get me thorough the day, I’ve never been a coffee drinker at home. So I’m not very savvy when it comes to the latest and greatest coffee makers.
My grandmother (95) was injured in a fall several weeks ago and has needed 24/7 at-home care. My mom’s best friend (who I call ‘aunt’) has been staying four nights per week from 8pm to 10am the following morning. She refuses to accept any payment, but I am determined to thank her with something she will enjoy.
My mom brought her Keurig (K60, I think) over and it has been a big hit, especially with my ‘aunt’. I want to buy her one and I think the fairly basic K45 model would meet her needs (and looks just like the one mom has) and I can buy one for $100. I also plan to buy her several filters so she can use her own coffee and several K-cup sampler packs.
I’ve seen the newest Keurig 2.0 models and I wonder if there is any real advantage in the newer versions?
Also, can anyone recommend the best place buy K-cups of Maxwell House, various brands of Hazelnut Coffee and Hot Chocolate? The more I shop around on different sites, the more confused I become! :smack:
Actually, there’s a potential disadvantage. They’ve added DRM to the things, so you can’t use “unauthorized” k-cups. Granted, this may or may not affect you (or your giftee) depending on what sort of cups you want to use, but I just hate the idea out of principle.
I have the 2.0 model. Aside from the DRM already mentioned here are some other issues I have with it:
[ul][li] The cover for the water reservoir is inexplicably a pain in the ass to put on there correctly. I usually start chuckling to myself early in the morning about it. (“Hehheh why is this so difficult?”)[/li][li] Every time you remove a K-Cup after getting coffee and shutting the lid again, the screen shows an alert that reads “dispense hot water?” Cancel | Continue - you should not have to action this stupid dialog every time before you get more coffee.[/li][li] The adjustable coffee cup sizes do not reflect reality - I always use “10 oz” for my 6oz coffee cup and it barely fills it.[/li][li]When it’s time to add more water, the UI pops up telling you so and will not let you do anything else until you do.[/li][li]When the UI wants you to add water or if you want to dispense hot water, those messages will stay up and override the auto-shutoff. I came home one day and the thing was still on waiting for my response. (Not that I think it’s some huge waste of energy, but it’s annoying).[/li][li]The Keurig 1.0 add-on little cup thing that lets you fill it with your own ground coffee of course does not work on the 2.0[/li][li]I found a few Keurig 1.0 k-cups, endorsed by Keurig, that still got refused by the 2.0 as being bogus. IIRC it was the Gevalia ones in the yellow box.[/li][li]I don’t like their smart-ass message scolding you about using a bogus k-cup.[/li][li]It takes a solid 2 minutes to “preheat” when you first turn it on in the morning. Not a huge deal, but I’m more of a “wish I had a heated hose under my sink that sprayed coffee directly into my mouth as I run out the door” guy.[/ul][/li]
Other than those things, it makes good coffee. I prefer the Green Mountain cups. Also, It comes with a Karafe that supports large karafe-sized k-cups, about 5 cups or so - cool I guess but I’ve never used that myself.
I bought the Keurig Platinum for my mom and she loves it. It’s been almost a year and no problems yet. The reason I got is because it has a very large water reservoir so she only needs to fill it twice a week. YMMV depending on the number of cups your mom’s friend drinks a day. It has 5 different brew sizes, temperature control, clock and programmable on/off. I also got her the My K-Cup, so she could use her own coffee in at as well.
It’s nice looking: Silver and sleek and it has a night light that makes the water glow blue in the dark. To say my mom is picky is an understatement, but she loves it, and I’ve heard no complaints.
