Keurig B60 Brewer

Use of Mugs

One of the Keurig B60's innovations was the introduction of a removable spill reciever/drip tray that is claimed to "allow for easy cleaning and the use of travel mugs". Removing the spill tray adds an inch and a half of clearance under the brewer head, which is still not enough to allow a 7.5" mug (not an exceedingly tall mug) to be used. If the Keurig B60 is placed by the edge of a surface (as shown in the images below) this is not a dealbreaker, as one is able to hold the mug at an angle to recieve the coffee/tea, but it results in a tired set of arm muscles after holding the mug in an uncomfortable position for at least a minute (with a new B60 that has already heated up to temperature).

Out of Water Alarm

When users of the Keurig B60 were asked what other issues they faced in using the brewing system, a majority commented on the poor performance of the low water level sensor. We confirmed that when the large cup (9oz) was selected from the brewing options and the water level was sufficient for the smaller cups (5oz and 7oz) but not enough for the large cup, the "Add Water" alarm would be posted after you had completed the steps to begin brewing. The users described this issue as particularly problematic when you were using the brewing time to set up your breakfast or in preparing to leave their residence as they would need to come back to troubleshoot and add water. Additionally, it was found that the failure mode is not resolved by adding water exclusively. You are required to open and close the K-Cup reciever head as the memory of a new cup is erased once the low water level alarm is triggered. This is confusing for the user, who expects the B60 to simply start once the necessary water level is reached. When that doen't happen a likely action is to press the large cup size button as a means of confirming that water was added, but this does not work either.

Recycling K-Cups

Although the introduction of Keurig's recycleable K-Cups has realigned the product with the environmental principles of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (Keurig's parent company), the recycling process is not as trivial as one might suspect at first glance. Keurig's website describes the process with three simple verbs: (1) Peel (2) Empty (3) Recycle. I opted for the following, alternate process that would allow the recycling of the pods in a broader geographical area: (1) Pierce and Peel (2) Empty (3) Remove filter and Rinse (4) Recycle.

The removal of the thin foil used to package the coffee or tea within the plastic enclosure is tremendously difficult to peal as there is very limited excess material beyond the area used to apply the adhesive that holds the lid and the plastic cup together. An simpler procedure (and what was followed in the sequence below, is to further pierce the lid and then peel from the inside out. Additionaly, at the moment of emptying the cup, the filter is left inside with significant residue attached to it. Although Keurig claims that this done by design, and that the filter should be left in place (unlike the sequence of images below), leaving this residue degrades the recycling stock. In many regions, the local recycling plant requests that all plastic food containers be cleaned before being sent for recycling.