Don’t turn up your nose at the Keurig brewer. It can make decent coffee quickly and you can use your own ground coffee if you want to reduce waste. This brewer looks large but it really is not much bigger than the lesser Keurigs. It is a heavy machine, about 18 pounds. It’s mass may be why it is so much quieter than any other Keurig brewer I have tried. The construction is a level above the residential models. The brew chamber operates smoothly and there is an extra pressure plate in the brew head that stabilizes the pod while being clamped. What I enjoy about this machine is its simplicity. I don’t have to puzzle over an array of push buttons, most of which I don’t care about but require my attention for every brew. Many complain about the lack of 12 oz size which I don’t lament at all. That’s the size you would select if you want a weak and bitter cup of coffee. There just is not enough coffee in a k-cup to make a decent 12 oz cuppa Joe. I use 8oz exclusively and since that is always the default size all I have to do is press “Brew” after I close the lid. From start of drip to last burst of air it takes about 50 seconds to extract a cup. This speed should ensure a poor cup of coffee but, surpisingly, in the Keurig system it works. Perhaps the slight pressurization of the hot water makes up for the short brew time, I don’t really know. I do know the quality pods I use taste great. My favorite brand so far is Peet’s. If you use the cheapest, most stale bargain pods you can find you will make awful coffee. I often use the 4oz size without a pod to preheat a cup and to get the brew compartment warmed up and cleaned. In fact, I use the 4oz rinse a lot because a clean machine is important to good coffee. This extra fussiness is not required but I am, by nature, a fussy person. I had tried the Keurig K-1500 and it has no 4oz size among other failings. (I found it to be very noisy and slow to heat. It also can’t brew a second cup quickly, it has to heat up again.) I thought the K-1500 would be a cheaper and newer alternative to the older K-155 but it is miles away. Excellent aspects of the K-155 is that you can adjust the temperature within a 10 degree range. My test with an accurate thermometer shows the settings to be accurate. This amazes me because I see many review videos of other Kurig brewers where the temperature never even gets to 180. Keurig nailed the temp adjustment on this machine. I like that I can set the on and off times for the machine. It is ready for me in the morning and it obediently goes off at night. I drink coffee or want hot water all day so I don’t use the 2-hour auto off function. I have two complaints. The first is that there is no backup for the time setting. If you momentarily use power the clock shuts down and so does the on/off setting and the auto off if you are using that one. How hard could it have been to include a button cell battery and a simple circuit to keep the clock alive? Very disappointing and annoying. My only other annoyance is the silly display. The little movie is repetitive and conveys information nobody was asking for. Why can’t we choose to shut that down or suppress it. Both of these gripes are petty and not of much consequence. This brewer will give you your money’s worth in decent quality hot coffee. My previous brewers have had fairly short lives and I am hoping this one will last. Oh, on a side note let me talk about using your own coffee. Keurig’s left and right hands apparent do not communicate with each other. Keurig says you can’t use a “my k-cup” in this brewer and that they don’t sell one. That is only partially true. Keurig used to make a gray-colored my k-cup with a screw top. That has disappeared years ago and I can attest that it does not fit and that you really can’t find them to buy anymore unless you go to the used market. So what does work. Amazingly the newer models works. These are the black ones with the big dot on the lid and the single hole in the middle. Just pop out the pod adapter and drop this in after being sure to remove the extra 2.0 device attached to the bottom. I’ll attach a photo of the one I use. Keurig has just discontinued this item and replaced it with a 5-hole top version. This one also works with K-155 but Keurig does not seem to know that. There is a valve mechanism in the lid that closes off the 4 extra holes. Be aware that you must remove the pod receptacle in the head to drop a my-kcup. I see so many complaints from folks saying these don’t fit and they include photos of it sitting atop the pod adapter. So, yeah, it won’t fit if you can’t read instructions. Thank you!
