Keurig K-Cafe Single-Serve K-Cup Coffee Maker, Latte Maker and Cappuccino Maker, Comes with Dishwasher Safe Milk Frother, Coffee Shot Capability,…

Our old Keurig bit the dust (the bottom needle broke off.) I still used it, just had to poke holes in the bottom of the K-cup. My wife soon grew tired of that! If I had to buy a new Keurig, I didn’t want the same old thing. I’ve seen the Keurig latte/cappuccino machine, we like lattes once in awhile, so I made the leap. Got it in 3 days and put it to the test as soon as it arrived. Made my wife a single shot, I put 2 shots in mine. I like the way it looks, the coffee layered from the froth. Nice presentation. We used 1% milk and it frothed perfectly. Of course we just got it, made 2 cups, so I can’t review how it lasts after many cups. We usually make 4 to 5 cups every day so if it doesn’t last, I’ll add to this review.
But the frother worked great, the coffee was hot not much more to ask for.
2 thumbs-up 👍
Bill

I’ve only had the machine for less than a week but so far I love it and the milk frother is so fun. Really pleased.

This is a review of the ‘Keurig K-Café SMART Single Serve Coffee Maker with WiFi Compatibility’ on 11/8/22. I state this because the way Amazon has this product setup, the reviews appear to be shared across the 3 current K-Cafe models available for purchase on a single product page. Or at a minimum people seem to confuse which one in the selection before reviewing or reading reviews.

Pros:
– Combination coffee maker and frothier
– Coffee maker is fast
– Multi-stream technology works well – up to about 8 ounces
– Build quality appears excellent
– Frothier actually works – See Cons for some oddities, but not show stoppers.
– Overall dimensions are not small, but really not large given the additional frothier. I expected it to be bigger.

Cons:
– Can’t brew and froth at the same time, probably because of power requirements exceeding 15 amps if it did.
– Using old pods without brew ID technology delays brewing by about 10 seconds while it searches the Internet and tries to locate the pod manufacturer – in my case Jewel-Osco brand.
– Drip stand is awkward. While it works once put together it feels like they could have engineered it better as it’s loose and hard to align easily.
– Frothier isn’t dishwasher safe. Here’s a tip. Rinse with water, add some more water and squeeze some soap into it, place in machine and run frothier with head and rinse when done. I found that I don’t need the lid while frothing so I just put that away in storage so that it’s one less item to get dirty and need cleaning.
– Frothier minimum is a lot, meaning you can’t brew a 6 ounce cup of coffee and add frothed milk/creamer using the minimum as you will go over 8 ounces on the standard cup. They expect you do do a ‘coffee shot’ when frothing for some reason. The effectiveness of the frothier drops dramatically with the less you use. Here’s a tip. I found that it froths acceptably if you add about 2/3 to the minimum line (which hides the bottom part of the wire agitator and its sloping wings, but leaves the top axle part that you use to remove/add visible). This completely fills a 8 ounce coffee cup right to the top, but is manageable.
– If you run the frothier in high heat mode more than once in succession you may notice it short cycles the additional times. It appears that there is heat sensor in it that turns it off once it reaches a certain temperature. Tip, if you want to run a second time because you left it too long, turn it to cold mode for subsequent frothing to prevent it from short-cycling.
– Not unique to this unit, but K-cups aren’t necessary great at brews over 8 ounces. Your milage will vary depending on the manufacturer, but I found that anything over 10 ounces is just pouring lightly murky hot water into your cup. This multi-stream technology won’t fix this!
– Unit is taller than my prior unit, a Mini. While it still fits and opens on the counter under the cabinet by itself, you won’t be able to get a drawer underneath and open the pod door fully without smashing your nuckles. Consider one of the drawers that is on wheels that you can pull out to brew if having a drawer underneath is important to you.

Neutral:
WIFI – Meh, it doesn’t really do anything except attempt to discover you pod Brew ID and report back usage in order to aid in automatic pod replacement, if you have setup to do such on Keurig’s website. I have setup this up, but have not used enough of my current stock to have an opinion as of this review. It would also be nice if they integrated reordering for cleaning products, like descaling, but alas it appears it can’t do this at present from what I can tell.

Unknown:
– Reliability. I’ve only owned the unit for a couple days, but it’s working well and the build quality gives me hope. I see several reviewers have had issues, but as it appears Amazon combined reviews for this unit with two others not sure which they apply to. I will update this review if it fails. Be sure to register you unit so you get the 12 month warranty, failure to do so could leave you angry and out a lot of money. The good news is that the coffee maker side is identical to the other SMART brewers so hopefully Kuerig designed them well, or there will probably be a lot of angry customers and class action if they didn’t given the commonality and number of buyers. As for the frothier, it can easily be replaced as the electronics, heater and motor are all self contained in the removable unit. It’s even available for purchase on Kuerig’s site should it fail outside the 12-month warranty.

Summary:
Even though I listed a few cons above, I’ve still happy with this product and would buy again over others. All single-serve coffee makers have issues, it’s just understanding what is important to you and what’s not. If you looking at single-serve coffee makers AND either combined or separate frothier, you should definitely consider this product.

What I like about it is that you can choose a strong cup, cup size and a shot option. The milk frother is a fun option. What I don’t like is it is very plasticy and feels flimsy. My other machine has metal handles and buttons and thicker plastic body. Also, the generic re-usable pods don’t work well with it, alot of water pours out of the edges. That doesn’t happen with my other machine.

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.