Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This review is specific to the Fill N Save *ELITE SERIES* Stainless Steel Reusable K Cup, Amazon ASIN: B017UUESBO. I mention that because Amazon still has a tendency to let reviews bleed across products or models, and sometimes even brands. So do not know about you, but I found that I had to read through all the questions and answers as well as the reviews to find out enough about this product to know if I wanted one. Even then, after my very first use of the Fill N Save I learned some additional answers to questions I do not see have been asked. So here is a summary of what you may wish to know after my first experiences with my new Fill N Save. When you use the Fill N Save you can use any coffee you want, have much more control over the strength of your brewed coffee, and pay a lot less per cup. These to me are great benefits. I typically use Starbucks House Blend, French Roast, or similar purchased at a warehouse club for about $18.00 for two pounds. I find that I am using about a tablespoon or so of finely ground coffee to brew a cup to the strength I like in my Fill N Save. I estimate I get 160 tablespoons from a two pound bag of beans (80 per pound). So the math says it is costing me approximately $0.12 or so per cup. Even on a great sale it's hard to purchase any brand or flavor of K-Cups for under $0.60 each. So with use of the Fill N Save you have total flexibility on what coffee you brew, and you save a lot in doing so. But every benefit in life comes with a cost.... So to speak! Here is more you may wish to know. First: If you use this Fill N Save without paper filters you will get a small more-dense layer of coffee in the bottom of your brewed cup. You can see it as you drink down to near the bottom of your cup of coffee, but personally when I get to the bottom I could not tase a difference, and could not feel it in my mouth or even with my fingers. The residue I mention is a small cloud, but extremenly fine. This will happen no matter how you grind your beans or what grind of coffee you purchase. It is a function of the filtering screens of the Fill N Save. The coffee bean grinding process creates mostly consistent grounds, but also produces some smaller bits, including some ultra ultra fine bits. Those that are ultrafine will escape through the screened sides and bottom of the Fill N Save - unless you use a paper filter. You will just need to try with and without filters and see how important that is to you personally. I purchased some filters here on Amazon, a 100 pack of "Optional Coffee Paper Filter for Ekobrew"- Amazon ASIN: B00H4F3A88 for $6.99. Yes, it adds another seven pennies of cost to a brewed cup, but that is still very small compared to the cost of prepackaged retail K-Cups. The filters accomplish two somewhat positive outcomes. It results in clear coffee to the bottom of the cup if that is important to you, and it somewhat reduces the mess (more below). Next: Mess? I will start by saying that what I profile here about mess would with certainty apply to any brand or model of reusable brewing cups or baskets. So I fully expect that what comes next is not product specific to the Fill N Save. Lets compare the Fill N Save to a prepackaged K-Cup. These single-serve coffee makers punch a small hole upward into the plastic K-Cups. This creates a small inverted cone of plastic up into the K-Cup from the bottom. Not sure if its really part of the Keurig product engineering, but that little upward protrusion traps a small layer of liquid at the bottom of the K-Cup and mostly helps keep the used K-Cup from seeping as it is removed. (By the way, nothing punches up into the Fill N Serve as it is shaped at the bottom to avoid contact with the punch) The Fill N Save however, has fine perforated screens on each side, and on its bottom, like the basket in an old time coffee pot but with much, much finer perforations. So it does continue to seep out drips after your cup is brewed, and will be an issue you remove the Fill N Save from the coffee maker right away to empty it so you can make another cup of coffee for someone else. This can be messy so you need to be near a sink or have something to hold under the Fill N Save until you reach a sink. Also, since the coffee, and that fine residue, come through those screens and not through that punch at the bottom like K-Cups, you should occasionally rinse out the area where the cups sit in the brewer or I would expect that residue to gradually build up. Here is another issue. I use a Keurig K10 Mini brewer. It has the typical Keurig catch tray to use when using a typical coffee cup. But if you remove the tray to brew into a taller cup or travel cup, then you need to immediately put the catch tray back in place, or keep handy something else like a small cup or glass to put in the place as you remove your cup of brewed coffee. It does not seep much, but enough to make a small mess. We just keep an empty washed Chobani yogurt cup handy. Using the optional paper filters reduces the amount of seepage considerably, likely due to the paper absorbing what would otherwise seep. Emptying the Fill N Save: We find we cannot successfully dump used coffee grounds straight from the Fill N Save into the trash. The pressure that the Keurig process infuses into its coffee making process compresses the coffee grounds against the sides and bottom of K-Cups, and the same is true for the Fill N Save. So the grounds are pressed to all surfaces inside the Fill N Save and the method to empty the Fill N Save is to rinse the grounds down your drain. It is a messy process. We have found that using filters does not make the Fill N Save any easier to empty. You have to reach in with your fingers and pinch until you grasp the filter to remove it. Even then, you will get spent grounds on your fingers, and there will still be grounds to rinse off of the underside of the Fill N Save's pivoting cap. So in summary, the Fill N Save allows you to brew virtually any coffee you desire, at a much lower cost per cup than prepackaged K-Cups. But the Fill N Save is messy to use, and if that little cloud of denser coffee at the bottom of your cup is an issue for you then you will want to use small paper filters, which adds back some cost.