Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Our 6 year old K75 died recently. The typical with those, the air pump went out on it. So I looked into the new ones and went with the Elite. I read several reviews that said it made weak coffee even with the strong brew setting turned on. There were way more positive reviews, so I pulled the trigger and went for it. I can't help but think that the people that left the reviews saying the coffee was weak, were trying to brew a travel mug size with a single coffee pod. I'll explain why I think this further into the review. First, lets talk about the physical aspects of this machine. Quality seems to be much higher than on our old one. It just feels more solid, the bale is actually made of metal on the Elite, it was plastic on the K75. It's smooth operating and just feels solid. The water reservoir is larger and has a much better sliding attachment system. Very easy to get on and off. The drip tray is not as tall, so you can get taller mugs under it without removing the drip tray, and if you do have to remove it, it's quick and easy. No water reservoir on the left side to get int the way anymore. So I feel the design if far superior to that of the K75, at least on the outside. Now, as far as how well the Elite brews coffee. Absolutely phenomenal cup of coffee. Best we have had from a Keurig ever! So, let me preface this a little bit. We personally don't use the coffee pods, as we don't like to contribute to plastic in the landfill if we don't have to. We get whole bean coffee and grind it fresh with a high quality burr grinder and use the "My K-Pod". This actually has two fill lines for coffee grounds. One for normal size mugs and one for travel mugs. My wife and I like our coffee strong, and we use a dark roast, so we filled the My K-Pod with coffee to just below the travel mug size. Set the Keurig Elite to strong brew and then selected the largest mug size, which says it's 10oz. This made a really good, strong, full flavored cup of coffee. Far, far better than our old K75 could do. We did the same with our K75, even selected a smaller cup size and couldn't get anywhere near the strength that we are getting with the Keurig Elite. I wasn't happy about having to buy a new coffee maker, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We are very very happy with the purchase. You won't be disappointed with this, especially if you like to grind your own coffee. So, this leads me to think that maybe some of the people that left one star reviews were using normal coffee pods, possibly using a light or medium roast, and selecting a large cup size. Of course, I don't know this for sure, but then one star reviewers rarely put any detail into their reviews. It's one star and one sentence. If you want good coffee, grind it fresh with a good quality grinder and use the My K-Pod. This gives you control over freshness, grind quality, and you can put in more grounds than a standard K-Cup. Follow the instructions, don't grind the coffee too fine, don't overfill and don't compress the coffee grounds. You should be able to shake the My K-Pod and hear them moving inside, (make sure you have the lid on when you do this). If you can't get a good cup of coffee out this, then you are doing something wrong.