KeurigK-Supreme SMART Single Serve Coffee Maker With Wifi Compatibility, 4 Brew Sizes, And 66oz Removable Reservoir, Compatible with Alexa, Gray

We’ve had this Keurig for a little over a month, I waited for good and bad times to write a review and wanted to address some of the poor reviews on this particular model.First off, this is well packaged, comes with an in carafe water filter, which is a nice bonus, my last Supreme we had to buy a separate filter kit. It only comes with two filters but that gets you set up and will last for a couple months unless you have hard water. We fill ours from the dispenser on our refrigerator so the water is filtered three times. You can also use bottled water but to me that seems like overkill when we have filtered water that is then filtered again in the refrigerator.Setup was an absolute breeze, with all the complaints about the initial setup I expected problems but I had downloaded the Keurig app the day before this arrived so I had everything set up that I wanted already. Once I turned on this machine my app detected it right away and it paired with my network immediately. There was some kind of firmware update or something which took a minute or two, but once done it demanded a rinse cycle be ran to clean out the machine after filling the carafe. After that it was good to go, so I popped in a Kcup and had my first cup. It was SOOO Quiet and started brewing right away.If you get one of these, you REALLY should read the instructions. There’s a nice fast start guide which I read just to get going, but the actual manual has all kinds of helpful tips and advice on keeping this operating properly. BrewID, multistream and the connectivity were all new to me, so I wanted to learn more. Turns out it was a good call, as I learned a lot about how good this brewer is.Lots of people have been complaining about how slow the BrewID is with this system, I’m convinced it’s because they aren’t lining the pods up well or they’re closing the lid so fast it doesn’t have enough time to read the QR code which I had no idea was on most KCups (I don’t buy the bulk super cheap cups available elsewhere because I want a cup of coffee that tastes like coffee but that’s me). I’ve learned to align the QR code with the bottom of the cup holder so none of the jets damage the code, and it scans and uploads the code and gets a response back in less than 5 seconds the vast majority of the time. That’s fine for me.Another difference and it’s been a learning curve is the instructions suggest placing the k up in the holder and then pressing it down so the bottom needle pierces the cup and the kcup is flush in the holder. I’m pretty sure that helps line up the QR code scan as well, and it also helps line up all the needles for the multistream jets to pierce the top of the kcup well. When I wasn’t pushing the kcup down, I noticed the piercings were raggedy and and not smooth. Pushing the cup down before lowering the top the piercings are very consistent and uniform. I’m pretty sure that also probably helps keep water from overflowing the cup and causing other issues.I noticed when I was looking at the multistream needles that most of them were pretty dirty after a couple days, which I kept an eye on because of the complaints about the needles clogging up. The manual says to run a hot water rinse every now and then to flush out the needles. So once a day now I close the top without a kcup in it, set a 6oz hot water run, and voila. All the needles and the inside of the kcup holder are rinsed and cleaned. The first time I did it there was loads of grounds and residue. Since I do it once a day now, the water isn’t terribly dirty, but there’s always a small amount of grounds in the cup. I’m sure this is a good way to keep the needles all clear and the brew chamber clean.All that having been said, let’s talk about the quality of the coffee that comes out of this. My previous Supreme had a strong setting, and that’s pretty much all I ever did. I’d do a strong 10oz every day, and that was my daily coffee. I usually use a Lavazza espresso brew, Deathwish or Folger’s excellent 1850 Black Gold since I love smoky and dark coffees. I brewed a cup in my old supreme and brewed a cup in this Smart brewer and then compared them without adding any sugar or creamer. The difference in quality on aroma, strength, intensity, temperature and boldness was remarkable. The Smart brewed almost tasted like a regular brewer with grounds (I have a separate French press and ground coffee I use every now and again for an indulgence). BrewID makes a difference since it automatically sets strength and temperature to the manufacturer’s recommended settings. I tried to play with the settings and go max intensity and max temp for most of my kcups, the manufacturer’s settings tasted better almost universally. The flavor profile for the intense setting means that the water flows through the cup very slowly, so if you want that strong flavor, you have to wait a bit for the cup to get brewed. The max temp setting produces a cup that is 205 degrees according to my meat thermometer. That’s too hot for me, so I created a profile for my preferred temp and intense flavor, but I’ve not used it at all. I should also mention that the SMART brewer is much faster, quieter and seems more efficient than the Supreme. Our old one was nearing it’s end of life after almost 5 years, so being able to pop in a kcup in the SMART brewer and have a cup of coffee ready almost 30 seconds faster (even shorter if you go from a cold start since the Supreme takes a minute to heat up) is pretty nice, but as mentioned if you want a stronger flavor it may take a bit longer.The transition from a Supreme to this brewer was also easier because of the awesome carafe. The Supreme not having a handle was so annoying, but it sure looked nice. Just having a simple handle makes filling water easier and faster, and it’s just a nice bonus that I can adjust the location of the carafe on the brewer on the back of the machine or to the side. It comes default located on the side but I played with moving it to the back and it’s simple, one piece pops out, you move the base around to the back, insert the lock piece back in. Good to go. With the carafe in the back of the machine the footprint of the machine is very narrow, but it’s also a bit longer so we just kept the wider profile.With regard to the Keurig app, I literally haven’t used it at all since setting our brewer up. For the sake of this review I went into the app just to explore a bit. I haven’t found any reason to set up remote brew at all because of how fast this brews a cup anyway, but I played with it and scheduled a cup. It works just fine, but again for my purposes there’s no need since it’s fast and efficient anyway, but if you want a cup waiting for you when you get up, it works quite well.Thankfully the app doesn’t spam notifications or seem to have any tracking based notifications either, but on the main screen it shows suggested recipes for the KCups we used the most. Kevin Costner and Anna Kendrick’s favorite recipes are featured prominently as well if that’s something important to you. I made an iced macchiato based off one of the recipes that was quite lovely but not something I plan on doing very often.The app also allows you to buy and set up deliveries of coffee if that’s something you want to do. Their regular prices aren’t terribly competitive from what I’ve seen, but they offer discounts for setting up Smart delivery (the app will track how many you use and set up delivery based off your usage), which is probably a great use of the Smart functions. I don’t really have any value for that because we get ours for less from the local grocery store, but if you don’t want to have to worry about shopping for kcups again it’s pretty nice. The app also suggested some kcups that have similar flavor profiles as the ones we already use, thought that was a nice touch. I grabbed a small box of one it suggested a decaf version of that I’d never tried and it was actually pretty good so we’ve added it to our collection of available flavors in our house so I can have a cup of coffee in the evening and not get as much caffeine.If you like iced coffees but don’t want to spring for the Keurig Iced Coffee Brewer, this has an iced coffee setting, so I bought a couple of iced coffee specific kcups to try out. Wow are they nice. The brewer has specific settings for iced coffee and with BrewID it detects the kcup and adjusts to those settings with minimal effort on your part. I don’t love iced coffee but I’m getting there with the ease of use and flavor this brewer imparts.Lastly, since we keep ground coffees around at the house, I wanted to have a reusable pod. We had 2-3 different old stainless steel ones I got for our old Supreme, but after looking at them I figured they’d damage the needles on the new Smart brewer. Thankfully Keurig makes a reusable pod that is specifically for multistream brewers and it works quite well and isn’t terribly expensive, but you have to make sure you put it in correctly. I don’t like that it’s mostly plastic but it’s been fine with the coffee I’ve thrown in it so far. You also don’t get BrewID when you use a reusable pod but that’s fine for me. I just use my flavor and temp profile and it’s pretty good and a little bit of a change of pace.Overall I’m super happy with this brewer, but if you’re going to get this, take the time to read the manual, and don’t buy cheap off brand bulk kcups and expect this high end brewer to love them. Spend some time figuring out what makes the brewer happy and you’ll have good brews and no problems. I got mine at an amazing price during the holidays and it has more than paid for itself with quality of coffee and fast brew times, and it was a hit when we had the family over as well.

It detects the kind of pod you use and the adjusts the settings for what you think tastes best. I found I liked my own settings better, and the good news is you can easily fashion the coffee to your liking. More expensive than its predecessor that I had purchased at Costco, but it works well, is a tremendous convenience, and does as well or better than a barista. Recommended.

Keurig did do something smart by listing the Supreme and Supreme SMART models under the same SKU. So, all the great reviews about the regular Supreme model hide the horrible experiences from those of us that bought the "SMART" model. Although I don't have the regular model, I imagine that it is probably the perfect machine, since it doesn't have the "extra" features that I not only paid more for, but are problematic.YOU DON'T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU PAY FORWhat makes this SMART? It boasts new features that are supposed to unlock your machine's full potential and improve everything. Well, the first problem, as everyone else has mentioned, is that it is extremely difficult to get this to pair with your network. After trying for an HOUR, I returned this for a replacement, assuming that it was a buggy unit. Unfortunately, the replacement did the same thing. The automated process takes you to various steps, but won't connect on the final step. It actually doesn't always get to the penultimate step, but does maybe 25% of my attempts. I tried different networks and bandwidths, all with no luck. After trying for about 50 minutes, it actually connected. I'm not sure why or how, since I didn't do anything different.So now that I am connected, this is a good thing right? The first thing the Keurig does when you put a pod in is to enable the BrewID feature. This is supposed to read the pod you just inserted and optimize how it brews it so it comes out perfectly. I've tried over a dozen types of pods so far and none have been read by this function. I imagine that it has to be one of the affiliate brands that they spam in their app, that would make the most sense I guess. They probably use this to record your consumption habits as well, tbh. Since this does not read any of the pods I bought, all this function does is add 20 SECONDS to your wait time for the Keurig to brew your pod. 20 seconds sounds short, but it's painfully slow when you are in a hurry and late for work! This function cannot be disabled, so I have to live with this every time I use it. These issues alone are enough for me to heavily advise everyone to get the regular Supreme and not the SMART version.If you remove the SMART functions, this is one of the best Keurig's so far. This is my 4th model, so I've grown with the upgrades and changes to each model. Here are some standout improvements with this model:* SMALLER FOOTPRINT and shorter height makes it fit in higher spaces, or just takes up less room which is always nice.* NEW DIGITAL READOUT is easier to read both during the day and at night* REMOVEABLE WATER RESERVOIR on the side is SO MUCH EASEIR than the older tanks that sometimes wrapped around the machine and required you to move the machine out every time.* TEMPERATURE CONTROL is a nice feature if you want to make your brew colder or hotter than normal.As great as these are, the SMART features outweigh all of the good. Even if you get it to connect right away, I just don't see what the benefits are. I've never thought to myself, I wish I could set an alarm and have my coffee machine brew a pod right after I wake up... and that's probably the only positive (or not negative) feature that comes with being SMART.UPDATE:After some more usage, I discovered that this machine has another defective function... It cannot brew the eco friendly, plastic-less pods. The new MULTISTREAM system that features 5 puncture points pushes down on the top of the pod, failing to fully puncture it at all 5 points. So, the injected hot water flows over the top of the pod and overflows on the sides. If you look at the pic I included, it shows that a very weak color stream of coffee comes out the main, center spout, and clear water drips down from the peripheral spouts. There isn't enough pressure or water entering the center puncture needle, so what little water that does enter the pod is weak. I've now brewed 12 pods and only 2 brewed okay, although it was still weaker as some water leaked out the side. On top of this, grounds will escape up out of the pod and into your cup. I do not have this happen with normal pods, just the eco pods that have a filter paper body. So far, multistream has been a marketing gimmick that doesn't improve any part of the brew and only causes problems.