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| Keurig K-Duo Essentials Review | |
| Design and Appearance | 4.5 |
| Coffee Quality | 4.5 |
| Ease of Use | 4.1 |
| Ease of Clean | 4.2 |
| Value for Money | 4.5 |
| Brand Reputation | 4.5 |
| Coffee Aim’s Crux: The Keurig K-Duo Essentials single-serve and carafe coffee maker is a perfect brewer for large gatherings, i.e., it’s a 12-cup carafe brewer. For single-serve, you have three brew sizes, i.e., 8, 10 and 12 ounces, and for the carafe, you also have three brew sizes, i.e., 8, 10 and 12 cups. K-Duo has a removable water reservoir with a 60-oz water capacity. This model has a heating plate to keep your carafe coffee warm for longer. The drip tray in K-Duo Essential is removable to accommodate large travel mugs. While brewing the carafe, you can pause the brewer for 20 seconds and pour coffee without waiting for the entire carafe to brew. K-Duo Essential allows you to brew your favorite coffee grounds or pick from K-Cup pods with a lot of variety. This brewer doesn’t have programmable features like strength control or temperature control. K-Duo Essentials single-serve and carafe coffee maker is a complete package for using both K-Cup pods and ground coffee to pour fresh coffee into your mug. |
For some people, coffee is fuel to work. They can’t think of starting their day without having a cup of coffee. You must be one of them; that’s why you are here. To enjoy a cup of coffee effortlessly, you need to have a pod-style coffee maker, as it is quick and simple to use.
Keurig has introduced numerous models; one of them is Keurig K-Duo Essential which has a single-serve K-Cup pod and carafe brewing system. This model packs many features that make the coffee-making process quick and fast. It allows you to brew coffee using both K-Cup pod and ground coffee.
K-Duo Essentials is a single-serve K-Cup pod and 12-cup carafe brewer. Whether you want a hot cup of coffee in the morning or to serve coffee to your friends during movie night, you can create your perfect cup or carafe anytime. It can brew 12-cups at a time so that K-Duo Essential can serve 12 people in one brew. Too convenient! But what makes it more attractive is its super-affordability.
Keurig K-Duo Essentials Overview
The Keurig K-Duo Essential is the basic model of the K-Duo Series. This is a versatile brewer as it serves as a single-serve K-Cup pod and carafe coffee maker. If you want to serve coffee to all the family members or only to yourself, this brewer can be your helping hand.
K-Duo Essential gives you a variety of brew sizes. You can have three brew sizes for single-serve, i.e., 8, 10 and 12 ounces. Similarly, carafe brew has three sizes, i.e., 8, 10 and 12 cups. For each brew size, there is a separate button. You must press the respective button to select the brew size before brewing. K-Duo has a removable water reservoir with a 60-oz capacity which means fewer water refills. This brewer has a single water reservoir for both single-serve and carafe brew.
K-Duo Essentials has a heating plate for keeping your coffee hot in the carafe. The heating plate turns off automatically after 2 hours of brewing carafe coffee. The brewer turns off automatically after 1 minute of a single-cup brew. K-Duo has a low water alert feature; the light will turn on, indicating that the water reservoir needs refilling. This brewer is compatible with a universal reusable My K-Cup coffee filter to brew your own ground coffee for a single cup. For carafe coffee, you can use paper filters or reusable golden-tone mesh filters for putting coffee grounds into the filter basket.
The Keurig K-Duo Essentials gives you the best coffee experience at home on a limited budget. This brewer can make a single cup of coffee and a coffee carafe. You can not make strong coffee with K-Duo Essential; you need to update your Keurig with K-Duo or K-Duo Plus. There are many other options in Keurig that have a lot of advanced features, such as K-Supreme Plus, K-Elite, K-Classic and K-Select etc.
Related: How to use Keurig K-Duo Essentials
Keurig K-Duo Essentials: Features
| Features | Availability |
| Brews Single Serve | Yes |
| Brews Carafe | Yes |
| Removable Water Reservoir | Yes (60-oz capacity) |
| Brew Sizes For Single-Serve | 8, 10 and 12 ounces |
| Brew Sizes For Carafe | 8, 10 and 12 cups |
| Strong Brew | No |
| Glass Carafe | Yes |
| Heating Plate | Yes |
| Removable Drip Tray | Yes |
| Temperature Control | No |
| Pause and Pour | You can pause for 20 seconds during carafe brew. |
| Available Colors | Black, Moonlight Gray |
| Auto-On | No |
| Auto-Off | Yes, the auto-off feature is available for brewer and heating plate as well. |
| Compatible With My K-Cup | Yes |
| Compatible With Gold Tone Mesh Filter | Yes (To Brew Carafe) |
| Low Water Alert Feature | Yes |
What We Like
- Brews Perfect Cup and Carafe: Keurig K-Duo Essentials is a coffee maker with a single-serve perfect cup and carafe brewing system. You can pour fresh hot coffee for a bunch of people.
- Removable Water Reservoir: This single-serve and carafe coffee maker has a removable water reservoir that makes it very convenient to clean and refill the reservoir.
- Multiple Brew Sizes: Whether brewing a single cup or carafe, K-Duo Essentials allows you to have three different brew sizes. For a single serve, you can brew 8, 10 and 12 ounces, and for a carafe, you can brew 8, 10 and 12 cups.
- Travel Mug Friendly: By removing the drip tray of K-Duo Essentials, you can place a travel mug under the drip.
- Turn-Off Feature: The brewer turns off automatically a minute after you have brewed a single cup. If you have brewed a carafe, the heating plate will turn off automatically after 2 hours of the last brew.
- Pause and Pour Feature: The added convenience of the pause and pour feature makes serving a click so that you don’t have to wait for the brew to end before pouring the coffee.
- Compatible with My K-Cup and Mesh Filter: The K-Duo is compatible with universal reusable My K-Cup for single serve. To brew a carafe, you can use a reusable mesh filter to make the perfect carafe.
What We Don’t Like
- Position of Water Reservoir: The water reservoir in K-Duo Essential is positioned at the back of the brewer, which makes it hard to access and refill the reservoir.
- The shape of the Water Reservoir: The water reservoir in K-Duo Essential is cylindrical; water spills out of the reservoir easily.
- Brew Filter Basket: Slipping the filter basket into its place is a bit difficult. Be careful, as the basket is made up of plastic. It gets broken easily.
- No Strong Brew Option: the K-Duo Essentials has no option to make strong coffee. This can be a downside if you like bold coffee enriched with taste.
- No Water Filter Kit: This brewer doesn’t come with a water filter kit. If you want a filter kit, you need to buy it separately.
Design, Appearance and Footprint
The Keurig K-Duo Essentials single-serve K-Cup pod and carafe coffee maker is a pretty small and slim model compared to its functionality. The right side of the machine has a K-Cup pod system to make single-serve coffee, and on the left is a filter basket fitted to put coffee grounds for making carafe coffee. It has a sleek and simple design which gives your counter a classy look. K-Duo Essentials is 12.74″ tall; you can easily fit this model under the kitchen cabinet.
The Keurig K-Duo Essentials comes in two colors; Black and Moonlight Gray. At the machine’s top are five buttons and one light for low water alert. The K-Duo Essentials has no separate power on and brew button. It has a 12-cup glass carafe and a heating plate.
What is Keurig K-Duo Essentials Moonlight Gray?
Keurig K-Duo Essentials single-serve K-Cup pod and carafe coffee maker comes in black and Moonlight Gray. Keurig K-Duo Essential Moonlight Gray is the same model as K-Duo Essentials. The only difference is the color. You can consider buying this model if you want a brewer with a light color tone rather than black that fits your kitchen’s theme.
Ease of Use
Keurig K-Duo Essentials single-serve K-Cup pod and carafe coffee maker is straightforward to understand; it doesn’t have programmable features that require any effort to understand the machine. K-Duo Essentials has only five buttons; one for single-serve coffee, one for carafe coffee and the other for brew sizes.
The first step is to plug in the machine. For making single-serve coffee, lift the handle, place a K-Cup into the pod holder and lower the handle. Now press the pod icon button, select the brew size and the machine is set to brew. For brewing the carafe, put the ground coffee into the filter and place it in the filter basket by taking it out. Now press the carafe icon button, select the brew size, and your coffee machine is ready to brew. Simple and smooth process!
Performance
The Keurig K-Duo Essentials single-serve K-Cup pod and carafe coffee maker is a smooth brewer in terms of functionality and performance. It’s very simple to brew coffee, whether brewing a single cup or an entire carafe. You can have three different brew sizes for brewing a single cup and carafe coffee, i.e., 8, 10 and 12 ounces/cups.
The K-Duo Essentials does not have a strength control option. You will have the same taste of coffee each time. This brewer takes about 1 minute to brew single-serve, which is quite fast. Once you have brewed a single cup of coffee, the brewer will turn off automatically after 1 minute, which helps you to save energy. The K-Duo Essential has a heating plate to keep your coffee hot for longer. The heating plate will turn off automatically after 2 hours of brewing carafe coffee. You need to use ground coffee to brew carafe coffee.
The Keurig K-Duo Essentials single-serve carafe coffee maker doesn’t serve you very hot coffee. The maximum temperature, according to our observation, is 165 degrees Fahrenheit. So if you like to have boiling hot coffee, the K-Duo can disappoint you a little in this case.
Coffee Quality
The K-Duo Essential can make single-serve and carafe coffee with the best taste. You can use any regular K-Cup pod or your own coffee grounds to brew coffee according to your taste. With K-Duo, you will have coffee with the same taste every time; this brewer doesn’t allow you to brew strong coffee.
Does The Keurig K-Duo Have Programming Features?
The Keurig K-Duo Essentials single-serve carafe coffee maker has no programming feature. It is a very straightforward machine with no additional buttons or features. You must put the K-Cup pods or the coffee grounds and select the brew size. No extras!
Cleaning and Descaling
For maintenance and proper functioning, the K-Duo Essentials single-serve carafe coffee maker requires cleaning and descaling on regular bases. You need to descale your machine after every three months or after using it 600 times. For descaling the brewer, you need to buy a descaling solution.
To descale the brewer, empty the water reservoir, and pour one bottle of descaling solution into the reservoir. Now fill the empty bottle of the descaling solution with water and pour that water into the reservoir. Make sure that there is no K-Cup in the pod holder. Plug in the machine, place a water container under the drip of the K-Cup side and press the button with the K-Cup icon. Then press the 12-ounce button, and the machine will start pouring the solution into a container under the drip. Dump that solution into the sink. Repeat this process for the carafe side. To descale this side, you need to press the button with the carafe icon and then press the 12-ounce button. If the low water alert light is flashing, add more water after the machine has poured all the solution into the carafe, press and hold the button with the carafe icon to turn off the heating plate and dump the solution from the carafe into the sink. For rinsing purposes, repeat this process after 30 minutes with fresh water only for both sides, i.e., the K-Cup side and the carafe side. You are done with descaling!
You also need to clean the needles of the brewer as the needles may get clogged. Clean the upper needle with the help of a paper clip. To clean lower needles, take out the K-Cup pod holder by pushing it up from the bottom with the help of a finger. Now open the bottom of the holder to access the needle. Take a paper clip and clean the needles of the brewer. Put back the pod holder into its place. Your brewer is fresh and clean!
Where Can You Find Keurig K-Duo Essentials Manual
The Keurig K-Duo Essentials coffee maker box contains the manual for your convenience. In case you have lost or misplaced it, no need to worry. You can easily find the manual online. Below is the link;
https://manuals.plus/tag/k-duo#axzz7fga0EiXF
Repair and Maintenance
Being a machine K-Duo Essentials single-serve carafe coffee maker requires repair and maintenance. Make sure to descale and clean your brewer regularly. If K-Duo is not working, is leaking water, or you are not getting the exact amount of coffee you have selected, then there is some issue that you need to fix. Be careful if you can open the machine by getting the screws out. Make sure to plug off the brewer before starting any repairmen. Click the link below to understand the internal unit and its repairment better;
Where Can You Find a Keurig K-Duo Essential Reusable Pod?
The reusable pods for Keurig K-Duo Essentials single-serve carafe coffee maker are available online on Amazon. Click the link below;
Keurig K-Duo Essentials Price and Availability
| Keurig K-Duo Availability | Price |
| Costco | |
| Amazon | |
| Bed Bath & Beyond | |
| Target | |
| Walmart | $79.00 |
| Wayfair | |
| Kohl’s | |
| Best Buy |
Is Keurig K-Duo Essentials for You?
The short and precise answer is yes! The Keurig K-Duo Essentials can also serve you the best coffee on a limited budget. Its capability to brew a carafe is something outstanding. K-Duo Essentials is a multi-serve brewer; it can make 12 cups of coffee. So if you have guests at your place, you can make coffee for them in a single brew. K-Duo Essentials allows three different brew sizes for single-serve and carafe brews. This brewer has a removable water reservoir; you can easily wash and refill it by taking it to the sink. K-Duo Essentials shows compatibility with universal reusable My K-Cups and all regular K-Cups for a single-serve brew. For a carafe brew, you can use a reusable filter for putting coffee into the filter basket. You can use a travel mug as the drip tray is removable. The heating plate helps you keep the coffee warm for a longer time.
The Keurig K-Duo Essentials coffee maker is suitable for effortlessly making the best quality coffee. But if you want to load your counter with an updated model of Keurig, you have many other options. You can consider some other models of Keurig, such as K-Duo Plus, Keurig K-Elite, and K-Supreme Plus.
Important FAQs
Is Keurig K-Duo Essentials worth it?
The Keurig K-Duo Essentials with 12-cup glass carafe and single-serve brewing system is worth having on your counter. This brewer is inexpensive, with super handy features and the best results. In K-Duo Essentials, you can use both K-cup pods and ground coffee to brew coffee of your favorite varieties. This brewer has a large 60-oz removable water reservoir. K-Duo allows you to brew three different sizes, i.e., 8, 10 and 12 ounces/cups. K-Duo Essentials You can use universal reusable My K-Cup coffee filters in K-Duo Essentials. While brewing carafe coffee, you can use paper or reusable mesh filters to put coffee grounds into the filter basket. The K-Duo Essentials has a heating plate to pour fresh hot coffee after hours of brewing. The heating plate turns off automatically after two hours of brewing carafe coffee. With these features, K-Duo Essentials is worth spending your money on.
Are there 2 or 3 different Keurig K-Duos?
Yes. The Keurig K-Duo series has three models; Keurig K-Duo Essentials, K-Duo, and K-Duo Plus. These three models differ from each other in terms of features. They do vary in price as well. The Keurig K-Duo Plus is the most expensive of all three models.
How long does a Keurig K-Duo Essentials last?
Keurig K-Duo Essentials is a very reliable brewer that can last long. Most Keurig K-Duo customers say their machines typically last three to five years. So you can rely on this machine for three to five years.
What is the difference between K duo, K duo plus and Essentials?
The Keurig K-Duo Essentials is the basic model with minimal features. In K-Duo Essentials, you can only control the brew size. It has three different sizes. K-Duo Essentials doesn’t allow you to have a strong brew, but K-Duo Plus and K-Duo brews strong coffee while brewing the K-Cup pod coffee. The Keurig K-Duo and K-Duo Plus have programmable features, whereas K-Duo Essentials has no programmable features. You can have only three brew sizes in K-Duo Essentials, while in K-Duo and K-Duo Plus, you can have four. The carafe in K-Duo Essentials and K-Duo is a glass carafe, but in K-Duo Plus, the carafe is made up of stainless steel.
Is the Keurig K-Duo Essentials Programmable?
The Keurig K-Duo Essentials is the most basic model of the K-Duo series with no programmable features. In this model, you can only adjust the brew size by making a single or carafe cup of coffee.
How Can You Find K-Duo Essentials Model Number?
Every model has a unique number, generally called a model number. The Keurig K-Duo Essentials coffee maker has a model or serial number. You can find the model number on the bottom of the K-Duo Essential box or drip tray.
