The Keurig 2.0 K-Cup Hack

Photo of the Oops! message a Keurig 2.0 brewer displays with the wrong K-Cup

One of the biggest criticisms of Keurig recently has been their use of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, we wrote about this last year, in their new Keurig 2.0 series of brewers. Having recently purchased a K550 we weren’t impressed we couldn’t use our humble old K-Cups in the new brewer (yes, we did know this before buying the new brewer – bit still).

As our old B60 is normally in bits due to it being used for repair guides and videos, we wanted to be able to use up our old stock of K-Cups in the new machine. And of course with the beauty of social media these days it didn’t take long for people to work out a hack or work-around for this very problem.

So this is what we found out AND have tried ourselves … so we know it works!

Step 1

Take a used new Keurig 2.0 K-Cup and cut off the top. It doesn’t have to be too neat to start with as you can trim it later on. What you want to end up with is the top. You can then trim this so you don’t have any of the K-Cup side wall still attached to it. We just used a sharp knife to cup the top off and then scissors to trim the top.

Photo of the lid taken off an old used K-Cup

Step 2

Take an old unused K-Cup (ie a non-2.0 version) and place a piece of double sided tap (or as we have a folded over single sided piece) on the top; 0ff-center so it doesn’t get caught up with the puncture to be made by the entry needle.

To make the alignment of the hole easier for the lid you are going to place, we took the new K Cup we were going to use and placed it inside the K550. Closed the handle to make the puncture BUT didn’t start a brew.

Photo of the Caribou coffee in a K-Cup

Photo of a Keurig 2.0 series K-Cup top with hole

Step 3

With the hole made in the new K Cup you can now place the new used lid you made in Step 1 and stick it on top of the old unused K-Cup. With the hole you made in Step 2 the lid and K Cup should line-up nicely.

Photo of an old K-Cup lid on a new K-Cup to hack the K550 brewer

Step 4

Bring the handle down and bingo, your K550 (or which ever model you have) accepts the old K-Cup. It’s like magic! Happy brewing and we hope, like us, you can now use your old stock pile of K Cups.

Photo of the ready to brew screen

Photo of a 6 ounce cup of coffee