We have just heard from a reader about a problem with her Keurig B77 and it producing weak coffee, not on a regular basis but every so often. We had a good look round the net and found very little of use that we could advise our reader in helping to fix this problem. Quite a few of the solutions related to the use of My K-Cup pods, rather than using the normal K-Cups. So we have thought through what could cause this and our solutions to this are set out below. We would welcome comments and feedback on these to see how we can improve them and how they work for our readers.
Solution 1
The weaker tasting coffee could be the result of the K-Cup not being punctured correctly through the top with the entry needle. This may allow either too much water to pass through in proportion to the coffee granules in the K-Cup or not allow the correct brewing to take place in the K-Cup itself as the water is not being injected correctly. In any case, ensuring that the entry needle is clean and correctly sitting in it’s housing ensures the correct size hole, and in the correct place, into the top of the K-Cup.
Of course the second part is to then look at the exit needle and ensuring that it is not clogged in any manner and it is making the correct exit hole puncture into the K-Cup. In our article that covers how to clean both the entry and the exit needle, we look at how the K-Cup portion holder is taken apart and cleaned.
Solution 2
The second issue with this problem could be the pressure regulation inside the brewer itself. The key components of this are the air pump and the solenoids. Between them they ensure the correct pressure of water that is displayed from the brewer’s water heater, down the entry needle tubing, through the entry needle and into the K-Cup sitting in the holder. The air pump drives the heated water out of the water heater, or boiler unit, by pumping into the unit a calculated proportion of air to move the water. So if there are any problems with the air pump, a solenoid or the connections to the main circuit board that helps control all of this, you can end up with a mismatch between the amount of coffee sitting in the K-Cup to be brewed and the amount of water flowing into it.
The solution to a problem like this is much more difficult to fix as without testing the unit with its outing casing off and seeing what is going on inside it is a bit of guess work. The parts that could be up for replacement include a solenoid unit, an air pump or even the main circuit board. If you are at this stage we would certainly work through them in that order as replacing a circuit board is quite a tall order.