Learn all about the Keurig 2.0 machines. Updated!
Keurig 2.0 Review

I received the Keurig 2.0 thanks to Influenster in order to write this review. All words and opinions are mine. This post contains affiliate links.
Do you love coffee as much as I do? How many cups of coffee do you have in a day? I usually start my day with one, but by the end of the day, I have had three. Coffee keeps me going!
I received the Keurig 2.0 thanks to Influenster in order to write this review. All words and opinions are mine. This post contains affiliate links.
My hubby and I used to have an old drip machine, but thanks to our local grocery store a few years ago, we won our first Keurig K650 in a contest. It was heavenly, being able to brew just one cup at a time. No measuring, no filling the pot, no soaking the pot, no wasting what was left.. We could have a cup of coffee whenever we wanted without having to brew an entire pot!
Then, just two months ago, Influenster sent me an email saying I was going to be able to review the new Keurig 2.0 K550.
[NOTE: This review was first written in 2015. I was not paid for this post. Please scroll down to see updates! As of 2019, I still use this machine.]
I was ecstatic! Why?
- The 2.0 has the option to brew an entire carafe. No more bringing out the old drip pot when company came over!
- The 2.0 has a new sstrength control feature. I could have strong coffee when I
neededwanted it!
The Keurig 2.0 K550 comes with:
- a Keurig™ Carafe,
- a 2.0 Water Filter Starter Kit with one filter,
- and K-Cup® and K-Carafe™ sample packs
Is a Keurig Worth It?
I have now used the Keurig 2.0 for a little over a month (updates below). I brew about 2-3 cups a day, as does my husband. Here are some of the things I have noticed:
- The Keurig 2.0 only uses licensed Keurig K-cups. More on that below.
- It brews cups either 4 oz., 6 oz., 8 oz., or 10 oz. According to the brochure, there will be k-cups that will open up new features with more sizes, but those have yet to be on the market. (However, I have discovered that you can open up these new features using a carafe k-cup. See my YouTube Keurig 2.0 review.)
- This machine is MUCH quieter than my previous Keurig machine.
- There are 4 different lights: white, blue, red, or green. While the lights are fun to play with, they can almost be tacky. I tend to use the white or the blue since some of my other appliances have similar lighting in their clock features.
- The Keurig 2.0 clock has a mind of its own. It seems to be ahead all the time, no matter how many times I reset it. According to some online research, I have discovered that this is an issue with many of the machines. For some reason, the internal clock changes the minute every 30 seconds instead of 60 seconds. So if I set the machine on a Saturday, by the next Monday it’s ahead by more than an hour. I swore at first it was my husband playing tricks on me, but it’s just the machine. No biggie. I see that many people are sending the machine back because of this issue, but since I don’t set the timer for my coffee to be waiting for me in the morning (who wants their coffee cooling off before they can get to it?), I won’t be sending mine back.
- There is an option to brew a strong cup or a strong carafe. LOVE <3
- There isn’t much of a variety of wallpapers for the touch screen. Eh, not a big deal.
- Did I mention there’s a touch screen? Very cool and very easy to use.
- There is an option to brew hot water for tea.
- I can add a favorite setting when using the carafe. No need to push all the buttons every time; I just push my favorite button and it’s ready to go. (Apparently this feature will be ready in future versions of regular k-cups as well. Fingers crossed.)
- While the carafe cups are recyclable, the regular k-cups are not. Boo.
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The Keurig 2.0 glows! Which one is your favorite? #HelloKeurig (I received this to review from @influenster )

The machine is very quiet as it is preheating, unlike my other machine.
Does the Keurig 2.0 use regular K Cups?
Many people are asking this question. In short, there are specific K-Cups that it uses, and those K-Cups have a special ring around the edge of the cup so that the machine can read it.
[READ UPDATES BELOW]
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The Keurig 2.0 only accepts Keurig pods. It also does not accept a filter for ground coffee. No biggie. (I got this free to review from @influenster ) #HelloKeurig View on Instagram
People are getting very upset about this, accusing Keurig for just wanting more money. While yes, that may be the case because they are a business, they are also protecting their name. Unlicensed products may not be tested or reviewed for the high quality Keurig wants to uphold.
Think about it, when you hear k-cup, you automatically think of Keurig, right? Not every k-cup goes through quality testing. Keurig wants to make sure that when k-cups are used with their 2.0 machines, they are of the quality you expect, otherwise, Keurig would get a bad rap.
As they say in their Welcome brochure that comes with the 2.0:
“It’s our way of making sure that the beverage you love will always be the beverage you get”.
But, from what I’ve seen and read, there are ways around the licensed products, if you’re bound to go that way to stick with the pods you want. It involves cutting rings off of a new K-Cup and using it over an old K-Cup. (It works! I tried it myself)
Personally, I don’t find the need to do that since the coffee I buy already has the special ring and there is absolutely no difference in price due to the licensing.
Does the Keurig 2.0 use ground coffee?
[SEE UPDATES BELOW]
Again, this is another no. I’d have to admit that I was a little disappointed in this one, since we keep an extra bag of ground coffee on hand in case we ran out of k-cups and needed an emergency cup of coffee before we could get to the store (I don’t visit the store early in the morning in my jammies, thank you very much).
Reusable K-Cups for Keurig 2.0
NEW>> You can now reusable k-cups that work in the 2.0 machines!
Can the Keurig 2.0 use Vue Cups?
Nope, but if you search online, there are ways to do it. I don’t recommend these hacks as they can potentially damage the parts of the machine.
Is the Keurig 2.0 dishwasher safe?
No. It needs to be washed by hand. There are parts of it that could be damaged in the dishwasher. This goes for the carafe too.
Would you recommend the Keurig 2.0 ?
In my opinion, the new Keurig 2.0 is worth it. I have yet to have a bad experience with it when it comes to my coffee (and I am very serious about my coffee!!). When Keurig does finally come out with the newest versions of the k-cups to unlock the other features, it’s going to be an amazing machine.
Many thanks to Influenster for sending me the Keurig 2.0!
Keurig 2.0 Update Feb. 2015:
It has now been three months since I have owned this machine. I’m still in love. The clock is still wonky (minor issue), but other than that there are absolutely no problems (other than my husband forgetting to place a coffee cup under the machine now and again…).
Update May 2016:
Still using my Keurig 2.0! It still works great for my 3 cups of coffee every day!
Update September 2017:
Still going strong! No issues that a good cleaning couldn’t fix. Coffee tastes fresh and strong.
Update December 2019:
I’m still using this machine. I personally buy generic k-cups that work perfectly in the machine. I wish there were more recyclable k-cups available, but hopefully that will happen soon. The reusable k-cups on Amazon work well too.
See the Keurig 2.0:
Thanks for reading!
Mary Beers Tatarka says
Actually It can use Vue cups I have (had, it died) a Vue, It was replaced with the 2.0 ( but i did not get a carafe) Just like the K cups you need to find newer versions of them with the dot on top like the carafe packs. The Vue packs unlock bigger cup sizes
Marissa says
I didn’t know that! Thanks for the tip!
John says
The clock is using the AC power cycle for timing – if you have another appliance plugged in a related power receptacle (or splitter), sometimes it can interfere. In the past, I’ve seen this on other appliances as well so this isn’t a Keurig-only anomaly. By ensuring that it’s the only appliance plugged in, you shouldn’t have any problems… (mine keeps good time)
Marissa says
Wow! Thanks for the great tip!
Fire Capt Mike says
I highly doubt that is true at all. The clock uses such a trivial amount of power. You could run that clock chip from a AA battery if it were DC, and it just may be! It is most likely a bad chip. We won’t go into details here but Just chalk it up to a bad chip and either send it back or deal with it. But, don’t lose sleep over a power problem.
John says
Then you are professing ignorance how electronic devices use the 60hz AC cycle for keeping time.., It has nothing to do with the amount of power used.
Fire Capt Mike says
There is always one idiot on these boards! OK everyone, check all your electrical connections like this idiot suggested! And do report back on how it worked for your clocks lol. We all had a great laugh at his post!
John says
Well, I would use the term ignorant: you can’t even see to do research before posting.
http://wwwhome.cs.utwente.nl/~ptdeboer/misc/mains.html
Note that there are other causes for inaccurate time, I only suggest this as a probable cause especially when it is ticking twice as fast as it should.
Alice Clark says
This is the worst kuerig I have ever owned. Bought a new machine in April and by August it was malfunctioning. Company sent a new one and by the third cup the new one went haywire. Don’t buy this product!
Marissa says
Alice, I’m sorry you had such troubles! I still use the Keurig from this post, which works great. It’s a shame you didn’t have a good experience.
Joe says
If you are smart you won’t be taking advice from someone paid to write good stories about a product they were given for free. Keurig made a great system and then decided they wanted a monopoly and rigged their new system to reject any Kcup that wasn’t their own, to include reusable Kcups that allow you to buy coffee in bulk. You know because they don’t make as much money if you buy a container of coffee at 1/10 of the price of their Kcups. You can rig the machine to take the other cups but its not always reliable and why give this greedy company more money?
Marissa says
Hi Joe,
Thanks for sharing your opinion. I wrote this review 5 years ago. Guess what? I still use this Keurig. I believe they do now sell reusable k-cups for this model, even though they didn’t initially. (A quick Google search confirms this). I personally now use a generic brand on a regular basis and have zero issues with it accepting these cups.
My only issue is that most of the k-cups are still not recyclable. I hope Keurig comes up for a solution for this soon!
Thanks for the reminder that I need to update this post! (You can see other updates at the bottom of the post from previous years.) Hope you have a nice holiday season.