Fix a Solofill K-cup
Intro: Fix a Solofill K-cup
I like making my own coffee in a k-cup machine. It tastes better and I can make what I want. I haven't tried flavored coffees in this thing yet, but I've heard it can clog up the wires.
I haven't seen this particular version of fix on Instructables, just the 'my k-cup' fixes.
I picked up a "Solofill" reusable k-cup. It has a filter basket and hinged lid. The first couple times I tried it, the coffee was pretty weak. I did some extensive interneting, and found and modified a solution to get stronger coffee.
A commenter on Amazon noted that merely fitting a trimmed, used k-cup solved the strength problem, but for me, it did not solve the coffee sludge problem, so I made an extra, easy step.
There isn't really a clear 'how-to' otherwise on grind/packing/etc to get a good, strong cup of coffee out of one of these, so here we go!
The instructions on the solofill cup tell us that an espresso grind of coffee is too fine, and may clog the steel woven filter, so that's right out. I've tried 'drip' coffee grinds, but that comes out too watery for me. "Fine" grind, between drip and espresso works better, but leaves coffee sludge at the bottom of the cup.
What to do? TO THE BREAKROOM!
What you need:
A Keurig cup machine that allows the use of Solofill refillable cups
A solofill k-cup
Coffee drinking container
Finely ground coffee
Teaspoon
Regular sized coffee filter
A used k-cup, cleaned
Scissors
An extra, but not really necessary step is using filtered water, if possible. Either from a jug of spring water or from another pitcher filtered water source. It really does make the coffee taste better than using faucet water, depending on your location.
I haven't seen this particular version of fix on Instructables, just the 'my k-cup' fixes.
I picked up a "Solofill" reusable k-cup. It has a filter basket and hinged lid. The first couple times I tried it, the coffee was pretty weak. I did some extensive interneting, and found and modified a solution to get stronger coffee.
A commenter on Amazon noted that merely fitting a trimmed, used k-cup solved the strength problem, but for me, it did not solve the coffee sludge problem, so I made an extra, easy step.
There isn't really a clear 'how-to' otherwise on grind/packing/etc to get a good, strong cup of coffee out of one of these, so here we go!
The instructions on the solofill cup tell us that an espresso grind of coffee is too fine, and may clog the steel woven filter, so that's right out. I've tried 'drip' coffee grinds, but that comes out too watery for me. "Fine" grind, between drip and espresso works better, but leaves coffee sludge at the bottom of the cup.
What to do? TO THE BREAKROOM!
What you need:
A Keurig cup machine that allows the use of Solofill refillable cups
A solofill k-cup
Coffee drinking container
Finely ground coffee
Teaspoon
Regular sized coffee filter
A used k-cup, cleaned
Scissors
An extra, but not really necessary step is using filtered water, if possible. Either from a jug of spring water or from another pitcher filtered water source. It really does make the coffee taste better than using faucet water, depending on your location.
STEP 1: Preperation
Take a used k-cup and gently peel the top wrapper off. It doesn't matter if you get all the edges, just remove the top enough to clean. Dump out the used grounds and pull the filter out. Rinse thoroughly. If you don't want to deal with wet filter paper, dump the grounds, rinse and let dry for a few hours.
Once the filter paper is out, carefully cut the top edge off to the indentation and discard.
Using a teaspoon, or, really, anything else, fill the solofill cup 3/4 to the top, then tamp down firmly on the grounds, ONCE. If you tamp down everything very firmly, you may not get a full cup of coffee and you'll have to add hot water, more or less defeating the purpose of doing it this way. After tamping once, fill the cup the rest of the way up to the fill line, gently wipe the edge so no grounds are in the seal area, and close.
Take a regular sized coffee filter and cut into quarters. if you only have the smaller sized filters available, try halves, but you may have to cut off some of the bottom.
With the 'wavy edge' up, wrap around your solofill, holding in place, then insert both into the now clean and empty k-cup.
Ta-da!
Once the filter paper is out, carefully cut the top edge off to the indentation and discard.
Using a teaspoon, or, really, anything else, fill the solofill cup 3/4 to the top, then tamp down firmly on the grounds, ONCE. If you tamp down everything very firmly, you may not get a full cup of coffee and you'll have to add hot water, more or less defeating the purpose of doing it this way. After tamping once, fill the cup the rest of the way up to the fill line, gently wipe the edge so no grounds are in the seal area, and close.
Take a regular sized coffee filter and cut into quarters. if you only have the smaller sized filters available, try halves, but you may have to cut off some of the bottom.
With the 'wavy edge' up, wrap around your solofill, holding in place, then insert both into the now clean and empty k-cup.
Ta-da!
STEP 2: Brew!
You're all set.
Just insert the whole contraption into your machine and let 'er rip.
Try to line the pre-punched hole up with your machine needle so it lasts longer.
When done, remove and toss the filter, but rinse and keep the k-cup sleeve. You should be able to use this several times. I got about 3 weeks worth out of mine the first pass before it got deformed and I had to replace it with a new, used k-cup. I don't know if this would work with the individual filters you can purchase on Amazon.
Just insert the whole contraption into your machine and let 'er rip.
Try to line the pre-punched hole up with your machine needle so it lasts longer.
When done, remove and toss the filter, but rinse and keep the k-cup sleeve. You should be able to use this several times. I got about 3 weeks worth out of mine the first pass before it got deformed and I had to replace it with a new, used k-cup. I don't know if this would work with the individual filters you can purchase on Amazon.
5 Comments
iFix8 7 years ago
I don't understand why everyone wants to make this simple brewing system more complicated. To make it simpler and cheaper, just follow the lead of every other drip-brew coffee maker you've ever used:
Buy some regular white coffee filters that cost a penny or two apiece.
Lay one out and drop in a couple teaspoons of your fav brew.
Pick it up as you gather the sides together and drop it into any generic Keurig K-cup holder that will conveniently hold it pressed down into it.
When it's done, just hold the K-cup holder over the waste basket, give it a shake and gravity will make sure the rolled up grounds and filter fall out cleanly leaving no grounds of any sort.
C'mon people, this machine is simply dispensing one cup per use, and nothing is preventing you from using the old filters or causing you to make the process more expensive or difficult than before. This is about as simple and easy as it will ever be (unless you can get someone else to do it for you) and it works every time.
The primary disadvantage of a lot of the ideas posted on here and elsewhere is that they can actually mess up your expensive machine and possibly cause some minor health issues by allowing grounds to go back up into the top of the machine where they sit, collecting bacteria, effecting the flavor of the brew and reducing the flow of water. Even the K-cups that you purchase from Keurig can add to this problem because there is no filter keeping them from being drawn up into the tubing. This is caused by the fact that as the needle is resting in coffee and floating grounds just before the water stops being pumped into the K-cup. When the pump stops, there is a natural occurrence of a vacuum as the water draws back up into the tubing. Of course, any grounds that are floating in the coffee near the needle are sucked back into the tubing also.
This is a problem that wasn't addressed by the engineers who designed the Keurigs, and I think it should have been addressed well before now, probably by a good ol' law suit. Maybe someone can make an instructable for filing a class action suite?
(By the way, why does the spellchecker for this site give an error for the name of the site? Can't you just add it to the spellchecker for future reference? I mean, you seem to have spent extra time to add the fancy text enhancement feature, so why not rectify this minor, but annoying detail?)
jarichus. 9 years ago
I left out the fact that I make an extra hole, (straight across) in the used k-cup so the filter is used instead of the fine grinds going down the needle tube. The needle sticks through the paper filter. Have a Great Day, Jerry
jarichus. 9 years ago
jarichus. 9 years ago
The Melitta single serve coffee filters for Javajig work great with this system. I got mine at WalMart right by the coffee. My k10 coffee maker times out and only fills the cup about half full the first time, so I just run it again without adding more water. Have a Great Day, Jerry
May050284 9 years ago
I do something similar with my Solofill K-Cup. I fill my solofill 3/4 full of coffee and take a paper coffee filter and place it over my coffee mug. I wet my hands and push the coffee filter down into the mug and just leave about a 1/2 inch overhang. With wet hands make sure overhand is wet and sticks to the sides of my mug. While the coffee brews and I use metal tongs to hold the filter in place. The sludge stays in the filter and I carefully remove it and any sludge when taking it off mug.