How Much Does a K-Cup Coffee Brewer Cost?

Looking for a K-cup coffee brewer and aren’t sure how much to spend? Here’s what you want to know.

K-cup coffee brewer prices:

• Keurig brewers cost $145 on average and range in price from $70 to $275.
• K-cup brewers that are not from Keurig cost an average $81 and range from $40 to $200.

If you want to know more and aren’t sure how much money you should spend on a coffee pod machine exactly, keep reading.

K-cup brewer prices

The average price of a K-Cup brewer is $112 with prices ranges from $40 to $275. That takes domestic models into account. There are a few Keurig models that are intended for office/semi-professional use. Those are quite a bit more expensive and can cost as much as $1000.

Brand	Price
Keurig	155
Keurig	150
Keurig	70
Keurig	172
Keurig	100
Keurig	170
Keurig	79
Keurig	275
Keurig	139
Cuisineart	141
Chefman	40
Hamilton Beach	79
Mueller	40
Mueller	109
Chulux	40
Mixpresso	57
EZBASICS	40
Bella	75
Ninja	200
	112.16

Most of the models above are single cup coffee brewers that only take K-cups. There are a few models in the list above that can also brew coffee other ways with the same machine.

Keurig brewer prices

Above I’ve taken all brands of brewers into account. If you just look at Keurig branded brewers, the numbers are a little different.

K-cup brewers that are not from Keurig cost an average $81 and range from $40 to $200.

Keurig brewers cost $145 on average and range in price from $70 to $275.

So Keurig branded K-cup brewers do cost more than the other brands on average. The cheapest ones are all non-Keurig ones. However, if you should buy one of those is another question.

How much should you spend on a K-Cup coffee brewer?

While K-Cup brewers are more expensive than the average drip coffee maker, there are some really affordable K-cup brewers. The prices start at about $40 and sometimes you can probably find them cheaper than that during sales events.

They all brew K-cups so do you actually get anything extra for your money if you pay extra?

The main differences are in looks and build quality. Frankly, you’re not going to get better tasting coffee if you spend more. The way K-cups coffee is brewed means there is not a lot of room for doing things differently.

As with everything, it’s usually not a great idea to buy the absolute cheapest version of a thing you can. Usually there are corners being cut somewhere to make it cheaper than the average. Often there will be cheap pumps that break quickly or parts that start leaking way too fast. If you read the reviews of the cheapest K-cup brewers, you’ll find that many reviews mention that things start leaking or break pretty quickly.

The K-Mini is a good option if you want to pay less than average but still get a high quality machine. Yes, you pay a little extra for the Keurig brand but the quality control also seems to be a bit better.

Most of the non-Keurig models that are cheaper than the K-mini have questionable quality control. If you care about any type of longevity, it’s better to spend +-$60 and up.

Taste

The pods and what’s in them largely decides how it tastes. There is a small paper filter, filled with coffee grounds inside the plastic cup. The top of the cup gets punctured and the water injected through the hole. The water flows through into the cup, through the filter and out the bottom into the cup.

The only factors you could change that impact the taste are: Water temperature, pre-infusion time and pressure/flow rate.

While those things do have an impact on taste, the optimal settings are different for every type of coffee. And the whole benefit of K-cups is that you have a super wide range of different coffees you can try without having to buy a whole bag.

There is no optimal setting that works for all coffees and K-cup machine don’t have adjustability that would allow you to change the factors that makes the taste better. They probably could do this but K-cups were invented to be very easy to use. At the point you know what kind of coffee you have in your cup and how to adjust the machine in a way so it brews optimally, you can brew much better coffee without a K-cup machine. Some machines do have a temperature control which you can play around with.

All that to say, you shouldn’t expect better coffee with a more expensive K-Cup brewer. You do get: Better build quality, better looks, better features.

Features

Build quality is hard to quantify but it’ll result in a better feeling, longer lasting machine but besides reading a lot of reviews, you don’t know which machines are higher quality but price is a decent proxy for gauging build quality. Looks are very personal get something you like the looks of as long as it has the features you like. The features are something you should give some thought. Do you just want a coffee machine or does it have to do a few more things? Here are some available features on K-cup machines;

• Amount control: Ability to choose your cup size. Pretty much every K-cup machine has the option to set how much coffee you want.
• Strength control: Some of the really basic machines don’t have a strength control button. It’s good to have this option to be able to dial in a coffee how you like it.
• Hot water: Some of the higher end machines have the option to get hot water from it for things like tea and instant noodles. This can be useful if you don’t have a kettle.
• Water reservoir size: A bigger reservoir means less refills. While it’s pretty easy to refill the reservoir, it’s always good to save time. Especially if the machine is used by many people, a bigger reservoir is good.
• Water filter: Many K-cup machines have a charcoal filter in the reservoir. That filter removes any type of strange taste from the water and therefore from the coffee resulting in better tasting coffee.
• Adjustable temperature: Some of the higher end models have a temperature control setting. While most people will use this to get hotter or colder coffee, the temperature can actually impact the taste of the coffee. It gives you a little extra control. However, if you care about your coffee to that degree, you’re better off with another coffee brew method.
• Other beverages: Some machines can also brew other types of coffee. Usually that’s done by using a normal drip filter instead of a pod.