Fixing my Keurig B60 coffee maker

I love my Keurig B60 coffee maker but every once in a while it fails me. I am not the only one, Google is full of searches for "how do I fix my Keurig coffee maker". Most of the time I can slip in a coffee packet (K-Cup), push the button and get a perfect cup of coffee. However after a few months of stellar performance, it will sometimes sputter and die with only a few teaspoons of coffee in my cup :(


There are several different symptoms and fixes with these things. Lets make sure you are fixing the right thing here.

Symptom 1: Coffee brews and pours into a mug, but makes less than expected. This gets progressively worse and can get down to a trickle.
Fix: This is most likely just water scaling from hard water. You should descale the machine first and if that does not fix it, try my fix below.

Symptom 2: Water will not draw from the tank to fill the maker.
Fix: This is again a scaling issue and the Machine should be descaled, but you will want to clean the water intake in the base of the machine with a vibrating or ultrasonic toothbrush first.

Symptom 3: Coffee was brewing normally, then suddenly stops. Water seems to draw from the tank then cycles out just as quickly but never pours any coffee.
Fix: This is most likely a clogged dispensing valve which is what I am fixing in the instructions below. This can happen from hard water build up but it is more often caused by coffee grounds getting lodged in the valve.

I have taken this little guy apart a few times to fix it and I thought I would share how in case you have one of these too. The B50 through B100 seem to have similar architecture so it should be similar for most of those models but this one is specifically a model B60.




What you will need:
#1 Phillips screwdriver
#15 Torx driver
canned air
long tweezers
small cable tie
cable snips
Broken Keurig B60 Coffee Maker


Unplug it. There are heaters, pumps, sensors, etc here that are powered and could be potentially dangerous. Right under the top cover there are a few sensors and switches as well, so unplugging first is prudent. It is also important to remove any coffee packet that may be left in the machine and leave it out until the fixing and cleaning is done.


Remove the top access handle. Remove the two Torx screws at the handle pivot points. Before you lift the handle off, use it to open the top like you are going to load it. Now take the handle off.

Remove the lower cover. There are two black screws holding that in place. This just gives you room to get to the upper screw you need to remove next.

Looking up under the front of the top cover, there are two silver screw - remove them. Be careful with these as they are easy to drop and lose. It is a good idea to use long tweezers for taking these out and re-installing them as well.

You should now have 3 sets of screws - don't mix them up.

Push the hood back and lift - it should come off easily. If it gives you any resistance, you probably have it open too far, close the top slightly and push back, then lift.


At the front of the unit there is a hose that terminates into a valve that eventually injects hot water into the coffee packet. Carefully snip the cable clamp and remove the hose.

There are two silver screws holding this valve in place, remove them and the whole assembly will drop out.

Clean out the outlet side with caned air or high pressure water. Be careful, this is really sharp and is normally the part that pierces the top of the coffee packet so it can just as easily pierce your hand.

If this is the problem you will likely find bits of coffee or hard water deposits built up in here. after it is cleaned out you should be able to blow air through from the hose connected side easily.


Reassemble in the reverse direction. Attach valve, then hose and cable tie. Screw in the upper cover (may need tweezers for this), then the lower. Screw in the access handle.


Now plug it back in and run it without a coffee packet so that clean water flows through the system. You may want to also take this opportunity to descale your Keurig and if you have hard water like we do, use an electric toothbrush (the vibrating kind) to clean out the water intake.

You should now have a working coffee maker again.

A robot that can make robot parts... and other stuff

I saw this on the Colbert Report last night (thanks Stephen) and I have to (*have to*) have one! I can not believe I have not seen this in my news feeds yet. Every robot building shop needs one of these.

What am I ranting about? The Maker Bot Thing-O-Matic! [http://www.makerbot.com/]

This thing is tres cool, mon ami. Of course it makes other stuff too, but the first thing I imagined when I saw this on Colbert was custom gears sets, then the elusive artificial Phalanges I have been wanting to mould, then my mind went crazy with possibilities.

If you are a gear-head (robot builder/hacker) then you have probably come across the situation where the gear set on the motor in your hand is not the one you need. The search begins to find a replacement gear that will give you the reduction you need, but hours of driving between scrap yards and surplus stores yields nothing. Now, you can just make one.

In fact, you can make just about anything. Gears, hinges, struts, eyelids, shields, faceplates, actuators, fingertips, grippers, spacers, levers, buttons, bumpers, and more.

The alternative has been the CNC milling machine where you can cut the shape you need out of a block of material. There are desktop varieties like this one but they are expensive and can waste a lot of material. The Maker Bot Thing-O-Matic creates an object from scratch using hard plastic thread feed. This is the same plastic used to make Lego and when was the last time you broke one of those?

For $1300 USD, this is a must-have for any custom developer / bot-hacker / gear-head shop.


Be awesome. Change the world.