It’s actually really hard to find a small enough coffee maker that will just snug in pretty much anywhere. Keurig tacked this one with the now famous Keurig K15 coffee maker. The bottom line?
Keep it simple. Keep it small.
As we’ll see in this Keurig K15 review, this is exactly what K15 is all about. It’s really for people who have small kitchens (or smaller office spaces – yeah, people use coffee makers in their offices as well). The Spruce has a great article about how physical size is important when picking a single-serve coffee maker.
Best of all? It has a single button. Yes, just one button and guess what it is – ‘BREW’. This is literally the simplest coffee maker in existence:
Usually people are thinking of just the spot they could snug the new K15 Keurig machine in and wake up to the smell of fresh coffee. Do you have a spot in mind?
All coffee lovers know the struggle of finding a good coffee maker and usually the good ones are really heavy, big and pricy. Fortunately, in the Keurig K15 review we found it’s quite different from larger single-serve coffee makers. If you want to educate yourself a bit about coffee, you should check our guide to single-serve coffee makers as a part of the Coffee Academy series.
It is very compact and incredibly small but yet a powerful coffee maker. As all Keurig brewers, it uses K-Cup pods and comes with a K-Cup reusable coffee filter (don’t buy a Keurig device without that one – very useful).
This little one has some power to show but as far as the review of Keurig K15 coffee goes – it’s amazing what kind of brew this little guy can produce.
Overall score: 
The price of Keurig K15 is at the low-end. In fact, it’s the cheapest Keurig coffee maker – this makes sense because it’s the smallest as well – but the features and the cup of coffee K15 produces are more middle-end class level. You can check the price before we plunge into the review of Keurig K15:
Keurig K15 Review – Incredible Power For Such A Petite Machine
We talked a bit about the size of Keurig K15. What are the actual dimensions?
The width is 6.9 inches and the height is 10.8 inches. The depth is 10.7 inches, and it weighs less than 10 pounds.
As far as I know, there is only one coffee maker that is smaller – that’s Nespresso Inissia which weight a bit over 5 pounds. If you look at Keurig K15 vs Nespresso Inissia, you’ll see that Inissia is an upgraded device but it does cost that much more.
Personally, I prefer the coffee Inissia makes but K15 by Keurig is much more budget-friendly. Just check the price tag on Inissia!
For both Keurig 15 and Nespresso Inissia, the following is true: As they don’t occupy a lot of space in your kitchen or in your office, it is easy to place them pretty much anywhere.
Simplest Coffee Maker By Keurig To Use (One Botton)
Even coffee makers can be very complex. Some more advanced models do need some technical skill to operate but as we’ve pointed out in the Keurig K15 review, here this is not the case.
Quite the contrary. K15 is the No. 1 in the no-fuss category. Here is how it works:
- Turn the machine on (flip the switch).
- Add water to the water tank.
- Add K-Cup of your choosing.
- Press ‘BREW’.
And voila! your coffee is prepared in about 2 minutes!
The K15 is one of the Top 5 best Keurig coffee maker – the smallest and the cheapest one:
Top 5 Keurig Coffee Makers
| Coffee Maker: | Keurig K15 | Keurig K55 | Keurig K250 | Keurig K475 | Keurig K575 |
| Quality: | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ |
| Feature: | The Smallest | 'Golden Standard' | The Tall One | The Best Looking | The Biggest |
| Price: | $$$$ | $$$$ | $$$$ | $$$$ | $$$$ |
| Rating: | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ |
| Stock: | Check Price | Check Price | Check Price | Check Price | Check Price |
The drawback, of course, is that it does take 2 minutes for K15 Keurig to make coffee (we timed it at 115 seconds as you’ll see in our testing of K15 below).
Being easy to handle is a useful feature that every Keurig model has. With just one touch of the button, the K15 coffee maker can be easily controlled which makes it a very convenient device to use as there is not a lot of complexity involved in learning to how to operate the machine. The recipe booklet included is nice but if you’re as technically savvy as my grandma, you won’t actually need it.
Oh, and you can brew 3 different sizes in connection with K-Cup pods:
- 6 oz.
- 8 oz.
- 10 oz.
You can also remove the tray below and use a travel mug. You know, if you commute to work and use bigger mugs.
Initial Drawbacks Of K15 Machine
Before we reveal what we learned in the testing of Keurig K15, there are 3 things that we found problematic with K15 from the get-go:
- Long Brewing Time – about 2 minutes or so. The standard coffee makers need about 1 minute to prepare a cup of coffee. K15 does take a minute longer.
- Water Tank – it’s a little device with a little water tank. You have to constantly refill it but that does mean the water is fresh.
- Can Only Use K-Cups – the cups, especially K-Cups, are the top of the line and they save you a ton of cleaning but they can cost about $0.50 per pod or so.
Ok, let’s test it out for a practical K15 Keurig review:
Practical Review Of Keurig K15 (Testing Time!)
The first thing which caught my eye when I went on Amazon to get the Keurig K15 there were 10+ colors that it was available in.
My favorite color is red, so naturally chose the red model. After I had it delivered and opened, I was astonished how differently it looked like:
That was a shocker but the best-selling model is the black one and with the black Keurig K15 you don’t have this difference.
Anyway, the setting up of Keurig K15 was a breeze – you basically just pull it out of the box and plug it in. As it was already way past 11 PM I did not want to have a cup of coffee and stay up all night which ultimately made me decide to postpone the K15 test to the next day morning.
The next day morning I wake up and turn the K15 on – just a hit the on/off switch. I put the K-cup in and fill the water tank for an 8 oz. coffee and right after a couple of minutes, I have my coffee and the Keurig K15 turned off after some minutes (didn’t use a timer, it was about 9 minutes).
I drink it and realize that the coffee is good but not as great as the ones from the powerful coffee machines. Also quickly after the first cup, you realize how frustrating it is to add water for each and every cup.
After a couple of weeks I also started experiencing technical problems, every time I made coffee I could smell something burning and my coffee started to taste like something burnt. That was for a while then it stopped.
I felt kind of had a “bad luck” as one of my friends who owns the Keurig K15 for a long time didn’t have such problems.
Pros And Cons Of Keurig K15
For the price and the size, Keurig K15 makes quite a decent coffee. You can put it just about anywhere, it will cost you about 100 bucks and if you aren’t looking for to make the best coffee in the world, is will do just fine.
Pros
- Very Small – in fact, K15 is one of the smallest coffee makers around. Not as small as Inissia, but still incredibly small.
- Best Low-End – it is one of the best low-end models out there. Given its low price, it’s very affordable. I would recommend the K15 to myself when I was at college.
- Easy To Control – as we’ve discussed in the K15 Keurig review, you only have 1 button and it says ‘BREW’. That’s it.
Cons
- Refilling Water Tank (Constantly) – having to fill water for each and every cup that you want to brew gets really frustrating after the first couple of times. Bigger water tank would be much appreciated.
- 2 Minutes – that’s the time it takes for a single coffee brew. Maybe you can use this time to daydream about a quicker coffee maker?
- Technical Problems – A few of the people who have used it find that Keurig K15 have some technical problems. Some machines were also recalled sometime after they were released as there were a lot of defects in the model. And a bunch of colorful K15 models are being discontinued.
Final Words On The Keurig K15 Review
Keurig K15 is very small, convenient and easy to use. Unfortunately, for a coffee lover like myself, this was a huge letdown.
The little K15 is definitely not one of those powerful coffee makers out there. Yes, bigger machines are big and pricey but they make superior coffee in half the time K15 makes it.
Nonetheless, if you are looking for a budget coffee maker which is compact and you are an occasional coffee/tea drinker, then no other machine can give you your money’s worth like this one.
PS: We have a list of the best Keurig coffee makers. Do you need one? Grab it here.
Received as a gift. Does not include water level guide as indicated in instructions. Call to customer support said design change a few months back no longer includes water guide. They made the machine less user friendly for some reason. Bad customer support. Bad design. Will buy another brand instead. Don’t buy this model.