Fill N Save Elite Series Stainless Steel Reusable K Cup, Refillable Keurig Filter for Keurig 2.0 and 1.0 Coffee Machines. Excellent Filter Replacement to Coffee Pods. New 2019 Model (Silver...)

This review is specific to the Fill N Save *ELITE SERIES* Stainless Steel Reusable K Cup, Amazon ASIN: B017UUESBO. I mention that because Amazon still has a tendency to let reviews bleed across products or models, and sometimes even brands.So do not know about you, but I found that I had to read through all the questions and answers as well as the reviews to find out enough about this product to know if I wanted one. Even then, after my very first use of the Fill N Save I learned some additional answers to questions I do not see have been asked. So here is a summary of what you may wish to know after my first experiences with my new Fill N Save.When you use the Fill N Save you can use any coffee you want, have much more control over the strength of your brewed coffee, and pay a lot less per cup. These to me are great benefits. I typically use Starbucks House Blend, French Roast, or similar purchased at a warehouse club for about $18.00 for two pounds. I find that I am using about a tablespoon or so of finely ground coffee to brew a cup to the strength I like in my Fill N Save. I estimate I get 160 tablespoons from a two pound bag of beans (80 per pound). So the math says it is costing me approximately $0.12 or so per cup. Even on a great sale it's hard to purchase any brand or flavor of K-Cups for under $0.60 each. So with use of the Fill N Save you have total flexibility on what coffee you brew, and you save a lot in doing so.But every benefit in life comes with a cost.... So to speak! Here is more you may wish to know.First: If you use this Fill N Save without paper filters you will get a small more-dense layer of coffee in the bottom of your brewed cup. You can see it as you drink down to near the bottom of your cup of coffee, but personally when I get to the bottom I could not tase a difference, and could not feel it in my mouth or even with my fingers. The residue I mention is a small cloud, but extremenly fine. This will happen no matter how you grind your beans or what grind of coffee you purchase. It is a function of the filtering screens of the Fill N Save. The coffee bean grinding process creates mostly consistent grounds, but also produces some smaller bits, including some ultra ultra fine bits. Those that are ultrafine will escape through the screened sides and bottom of the Fill N Save - unless you use a paper filter. You will just need to try with and without filters and see how important that is to you personally. I purchased some filters here on Amazon, a 100 pack of "Optional Coffee Paper Filter for Ekobrew"- Amazon ASIN: B00H4F3A88 for $6.99. Yes, it adds another seven pennies of cost to a brewed cup, but that is still very small compared to the cost of prepackaged retail K-Cups. The filters accomplish two somewhat positive outcomes. It results in clear coffee to the bottom of the cup if that is important to you, and it somewhat reduces the mess (more below).Next: Mess? I will start by saying that what I profile here about mess would with certainty apply to any brand or model of reusable brewing cups or baskets. So I fully expect that what comes next is not product specific to the Fill N Save.Lets compare the Fill N Save to a prepackaged K-Cup. These single-serve coffee makers punch a small hole upward into the plastic K-Cups. This creates a small inverted cone of plastic up into the K-Cup from the bottom. Not sure if its really part of the Keurig product engineering, but that little upward protrusion traps a small layer of liquid at the bottom of the K-Cup and mostly helps keep the used K-Cup from seeping as it is removed. (By the way, nothing punches up into the Fill N Serve as it is shaped at the bottom to avoid contact with the punch)The Fill N Save however, has fine perforated screens on each side, and on its bottom, like the basket in an old time coffee pot but with much, much finer perforations. So it does continue to seep out drips after your cup is brewed, and will be an issue you remove the Fill N Save from the coffee maker right away to empty it so you can make another cup of coffee for someone else. This can be messy so you need to be near a sink or have something to hold under the Fill N Save until you reach a sink. Also, since the coffee, and that fine residue, come through those screens and not through that punch at the bottom like K-Cups, you should occasionally rinse out the area where the cups sit in the brewer or I would expect that residue to gradually build up.Here is another issue. I use a Keurig K10 Mini brewer. It has the typical Keurig catch tray to use when using a typical coffee cup. But if you remove the tray to brew into a taller cup or travel cup, then you need to immediately put the catch tray back in place, or keep handy something else like a small cup or glass to put in the place as you remove your cup of brewed coffee. It does not seep much, but enough to make a small mess. We just keep an empty washed Chobani yogurt cup handy. Using the optional paper filters reduces the amount of seepage considerably, likely due to the paper absorbing what would otherwise seep.Emptying the Fill N Save: We find we cannot successfully dump used coffee grounds straight from the Fill N Save into the trash. The pressure that the Keurig process infuses into its coffee making process compresses the coffee grounds against the sides and bottom of K-Cups, and the same is true for the Fill N Save. So the grounds are pressed to all surfaces inside the Fill N Save and the method to empty the Fill N Save is to rinse the grounds down your drain. It is a messy process. We have found that using filters does not make the Fill N Save any easier to empty. You have to reach in with your fingers and pinch until you grasp the filter to remove it. Even then, you will get spent grounds on your fingers, and there will still be grounds to rinse off of the underside of the Fill N Save's pivoting cap.So in summary, the Fill N Save allows you to brew virtually any coffee you desire, at a much lower cost per cup than prepackaged K-Cups. But the Fill N Save is messy to use, and if that little cloud of denser coffee at the bottom of your cup is an issue for you then you will want to use small paper filters, which adds back some cost.

I gave this product to my husband for Christmas. He grinds his own coffee and used another version of reusable cup that had the gold basket filter. This plastic version was a pain to clean and the filter dented and damaged after several uses of scraping out the used grinds. I got him this Elite Series product since it is stainless steel and would not have that issue. Plus it fits the maker with the K-cup holder intact, rather than having to remove the holder like his old refillable cup.I did not watch him try to use it the first time. Apparently he did something wrong because he said it leaked and spewed coffee everywhere, so he refused to try it again. I decided to check online for tips and experiment to see if I could get it working for him.The first thing I noticed in the very brief instructions for the cup was "Place K cup in brewer, hinge facing up". I think in some makers if you place it in with hinge down (like at 6:00 if you imagine the top of the lid as a clock), it is more susceptible to leaking.Make sure you place it in the brewer with the hinge at the 12:00 position or "top".Looking online, there was mention of bad sealing in some cases, so I made sure the top lip of the cup part was clean after filling it with coffee, no grinds sticking to the lip or the o-ring seal of the lid. Just a quick sweep of both with your finger is sufficient after filling the cup with grinds. Also online, they suggested lightly packing the grinds down to get a stronger cup of coffee, which we both prefer. This takes a little practice to get the right packing level for the grind size you are using, but filling it halfway full when lightly packed seemed to be just right (about 2 teaspoons of coffee). Then make sure the lid is pressed down firmly when closing it, until you feel the engagement of the seal fully in place.The drip was normal at first, then slowed a little, so it took a little longer than a store-bought K-cup, but this is normal if you grind your own.. depends on the grind size and amount of packing of the grinds into the cup. The patience is worth it if you like stronger coffee. I only noticed a little grind residue at the bottom of my mug, like you'd see drinking hot chocolate, but only a small amount and very fine, no normal size grinds got through the steel cup. Another tip: when you open the brewer to remove the cup, more coffee liquid will drip out, so leave your cup in place until after you've opened it and removed the used coffee grinds. If you leave the cup in the brewer and don't dump them right away, be sure to have the catch tray in place or put a mug in place to catch the dripping from some of the seeped coffee when you open the brewer again.I very much like that it is more durable than a gold basket filter type. You need to clean it, and if you don't dump the grinds right away they will stick to the cup and be harder to scrape out, but at least if you do forget to dump them right away, you can scrape this version out with a knife or pick and not damage the cup.Bottom line, it worked fine for us, I just needed to teach my husband these few tricks to have it work effectively and not leak. Since there is some work involved in making sure the seal is correct and paying attention to how the cup is mounted in the brewer, I'm giving this 4 stars instead of 5. It is still a fine product and saves so much on K-cups and plastic going to the landfill!

If I could give this product 0 stars, I would. I used to have an Ekobrew, which worked wonderfully until it finally got worn out. I couldn't find it the day I went to order so, after reading some reviews, I bought this. I completely regret it and wish I had my $20 back. Every time I attempted to use this, it never brewed all of the water I put in. The cup was CONSTANTLY clogged. In addition to brewing 1/2 a cup of coffee or less every time, instead of the full cup I loaded into the Keurig, it was also pathetically weak coffee and most of the coffee grounds would be completely dry and wasted. I tried all of the "tips and tricks" I could find to get this thing to work properly (loading it in different directions into the Keurig, filling it to various heights, using different amounts of water, etc) and it NEVER gave me even a somewhat acceptable cup of coffee. I finally found a new Ekobrew and have returned to using my Keurig and French Press and enjoying my coffee, after completely wasting $20.