You woke up this morning, craving a fresh cup of coffee. You turned on your Keurig K-Slim and pressed the brew button but it was not pumping water. It’s a common issue with the Keurig Slim.
In this article, I will tell you all the possible solutions to this problem.
Why Is Keurig K-Slim Not Pumping Water?
The most common problem is that there is already water in the heating component. Some other common problems are that the tubes inside are clogged, your Keurig needs to be cleaned and descaled, or the lid is not fully closed and you need to hold it down while the machine is pouring a cup.
Table of Contents
- Why Is Keurig K-Slim Not Pumping Water?
- Conclusion
Drain The Heating Component
If you’ve tried making your cup of coffee like normal and the Keurig K-Slim is sucking water in but it’s not brewing coffee. It could be the case that there already was water in the heating component of your machine.
When this happens, usually the power light and long bar light won’t stay lit either.
You can fix this by brewing a cup of coffee like you normally would but do not press the brew button just once but hold it down and do this without the K-cup in it.
This should force the remaining water out of the heating component. Once that is done, fill up the water reservoir and you should be able to brew a cup of coffee like normal again.
Make sure you press the brew button only once and then leave it for at least 30 seconds. If you keep pressing the button because it takes too long, you will cause the same problem again and then you have to drain your machine again.
Another tip is to not let the water reservoir go below the minimum level. This prevents air from the reservoir to go into the heating component.
Press Down The Lid When Brewing Coffee
I have no idea why this works, but I’ve seen it fix the problem a few times.
Turn your Keurig on like normal, and put the K-Kup in. Then close the lid, press the brew button, and press down the lid the whole time your Keurig Slim is brewing coffee. Gently pressing is enough.
The Tubes Inside The Coffee Maker Are Clogged
Mineral deposits can accumulate in the tubes. This can restrict the water flow and even block it. When this is the case, you will only get half a carafe of coffee because the coffeemaker cannot pass more water through.
Or an air bubble can get stuck in there if you had pressed the brew button when there was not enough water in the reservoir.
To get the clogging or air bubble out, first, fill up the water tank halfway. Then grab something like a turkey baster suck up some water out of the water tank and put it on the water suction port in the tank. Press the brewing button and then firmly spray the water in as the coffee maker is trying to brew a cup.
Tip: An alternative to the turkey baster could be a straw or syringe.
In the water tank there is a small spring in the suction port, take the top of the turkey baster and wiggle that spring a few times to make sure nothing is stuck.
You could also remove the water tank and put a tube on the water suction port. Make sure the tube fits nicely on it. Fill the tube with water and blow into it from the other side. This should have the same effect.
Keurig K-Slim Needs To Be Cleaned And Descaled
Apart from the tubes getting clogged with scales or an air bubble, the needles inside the lid can also get clogged with coffee residue. What you want to do in this case, is clean the needles that poke into the K-cup and descale your machine.
Use a Maintenance Cup To Clean The Needle In The Lid
For cleaning the needle of any coffee grind remains, Keurig has made a cleaning cup. This cup usually came with the machine when you first bought it.
Turn off your coffee machine and fill the maintenance cup halfway with water. Open the Lid and place the cup inside the machine. Then open and close the lid five times.
Take out the maintenance cup and turn the coffee maker back on. Your Keurig should be brewing a cup of coffee like normal again.
Alternatively, you can use a cleaning cup like this:
Clean Out The Needle With a Paperclip
If the Maintenance cup didn’t work or you don’t want to wait on the delivery because you’re really craving a cup of coffee right now. There is another way to clean the needle of your Keurig K-Slim and get it brewing coffee again.
First, you want to unplug the coffee machine so you can turn the machine on its back.
Then you want to open the lid. In the lid, there is a needle that pokes a hole in the k-cup when brewing a cup of coffee.
Around the needle, there are three holes. Two holes are next to the needle and one hole is under the needle. These holes can get clogged with coffee and scale over time.
Take a paper clip or something that is pointy like a paperclip and gently press it in these holes. Wiggle and turn the paperclip a few times to make sure you get all the scale and coffee grind loose.
Clean The Needle In The K-cup Holder
There also is a needle in the K-cup holder that can get clogged with coffee grinds.
To clean the cup holder you take the cup holder out by pushing it from the bottom and pinching and pulling it from the top. Once you got it out you can take the holder apart in two pieces.
The biggest piece got the needle in it. From the bottom, you can puncture the hole of the needle with a paperclip. You also want to let some water run through when you do this.
Put your machine back together and make sure to first press the button and let some water flow through the machine to clean out the remaining coffee grind. Optionally you could descale your Keurig machine. After that, you’re all set to brew a cup of coffee!
Descaling The Keurig K-Slim
After you got your coffee machine working again it’s a good idea to completely descale the machine. By doing this you make sure it doesn’t happen again in the near future.
It’s easy to descale your Keurig K-Slim. All you need is some Keurig descaling solution and follow this guide on how to descale your Keurig K-Slim.
Call The Keurig Costumer Service
The last thing you could try is to call Keurig customer service. Usually, they will troubleshoot your Keurig K-Slim with you.
If they conclude that the problem is not easy to fix or if they cannot find the problem. they will usually offer you a new machine, sometimes even when you are out of warranty.
I heard of other cases when the warranty was long past. Keurig gave a 20% discount on a new machine.
Conclusion
It can be very annoying when you’re craving a nice cup of coffee but your machine is not pumping water. There are a few things you can try when your Keurig Slim is not pumping water:
- Drain the heating component.
- Hold down the lid when brewing a cup.
- Unclog your Keurig K-Slim.
- Clean and descale your Keurig K-Slim.
- Call Keurig costumer service.
I hope your Keurig machine starts working again after you’ve tried the fixes in this article and that you can enjoy a cup of coffee now!
Thanks for reading!