FIXED! Keurig K-Express Essentials Pod Coffeemaker Not Turning On, No Power

I offer a Keurig K-Express Essentials K-cup (pod) coffeemaker in one of my Airbnbs. It's a sleek little inexpensive machine that I believe is exclusive to Walmart, and has been a great choice for this unit.

Last week, a guest told me upon check-out that the K-Express Essentials coffeemaker wasn't turning on. So, during the turnover, I put on my fix-it hat and went into troubleshooting mode.

Turns out the root cause was pretty easy to find: Every 250 brews, the machine will request that a descaling procedure be done - essentially, putting a cleaning solution in the tank and "brewing" it to run it through, cleaning out built-up mineral deposits inside the machine, followed up by a couple tanks of fresh water to flush out the solution.

This "descale mode" is indicated by a light on the front panel of the unit, and if you don't attend to this soon, it can trip a little thermostat switch inside the machine, which leads to the coffeemaker not turning on. The switch can also be tripped by running the machine without sufficient water in the tank. So, it seems our guests either kept brewing after the "descale" light had come on, or run it without sufficient water. In any case, it appeared this switch had tripped.

The fix involves removing a few Phillips screws on the bottom of the coffemaker, popping the cover open a little, locating the thermostat and its little reset switch, and then pushing the switch with a thin tool (I used a small Allen wrench, but you could use a bent paperclip). Plug it in, hit the power switch to see if this fixed the problem; if so, unplug it and reassemble the case.

This video does a great job of explaining how to do this fix:

I followed these steps, and it immediately fixed the problem with the Keurig K-Express Essentials coffeemaker not turning on.

Now, once I got the machine powered up again, it was still in "descale mode", so I had to complete the process to get the descale indicator light to go out. You can use specialized Keurig cleaner solution, but I just used regular white vinegar. Here's another video by the same guy who did the one above, explaining how to run the descaling process with vinegar: 

Once I'd run the vinegar solution and a couple tanks of water through the system, I brewed a test cup of coffee, and it tasted fine.

Problem solved! Hope this helps if you run into a similar problem with your unit.

I really do like this coffeemaker. If you'd like to grab a Keurig K-Express Essentials coffeemaker for your place, you can find it at the link below.


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