Hamilton Beach 2-Way Programmable Coffee Maker & Single Serve Coffee Maker

Timmy G.United States

Almost perfect, but still Awesome!

So, like you all ,I've been a coffeeholic for many years. Like you ,I've struggled to have a decent maker in my kitchen. I recently finished up with my Cuisinart mod#CHW-12. Had it for 5yrs. It got to point of no longer producing a well tasting cup. We did the Vinigar cleaning etc. So, i spent MANY hours searching online for a decent Maker. Problem was the abundance of poor reviews encompassing many manufacturers! It's now 2018 and we have trouble creating a Kit Coffee Brewer thats decent! I did a switch and desired a maker that will produce a single cup as wife n i both have coffee at different times and mostly need the one 16oz cup. In searching for the 12cup Carafe / or single cup Maker ,my choices became limited. Read the reviews and pulled the trigger on this. It's only been 1wk now but i can honestly state that it is the BEST maker I've ever used! I ran a full 12cup Carafe first off, thn dumped. Then did same for the single cup side. ( full 14oz). Then ran 12cups clean water through for both. Then did the Coffee that I'll drink. No issues. Had to play round wth the exact amount of grounds for the single side so to get the outcome i desired. Has clock, easy to pre prog., and, the single side will turn off when done. The Carafe side will stay on (hot plate) for 2hrs after brewing complete. You can simply press On/Off button to turn off anytime. For those who have an over-spilling issue with the grounds within the gold filter basket?, you are using TOO MANY grounds! The single side comes with a gold reusable filter which also encompasses two - Level markers. One is min and the other is Max. If you fill above the Max level, WELL, overflow of grounds will prob. occur. On the Amazon site you'll see the Reusable filter for the Carafe side in " frequently ordered with". I also ordered that as i don't like paper filters. It performs well. Water level for Carafe is helpful. It's towards the right rear, on the side. It's accurate. Brew time for 12 cups was good. I've learned to warm up my Mug when using single side as it is not as hot as Carafe as no hot plate for the Mug. I use single side to run water for tea as well. What would make this model perfect? If it sounded out a tone when brewing is complete. It also has No charcoal filter as with my Cuisinart. No biggie as i always have used filtered water to begin with. Coffee is better when there's no Chlorine in the H2O! Filling either the Carafe or single side is easy and Max level markers are visible enough to get it right. Carafe pours very well and i like that the Carafe lid stays attached as u simply press thumb to open but it's not required to pour. Single side grounds chamber pulls out easily. Single side has a bottom (under mug/cup) that reverses to then become a elevator to bring cup higher if you'd like. I brewed a cup at lowest level without any spill or splatter. It drips slow enough that i don't believe i need to elevate my mug. This model also looks fantastic, Beautiful! Has a "Bold" brew mode for both Carafe n Sing. The brewing is slower, so u gt a richer brew. Light on clock only on when unit is ON. Has seperate green light that indicates you are using "Program" mode. I don't use "Pods" but if i did the manual states that "Senseo" Pods will work. Note that unit will only brew one side at a time. It cannot brew both sides at once. Very pleased so far. If any issues I'll update here. P.s. if Manufacturer reads this, you may want to consider modifying so to have an end of brew audible tone! Jst a thought. Update!; 1/5/18. Jst did 2 Lg mugs for me ( nine- 8oz cups), using Carafe of course. Wife then needed to do her single 14oz using of course the Single serv side. When throwing the slide switch over to Single, it turns off the Carafe side. So, yeah, hot plate under Carafe is still hot, but, it's now off. So, in future, wife does her single, first, then i do Carafe. UPDATE ; 1/22/18- 3wks now and NO ISSUES! When removing coffee filled Carafe, absolutely no spilling onto hot plate. The spring loaded valve above, performing well. Reviewers having the Hot plate discoloration or burning may be turning unit on with a Hot plate thats dirty. I make sure plate is clean /dry before and after ea. use. I make sure bottom of Carafe is clean/ dry as well. Wife using single serve ea. day and says " best cup of Coffee ever"! Update; 4/17/21. NO issues, all still good. UPDATE!!! - 10/10/21- So, finally I'm now considering buying a new one of these as this one is intermittently not pumping enough water up and into Coffee basket. About 12× now in past 6mon's I've had to pour out Carafe into another cup, place Carafe back, then pour my Coffee,(that looks like Tea), into the grinds basket and do a Double Drip, sometimes twice to get color I wish. I got roughly 3.5 years out of this Maker. I guess that's good considering Everything's made in Cheapo China. If/when I buy a new one, I'll post back. Have a good Coffee! UPDATE: 11/14/21. So, I purchased this exact model once again on 10/12/21. After 1 month, I can honestly state that it's a great difference between original and new. New machine brews perfectly as did the original one up until the 3yr mark. No issues to report with this New Maker( Same model as first one). Pictures here are of 2nd maker,(2021).

Ben PowellUnited States

Great coffee maker- single cup or full pot

This the best coffee pot I've ever owned, seriously. I appreciate good coffee and regularly buy beans from a local roastery. I am not a barista nor do I claim to be a coffee expert. I enjoy good coffee and a drip coffee maker is good enough for my daily habit. This maker can be used to brew single cups on one side or a full pot on the other side. Typically, I am the only coffee drinker in my house. Sometimes we have guests. This coffee maker allows me to serve both situations easily. To use the single serve side, I fill the cup that I'm planning to use with the correct amount of tap water and add it to the single serve side of the maker. This is accessed from the top under a small lid that flips up. This side is designed to only hold enough water for a single serve amount of water. I don't use manufactured pods as I prefer fresh grounds but this maker apparently can handle pods too. I grind my beans or use pre-ground coffee and add that to the slide out tray on the single serve side just above the cup location. There is a metallic mesh screen that holds the grounds on the single serve side and I find that I waste less coffee than when I try to make only 1 or 2 cups in a large pot. The single serve side has a nested set of plastic circles that sits under a tall mug when not needed. These little circular risers can be un-nested and stacked to allow a shorter cup to be closer to the dripping coffee (see photos). This allows the maker to accommodate a variety of sizes of cups. The single serve side takes about 2 minutes to brew. I think the coffee tastes great and I can control the strength of the brew based upon how many grounds I add. The full carafe side is much like any basic drip-coffee maker. There’s a small reservoir that holds enough water to brew a full pot of coffee. There’s a flip lid and a basket for coffee grounds. You can use paper filters or buy a separate metallic, re-usable mesh filter that fits inside this basket. I like these baskets as it’s less wasteful than using paper filters daily and I don’t have to remember to constantly purchase filters. I’ve used the same mesh filter for over 7 years now. It doesn’t filter as finely as paper filters do and the last sip of coffee contains a small amount of grit / sediment but this seems normal to me now. If someone doesn’t like this idea than I would warn them not to drink the last sip. It’s pretty easy to avoid. The coffee maker has a very obvious and easy to use manual switch that selects whether you are brewing a full pot or a single serve. Only one side can be used at a time. You simply move the switch to the left or right as the illustrations show to select which side you wish to utilize. I frequently use the timer feature. Prior to work I have one 16 oz metal travel mug filled, warm and waiting for me when I wake up in the morning. The display is bright when you touch a button and dims to normal again after about 30 seconds so it doesn’t light up the kitchen at night like a beacon. There is a single bright green LED light that indicates that the timer is set and ready to go. Personally, I like this feature as it is an obvious acknowledgment that the timer is ready to go at the time that I programmed in. Some might find this too bright but it’s hard to imagine it being a nuisance to most people. Other reviewers have indicated the their carafe broke instantly upon the first use. I’ve used my carafe several times without issues. I also noticed that a new pot is around $10 so if it does break down the road, I can probably replace it easily. Some said that it tastes like plastic, I haven’t experienced this. Some said that it leaks after 3 months – I’ll try to update this review later but so far so good – no leaks. Others say it takes too long to brew. I think it takes about as long to make coffee as every other coffeepot that I have owned and if you set it up the night before, you won’t have to wait for it. It can be ready for you whenever you tell it to be ready. I even read that some people were annoyed that they had to slide the coffee pot out from under a counter in order to add water to the top of the coffee maker. I once added felt pads to the bottom of a coffee maker to make this process easier. Without a dedicated water line and a commercial coffee apparatus, I’m not sure how the manufacturer would avoid this overly burdensome task. You have to add water somehow; that’s how coffee works. I have not had any negative issues at all with this coffee maker and I’ve been using it daily for over 1 month. It’s easy to use, it’s easy to program and I like that I can make a full pot or single cup depending on my needs. I definitely recommend this unit.

Ross BatemanCanada

PRICE, CONVENIENCE, AND FLAVOUR, AS GOOD AS IT GETS

For many years, the best-tasting and most flavourful coffee we ever made has been with our Drip-O-Lator, made by Enterprise Aluminum in Macon Georgia. We bought this for cottage-use a long time ago--when they were still being made--at Robinson's General Store in Dorset Ontario. Later, we bought another, and then, they disappeared from the market. It was very cheap to buy and is simple to use: Measure the amount of cups you want into the middle of three graduated marked canisters; pour the required amount of boiling water into the upper marked canister, and wait a bit until it dribbled through into the bottom part of the coffee pot. Later, we had it dribble directly into a thermos butler, rather than into the pot on the wood stove. When we could get it, we used fresh spring water gushing from a woodsy hillside outcrop. That is a perfect coffee, always, fresh-ground or pre-ground---either way. When our Cuisinart maker with the built-in grinder stared leaking all over the counter at home, I research all available options for a new one. We took a chance on this Hamilton Beach, with mostly(not all) good ratings noting its low price. This machine, in its first days of use, rivals the Drip-O-Lator in flavour and even in simplicity of use. I can't fathom the truthfulness of the critical reviews. The single-serve side is not messy, and the flavour is first rate. We bought the crinkly made-in-Canada basket for the multi-cup side, and the results are just the same on both sides, using Nabob Bold Full City Dark. This water is from a well, hydrogen peroxide treated and softened, but judging by the results, that seems perfectly fine. The Cuisinart never made compelling coffee, even in fresh-grind mode. The pre-heated urn never kept things warm and it was messy to pour in its necessarily upside-down position. The Hamilton Beach is very economical, seeming to deliver the same volume of brewed of coffee as the water that is poured in. Access to the water tank is convenient, and the graduated lines are very visible. The single-serve side takes a tiny bit of coffee grounds in the bottom of the stainless mesh basket, and then the amount of coffee you want to drink is poured into the upper chamber from the cup you'll be drinking it from. Finally, the machine has a name that's easy to pronounce and spell---this Chinese make (I guess) does not have a pretentious European name, like the other Chinese machines. The Cuisinart , even in fresh-grind mode, never made compelling coffee. At home, our Cuisinart coffee maker with

Laura EnglandUnited States

Best coffee maker ever!

I thought I was a Keurig girl for life, until my last one started acting a fool the week of my daughter‘s wedding. I quickly ordered this one, and I will never go back. I love that this one makes a single cup during the week but a whole carafe on the weekend. It’s quick and easy to use, and it didn’t break the bank. I highly recommend this coffee maker!