Hamilton Beach 2-Way 12 Cup Programmable Drip Coffee Maker & Single Serve Machine, Glass Carafe, Auto Pause and Pour, Black (49980R)

I did a couple of water-only runs through it just to try to get any manufacturing oil/residue or anything out of it (i don’t think this is required but read that its helpful) and initially was pretty disappointed – didn’t taste great or seem any better than my old, cheap one. But after the first couple dozen pots I’ve made it started to taste better and now am digging it. One thing I’m still not sure about is that if you leave coffee on the heating pad too long after brewing is that it doesn’t taste great – SEEMS to stay maybe a bit too hot? But if you drink it within the first 15-20 minutes after brewing its quite good.

Sturdy build – easy to clean and prepare. The single brew cup has been pretty handy at times as well – the included reusable filter is perfect for this – haven’t noticed any sort of flavor bleeding (where taste from coffee in carafe side blends into single serve side, etc). You can only brew carafe side or single serve side one at a time – please be aware. Not a problem for me as I only do one at a time anyway.

Will say it does prepare the coffee really fast and the ‘Strong brew’ setting actually makes a difference too (that is – it actually makes the coffee noticebly stronger).

Pretty good but recommend you get it on sale. Don’t think its worth the full asking price really.

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.

Había leído comentarios respecto al fuerte olor y sabor a plástico y aunque podría ser cierto, basta con un buen lavado antes de utilizarlo para evitarlo. Muy práctica cafetera al poder preparar una jarra convencional o una aporción individual con solo un termo. En mi caso tengo un termo Contigo de 20oz y aunque el depósito individual de agua tiene suficiente capacidad, por su altura, el termo “cabe” solamente quitando la charola inferior. Todo bien hasta aquí. El pequeño problema es que la base sin charola tiene una “muesca” que evita que permanezca completamente perpendicular, sin embargo bastará solamente con “calzarlo” o limar esta pequeña muesca. Ojo, esto solo es para termos muy altos, creo que la mayor parte no tendrá problemas, pero solo para considerarlo. También sin problema podrías preparado del lado de la jarra.
En mi caso la compré en el buen fin y me costó $900.00 MXN

I’ve had a one cup coffee maker for many years and I’ve had to replace it many times usually because of a malfunction from the calcium buildup. Descaling every 2 to 3 months with the name brand descaling solution wasn’t enough to prevent them from failing. Spending anywhere between one and two hundred dollars every time I had to replace it. I’ve realized it’s the inner hose clogging up because it’s not just a straight shot from point A to point B and there’s many bends in the hose that eventually get enough calcium buildup that they fail even if you’re descaling often. I know because I took my last kcup pot apart and had myself a good look inside. I thought maybe I could save it but quickly realized that they are designed to fail so the consumer would purchase the new model.
I decided to give this coffee maker a try and I am happy with my decision. I still have 2 cases of Kcup pods and I cut the tops open and use the coffee to make a single cup and it works great. I don’t even mind cutting them open because they do make a delicious cup of coffee every time. This coffee maker also has the convenience of a 12 cup pot. Anyone else remember the last family get together where there was a line at the coffee maker? Now I can just make a pot of regular coffee and still make the single cups of decaf or flavored if someone wants something different. Win win. 💯 %
I don’t give up 5 stars easily. You have to earn it. And this coffee maker does. Simple ✅ inexpensive ✅ dual purpose ✅ convenient ✅ Bold setting for single cup or pot ✅

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