Hamilton Beach FlexBrew Trio 2-Way Coffee Maker

Nothing like a good hot cup of tea or coffee

UPDATE 03/31/2024: Since the date of the review written below we have gone through 4 of these units. All have failed in the same fashion, with the discharge hose on the pod heating block becoming disconnected. Each failure has been within a week of receipt of the product. There is a serious design flaw and a potential fire hazard as it also causes the heating coil to short or stop working when the house disconnects and steam poured from behind the pod lid for over a minute. Similar reviews call out the same issues. Recommendation = Do Not Buy.

We finally gave up on this product and purchased a Keurig brand with a thermal carafe (Which is the key feature we sought.) To Hamilton Beach, I say fire your engineer who thought smooth output tubes on the heating blocks would hold up to repeated pressure cycles with clamps that can be compressed by finger strength alone.

ORIGINAL POST:
We purchased this machine, model 49920, and received it January 28th of 2024, to replace our Hamilton beach coffee maker, model 49976, that we’d had since November of 2017. Upfront, I wish we’d have gotten the same model. Our original model was used daily for years with nary an issue, until the reservoir for the large pot developed a leak.

Enter the 49920, this model’s review. Today is February 5th, 2024 and in the short week of having it, it’s already broken. Not more than 6 pods of use on the single cup side and its leaking water all over the counter. I suspect that a hose inside the machine has melted at the heating chamber/vessel inside and now all the machine does is pump water into the internal compartment. This is for the pod side of the machine only. Also the needle clogged the second time we used it. We only use store bought pods and not the use your own grounds reusable basket. I suspect that the heating chamber stays hot constantly on the pod side, and the constant heat is what caused the transfer hose to fail. As I need to return the machine for the exchange process, I won’t be able to dissect this machine and inspect to confirm the failure point.

For the carafe side on the machine, brewing is as expected without issues. If you have your machine tucked under an overhead cabinet, you will likely need to pull the machine out to fill the carafe side reservoir. This machine sticks out farther than our previous model, so I have to pull it out all the way to the front edge of my counter for the lid to clear my upper cabinet. There is no heating element for the carafe, as it relies on its thermal insulation design to keep the coffee hot. This does prevent the coffee from becoming burnt, which I really do appreciate. The pour spout for the carafe needs some better engineering though, as others have noted in their reviews, as it tends to be messy. Whether this is a function of the air relief in the lid or pour fluid dynamics of the spout itself, I can’t say.

Overall, I will hold my final judgements on this machine in reserve for the time being, but will rate it two stars in comparison to my dearly departed model 49976. I want to like this machine, and perhaps I got a dud, but I feel as though the quality standards are not up to par with what it’s replacing. I will update this review after I get my replacement and put it through further use.

O my second machine, the replacement because the first one stopped working after a couple weeks, same thing with this one.

DO NOT BUY! HORRIBLE MACHINE, TAKES FOREVER TO GET IN CONTACT WITH CUSTOMER SERVICE. JUST AWFUL ALL AROUND.

As soon as you see OVERLOAD it’s done. Took less than a month for my replacement to be finished. Just awful 😖

We use it everyday, several cups or a full pot of coffee. It works well and is sturdy. We also use it to heat water to make tea and hot chocolate. A very reliable appliance in our kitchen.

Update 1/14/24: It was working fine until one day, it broke. Tried to brew a k-cup and the brew light started blinking. There is little to no support or help on that issue. Unplug and plug it back in…. nope. Hold down the button for three to four seconds…. nope. Left it unplugged for 10 minutes that reset it. Then no water pouring into the cup, but it is all over the counter. Water was coming out of the hole where the electrical cable comes out of, yikes! Called for the warranty, Asurion, who told me it’s too new they sent me to amazon who told me to talk to Asurion. After a back and forth they confirmed I talked to Asurion and then told me they would take it back for full refund since I got it with a tiny discount they would not replace it. So I have to find a box now and take it to return it and then reorder it for a slightly higher price and I am supposed to get a refund on the Asurion, but last time that happened it was a hassle. So I guess this is a review of a few things.

Original:
I bought this because our costco keurig special finally died. I wanted a pot of coffee option and the keurig option and this does it. The best thing about this is the option to fill the included reusable keurig pod and the k-cup adapter. The k-cup adapter also holds a reusable k-cup which we find easier to use cause we have filters for it. The problem I have found with the included reusable keurig filter is that it overloads too easy and scrolls a large message across the screen, which is ridiculous it could be easier to read. The coffee pot and keurig side work great otherwise. The only other problem we have had is the clock and brew timer are ridiculously unlike any other clock and time you have ever set. It’s not intuitive. It is also ridiculous that you can’t program the keurig side to auto brew, should be exactly the same as the pot side. This should be an easy thing for the money spent on this. And remember if you do set auto brew for the pot side and then later go and change it to the keurig side then you need to make sure to take the step to restart the auto brew and flip it back to the pot side, not a big deal but still stupid. If both sides were programmable one at a time then sure I get why I would have to make sure to switch it back, it should reset itself if it was already on. Why not one reservoir and choose how much coffee the pot makes? The reservoir for the keurig is easy to fill but the lid falls off easy. The coffee pot side reservoir is hard to fill like every other coffee maker in existence and the water levels are impossible to see without good light and being able to see over the top of the coffee maker. I’m six foot and still cant quit make out all the steps. We have the metal coffee pot, its nice, it does hold the heat, I don’t have to worry about a pot of coffee sitting on a hot plate. The coffee pot is a pain to pour the last bits out of. There should not be a lip where there is a lip the design could be better. The coffee pot side holds the steam in pretty good but the keurig side is a steam engine. We just put out the whole thing from under the cabinets regardless, no one needs mold. Overall its a good machine so far and it better last 10 years. Buy a used/refurbished if you can save some money unless you want the extended warranty that was not offered when we tried to purchase the used one. This is why we went with the new one, otherwise I would not have minded a returned item in good condition.

I was very disappointed with the new design. I had an older flex brew for years that I finally had to retire. The new pot leaks and pours coffee all over the place. The lid that covers the filter and water is one piece. I can’t open it under the cabinets-so every time I want to put water in, I have to pull the pot out from under the cabinets. It is nice to have separate water reservoirs for the pot vs single cup brew. That is the only nice feature. Very disappointed in the new flex brew.