Hamilton Beach 49900 FlexBrew Single-Serve Coffee Maker Compatible with Pod Packs and Grounds, Black-Fast Brewing Import To Shop

Great little machineHave had a Keurig for years. I’ve been disenchanted with the flavor intensity of the cup of coffee or tea and – the liquid wasn’t that hot. The Keurig was not even a year old. I also have a French Press when I want “real” fresh coffee – but it takes a little extra time in the mornings and when I’m working – I just want to drink a good cup quickly. Plus, the press makes more than one cup and I have a cup of English Breakfast Tea and then one cup of coffee each morning. I don’t need 2 cups of coffee, only one. . Frustrated, I searched Amazon for the perfect solution. Came across this single serve coffee maker and saw it could make k cups or individual ground coffee. WHAT? Ok, so for $69, I take the plunge. Order Red as it’s super cute against my white and grey marble backsplash/granite countertop. When it arrived I didn’t understand how it worked. Realized unlike the Keurig, which holds a tank of water – you pour in water each time you want a cup of coffee/tea. I thought, crap, I made a mistake, this is going to be a pain. But – I poured it into the reservoir (don’t go past the Max Fill line!), put a K cup in, and closed the lid. Hit Bold Brew (but you can do regular) and – nothing happened. I thought (again) I made a mistake. Then this sound starts happening….scared the bejesus out of me. It’s the water boiling in the machine! When it got to a full boil, it made my cup and it was HOT!!!! It also tasted good too. I was so excited, once I finished the K cup, I used the other attachment to make a cup of coffee with coffee grounds. AMAZiNG. It’s been 3 weeks since I purchased this and I can’t imagine not having this little machine. Each cup I brew is flavorful and hot. It is easy to clean and the water doesn’t get gross as it is never just sitting there not being used. For me, this is the perfect little single serve coffee maker – so many options without sacrificing flavor because you only want one cup. I hope this review helps others who aren’t sure what this little coffee maker is all about.

Great single pod home and travelLove this single pod. I own the larger Hamilton Beach coffee maker with a carafe and my husband’s 16 oz mug fits. We were looking for a single pod to take with us when we travel and accommodate my husband’s 16 oz mug. I looked at several travel type ones. Bought two and did not accommodate my husband’s 16 oz mug and the coffee brewed warm. No choice for bold brew. Coffee was warm and not hot. I returned both. I found the one pod Hamilton Beach. I bought it because it had the features I was looking for. Coffee comes out hot, has a bold brewing choice and my husband’s 16 oz travel mug fits perfect. It’s lite weight. We just love it and have already used it in our travels. I HIGHLY recommend this one for home or travel. Reasonably priced.

PERFECT IN SO MANY WAYS!All the practical reasons I really like this Hamilton Beach coffee maker.(I first bought the Sboly, which made me appreciate this model all the more-my Solby review is at the bottom.)ABOUT THE HAMILTON BEACH-The coffee ground basket is solid plastic with screening at the bottom. This makes the basket very firm to handle and easy to empty hot coffee grounds. It has a rigid lip that you can knock against the edge of the trash can without getting the coffee grounds all over the floor. The lid is hinged so there is no folding plastic parts, and snaps on and off if you want to do that.-There are two cup levels to choose from although you would have to make the coffee twice to fill the larger cup. When I do want to fill a larger cup, I just use the cup I usually use and pour it into the bigger cup. The container it sits on to raise the cup is rigid and stores the second k-cup basket, nice!-You pour in the water you need up to 14oz, which is perfect for the 16oz cup. It is also a little shorter and fits under my cabinet door when open-personal thing but turned out to be very relevant in my situation ;-)-The reservoir lid is hinged – pop it open, pop it closed.-So, I forgot to run some plain water through before I started using it and there was a weird taste in the first two cups of coffee. I ran water with a little white vinegar through about 2 times then plain water about 2 times to get rid of the odd taste. Now it is perfect.AS COMPARED TO THE SBOLYWhat I did not like about the Sboly (it may seem odd to include this part but all those bells and whistles sounded really good in theory but were not so great in practice.):-The Sboly splattered, and I was using the appropriate level for my cup size. My cup is of standard size. We looked at it to make sure nothing was clogged. My husband said the pressure of the hot water was too great for the design, therefore spitting instead of dripping.-The Sboly’s level adjustment tray seemed sort of flimsy. Even when I set my average weight coffee cup on the tray empty, it gave a little, slanting downward. It didn’t bode well for the future.-I did not like the basket they provide to use with coffee grounds. When you open the top, the crease where the lid folds down appeared white, like folded plastic does just before it breaks. The whole thing is screened, which sounds good in theory, but makes it difficult to handle when you are trying to change the grounds, especially when they are hot. The top of the lid is larger than the bottom, and it started to fall open when I would go to remove it from the coffee maker. It is also a challenge to find a way to hold it when you are trying to dump the contents in the trash can and you cannot knock it against the side of the trash can to get the grounds out because it is not rigid and there is no lip to catch on the edge of the can. Again, the lid being bigger than the body makes this process awkward. Overall, flimsy and difficult to manage.-The Sboly’s preset cup sizes sounded good in theory but were really a pain. My husband uses 16oz to-go paper cups that obviously hold more than 12oz so I could not fill his cup as much as I would like. Also, if you are making 12oz cups of coffee, a 30oz reservoir is kind of weird, why not 36oz, so you fill it every other time instead of every time. Again, sounded good in theory. The lid to the reservoir is not hinged and it took me using both hands to get it in the right spot when putting it back on; I kept dropping it in the reservoir when I used one hand :-)-Finally, with the top open, it was just a little too tall to open the cabinet door above it where I keep the coffee. I also had to find a place to store the k-cup basket where I wouldn’t forget. Another funky shaped doo-dad with no obvious place to call home.-So I returned the Sbolyy, and got my refund no problem.I hope this helps somebody!

Nice alternative to that K-brandWe bought this to take to a convention that is held in an overpriced hotel with very expensive food and beverage service. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on a K-brand. I also didn’t want to deal with their DRM that locks out pods from companies that did not pay them royalties.This Hamilton Beach unit seemed like a good alternative, and so far it has been. It works well, and the coffee is as good as you can hope for from a pod brewer. Some other reviewers have grumbled about it being slow, but I don’t see much difmy Dad’s K-brand.It’s super easy to clean…if you use pods. The “funnel” thing (that the coffee goes through en route from the K-cup or grounds basket to the cup) pops right out for washing.The supplied filterless basket for ground coffee works well and makes decent coffee, but it’s a real pain in the neck to clean. I guess that’s probably true of other brands, too; I don’t know.Bottom line is, this is a good value. I don’t see much difference between this and a Keurig, other than cost.

Effort to punctureWe’ve been using this for a couple of months now. First though, a defense on how long it takes to brew a cup. It is indeed quite a bit longer to brew a cup than the larger Keurigs or other multi-cup large reservoir brewers. Around 3 minutes. But it also draws ~1/3 less wattage (1050W vs 1500W), and it’s designed for single use. My response is brew your coffee and go do something else for a couple of minutes: it’s just not that big a deal. I should mention that “single use” doesn’t imply you can only use it once in a session: individual use would be a better term.Pros:I really like the essentially no-reservoir approach. Leaving little to no water in the reservoir also means I shouldn’t have to wash the tank and hit it with chlorine to kill the algae that builds up in the larger style. My old Keurig would have to be filled with water with a good 3″ still sitting there in the large reservoir. Frankly, although I’m not here to slam Keurig, I found all 3 that I’ve had to be disappointing – time to switch.I like that I get to choose how large a cup of coffee I get rather than the forced fixed size I was stuck with in the past.I like the smaller footprint. A lot.I like how it automatically shuts off after you’ve brewed your cup of coffee.Some have complained that it’s not hot enough. I’ve never had that problem, and the coffee is extremely hot after brewing. I wouldn’t want it any hotter – it’s already right at the edge.I like the overall design and the engineering thinking that went into it. In that sense, it appears to be well thought out – but more of that under Cons as well.Cons:Unlike other brewers I’ve had, it takes remarkable effort to puncture and lock the cover in place. I have a single use in my camping trailer from a different brand that doesn’t do this. I like that one better, but it was also nearly twice as much as this one, so I’m not plugging the brand here. My wife is afraid of using the HB for fear that she’ll break something. It’s possible as the plastic insert could be out of alignment when you lock the cover prior to brewing. It’s a simple glance to confirm – but the overall feeling is not a warm and fuzzy one. I bought this one based on the sheer number of happy people and high ratings, but I had originally planned on just replacing my dead Keurig with another of the other single use coffee maker I have.While I think this is well designed and engineered overall, it’s a lot of plastic and doesn’t have the feel of sturdiness or longevity. Well-designed but cheaply made. This is one of those you-get-what-you-pay-for kind of things. It works well, but I’m not sure it will hold up. My wife doesn’t like it. I do think it’s worth the money and is overall a bargain at the price. I don’t actually know how they do it and make a profit. And it may surprise me as to how long it lasts.It might seem strange to say, but while overall I feel it deserves 4 1/2 stars, if this one breaks anytime soon, I will look elsewhere and spend the extra money for one of higher quality build materials.