Hamilton Beach 49983 2-Way FlexBrew Coffeemaker,Black

I read a lot of reviews before deciding to take a chance on this coffee maker. I loved the idea of being able to make a full pot of coffee and use the K-Cups (as well as the fill it yourself K-Cup).Before ordering it I emailed Hamilton Beach asking if the horrible plastic smell problem had been addressed. Below is the reply I received:____________________________________Dear Gregg,Thank you for contacting us. We will be happy to assist you.The plastic taste should dissipate in the first week or two of use.However, because model 49983 seems to have an initial plastic taste we would also suggest cleaning your appliance and its parts using baking soda. If you mix baking soda with a little water to make a paste, you can then apply it to the unit and parts with a toothbrush. Allow it to sit for an hour or so and then brew just water through the machine to rinse.We have found that this is more effective is diminishing the initial plastic taste than in vinegar. Sincerely,JoannaConsumer Affairs_________________________________________Based on this encouraging info I purchased the 49983A through Amazon. When it arrived it did indeed have an extremely strong foul plastic smell. I tried to make a cup of coffee and the smell permeated the coffee making it completely undrinkable.Following the instructions from Hamilton Beach Customer Service I completely scrubbed every plastic part I could access. I brewed a few pots with vinegar as well as a solution with some baking soda. After all this effort I gave it a complete rinsing but I could still smell a strong plastic odor. I thought I would brew a few more pots of clear water to see if the odor would dissipate, but the coffee maker would not brew at all and had ceased to function (I did not immerse the coffee maker during the cleaning process). I packed it up and returned it to Amazon. Thank goodness for Amazon's return policy, they even covered the return shipping. A + + + to Amazon and F - - - to Hamilton Beach.I emailed my experience to Hamilton Beach. The following was their response:_________________________________Dear Gregg,Thank you for your email. We apologize for any issues you experienced with your coffee maker.For over 100 years it has been our priority and privilege to develop and manufacture high quality small appliances. Please be assured that our products and components meet all government requirements and are FDA and UL approved. They are also tested by independent laboratories to ensure the high quality that is expected of Hamilton Beach brand products. The rigorous tests we employ often exceed the standards set by our government making us a leader in the industry for quality and safety.Our company regards product design information such as drawings, bill of materials, specifications, test specs, performance specs, specific component/part materials, identification of suppliers/vendors and technical design rationale as being proprietary.Our engineers are aware of the issue and have been working to make corrections the newer units of this model.Thank you for contacting Hamilton Beach Brands. Please let us know if we can further assist you.Jessica W.Consumer Affairs_________________________________________Over the next few weeks at about a half dozen stores, we smelled the display units and in one case opened up a sealed box and every one had the pungent plastic odor. As an interesting point, NONE of the other manufacturer's coffee makers had this foul pungent odor, so I am convinced that the factory in China is using a poor grade or contaminated plastic. Why Hamilton Beach has not addressed this issue more aggressively is a mystery to me. Based on this and Hamilton Beach's reply I am not convinced that this issue will be resolved in the near future. I would strongly urge anyone wanting this coffee maker to either buy it in a retail store where you can smell the unit before you buy or buy it on Amazon where you do not have to pay for return shipping.I'm really disappointed, my wife and I were really looking forward to this coffee maker. Unfortunately it seems no one else makes a combo unit so we still have two coffee makers taking up counter space.__________________________________________***** Update on 12/01/14 *****After reading more comments about this coffee maker I came across one by Dr. Not and realized that he hit the nail right on the head. He said: "They are using a rubber tubing to get the water up to Dispenser and that tubing is BAD!!!".I am kicking myself for not realizing this myself (even though I didn't disassemble the unit to discover this). You see this isn't the first time I had this EXACT same problem with a Hamilton Beach product.We bought the Hamilton Beach model 33155 Slow Cooker at Wal-Mart last year. We bought it specifically because of the rubber seal around the lip of the lid and were thrilled until we used it. We washed the Slow Cooker before using it but the food had a chemical/rubber smell and taste. We washed it very thoroughly and a few weeks later tried it again with the same results. We used it a total of three times and the odor and fowl taste remained. The Slow Cooker then sat in the cabinet unused. I was about to throw it away but decided to inform Hamilton Beach first. I checked on Hamilton Beach's web site for a recall but found nothing for this model number. I emailed them and told them that we have no intention to ever use it again. I did not have the receipt so they considered it out of warranty but did offer to replace the lid for a $4.99 shipping charge. I was not able to get a confirmation from Hamilton Beach that the material used in the lip seal had been changed, so the slow cooker remains buried somewhere in the bowels of my basement. Hamilton beach did offer to give me a 50% discount off list price on anything on their web site, but at the time there was nothing I wanted. Looking up that model number on Amazon I see there are (at this time) only 11 reviews for this slow cooker with no mentions of a foul odor.Based on this incident from last year and the discovery by Dr. Not (give credit where credit is due) I am confident the smell is caused by the rubber feed tube for the water as he states, which would also give a possible explanation why there is such a disparity in the instances of the foul odor. I'm just willing to bet the feed tube quality and/or material varies from lot to lot. In a manufacturing process a roll of tubing needs to be replaced more often than the plastic pellets used in the injection molding of plastic parts. With multiple lots of rubber tube sitting on the inventory shelf, it is just the luck of the draw whether a "good" vs "bad" roll is grabbed and used on the coffee maker.Now why Hamilton Beach as not figured this out and addressed this is completely beyond me, especially when there is such a huge number of complaints AND the solution seems so simple to solve. Maybe there are other components contributing to this problem, but to be honest, were I Hamilton Beach, I would not sell another unit until I have solved this problem.If anyone out there has a unit out of warranty they cannot return and are unwilling to use because of the foul taste, try disassembling it and replacing the tube with a different type of tube. I don't know off hand where you could buy flexible plastic food grade tube, and not knowing the diameter, but maybe either a tube used for an air pump for an aquarium or a larger diameter tube like I have seen at Home Depot or Lowe's would give you an idea if we are on the right track before having to hunt down a flexible plastic food grade tube. If this does work, post a comment so others can fix this horrible problem.Good luck!______________________________________***** Update on 12/03/14 *****I emailed my last update to Hamilton Beach adding to the email:"I hope you can resolve this problem and even offer a fix to the multiple owners who are dis-satisfied.Should the problem be fixed I would be willing to give it another try.One suggestion I would also like to mention would be to allow the reservoir to remain full (like the Keurig) and allow you to still use the single serve rather than having to fill the reservoir an exact amount every time you use it."Below is the reply I received from Hamilton Beach:____________________________________________Dear Gregg,Thank you for your email.Design suggestions and comments do not go unnoticed. We will forward your comments to the appropriate individuals for consideration.Thank you for contacting Hamilton Beach Brands. Please let us know if we can further assist you.Jessica W.Consumer Affairs_______________________________________________Sooooo, we'll see if anything comes of this, though I will not be holding my breath. I sure hope they can resolve the problem since at least at this point in time no one else offers the dual features of this unit.

TL:DR At the bottomIf you are like me; your Keurig just broke (they tend to do so every year or so) and you probably came across this cheap item thinking, "wow what a great price for a replacement...and it brews a whole carafe!" I'm here to tell you don't bother. Yes, it is cheaper than a Keurig. Yes, it will brew you a whole carafe of coffee when needed and it will take your K-Cups. It sounds like a pretty awesome thing to have. Like having your cake and eating it too, with a nice cup of hot coffee (har-har). There have been times when I wished I could brew an entire pot of coffee when friends are over instead of brewing cup by cup via Keurig. So this was the answer! But let me ask you, does the cheap price make up for the lack of quality and / or coffee? I think not my friends, I think not.It arrived.First thing I noticed is it feels cheap. The materials used are all flimsy plastic and it just feels...I dunno...too light to be a coffee maker...but whatever, as long as it makes coffee I won't judge. I ripped off the plastic, assembled it, and prepared for that sweet, sweet brew to deliver me the caffeine I craved. I popped in a K-Cup, filled up the water reservoir with just the right amount of water for my cup (because you use your actual coffee cup to measure), pushed down down the lever thingy, pressed the button and sat there with a stupid grin on my face and waited for my coffee...and waited...and waited. About 4 minutes later the coffee finally started to drip out. Okay...okay...I knew it wasn't going to be as fast as my Keurig. There is no water sitting in the reservoir waiting to be spit over those delicious bean particles, so I knew it was going to take longer. I was accepting of this. it's just that the whole magic behind a K-Cup is to have coffee fast. I can run down from my office, brew up a cup, and be back in front of my computer before the group finder popped for a dungeon in Neverwinter Online. Not so much with this.The coffee, once it was done, was good. It was hot like it was supposed to be and it filled up my cup as advertised.So why the bad score? I'll tell you why. It stopped brewing coffee on the K-cup side. For some strange reason it slowly started to brew less and less coffee. Strange. When you put a certain amount of water in the reservoir, you expect the exact same amount out...you know...it's coffee instead of water. Tit for tat. After about 10 cups we would put a cup in and only get like 1/4 back. So we'd add more water and get the same. It got so we'd have to brew 4 times over just to get one cup of coffee. then all of the sudden, it would spit out an "ERR" message. So I busted out the manual and it said "Too much water, run the carafe side and empty the reservoir." So I do that. And yes there was a lot of water. It emptied out the reservoir (you can see the amount of water) and I thought that would be the end of it. Back in the saddle, I poured a cup of water in the reservoir, socked the K-Cup in and let her rip... Nothing but steam. Literally nothing came out into my cup but steam. I could hear it bubbling in there. Oh it made all sorts of noise to make you think it was doing something. But nothing came out. Then it had the audacity to beep at me to tell me it was done. I took my hot cup of air and was like, WTF? I looked at the reservoir and all the water was stuck at the top of the container...Let me explainWhen you look at the side of the reservoir you can see the little lines telling you when and where to stop pouring water. On the bottom is a max fill line for single cup use, and on the top is the max fill line for the carafe. In between these 2 things is some soft of contraption that looks like it is supposed to either let water into the bottom for single cup or keep it up top for carafe type brewing? I dunno. Well all the water was staying up top and there was no water below.I checked the knob to make sure it was on single, it was. I switched back and forth and nothing. Then I did it really fast like 10 times and finally at some point some water poured into the bottom area. not all of it but it looked like enough did so I could at least get half a cup out of it. Okay, so flimsy materials and garbage craftsmanship. This is getting old.One more try. If it gives me my cup of coffee, I will consider it redeemed and just now I know I have to toggle the switch a few times and check the water levels (never had to do that with my Keurig but whatever). Water level is good (because it never brewed from the last time. K-Cup is ready. Knob is in the correct position. Coffee cup is in the optimal spot to catch all the delicious coffee that is going to come pouring out. It's time! Let's do this. Push the "Brew Now" button...and...."ERR". Slap my forehead. Press it again...wait...no ERR message. Could it be? It's doing something. I hear noises. Nothing but steam.The moral of this story is, it seems like a good deal...it is cheaper than a Keurig, but make no mistake my friends, a Keurig it is not. Do yourself a favor, spend the extra money to get a replacement Keurig. Don't sacrifice price for quality. The silver lining here is now I know what regret tastes like. It tastes like an empty cup of hot air.TL;DR: Started producing nothing but hot air and is worthless...much like my ex-wife.

Not a bad machine really. It works well for the most part.One annoying thing is that the coffee pot side heats up even when using the single pod side.Other than that - it brews a decent cup, fairly quickly, and accepts all pods we've put in it so far.Another irritating thing is having to pour the water in for every cup, there's no reservoir. I was spoiled by my earlier Keurig, but knew this to be the case before purchasing, and I still did it. I did not realize how much I would miss that.Still, this is a decent machine for the money. It looks nice on my counter and we haven't had any problems with it, it gets used daily for the last 4-5 months and works as well as it did on day 1.

Great coffee maker and I love the dual options (you don't need k-cups to use either as it comes with a mini reusable single cup filter). We've used it daily for a few months now with no complaints but it gets four stars because out of the blue last week, after running a full pot of coffee, the single cup side dripped clean cool water (about 1/5 of a cup) for seemingly no reason hours after the machine had run. It did it the next time we ran it as well so I was worried that it may be breaking or defective, but just as randomly as it started to do it the next time we ran it it seemed to have stopped. No idea why or what caused it, perhaps condensation build up and the fact that we frequently use both sides of the machine. Regardless, happy with the product and the price we paid but 4* because I would consider that a malfunction/design flaw and we now keep a small glass bowl under the single cup side just in case it leaks again.

This is a great coffee maker, very versatile. Makes pot, k-cup or single cup loose ground easily. I had a Keurig before and wanted the ability to make more than one cup when someone came in or in the morning on the way to work. This pot does what is advertised in all formats. There is a couple of observations that my sway some buyer. Each cup or pot you have to add the exact amount of water for the output you want. After the Keruig, I have been known to forget this step. The screen for the ground single cup is a little course which allows some sediment in the coffee. The positive of this is it is easy to rinse and a lot heaver material than that use in the reusable filter for the Keruig. The pot is a little slow as each making is from cold water as the pot doesn't preheat the water. Not perfect but, I think, as good as you can get for this versatile of a unit. Great unit for price point.

If there is 4.5, that would be the rating. Machine is great, been using it for almost a year now and it has not failed me. Price is decent for what you get. You have to make sure to press the ground coffee in with light pats flat against the coffee filter in order to attain a bolder taste. If you just throw in the grounds without pressing, you'll probably be drinking up to 50% less strength of what you want. For those wondering if it is BPA-free, I asked Hamilton Beach via email, and they said all the parts where water passes are BPA-free. That's a plus but I wished they had just written it on the box or something. Also wished there was timer for the single-cup feature but not a big deal.

I bought this machine to share with three other members of my office ' we wanted to have the option of brewing a whole pot of coffee or K-cups so this seemed like the ideal hybrid-machine. WRONG.We started off attempting to brew a full pot. It took 20 minutes. We tried again and it took 17. I know that in the grand scheme of things 20 minutes to wait for a cup of coffee is not that long but I can buy a Walmart coffee maker for $15 and get the same amount of coffee in 5 minutes.Next came the K-cup side'you must only add the amount of water required to brew ONE cup of your desired beverage. If you have added too much? The solution is to activate the 12 cup brew cycle'Long story short? It is a hassle - it is cheaper and less labour intensive to have two machines. They take up more space but having caffeinated (happy!) coworkers is all that I really care about!LESSON LEARNED - there is a substantial 'trouble shooting' section in the instructions ' perhaps that should have tipped me off!