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

This is the one!
We’ve only had this coffee maker for a few days but we couldn’t be happier with it. It’s everything we wanted. It’s very nice looking. We think it’s very well made and simple to use. The ability to make a pot of coffee, a single cup or a large travel mug makes it perfect. It comes with a nice screen filter for the cup/mug side.
I always liked the idea of the little pods but didn’t like the cost or the amount of plastic waste. This coffee maker solves that problem. I can now buy and make flavored coffee without having to make an entire pot.
I recommend this coffee maker for the quality, looks, price and the ability to make just the amount you want. It’s light-weight but still of good quality. It’s easy to add water without spilling. It’s everything we wanted in a coffee maker. The coffee tastes great, too!

Single Serve Function is the MVP
I bought this machine for office use. I use the carafe side when I am expecting visitors, otherwise I use the single serve side for my morning coffee.
I have been using it for about a year, and my experience with this machine is mostly positive. I use the single serve side everyday. It is a very convenient feature: no leftover coffee, fills your cup at the right level and the coffee is always fresh. Single serve side has a metal mesh filter, so you only need to wash it before the next round of coffee. You can add a paper filter if you like, but I didn’t feel the need to do so. My only complaint about single serve side is that the machine started to dripe at about 10 months. It is not causing any problems, merely something that I noticed. Dripping might be partly due to switching to a finer grounded coffee, but I didn’t care to test because the amount of dripping is very little.
The carafe side, I didn’t use too much. I like the timing feature. I noticed that you setup the time when you want the coffee to be ready, not the time you want the machine start brewing the coffee.
The machine is made from a mix of metal and plastic materials. It looks well made but nothing more you would expect from this price range. This machine does not need any maintenance other than wiping it’s dust and running a very easy cleaning cycle every once in a while.
After one year of daily use, the machine is still functioning as it should. There are other coffee machines that have more functions, different features or better looks, but all come with a higher price tag. I can say this coffee machine is a good price-performance buy. Go for it if the only thing you want is a hassle free regular coffee.

Best coffee brewing machine as it makes single or pots. I use the single side to make tea as well. Seems to be standing up well as it is used more than once a day and people fall in the door to have a cuppa, they don’t even want to visit haha.

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

I bought one of these coffee makers 10-12 years ago and it worked perfectly until a few days ago. Perhaps my fault for not running descaler through it from time to time.
I was thrilled to discover the model is still available. I had no issues whatsoever with the original machine. I love the option of a single brew which I use occasionally for myself and sometimes for someone who’s visiting who likes their coffee stronger or weaker.
The controls are clean and simple. Love the 12-hour AM/PM clock.
I’ve run the pot, basket and single cup components through the dishwasher countless times without any issues.
I highly recommend this machine.