Hamilton Beach FlexBrew Trio 2-Way Coffee Maker, Compatible with K-Cup Pods or Grounds, Combo, Single Serve & Full 12c Pot, Black – Fast Brewing (49902)

Definitely worth buying
Without naming the other brand I’m comparing this Hamilton flex brew trio. The other brand was very expensive $200+. This was $80. Other brand had a carafe that no matter how carefully you poured the coffee it spilled everywhere and made a mess. Hamilton is well designed and no mess pouring. I’ll start with the bad which is not bad but I would prefer the display to be brighter or able to adjust. In my opinion that is the only bad thing and I wouldn’t even say it’s a bad thing. It is easy to set up the clock, make coffee in the carafe or single serve. For the carafe all you do is pour the water in the carafe side for the amount of coffee you want. Ex if you want 10 cups you pour water to the 10 cup line if you want 12 cups you pour water to the 12 cup line. Put the amount of coffee to you preference in a filter and press Brew. Easy as that. Same as the single serve. I use a measuring cup with a spout for the single serve. I put the amount of water in the cup I’m using for the single serve in to the spouted measuring cup then pour it in the water side for single serve. This keeps the water from going everywhere from using the mug. Put any brand of pod (K cup or generic can be used unlike the other expensive brand). Press the single serve button and brew. You have a delicious cup of coffee. Or you can use the filtered basket that comes with the set and use your ground coffee in that. I’ve tried all three. Very easy and versatile. I was concerned after reading some of the reviews about the temperature of the coffee. The coffee is very hot with all three ways of brewing. It has a two hour shut off timer for the carafe. While the carafe is on the burner it stays very hot all two hours. Very pleased with the temperature it stays at. If I’m needing it to stay on longer than the two hours I don’t add more water but push the brew button again and it resets the timer. WARNING I do not know if this is bad for the Hamilton but I have not had any problems doing this. It is very easy to set the program timer. Just press and hold the clock button until it blinks 1900 then set the program time as preferred. You only need to do this once if you’re going to leave it at the same time every day. So if you want it to brew 5:00am set the program timer for that. Set up the coffee carafe side and press program and it’s set. You cannot set the timer program for the single serve but I couldn’t with the other brand either. Not a big deal or dealbreaker. All three brewing ways take a little bit longer to brew but not much at all. Again not a deal breaker. For all the Hamilton has to offer at a very affordable price compared to a couple minutes with the very expensive one I don’t mind. And if you set the program timer the couple minutes don’t matter. The Hamilton seems very durable and well designed. My only regret was I did not buy this long ago. But I’m glad I bought the other expensive one then this Hamilton affordable one. Proves by experience money doesn’t always buy quality. If needed I would buy this Hamilton over the other(s) any day!!!!!

UPDATED REVIEW
“Didn’t you just get that two months ago?!”That’s what my son just said to me after I spent the better part of two days… TWO DAYS … attempting to resolve the dreaded “nEEDLE” error on the single serve side.Of course, the return window closed a couple weeks ago. Of course.It’s not that the needles needed replacing or that they were clogged. I cleaned both – top and bottom needles – thoroughly. They are piercing just fine.And it’s not the brand of cups being used. We have a variety of brands from a variety of sources.It’s the machine. See video.It brews about an ounce or two then suddenly starts hissing and puffing out steam from all openings, ending with an impressive blow-out of steam and loud hissing, accompanied by a burst of ground-filled water. It’s about half an ounce but it contains enough grounds to cover the bottom of the coffee cup.And then there is a blinking blue light on the “brew/power” button.My son reminded me that our previous machines went out in a similarly hiss/steam blaze of glory. I guess because they lasted a few years, I didn’t pay attention to how they ended up giving up the ghost. I just attributed it to them being a few years old and replaced them.This is a few MONTHS old. Bought at the end of April 2025. And it’s now the end of June 2025.As much as I have felt loyalty to this machine for more than a decade … I agree with my son: it’s possible it’s just not made as good as the previous versions were.PREVIOUS REVIEW:This is such a great system. I am honestly a fan of the dual brew going back years to when it was first released. I bought her (what, 10 years ago?) and it lasted until a few months ago, when she started refusing to acknowledge we had cleaned it whenever we tried to use the single-serve side.She was done. Period. She still brews carafes just fine, so she went to my husband’s work site because no one brews single-serve coffee there.I made the mistake of trying a few other systems because some of my family wanted something that makes cold coffee, but after a few months of packing up and returning them all, one by one, I just bought this and told the family to take whatever coffee is left over in the carafe at the end of the day and pour it into a jar and put in the fridge. Voila, cold coffee… OG style. I mean, as a former newspaper editor, I was drinking cold coffee before it was a thing. Pour a cup of coffee, sit down to your desk and then the phone rings and someone knocks on the door… And four hours later, you sit back down and you have cold coffee. IT’S NOT THAT HARD and does not require an expensive machine to get done. Geesh.Anyway…This is a great system, as I knew it would be.I do like the larger reservoir for the single serve side – it lets me get a few decent size mugs from it.It brews a nice hot mug of coffee. I am able to put an average travel mug under the single serve dispenser but you do have to remove the mug pedestal to do that. I don’t use the pedestal because we have tall mugs and the coffee doesn’t splatter out while brewing like it does in shorter mugs.I like the addition of the brew strength choice – regular or bold. The bold makes it just right for a coffee. That option is there for both carafe and single serve use.You also get to choose the size of the mug on the single serve – going up to 14 ounce. That’s that we use for our Contigo travel mugs.It gets the coffee hot and brews pretty quickly, which is good in mornings.Now, for context – this is sitting next to a $1000 fully-automated espresso machine that we use for fussy drinks.So, the fact we would spend that kind of money for an espresso machine should show you that we are buying for results – not cost savings.And the Hamilton Beach Dual Brew is our choice for quality results. The fact it’s affordable is a bonus.

I liked that you can name a cup or a pot.I don’t like that once a weèk you need to make the coffee grinds don’t plug up your machine 😒

This is my second one. We broke the pot on the old one and decided to get a new brewer because of the age of the other one.They’re great machines and we like the option of brewing a single cup when the craving hits.I highly recommend it.