Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I rarely post product reviews, but this product is worth commenting on. My wife and I are retired and thus have worn out many coffee makers during the years. This is the best one yet. It simply makes a great pot of coffee and the design has solved most of the problems that plague other units. Other reviewers have done a good job of explaining the pros of this coffee maker. So I'd like to address some of the complaints that I've read here. (We bought one in spite of the complaints simply based on the 4-1/2 star rating and good comments.) "Don't like the blue light: - Well I like the blue light. I had to use a flashlight to read the display on our last (expensive) drip maker. With this one, the electroluminescent display is a good size and easy to read in the dark or light. It is not obtrusively bright. "Water reservoir leaks all over the counter" - Mine doesn't leak a drop. There is a valve on the bottom of the reservoir that must close when the reservoir is removed from the unit. I suspect that this reviewer has a defective valve, which would be replaced under warranty. And as other reviewers noted, there are multiple benefits with a removable reservoir including being able to fill it at the sink and to remove it for cleaning. It can be immersed. "Doesn't heat enough for full coffee taste" - The coffee made with this unit tastes better than any we've had before. "Drips each time you pour from it" - I don't understand this comment at all unless it was made by a competitor. I poured coffee from a full carafe as slowly as possible and could not get it to drip. There is a plastic ring bonded to the rim, and the pour slot has a very sharp designed edge to prevent dripping. It works great. "It's slow" - Our last (expensive) drip maker took 13 minutes for 12 cups. This one takes 12 minutes on the "Regular" strength setting, and the strength was to our taste. Let's face it - it takes 212 degrees to boil water. So there are only two variables that control drip maker speed of brewing: 1) rate of water flow and 2) retention time in the grounds cup. Unfortunately or not, both of these variables also affect the quality of the brew. So the goal is to adjust these design parameters to achieve the best tasting coffee, and brewing time is what it is. This one is definitely not overly slow, and it brews a great tasting pot of coffee. Again, I don't understand the criticism. "Impossible to empty carafe" - This one is true, but for a good reason. If you examine the plastic rim on the carafe, you'll find that the designers incorporated a lip to help prevent sloshing over when handling a full pot. This is a nice feature. But it also necessarily retains a bit of coffee on the last pour. I measured less than a tablespoon. I think this was a good design tradeoff. "Grounds overflow for anything greater than 8-9 cups" - If you read the manual, in the "Troubleshooting" section, under "Filter basket overflows", it lists 11 possible causes, all user errors. We have not had a problem with basket overflowing using standard paper filters. "The unit is loud" - All coffee makers make some noise. For drip makers, this usually occurs as the last water is used from the reservoir as the boiler starts running dry. I'd say this one is slightly noisier at the end of the cycle than our last one, but definitely not annoyingly so. And even though I think not by design, it serves as a nice audible notification that the brew is ready. "Emits too much steam" - All drip makers emit steam. We've never owned one that didn't have to be pulled out to the edge of the counter to keep from damaging the overhead cabinets. This one is no different. The emitted steam didn't seem excessive. "Poorly made" - I disagree - it appears to be well made. Since we've just started using it, I can't comment on reliability. But for $50 (about the price of a couple of meals out), we can afford to replace it every year. If it fails before a year, it will be repaired or replaced free. I would definitely buy this again. I'm considering buying another and putting it in storage in case they are discontinued in the future. 5/21/13 followup - "Carafe lid won't come off for cleaning" - I was able to get ours off. It just snaps into the hinges, but is granted a little tight. 12/13/13 update I would like to clarify a few points from my original review. My review was of the Hamilton Beach 46201. It was not my intent to offer advice on how to make coffee. Nevertheless, making good coffee basically requires three elements: 1) good equipment, 2) good materials (coffee and water) and 3) using the coffee and equipment correctly. The Hamilton Beach 46201 uses the same technology that most home drip brewers use, which is an electrically-powered heating element which heats the water to boiling (212 degrees). Reaching the boiling point of water is necessary to generate the bubbles which push the water up through a tube and into grounds cup. If the water doesn't boil, the coffee maker doesn't work. As the hot water travels through the vertical tube, and across to the drip nozzle, it cools. How much it cools depends on the particular coffee maker. Coffee maker designers attempt to design the length of the travel to allow the water to cool to the ideal extraction temperature by the time it reaches the drip nozzle, which according to the National Coffee Association is between 195 - 205 degrees Fahrenheit for optimal extraction. There is a lot of confusion about "brewing time". Folks talk about brewing time as though there is a singular time in the drip-brew process. Actually, there are at least four times worth mentioning. First is the process time, which is the overall time from when power is applied to the heating element until the last drop of coffee leaves the filter basket. Process time is what I was referring to when I said it takes 12 minutes to brew 12 cups. "Process time" is made up of the sum of element-heating time, flow time and brewing time. What do these mean? It takes a few seconds, or maybe minutes depending on the unit, for the heating element to get the water in the heating tube hot enough to boil. This is "element-heating time." This is measured from the time power is applied until the first drips reach the drip nozzle. Once water starts flowing through the drip nozzle, it takes some time for the reservoir to be fully emptied. This is the "flow time". Flow time is fixed for any given coffee maker and how much water is in the reservoir. For example, in the Hamilton Beach, I measured a flow time of about 9 minutes for 12 cups of water, with no filter and an empty cup. Obviously, other than the amount of water used, the amount of coffee and its grind have nothing to do with flow time - you are strictly at the mercy of the unit's design. Finally, there is "brewing time" which the National Coffee Association defines as "the amount of time that the water is in contact with the coffee grounds." This definition is vague and brewing time is where it gets complicated. There is the time it takes for a molecule of water to transit completely through the filter cup. And there is the overall amount of time that the coffee is wet, from the release of the first drop until the last drop exits the filter basket. Both are important. For a given coffee maker (aside from using a "Bold" button if the maker has one), the only controls the user has over "brewing time" is the amount of water placed in the reservoir, the amount of coffee in the filter basket, coffee grind, and filter porosity. Chances are you are not going to get these optimum the first try - it requires a bit of experimentation. And please note: brewing time will always be shorter than process time. There are basically two filter basket designs - cone and flat-bottom. The baskets for both types have ridges which are to keep the filters from touching the sides of the basket, thus allowing the coffee to escape from all surfaces of the filter. Because water enters the filter at various points and because the sides are porous and thus water can exit anywhere along the filter's surface, an analysis of how many water molecules hit each molecule of coffee would require complex finite-element analysis computer modeling, much like weather prediction models and has probably never been done, nor would it be a good use of anyone's time. It is worth noting that Bunn, which makes commercial coffee makers and some higher-end home units and arguably produces some of the best-tasting cups of coffee around, also uses flat-bottom filter baskets. The National Coffee Association website has more good information on the subject. Are you going to produce an excellent cup of coffee with the Hamilton Beach 46201? Probably not. Are you going to produce a good cup of coffee with it? Yes. Is it a thoughtfully-designed, easy-to-use coffee maker? Yes. Is it well-made? Yes, and for under $40 it is a great value. After seven months, ours is still working great. (I am not an employee of Hamilton Beach or its affiliates, nor do I stand to profit from this review in any way. The general information in this update only applies to the most common type drip-type coffee makers using a heating element and one-way valve, and not to other technologies. Thanks to those who have posted kind comments recognizing the time I spent writing the review. I hope that this update helps.) 2/21/17 update After almost four years, we haven’t had a single problem with this coffee maker. The quality of the coffee is as good as it was when the device was new. A word about early failures – consumer products don’t last forever. Electrical components all have finite lives. The manufacturer is motivated to find the sweet spot between affordability and reliability. I had the good fortune to work on the Apollo/Saturn moon mission in the late 60’s and early 70s. Every circuit on that vehicle which could have caused a failure leading to death had five duplicate circuits doing the same task. A computer processed the circuits’ outputs, and when there was a disagreement among circuits, the computer decided which was correct. Coffee maker manufacturers could design coffee makers with 5-way redundancy which would outlast their owners, but then no one would buy them because they would be too expensive. This coffee maker comes with a one-year warranty. For the reasonable $49.99 MSRP, one is insured of having a working coffee maker for 12 months. That is about the price many people pay for a year of antivirus product subscription for their computers. Many pay much more than $50 for a month of phone service/internet connection. For any consumer product, if it outlives its warranty period, I consider myself lucky. I have a new-in-the-box HB 46201 ready to unbox as soon as the current one fails.