Customer Reviews

Black & Decker HCC100 Home Cafe Single Serve Coffee Brewing System, Black

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(30)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(36)
1 star:		(166)

 

 

This coffee maker is perhaps the biggest piece of junk I have ever purchased and I returned it within 24 hours. Where O' where to begin?

The construction of this appliance is truly a joke. There isn't a piece of metal in the entire piece. You get a thin piece of aluminum that your mug sits on while it brews...thats it.

The lever that opens the pod holder is very flimsy. And after the initial brew, the unit wouldn't seal right, which means, no coffee. So you pop the lever up, open the pod, make sure the coffee is seated appropriately and try again. blah, blah, blah. Do this about 5 times and for no apparent reason, it would work again.

Do you like your coffee hot? Well, you won't get it with this device. Basically, there are 2 components to a great cup of coffee: the beans and the water. The beans have already been taken care of, so all you can control is the water source. If you are using a machine like this, how dare you put tap water in it! My filtered water sits nice and chilled in my refrigerator. Well, thats a problem for this device. The coffee comes out tepid folks. Not even luke warm! I tried it straight from the tap, and it was warmer but not hot. So if you keep filtered water in your fridge, expect tepid coffee. YUCK. I must be old fashioned, I like to blow on my coffee and see the steam rise up from the cup in morning.

The coffee I was able to drink tasted very good. But again, it just wasn't worth the hassle of messing with that stupid lever and pod configuration.

I'm off to try the Senseo and hope that it is a little better crafted.

Just bought this Home Cafe to take the place of my more expensive one cup machine (Flavia $100.00). Flavia's packets of coffee are too expensive and most of my guests didn't like the coffee. This machines uses Folgers pods which came out excellent. The coffee was hot and tasted equivalent to the expensive gourmet coffee you pay $1.25 to $1.60 a cup at the coffee houses. I read about all the dripping the machine makes and started right off with the 14 oz. pod side. I haven't had any leaks just a couple drops after the coffee is brewed just like all other coffeemakers I have owned. I feel the machine is well made but might not take a lot of physical abuse. I find all Black & Decker products are exceptionally well made. I use spring water for my water and never have to take the water refill container out of the unit (until I clean it, of course). I chose it over the Melitta and Senseco machines because of the larger water reservoir which yields about three large cups of coffee. One of the biggest selling points for me was you can chose between 7 oz., 9 oz. and 14 oz. cup size. So far I love this Home Cafe and am glad I purchased it.

Rob
Columbus, Ohio

I purchased the Home Cafe at our local Walmart. It made really good coffee for nine cups. While brewing the tenth cup, it stopped mid-brew, spit at me, and then emmited a fatal gasp of acrid black smoke. The kitchen smelled of burning bakelite for the next several hours. I calmly packed up the unit and returned it to my friendly Wallyworld. I opted to replace the unit, rather than get my money back as my wife and I really liked the coffee. Grabbing another pack of coffee pods (optimistic me) we transported our new machine home. Again, following the directions by properly initiating the machine with a coffee-pod free whiz, we brewed another couple cups of delicious coffee. All went well. Then, on cup twelve a few days later (easy to keep track with the amount of pods left), again, mid-cup, another fatal gasp and spray of coffee, and silence as smoke curled up from the unit. Again, the rancid odor along with the bleak knowledge that no more delicious coffee would spew forth from this obviously poorly built unit. Head down with sadness and dejection I decided this time to call the 800 number provided in the instruction manual. After 30 minutes on hold I was finally connected to a friendly customer service rep who offered her condolences on the demise of my coffee maker. She took down the information on the deceased pot and said she was going to transfer me to another department where they would formally de-brief me in an attempt to correct the problem. 15 minutes later she came back on the phone and explained that all the "engineers" were busy, but someone would contact me within 24 hours. Three days later I received a phone call stating that no one at Black and Decker had heard of this problem Yeah, right. They were going to send me a brand new one at no expense. They only requested that I return the old one to them, and they would pay the shipping. Eagerly agreeing to these terms, we waited with great anticipation for the Big Brown Truck to pull up to our door. Approximately two weeks later it arrived on our doorstep!! Rushing to the kitchen, the appliance was carefully removed from its box. This time, it was different. What is this? The first two units were black. This one is white!!! Virginal White! Certainly a good sign. Again, the machine was ititiated with its plain water ritual, and then, with great anticipation and celebration, a Columbian Pod, yes, Columbian, was placed in the machine. Shortly thereafter another delicious cup of coffee was enjoyed. Never mind the gentle splatter of coffee on the counter. A mere minor annoyance given the rewards of the brew. As a matter of fact, eight, count them, eight more cups of delicious coffee were enjoyed with minimal splatter. Then, cup number ten was not meant to be. A sputter mid-cup. Arcing sounds from the front of the unit. Thin plumes of black smoke spiraling towards the ceiling. Gag reflex kicking in from the rancid odor. A tear forming in the corner of my eye knowing it was never meant to be. (Actually, the tear was from the smoke). I notified the woman at the other end of the toll-free number. I told her about all three coffee makers. No, I did not want another unit. It is just too much trouble to make ten cups of coffee, call in about the defective unit, wait for a replacement, make ten cups of coffee, call, wait, repeat--------. I guess I'll try the Senseo. Maybe it will work.

I bought a Senseo about a month ago and I was so impressed that I considered buying another one for the office. However, I got a $10 off coupon in the mail for this unit, plus it was cheaper to start with. So I figured, "What the heck".

I like the fact that you can use a taller cup with this unit and it is better geared towards the US palate than the Senseo (the Senseo defaults to a much smaller water-to-coffee ratio and you end up with something between coffee and espresso unless you brew a double cup.)

I also like the water resevoir on the B&D better than the Senseo. Though I suspect that the double resevoir that Senseo offers would win out over the B&D.

The Home Cafe isn't as nicely engineered as the Senseo and it does leak when it's brewing. It seems to be a function of how you place the pod and close it up, but you shouldn't have to be that picky about placement. It also tends to splash as a result of the height and the way that the water comes out. If you use a taller mug, it's not much of an issue. But if you use a standard coffee cup, you'll need a cloth nearby for the tiny drips and splashes. It's not like it pours gallons of coffee all over the counter, but it is a nuisance factor.

If I didn't have a choice, I'd buy the Home Cafe and be pretty happy about it. However, having a Senseo at home, I find it difficult to tolerate the little idiosyncrasies of the Home Cafe at work.

I'd personally recommend spending the extra money for the Senseo. The Keurig is also a good option, but it's significantly more expensive for the machine and for the k-cups. It does produce an exceptional cup of coffee, though.

Now if only all of these guys would get together and use ESE pods instead of these proprietary things we could get all the variety we want and pick the machine that worked best for us.

We tried this, and returned it a week later for the Senseo, which works terrifically so far.

As stated in other reviews, the design is really flimsy plastic and can break easily.

The coffee comes out just hot enough, so unless you are going to drink immediately, it will be cold.

If you do not use a very tall coffee cup, the water jet is so high from the base that the coffee dispensing out hits the bottom of the cup and splashes out, which could burn a person as well as wasting your coffee.

And as others have stated, it is really quite loud in a vibrating noisy way. It starts off somewhat quiet but as the week goes on the noise gets louder with use. It got so loud that I ran in the kitchen and shut off my dishwasher thinking it was malfunctioning only to find that it was the coffee machine making the noise.

Needless to say, we didn't use it after that and enjoy the Senseo much more. If you really want it, wait a few months until everyone realizes it is a piece of junk and then buy it at Big Lots or another "buy out discount store" for ten dollars, which is more than it is worth.

Thanks for reading and hope it helps. We read reviews before we buy anything, so if you have another product you can review, please do so. We can save each other a lot of time passing the word around. Good luck.

Right after unpacking it and after performing the initial "dry" brew, I made my first cup. It came out OK although I would have liked it hotter, since after a few zips my coffee was cold.

While opening the lid to replace the used pod to make a second cup, I noticed that one of the pegs from the latch broke, preventing it from making a good seal, thus leaking water from all over.

I'll have to say that this thing is really flimsy; the latch mechanism is all plastic and it really feels like it. It does not have the sturdy feel that comparable espresso machines have (these single serve coffee makers apparently have a similiar system as the the small pump expresso machines). But in all fairness, these expresso machines are much more expensive ($100-$300) than these new single serve coffee brewers that are in the $60-$70 range.

I went to the store to get a replacement, this time I inspected the competing units from other brands and paid special attention to the latching mechanism. I went with the Philips Senseo because it has a much simpler latching system and looked less prone to breaking. I took it home.

This one brewed hotter coffee, maybe because it has a preheating time of 90 seconds (vs the Home Café which does not).

The Home Café is very convenient (thus my 2 star rating), but I believe there are better options out there.

Okay, I read all the reviews but still decided to go ahead and try it. With some trepidation, I prepped the unit as instructed and then made my first cup of coffee. Eureka! Great coffee without messing with a carafe and filters, or measuring grounds. I was very careful about reading and following the instruction manual. You have to be sure the pod holder is correctly in place and the lid handle is locked. Also, like another reviewer here, I used the 14ounce side of the pod holder instead of the more shallow 7ounce side, even if I was only using one pod--it probably helps to stop any leakage. There is some splashing if the cup you are using is short, but that is a minor issue---just use a taller one. All in all, a nifty little machine for making one (or more) cups of coffee. My only quibble right now is the the lack of availability of pods in my neighborhood stores. Until they become more commonplace you can order them online.

This is, by far, the worst appliance that I have ever had the misfortune to own. The first worked great for 3 cups of coffee, and then quit working entirely. The second brewed for a week. You get the idea, so I won't bother to describe the problems with units 3-7. Yes, that's right, I had 7 of these in less than 9 months.

The company gladly replaces these regularly defective units for a $7 fee. You have to mail the cord and payment in before the replacement is shipped. Of course, when you are paying this every few weeks (no, the units don't actually last weeks, you just have to wait a few weeks while the replacement ships), it adds up. So, in addition to the purchase price, I paid $49 for replacements. On top of that, the pods would go stale between units, so I lost more money there. With three months left on the warranty, I have decided to not even bother with replacements.

Save yourself time, money, and frustration, and RUN from this product.

I purchased the Home Cafe in April and until June couldn't find coffee pods locally. However the Senseo pods are identical.

Before going through the coffee sample the machine started to spit hot water on the sides of the brewing cup. If I turn it over and place the pods in the side for holding two pods it works better, but the coffee isn't as good. It is getting worse and logging on at the Home Cafe site they won't reply to emails.

This morning I brewed a 9 oz cup and left the room. When I returned there was approximately 6 oz in the cup and 2-3 oz all over the counter and on the floor. I've had to constantly clean coffee stains from the counter in a 12 radius from the machine. Even when it doesn't leak it tends to splatter out of the cup as it fills.

Very disappointed.

I like my coffee, probably not as much as others who will review this, but I drink 2 - 3 cups a day during the work week and can tell a decent cup of joe from an average cup. This machine makes consistently good coffee.

My unit DOES NOT LEAK when brewing. However there is SOME splash if the coffee cup isn't very tall. I usually use the double pod 14oz. option which may result in a less forceful stream of coffee. There is some after-drip that is a little annoying, not a big flaw in my opinion.

I value my time, a trip to Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts every morning isn't convienient for me. This is the ticket. I am a single guy with no need to brew 10 cups of coffee every morning or guess how much coffee to grind, scoop, etc... This unit is the ticket. I've had Senseo coffee before, it is VERY strong, and good, this is good too.

Hopefully other coffee manufacturers (*cough* DUNKIN' DONUT'S *cough*) will soon make some pods for this unit. I didn't think I'd like Folger's and I did. Always have liked Milstone coffee so hopefully a bigger variety arrives soon!

This is a great little machine that makes really good coffee. It isn't Starbucks, it isn't Dunkin Donuts, but it is far more consistent than breaking out the 12 cup coffee maker for 2 cups of coffee, a lot quicker, more convienient, and I'd even venture to say better 8 times out of 10.

I'd say get it if you value your time!!!