Customer Reviews

Stay or Go Deluxe Thermal Coffeemaker

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

This pot doesn't dribble. Push down on the tab that says "Press to Pour" and fill your cup. My wife not being one who either reads the manuals or what it says on the pot, unscrewed the top to pour her first cup from this. Yeah, the top fell off and made a mess.
This insulated carafe keeps the coffee hot for a long time. Much better than our previous one. It is stainless steel inside and out. The temperature of the coffee (8 cups) into a cold carafe is a little more than 180 degrees F. That's the upper limit without burning your lips. The water temp while the coffee is being made ranges from 175 to slightly over 200 at the end. Preheating the carafe would produce a hotter coffee and keep it hot longer but this works well as is.
It comes with 2 travel mugs and an undersized 1 tablespoon long handled coffee scoop. The 2 mugs are black plastic on the inside which some xperts claim gives off harmful chemicals when filled with hot liquids.
The water level inside are clearly marked at 2 cup intervals so you can make the amount you want. A short person might find it difficult to see the 2 and 4 cup levels and odd number amounts would be guess work. The removable coffee filter holder takes ordinary paper filters and is easy to clean. The buttons and indicators are on the front and easy to read. It's programmable. The carafe or cups sit on a perforated disk. This can be removed and any drips sponged out. Good idea so any drips don't run off over the counter.
My wife paid less than 50 bucks for this at a local store.
Good design, good hot coffee at a reasonable price. What more do you need?

After using this coffee maker for over a year, I retract my statement that it doesn't dribble. You could be very careful pouring out a cup slowly without more coffee spilling on the counter but you would have to be wide awake at 5 in the morning to do so. When the pot is down to 4 cups it is less messy.
The two plastic cups provided with the coffee maker have the black plastic on the inside. That's the type of plastic that some say leaches out harmful chemicals into hot liquids. I just threw them away and bought a stainless steel lined travel mug.
This coffee maker works well and the carafe keeps the coffee hot for hours while maintaining the taste.

This coffee maker does a great job at making coffee (as it should), it's well built and attractive to the eye. It will go well with all of the other stainless steel items in your kitchen. It's easy to make coffee, and it's easy to program so that you can grab the cup on your way out of the house (which is what I usually do). The lcd clock is a very bright blue, which could be good or bad depending on whether or not you like a bright blue light in your kitchen. The travel mugs are great, you'd probably spend around $8 on each of them at retail. The carafe is nice, but I haven't used it (and probably won't).

I'm a bit of a coffee snob, so I do have a few minor qualms as well. The permanent filter basket does a good job, but it's just not as good as a paper filter- fine grains do get through and settle to the bottom of the cup. If this doesn't bother you, then don't worry about it. The permanent filter is also kind of a bummer to clean. It's easier to just pick up a paper filter and toss it and the spent grains into the trash. Having said this though, if I were ever to run out of paper filters, I would use the permanent filter with no problem if I couldn't get to the store for a few days.

And the biggest minus for me is the price. It's just too much to pay when there are other options with similar features that cost less, even in the same brand. You should take a look at the Hamilton Beach 45237H or the Hamilton Beach 45235G for about $20 less or even the much cheaper Black & Decker DDCM200 (no program timer on the Black and Decker though).

So, it's a great unit, but I subtracted one star for the small things and another star for the excessive price.

Cheers!

I received this coffeemaker as a gift about a month ago and it's miles ahead of the Mr. Coffee I used to use (was also a good machine, just stopped working). I make Dunkin Donuts coffee in it and it tastes just like the real thing (meaning it is certainly capable of making great coffee). One of the mugs was missing when i opened it, but a quick call to Hamilton Beach resulted in a replacement one in about a week.

Now maybe I'm just odd or pouring different than some of the people complaining about the carafe dripping, but I have yet to encounter such a problem. In fact, I did it over the sink first due reading reviews on here. I have yet to spill any coffee with this setup so I'm not sure what others are doing. However, the travel mugs leaking water when washed thing is true, I don't use them too often though (use my own travel mug) so they're usually all dried out when I need them, but still its something to consider if you plan on using them daily etc.

Overall I couldn't be happier with this machine, give it a shot.

EDIT: Still haven't experienced this dripping many of you are talking about (though maybe I'd get it eventually) so I don't know if they've changed the carafe or what.

Interesting that another reviewer indicates this pot doesn't dribble. When pouring water to the reservoir, it generally ends up all over my counter - whether I pour fast or slow. Pouring coffee (with the lid on) it seems to dribble less, but still dribbles. I find the carafe bulky ... maybe that's just me - a friend has an older Krupp that is plastic and it's slender and light.

It does seem to brew pretty decent coffee, but I'm pretty disappointed for the price.

In addition to wanting great coffee and a thermal carafe (neither of us likes coffee that's cooked for an hour on a hot plate), we had some special needs considerations when shopping for a new coffee maker. First, the water reservoir had to be accessible enough to fill with the carafe when one is sitting in a wheelchair and the maker is counter-height. Second, the display had to be large enough to read for someone whose eyesight isn't that great. Third, the programming and clock-setting had to be straight forward and easy because both of us believe kitchen appliances are our tools, not the other way around. This coffee maker fulfills all our requirements plus comes with the option of making 1 or 2 thermal cups of coffee when we don't want a whole pot. I would have given it 5 stars except for the following: 1. Hamilton beach does not include the water filter nor the permanent filter. One has to purchase these separately and for the price of this coffee maker, they should be included. 2. The printed directions, tho' understandable, are poorly written. 3. We like full-bodied coffee flavor, on the strong side. However, if we'd followed the recommended measurements given in the instructions the coffee would have been wayyyyy too strong even for us. Spoons would have stood at attention in the cups. We've found that we can brew good, substantial coffee using only about 75% of the coffee recommended. Overall, I'd say this coffee maker easily earns a 4-star review.

What a great idea. You can brew right into one or two mugs that they provide. Or brew an entire pot. But the mugs are impossible to drink from. After you get down to half full, it is impossible to drink from them without dripping coffee all over yourself. this is not subtle. The design simply doesn't work.

We've just had this coffeemaker a week, having purchased it at a local kitchen shop. Very attractive unit. Easy to read water level indicators in resevoir. The insulated carafe isn't exactly pretty, looking much like a giant thermal mug, but it keeps coffee hot for hours without developing a burned taste. Very easy to set the clock. Hubby is retired so doesn't mind a few minutes wait for coffee to make in the mornings. Only 4 stars because it seems just a little slow AND there was no manual in the box.

Gave it one star for making coffee. The carafe dribbles every time you pour. I thought at first it was me, but when we had company and I brought the carafe to the table, we all ended up dribbling coffee all over the place. It is very annoying and this coffee maker is on it's way to goodwill.

We love this unit. Other friends recommended, but I had to wince at the price for something non-Euro. Once you get over that, it makes great coffee & the pot keeps the java warm longer than you expect with none of the usual burn taste. It's a high quality unit, including the mugs (an afterthought on other units). I agree with one reviewer & prefer to use paper filters instead of the included screen - too much effort to clean. You'll love love it once you forget about the cash. Make sure you can deal with the height: it's 14" high.

I would give this to anyone who would take it free.....

Very user unfriendly.
Is there coffee in the carafe? Who knows.
Is the coffee in the carafe hot? Who knows.
Can you get the carafe out from the maker? the little
plate underneath it turns and gets stuck.
And the whole thing is so tall I can't open the lid to put in
water without moving it from underneath the cabinet.
And did I mention it dribbles everywhere.

It does do one thing good, the clock keeps good time.