Customer Reviews

West Bend 56202 Single-Cup Coffee and Water Dispenser, Black

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I used a Betty Crocker (white plastic outside) 2-4 cup electric hot pot/percolator for years when traveling. It lasted so long (15 years), it never occurred to me the same type might not be available when I finally needed to replace it (the sad part is, it didn't even stop working...I just forgot to clean it after a camping trip, and found it months later, and, ummmm...decided buying a new one would be easier than cleaning mold).

I searched for months looking to find a similar model that would fit my needs. I needed something compact, unbreakable and with a minimum of moving parts. I wanted something easy to use that wouldn't be a PITA to clean.

Oh, and did I mention...COFFEE is the most important meal of the day for me? It had to make decent coffee! Not only decent coffee, but I'm a 3-cup-a-morning minimum type person.

Most small drip coffee makers come with the standard glass carafe, which is breakable and not suited for travel. I even looked at French presses, but decided it would be too cumbersome to deal with, especially while traveling.

I took a chance on this West Bend model, even though I was very hesitant about the "single serving" aspect. I'm happy to say it was NOT a problem! The coffee maker brews a single cup so fast, the waiting for another cup was nothing. I also found I like having a freshly-brewed cup for each and every cup. That was something I hadn't considered I'd like. I also loved having the coffee brew directly INTO the cup! Man, how cool is that?

The place where you put the coffee cup is plenty big (both height and width) to accommodate most sizes of mugs. What I did (and I'd recommend this if you plan to use this for traveling) is got a 16-oz camping mug (the kind that are metal inside with ceramic coating and a flat bottom). The coffee maker will hold 12-oz of water, so there's no worrying about spilling over (plus you have room for cream/milk). These camping mugs are easy to clean, which is another plus for travel.

The manual (which is like 2 pages, because there's nothing to working this. Pour water in, depress the button and out comes coffee, right into your cup) claims it's good for other things. Pppffftttt....as if there's anything *besides* coffee. But since I like to live a well-rounded life, I made tea with it. Works beautifully.

The unit comes with 2 brew baskets, one permanent filter for ground coffee and one pod holder. I tried them both, and any drawbacks to either (pod coffee is pretty weak, even with using 2 pods, and ground coffee is messy) were not due to the coffee maker itself. What worked best for me was 2 pods in the basket and one in the mug. But that's just me, your mileage may vary. I also used a paper filter with ground coffee and no basket...that worked very well, too.

This unit not only works well, but it takes up a very small amount of space, a big plus for me. I'm happy...and that's not an easy task, when we're dealing with my morning coffee :)

So, I had a Black and Decker DCM19 Brew n Go for a number of years, and it finally gave up on me. When I went looking for a replacement, I read the reviews here and people said the new model wasn't as good as the old - the water reservoir was small to pour into etc.

So I went looking for a model closer to my old one. To my surprise this West Bend coffee maker *IS* the old Black and Decker Brew n Go. Check it out:
[...](they deleted my link - if you google for DCM19 you will find the manual)

Except for two things.

First and most strange - they drilled a hole in the back of the thing to make it only brew 12oz. The machine will actually brew 16oz without issue... Why would they do that? Some licensing thing? Anyway I put an eraser through the hole, and it brews 16oz just fine.

Second, they replaced the #2 cone filter holder with a pod holder. Personally, I think pods are a rip-off so I am using the old cone filter holder from my original maker. You could probably use #1 filters with the pod holder...

Anyway - pretty strange change of hands of a good design. The hole drilled in the back is annoying, but once plugged up this is a good machine.

It brews a very fast cup of coffee, so it seems to do the job. I use the Senseo pods (from Amazon), which taste very good. The power cord is very short, and the switch is hard to work, but those are minor things.

I want to give a couple precautions to save you from disaster, however:

(1) Don't use loose coffee grounds. Use Pods. I used coffee grounds the first time, and they expanded in the hot water and poured over into the reservoir, clogging the machine. It's just too risky to use coffee grounds in such a small machine. If you want to save yourself aggravation, use coffee Pods. It also makes for a generally cleaner operation, which is nice if you're using it on your desk or at work.

(2) Always check that the drip tube is clear before starting brewing. The drip tube is *extremely* narrow, and overnight the residual coffee left inside will congeal enough to block the tube. What happens then is that when you make the next coffee, the water backs up into the pod holder, and possibly overflows into the reservoir. (The pod holder can hold about a cup of liquid, so if you brew a small coffee, at least the backup won't flow into the reservoir.) The moral of the story is to ALWAYS clear the drip tube before brewing.

Because of these two design flaws, I'm taking away one star, but if you know to avoid them, it seems like a usable (if cheap) device.

This single-cup coffee maker is great because of the large base and the space between the drip portion and the top of the cup. Large mugs fit quite nicely.

I can't say enough about this coffee maker. My super-cheap Cafe Uno finally died after months of intermittent problems. I took a chance replacing it with this one thinking I would get anpother Cafe Uno if it failed me. So glad I chose this one! It works perfectly. Very fast brewing, no drips at all, no clogged filter, real hot coffee...and it shuts itself off. Plus it is black so I never have to obsess over coffee staining it. I plugged the overfill hole so I could use my great big huge enormous mug and it made no difference, still is great. Looks very sleek, too. You don't need a Cuisinart or any fancy-schmancy appliance. Just buy this. Your search is over.

I really like this coffee maker. I can get my single cup of coffee as fast as my husband gets his from his Bunn. It has a very simple design and extremely easy to use. I am using the paper filters because the filter that came with the West Bend single-cup coffee and water dispenser was a mess to clean. I have a perfect cup of coffee every time it is made. It was well worth the money. The lid does not fit tightly but since it does not make a difference on the quality of coffee I can easily live with this.

I bought this coffee maker because I was tired of wasting coffee in a regular-size machine when making a single cup for just myself.

I read the reviews and thought I would give it a try, it was a good price for something just for myself and the shipping was efficient. I grind my own beans for coffee and and on my first use I put in about a spoonful and a half for one cup. The reviews were totally correct in saying that the machine does NOT brew an entire cup of coffee even though you pour an entire cup of water into the reservoir. I got about 3/4 of a cup of coffee which can be ok if you use a lot of creamer but I still want the amount of water I pour in to end up in my cup. Another dislike is the on/off button; it doesn't click on or off, you press the button down and the machine starts, like the button is on a spring. I would prefer a more clear cut on or off switch instead of just pushing a button down and having it move back up.

All in all it does what it says. I would just take into account the getting-less-water thing and put a little extra water in the reservoir when filling it up. And also be careful when using ground coffee, other reviewers are correct when they say the grounds expand in the hot water. I didn't have an incident but I can see where a coffee disaster could occur. I give it four stars because of price point, portability and efficiency.

Already owned one. Bought one for friend. Have owned many one cup coffee makers through time. This one is at the top. Love it because I can place tall cups under it for a double cup of coffee. Makes perfect coffee every time and I'm a coffee snob. I do buy great coffee from Cathy's Coffee in Ventura CA. She ships. 805-701-9000.
She and her husband roast their beans and if you like flavored coffees, add 100% natural flavors. Coconut Cream Dream is my favorite. They'll blend 50/50 caf/decaf, grind or whole.

My wife is the coffee drinker in our home and for a number of years she owned a single cup coffee maker so she could have her one cup of coffee in the morning. Then earlier this year it broke and although we checked all the locals stores, we could not find anyone that sold a one cup coffee maker.

She started using instant coffee and didn't really like the taste. So, I thought I'd check the internet and see what I could find. I first search the Internet stores like Walmart and Best Buy, but they didn't carry any on line. So then I thought I give Amazon a try.

I was amazed to find a number of different manufacturers who offered a single cup maker. My wife and I had thought that maybe they were just not being made any more. Now I had to decide on which one.

I started reading the reviews of each unit. The prices were all very close, so price was not going to be a consideration. Reliability was what I was looking for. One product that looked good had several reviews that said that it leaked. Since more that one person mentioned that problem, I started looking for a different manufacture product.

I found the West Bend and everything I read was positive, so i decided to give it a try, knowing that if it didn't work out I could always return. The unit arrived very quickly. It was a surprise for my wife, since I didn't tell her I had ordered it. So when it came, I just opened the box and put it on the kitchen table for her to see.

She was surprised and opened up the unit, read the instructions and set it up to use the next morning. She told me it worked like a charm. We've had it for about two months and just the other day, she again mentioned how much she likes the unit.

I think it is designed to work without a filter, but my wife likes the idea of using a filter since it makes cleaning much easier, so she has been using filters she had from our old unit, which was another brand.

I'm not a coffee drinker and I haven't using a coffee maker in years, so I have no personal experience with the product, but my wife tells me that it brews a perfect cup of coffee and is very simple to use. To me, that is the best thing you can say for any product.

It is a simple and at the same time comfortable appliance, the automatic off and the separate brewer funnel are the best features to me.
I highly recommend it.