Hamilton Beach FlexBrew Trio 2-Way Coffee Maker

Perfect machine for anyone who wants versatility to brew a large carafe, use grounds for a small cup or travel mug, or use the convenience of a K-cup. It does it all at a very reasonable price. I have used it everyday since the purchase with zero issues. If you are looking to have something large enough for 12 cups, but also just need a quick cup on the run, this is the one! Would easily recommend! Could not be happier!

"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’ll admit I hadn’t used a Hamilton Beach coffee maker before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect — especially at this price point. We previously had a large Ninja system for years that made iced coffee and other specialty drinks, but it eventually started leaking all over the counter and the constant mess became too much. We tried replacing it with both a single-serve Keurig-style machine and a basic drip pot machine, but neither worked out for a few reasons. This Hamilton Beach model, with both a full pot side and a single-serve side, seemed almost too good to be true for the price — but after 3–4 months of daily use, I genuinely couldn’t be happier with it. It works with K-Cups or a refillable pod, and the dual functionality has been incredibly convenient for our household. The controls are simple and straightforward without a lot of unnecessary extras. It brews reliably, hasn’t leaked, and feels well designed for everyday use. I actually prefer it to our previous, much more expensive machine. As a bonus, the size is perfect for our small coffee station. It fits comfortably and even freed up space for our tea kettle, which we couldn’t do before. Overall, this has been a dependable, practical coffee maker that does exactly what we need — and does it well.

Hubby wanted a new coffee machine. Nothing wrong with the Ninja we had but I looked to see what was out there. The criteria was a dual machine for carafe & k-cups. I landed on this one. Very nervous with some of the reviews about exploding cups/clogged needles. Plus this was wider than our existing Ninja for counter top space. After measuring we decided to try it. This brews the k-cups much quicker than the Ninja. Barely any wait until your cup is ready. Less than 2 minutes. A+++ There is an upper needle in the k-cup hatch door and an attachment pod holder piece with a lower needle to pierce k-cups. This also came with a reusable single serve brew basket attachment to use your own coffee. You can specify how many ounces to brew up to 14 oz for the cup/single brew side. Works great with Hubby’s tall Contigo work cups. With our old machine he would run 2 times to get his cup full. Now he only uses it once. There is a platform if you are brewing a smaller cup so the coffee doesn’t splash out which doubles as storage for the single brew basket.. Separate reservoirs for water and you can choose regular or bold strength. Carafe is about the same brew time as our old machine. This has tier notches in the water reservoir to indicate water levels. If you add more or less water above the lip this will brew as much coffee as the water you add. There doesn’t seem to be a set coffee level so beware. The amount of water you add is what you will get. This doesn’t come with a carafe brew basket so I bought one instead of buying paper filters. Look on here for 8-12 Cup Reusable Filter Basket With Closed Bottom, round version. The only thing I don’t like (and the Ninja didn’t do) is when you open the top hatch on the carafe side, when the brew is done but still active, the condensation water on the hatch drips into the machine and triggers the dreaded ‘brew’ gurgling sound. You can avoid this by waiting to open it to clean the brew basket/throw out the grinds. I just like to clean the basket right away. The controls/buttons are intuitive. I referenced the manual once and didn’t need it after that. The biggest learning curve is remembering to change the method of use you want, carafe or cups. The easy to read screen clearly shows which mode it is in. Fingers & toes crossed that this lasts for the long haul, unlike some reviews I read. If it doesn’t, I will be back to update. I hate to say that I did keep the Ninja just in case. But I have high hopes!

So far so good. Loving the machine. Both carafe and single brew side work perfectly. Hamilton beach is always good quality, in my opinion

I had hoped that I could have given this a higher rating but unfortunately cannot. The single serve side is constantly going off on overload. Occasionally it will work without an issue but 8 out of 10 times it will give an error code of overload. We have followed all of the troubleshooting instructions to a T and still continues to do it. We would have returned this but have used several times and do not feel right about returning a used product. Plus we added those handy dandy small appliance wheels to the bottom. I suggest spending a little extra money to get a different product as the single serve side is pretty much non-functional with k cups. Updated. The single serve side is completely useless. When I contacted Hamilton Beach they wanted to charge us $40 shipping on top of what we have already paid. This is ridiculous! So save your money! In addition to following the instructions provided by Hamilton Beach, their “customer service” number just loops and then disconnects. This has been an infuriating experience. I advise to avoid Hamilton Beach products just for the lack of customer service Update: we had to pay $40 shipping to have our new “warranty” item replaced, just to have this one do the exact same thing. Faulty piece of junk! Hamilton Beach refuses to refund our money since we purchased through Amazon and will only replace it with the same unit. NO THANK YOU… it is junk! How do we get our money back? Warning: Hamilton Beach nor Amazon will refund us our money for our original purchase as it falls outside their refund window. Though the second item that was replaced under warranty falls within those windows, neither company will refund for a second faulty product. Not at all impressed.

There are certain products that the saying " you get what you pay for " is just that ! This is not the case here I am enjoying my first brew this morning after receiving our new to us H.B. trio yesterday. I unboxed, flushed out with water cycling through both carafe & pod system & prepped to have my first cup of java the next morning using the set timer to trigger the brewing process with the carafe. This is beyond my expectations for its price, versatility to make both {carafe or pods) and has just enough options to satisfy most of any type of coffee lover.By the time my Spouse awakes, she'll want her french vanilla pod so my travel mug will be full, & will not matter that the warming element shuts down on the carafe side when using the single serving pod. Esthetics, ease of operation & cost, makes this Hamilton Beach Trio, a wise choice when in need of an upgrade without breaking the bank ! NOTE TO CONSUMERS WHO HAVE BOUGHT THIS UNIT !! THE POD NEEDLE IS PART OF A TWIST OFF ASSEMBLY THAT NEEDS TO BE TAKEN OFF & FLUSHED OF ITS DRIED COFFEE GRINDS, ESPECIALLY IF ONLY USED PERIODOCALLY. AFTER NONE USE FOR ONLY A FEW DAYS. MAIN SYMPTOMS ARE LACK OF WATER/COFFEE, VERY NOISY PUMP & A CLEAN NEEDLE MESSAGE ON LED SCREEN . SIMPLY TWIST & REMOVE, CLEAN & FLUSH THE NEEDLE CANAL & RETURN POD NEEDLE HOUSING TO ITS LOCATION UNDER POD COVER. RESULTS!! MESSAGE GONE, COFFEE FLOWS INTO CUP, & ENJOY ONCE AGAIN YOUR CHOICE OF COFFEE FLAVOR.

Been using a single cup Keurig coffee maker for years decided to change for so I can Brew a whole pot of coffee again see below for my pros and cons of this coffee maker PROS: BEST OF BOTH WORLD 2 MACHINES IN ONE- you get a single brewer and a coffee maker to brew a whole pot of Coffee LOTS OF CUPS AND A COUPLE OF BREW OPTIONS- cup sizes range from 6oz to 14oz and will let you know on the screen how many ounces is in you cup, also has a brew strength, of "regular" and "bold". If you choose bold it just takes a little bit longer to brew. Works on both K cups and Coffee pot GIVES YOU 2 COFFEE CUPS FOR SINGLE BREW- one cup to use for the single cup K cups and another one if you want to brew single cup of your own. They just sit in there so very easy to swap from k-cup to your own ground/instant coffee. 2 HOUR AUTO OFF FOR THE WARMING TRAY- when you brew a whole pot of Coffeee warming tray stays warm for 2 hours after pot is brewed. Warming tray does not turn on when you use the Coffee maker for single K Cups DELAY TIMER WORKS AS IT SHOULD- clock is easy to program and delay timer works as it should, takes about 1.5 mins for every cup of coffee if you plan to brew a whole pot CONS: TEST YOU K-CUP MACHINE THOROUGHLY- seems to be a break in period for this machine. 1st week of owning this machine did not like light roast coffee. Would get to 5 oz and it would kick out an error for being plugged. Dark roast and regular worked fine. Fixed it by running hot water though the 1st time than would run it with the K cup the 2nd time (i.e Brew hot water 1st time and the K cup the 2nd time) light roast K cup worked fine after that does not kick out an error anymore tired it 3 times before writing this review and did not have to run it through with Hot water, just put the K cup in and no error NO POWER OFF BUTTON- no button to turn off the coffee maker once done, blue blacklight stays on even hours after done using, no sleep mode will have to unplug it after you are done and reprogram the clock if you use the delay timer, or live with the bluelight being on all time NOTHING TO CATCH EXCESS COFFEE- measure your coffee cups before you brew as there is nothing to catch the coffee if brew to much coffee, extender for smaller coffee cups is hollow IN CONCLUSION coffee maker I do think is a 4.5 star machine but with no power switch and having to deal with light roast k-cups not working the 1st week had to dock one star from this machine. Highly recommend this machine if you want single use for mornings and brewing a whole pot of coffee when you have friends over. Power switch or even a 9 Volt battery so you unplug the machine and it would at least keep the time

It a super coffee maker.