HAMILTON BEACH 49980A REVIEW: THE BEST 2-WAY COFFEE MAKER?

A big problem with standard drip coffee makers is waste. You might have time to drink a full carafe on a weekend, but often, half your brewed coffee is just being poured down the drain as you head to the office. You’re wasting water, coffee, electricity, time, and money all in one fell swoop!

A dual coffee maker like the Hamilton Beach 49980A solves the problem, allowing you to brew a single serving on a busy morning or savor a full carafe on a slow day. 

The theory is sound, but how does it work in practice? I bought, tested, and reviewed this coffee maker to find out.

A Detailed Review Of The Hamilton Beach 2-Way Brewer

This Hamilton Beach 49980A brewer offers the flexibility to brew a full pot or a single cup of coffee. My concern with multipurpose brewers is always that they will do two things poorly instead of focusing on doing one thing well. But in this case, I’ve been generally pleased with the performance and build of this machine. Read this coffee maker review for the details.

Why Choose A Two-Way Brewer?

The selling point of this machine is clearly its dual functionality. It is essentially a conjoined drip coffee maker and a single-serve brewer. They share a heating element, but each has its own water tank and brew basket.

There are many cases in which this is useful. Maybe you’re in a household where one coffee drinker prefers decaf or a particular blend while everyone else wants a pot of regular. Maybe you brew a full carafe most mornings but only want a single cup in the afternoon. 

Many drip coffee machines offer “low volume” settings that let you brew 1 to 4 cups at a time. In my experience, only the most expensive options achieve this without interfering with the coffee quality.

Special Features of Note

The Hamilton Beach 2 Way brewer is a typical programmable coffee maker with all the features you expect. 

The timer lets you program it to make coffee up to 24 hours in advance if you want your morning brew hot and waiting when you wake up, and automatic Pause & Pour means you can grab a quick cup before the brewing cycle finishes.

A brew strength selector lets you choose between Regular or Bold coffee. The Bold setting slows down extraction for a richer cup, and in my experience, it’s usually the better of the two.

This coffee maker comes with a 12-cup glass carafe and built-in hot plate, which shuts down automatically after two hours. The single-serve side includes a little removable stand to accommodate regular and travel mugs.

How To Use The Hamilton Beach 49980A Coffee Maker

The Hamilton Beach programmable coffee maker is generally easy to use, although there are some nuances to its operation. 

The first thing to note is that this machine is not compatible with K-Cups or other coffee pods. Personally, I think that’s a good thing. You get to use your favorite ground coffee, which means a better-tasting cup and more control over the amount of coffee grounds. And it’s better for the environment.

Check out the Hamilton Beach FlexBrew 49976 if you prefer the convenience of pod coffee.

The single-serve brew basket uses a permanent metal mesh filter, which doubles as a measuring scoop. Strangely, the carafe side does not, relying instead on flat-bottom paper filters (1). So the two sides brew slightly different styles of coffee, even using the same beans and brewing ratio (2).

It’s pretty standard for even budget coffee makers to include a metal coffee filter, so I’m surprised by the omission here. But it’s easy and quite affordable to buy one separately.

Notably, you can’t brew a single serving and a carafe of coffee simultaneously. This never bothered me, but more annoyingly, if you start brewing a single serving, the hot plate on the switches off automatically. So if you plan to use both methods, make the single cup first.

How To Brew

To brew with this machine, start by filling the tank with as much water as you need. The single-serving reservoir has handy Max and Min lines to guide you, but I found it easier to use my mug to fill the tank with the exact right amount. 

Ensure the selector switch matches the side you want to brew on, decide if you want Regular or Bold coffee, and press the power button to start brewing.

If you want to program a start time, hold the program button down and use the hour and minute buttons to adjust the time. A green LED illuminates to verify that the program has been set.

I noticed the single serve brewing time was a bit longer than a typical Keurig, requiring about 5 minutes to make a 12-ounce cup, including heat-up and brewing. The drip machine was more average, around 10 to 12 minutes for 12 cups.

What is the ratio for the Hamilton Beach coffee maker?

The Specialty Coffee Association recommends a coffee-to-water brewing ratio of 1:18. While that works well for pour-overs with specialty coffee, I prefer to increase it for a drip coffee maker like this. 

I typically use 115 grams of standard medium-grind coffee to brew a full carafe. If you don’t have a set of scales, that’s about 1¼ cups. I use 24 grams of ground coffee (about 5 tablespoons) to brew a 14-ounce single serving.

Curiously, Hamilton Beach advises that you use 25% less ground coffee when brewing decaf or flavored coffees (3). While you are welcome to experiment with this, I can’t say I agree.

How do you clean a Hamilton Beach two-way coffee maker?

Dump the used coffee grounds (and paper filter, if used) into your compost. All the removable parts are dishwasher safe, and the rest can be wiped clean with a damp cloth. 

You should descale both sides using a mixture of water and white vinegar approximately every six months. You might need to do this more often if you live in a region with hard water or less often if you brew with filtered water.

Does The 49980A Make Good Coffee?

The Hamilton Beach makes good but not great coffee. It produces the same quality of coffee as any inexpensive coffee maker, with darker roast coffees extracting best.

I was impressed with the brew temperature, which I measured at 195 F – just at the low end of the ideal range (4). However, the carafe side lacks a showerhead-style water distribution or any bloom phase, so the grounds don’t get evenly saturated, resulting in a less-than-perfect extraction. The Bold brewing option, which slows the water flow and extends the brew time, definitely helps in this regard. This is a non-issue in the tiny basket of the single serve side.

You’ll notice a huge flavor upgrade if you’ve been buying tubs of preground Folgers and the like.

Glass vs Thermal Carafe

There’s making good coffee, and then there’s keeping good coffee. I always prefer a thermal carafe to a hot plate for keeping my coffee warm. It avoids introducing any unwanted burnt flavor to the coffee as it sits, and it’s more energy efficient. For the best-tasting brews, I’d recommend finishing your carafe within 30 minutes or decanting the remainder into an insulated travel mug or thermos.

Aesthetics And Design Features

The Hamilton Beach 2-Way Coffee Maker is not a stunning piece of equipment. It has the sort of chic utilitarian vibe pervasive in the Hamilton Beach line of products. It’s inoffensive, which is good because it’s fairly large – as expected from twinned brewers. It takes up a good chunk of counter real estate, measuring 10.6” deep by 12.2” wide by 13.7” tall.

The brushed stainless steel and black plastic make for a look that matches a variety of decors. I appreciate the pleasantly minimal interface that features just a handful of buttons and a bright digital display. But it certainly doesn’t have the showy appeal of something like a Smeg brewer or the Ratio Eight.

How many ounces is a Hamilton Beach carafe?

This brewer has a 12-cup carafe, which equates to 60 ounces. Like most coffee gear manufacturers, Hamilton Beach considers a cup to be 5 ounces. The single serve coffee brewer makes up to 14 ounces.

Is It Worth The Price?

The Hamilton Beach 49980A Two-Way Coffee Brewer is priced well under $100, which represents pretty phenomenal value compared to buying two machines separately. Of course, the value is only there if you really need both sides, so keep your habits in mind.

This machine used to come with a travel mug, and most of its advertising still includes a mug in the photo. However, mine arrived without a single-serve cup, and it seems they are no longer included. Older reviews suggest that the mug was pretty terrible, and most of us already have a favorite coffee cup anyway, so that’s no huge loss, in my opinion.

While the lack of a travel cup doesn’t bother me, I definitely wish a metal filter was included for the 12-cup pot side. It’s a small but convenient add-on, and these days, it’s rare to find a drip machine sold without one. Add the price of buying one separately or stocking paper filters to your budget.

Don’t Buy This Hamilton Beach Coffee Maker If…

• You never brew single servings of coffee: There are plenty of excellent drip coffee makers on the market to meet your needs. The Cuisinart DCC-3200 is in a similar price bracket to the Hamilton Beach and offers all the standard programmable features – plus a variable-temperature hot plate! If you want to splurge on something higher-quality, look for an SCA-certified brewer like the Technivorm Moccamaster or the Bonavita 1900TS.

• You only brew single servings of coffee: Alternatively, if you never need to brew 12 cups of coffee at a time, there are lots of great single-serve coffee makers to save you money and counter space. Check out the Cuisinart SS-10 if you prefer to brew with ground coffee or the Keurig K-Elite for coffee pods.

• You want a thermal carafe: A thermal carafe keeps your coffee hot for hours without the risk of developing stale or burnt flavors on a hot plate. Options for dual brewers with thermal coffee pots are more limited than typical drip machines, but consider the Hamilton Beach FlexBrew Trio or the Keurig K-Duo Plus.

The Verdict

The Hamilton Beach 2-way programmable coffee maker offers a unique set of features that could make it the perfect machine for your office or household. With the option to brew a cup or a full pot of coffee, it’s a flexible brewer that minimizes waste while ensuring every coffee lover is satisfied.

While I’d love to see an insulated carafe variant of this model, at this price, a glass carafe is the norm. Ultimately, the Hamilton Beach 49980A is a good drip coffee maker offering uncommon capabilities at a great price.

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