Hamilton Beach Stay or Go makes terrible coffee

Adam, since you got so many Stay and Go coffee pots from Hamilton Beach, maybe you have an extra lid you can send me????? Ours got thrown out and we can't find a replacement. Susan McCoy susan@gardenmediagroup.com

I have a Stay or Go and tried to replace the "Optional Filter" , but the way that the filter holder just barely sits in the hole inside the tank is suspect. It does not seem that that filter can really be doing anything. It seems like the water would mostly just go under the filter completely. The diagram in the manual on how it's supposed to look kind of looks like there is some kind of collar that sticks up in the tank that the filter holder would snap into, but mine just has a shallow indentation that just barely holds the optional filter holder. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

We bought one of these units 6 months ago, and have had the same experience as Adam. The first pot we brewed smelled awful, and tasted the same. The quality of the coffee is good (freshly ground), and I have never had problems like this with any other type of coffee maker. Cleaning the coffee maker thoroughly helps a bit, but there seems to be a wierd plastic taste leaching from the unit. There is definitely a flaw in the materials used, as this smell is not coming from the beans or water. As a bonus, both travel mugs store water between the walls of the mug if submerged in water. All in all, a truly useless product. It does look nice on the counter, though!

The Stay & Go is a terrible coffee maker. The caraffe allows coffee to go between the black plastic top and the stainless container. I feel it is a health hazard and will be returning it. (After brewing empty the caraffe and then turn it back upright and you will see coming back into the pot). Also the brewing is terrible. I don't think it gets hot enough...and its slow. The travel mugs don't have a closure for the top openings like most mugs do.

The Stay and Go makes excellent coffee. But that's a matter of taste. Perhaps you had gotten used to bad coffee and didn't recognize the improvement? I love the fact that whether I brew one mug or a full carafe and let the carafe sit the morning with me revisiting it, it's the same wonderful coffee. I had thought it was ruined during a routine cleaning. The digital display went blank and it wouldn't brew. But it was just wet. Before learning that, I went back to trying a Mr. Coffee, trying perc, and trying a Black and Decker.... couldn't stand them. When I learned the Stay and Go worked again, I was excited to be drinking the "good stuff" again. Love it love it love it. And yes, Hamilton Beach's customer support (when I thought it was broken) was absolutely wonderful -- calm, cheerful, sympathetic and willing to immediately replace the whole unit for cost of shipping if I wanted. Very happy with them. There are replacement carafes, by the way, online from other sources. At Hamilton Beach, you'll simply ask customer service. They'll help you.

The Stay and Go makes excellent coffee. But that's a matter of taste. Perhaps you had gotten used to bad coffee and didn't recognize the improvement? I love the fact that whether I brew one mug or a full carafe and let the carafe sit the morning with me revisiting it, it's the same wonderful coffee. I had thought it was ruined during a routine cleaning. The digital display went blank and it wouldn't brew. But it was just wet. Before learning that, I went back to trying a Mr. Coffee, trying perc, and trying a Black and Decker.... couldn't stand them. When I learned the Stay and Go worked again, I was excited to be drinking the "good stuff" again. Love it love it love it. And yes, Hamilton Beach's customer support (when I thought it was broken) was absolutely wonderful -- calm, cheerful, sympathetic and willing to immediately replace the whole unit for cost of shipping if I wanted. Very happy with them. There are replacement carafes, by the way, online from other sources. At Hamilton Beach, you'll simply ask customer service. They'll help you.

My stay n go makes wonderful coffee, but... I always have to pour it over the sink. Doesn't matter in what position I pout, it always goes down the outside of the carafe onto the shelf .

First of all, I would like to express my deepest apologies to everyone on this post that has had problems with their coffee machine. Our family of six has three utterly devote coffee lovers who drink coffee as if it were a much needed blood transfusion, so we completely understand your frustration when the coffee maker isn’t performing as expected. We have owned our “Hamilton Beach Stay-or-Go Coffee Maker with Thermal Carafe and Two Travel Mugs” set for about 5 years now, using it at least once (sometimes twice) daily, and we have never had any problems with it during the entire time we have owned it. (For those of you wondering, our unit is model #45234, series #C4750E) We’ve brewed gourmet blends and grocery store brands alike, each with various grind textures, and we’ve never had a problem with flavor quality. So far, it has brewed perfect coffee every time with no residual “post-cleaning” or “flavor bleed-through” problems from previous brews. In the past, we have purchased coffee maker models by Mr. Coffee, Black & Decker, Sanyo, and even GE, only to find that within the first six months after purchase the units would either suffer some form of malfunction or simply die outright. Like everyone else, we did the “take it back to the store” and “contact the manufacturer” routines, and after several poor customer service experiences we quickly learned it was just simply easier to just cut our losses and buy a whole new coffee maker unit rather than deal with the hassles associated with store returns/ exchanges, or customer service / return shipping nightmares for manufacturer repairs. However, after going through several different models from each of these manufacturers, and always ending up back at square one, we decided to give Hamilton Beach a try… and we are so grateful that we did. The unit operates just as it was advertised, allowing us to brew into the travel mugs or the glass vacuum thermal carafe. To be bluntly honest, we rarely get the opportunity to hit the open road and use travel mugs, it was the thermal carafe that caught our attention and swayed us to purchase the model we have. The thermal carafe works exactly like the vacuum-sealed glass-liner Aladdin thermos my grandmother put my milk in for my school lunches as a child. I remembered how great that thermos was and how it use to keep my milk ice cold for hours, often it would still be cold on the bus ride home, so I knew the thermal carafe would keep coffee nice and hot for a long time after brewing without any external heat causing a burnt or bitter taste. Boy was I right! A big plus for us is that our Hamilton Beach coffee maker brews coffee hotter than any other unit we have owned, and it does so without scorching the coffee! Also, we usually brew our morning coffee around 7:00 am and have gone back for more later on in the day to find it still fresh and hot as late as 1:00 pm! In our opinion, the best thing about this product is the fact that there is no hot burner or heating element to deal with or get burned on. The coffee stays very hot in the carafe, which can be placed on any level surface for easy serving, while the carafe handle stays cool. We are so delighted by the thermal carafe’s portability and heat retention capability, we often brew coffee in it and bring the carafe to the picnic table or dining room when we host get-togethers, family barbecues, and so forth because the coffee stays hot in it for several hours afterwards! Now there are some tips I’d like to share, which may or may not account for our continued luck with this unit… COFFEE FILTER BASKET First off, we continue to use the basic plastic filter basket that came with our unit. We tried “going green” to reduce use of paper filters by purchasing the optional gold stainless steel metal coffee filter basket that was offered (which I’m told is now included with newer versions of this model as the standard), but metal filter baskets do not provide the quality brew we enjoy. Next, we have always used cone-shaped paper coffee filters (#4, by Melitta) because when you roast and grind your own coffee beans, the grind is sometimes on the finer side and a metal filter will not always capture the finer particles that a paper filter will. WATER FILTER Some homes, like our neighbors down the road, suffer from water that is heavily chlorinated or “hard” from excess minerals so they have to use bottled water in their coffee maker. Thankfully that’s not an expense we have to endure, or I dare say we’d have to give up drinking coffee! Our unit does use a small, replaceable Water Filter (part #80674, costs about $9.99 per twin-pack) which the user’s manual recommends be replaced after every 60 brews. Since our tap water is okay, we have found that replacing the Water Filter about once every twelve months is good for us, or once every six months if we’ve entertained a lot of guests during the year and thus used the coffee maker more than usual. These replacement Water Filters can sometimes be difficult to find since the HB Accessories website (www.HBAccessories.com) was moved as of May 2, 2008 (new URL is http://dev.hb.bytejam.com/accessories.html) but the new website always seems to display the message “AVAILABILITY: Sold out. Please check back often.” every time we’ve ever gone to it, so we usually go to Amazon.com to order ours. I looked on Amazon today and found these two links active to purchase this part number: http://www.amazon.com/Hamilton-Beach-80674-Filter-Replacement/dp/B0000U6PSG/ref=pd_sim_dbs_k_2 http://www.amazon.com/Hamilton-Beach-80674-Replacement-Filter/dp/B000HHETF8/ref=pd_sim_dbs_k_4 THERMAL CARAFE NEVER wash the thermal carafe in a dishwasher, always hand wash it carefully and make sure you do not submerge it! Make sure when washing and rinsing the thermal carafe, that you use the same temperature of water as the surface temperature of the carafe. If you hand wash it in warm or hot water and then rinse it in cold water, it will crack or shatter the inner glass-liner of the thermal carafe! Trying to find a replacement Thermal Carafe can be very difficult, and expensive, but we did an online search and the website below listed replacement Thermal Carafes for the Hamilton Beach Stay-or-Go Coffee Maker (model #45234) for only $24.99… hope this helps! http://abtecparts.com/hamilton_beach_coffee_carafes.htm Hamilton Beach Contact Information Our neighbor said the number she has used in the past to contact Hamilton Beach customer service center is 1-800-851-8900

Anyone have problems with dripping/spilling when pouring? We have a steady stream that runs from the spout right down the side when we pour...so, we pour over the sink. Other than that, it's fine.

Wow... Lotta unhappy people here. Im not one of them- not even close! I've had a stay or go, 8 cup, for several years now. Have had absolutely no issues with grinds or weird taste. Had one problem where the reservoir leaked the water during the night ( set it up to brew automatically at 6am). I called HB, talked to an actual person, they sent a whole new set up, gold filter and all. I am a huge coffee drinker and a picky one at that; only time we've had anything nasty was when we tried new kind of beans.

My Stay n Go Carafe leaks all over every time you pour from it...the only way to prevent it is to pour at a 136* angle into a mug with a wide top. Otherwise you get as much everywhere you didn't want it as in your mug. The gasket or seal is insufficient.

Several buyers of the Stop and Go coffee maker have complained about the pot leaking when pouring coffee. Mine did the same thing and we have owned it since 2009. After many times of cleaning spilled coffee off the stovetoop or counter I discovered a solution to the leaking pot. When I place the lid on the pot, I dont line up the push button exactly square with the spout. I offset it just barely to the right of the spout. this is with the handle towards you. Guess What!! No MORE DRIPPING EVER. Line it up with spout and it drips , offset it and NO DRIPS. Hope this helps

Mine lasted just under a year. The thermostat (KSD301-G) is rated for 100000 cycles, yet it died within 400. Unfortunately the only way you can get to the thermostat is by breaking the unit, which is a shame since it's a 7$ serviceable part. Loved the brew quality, hate the cheap components for the 80$ Canadians need to drop for this clunker.

I have had my BrewStation® Summit 12 Cup Coffeemaker 48464C for 4 months and, overall was pleased. Now, though, when brewing a pot it likes to leave 2 "cups" of water in the reservoir instead of cycling the entire amount through. If I try for 12 cups it does 10, if 10 it does 8, etc. Tried cleaning with vinegar as well as water and no luck. Just waiting to see if Hamilton Beach replies to my email, as I don't think I can find my receipt from Canadian Tire. I have read a lot of the same complaint so here's hoping.

Just purchased the Hamilton Beach Stay & Go coffee maker. Worst piece of junk I have ever bought. Make coffe just hot enough to drink and the carafe will not keep it warm no matter what you do. I am returning this junk. I suggest nobady buy it