Hamilton Beach Stay or Go Thermal Coffee Maker - My Coffee Maker Review

by Holly
(Iowa, USA)

I have a Hamilton Beach Stay or Go Thermal Coffee Maker (Model 45234). This particular model comes with two travel mugs as well as the insulated carafe. There is no heating element in the maker to keep the coffee warm as it sits. For this reason, you don’t have to worry about remembering to turn the coffee maker off or burning the coffee.

The machine is programmable. We tend to brew at 4:00 a.m. so that my husband can have his coffee on the way out the door. However, I don’t pour my cup until 7:00 a.m. and it is still piping hot when I get my cup. The carafe is thermal and therefore keeps the coffee hot.

It is important however to insure that that the top of the carafe is closed tightly so that the coffee does stay hot. We don’t use the travel mugs as we make a full pot of coffee most times. The carafe holds five cups of coffee. This will be enough for many people.

There is a discrepancy between how much the carafe holds and the volume markings on the water tank of the coffee maker. The top marking on the water tank is “8” which my husband took to mean the carafe held 8 cups of water. However, the carafe holds just 5 cups and needless to say, the coffee was pretty strong with 9+ scoops of coffee to 5 cups of water!

I have a problem with the maker dripping when a pot is brewing. I have not been able to find out why it is spilling over, but I often have water underneath the carafe after the coffee has brewed.

The unit itself is tall. It fits under my kitchen cupboards, sitting on the counter top, when not in use. However, I must pull it out in order to lift the lid. I wish I could get the lid open while it was tucked under the upper cupboards so that I could make coffee or dispose of the filter without always pulling it out of place.

We had one incident in which we broke the thermal liner of the carafe when cleaning it. It is very much like a thermos and is glass. The cost to replace the carafe was almost $30.00, half the cost of the whole unit itself!

We have learned to clean the carafe with a baby bottle brush. This does a fine job of removing coffee stains. Also the unit is easily cleaned with vinegar and water. All in all this is a nice unit, but for the price, it really has no bells or whistles. It is a basic coffee machine that keeps coffee warm in the carafe.