West Bend 56204 Single-Cup Personal Coffee Maker and Water Dispenser, Red

Review by Teresa Johnson
Rating:
This was exactly what I was looking for. Don’t hesitate buying it. It will fit a variety of sizes of mugs as long as they are not huge. Mugs can be rather tall and still be fine. It does shut off very quickly after brewing…made me feel safe about using it – I’m moving quickly in the morning and won’t remember to turn it off. The red color is really cute, just as pictured. I reaaaaaaally like it alot. You can use the permanent filter OR take that out and use paper size 1 or 4 cup filters, like I do. I think it makes a stronger brew with paper because it holds the water on the coffee grounds longer…same with any coffee maker. Takes up no space at all, too.

Review by D. M. Alsop
Rating:
Issues:

1) Designed for a left handed person. To pour water in you have to turn the coffee maker backwards to be able to pour it in from right to left.

2) The switch operates poorly

3) Coffee grounds splash back on lid and it has to be cleaned out after each cup of coffee made.

4) You get what you pay for, I paid a little and got a poor product….

Review by Alan K. Nott
Rating:
I have been using this for several days now. Overall, I am quite pleased.

However, If you are trying to brew a full 12 oz. of coffee, the included permanent filter causes the water to overflow back into the reservoir because the coffee grounds clog it too easily, and I use a Starbuck’s Burr Grinder set on coarse. I’ll have to try using it to brew loose tea sometime and see how it does.

Try this instead:

1. Purchase a supply of basket-style paper filters, 1-4 cup size(the purchase price amounts to 6/10ths of a cent per filter at Wal-mart).

2. Using two 8-oz. paper cups, re-size one of the paper filters by holding the filter over the bottom of one of the cups while inserting it into the mouth of the other cup. I know it sounds odd, but it works better than you would think.

3. insert the re-sized filter into the pod/filter holder WITHOUT the permanent filter, add enough ground coffee for 12 oz. of water, and proceed to brew per the instructions.

This works amazingly well. The paper filters in question are much easier to find than the specialized ones, and cheaper, too. And paper filters have a distinct advantage; they trap bitter oils that re-usable filters do not.