I've had a lot projects in partial completion but this particular one turned into a must finish situation. Basically our coffee pot went south. And once again I find myself in the coffee pot investigation and repair business. (See my other Keurig fix) This Hamilton beach Flexbrew was gifted to us over the holidays. It worked fine for the most part but to be a simple 1
cup brewer It is a bit bulky (Yeah yeah it does do other things but the other things seem more like a free gift to distract you from how big this thing is) Next the Hamilton beach Flexbrew- brewing issues started.( HBFB for short) More on these in the next step. Issues you will likely have if you have one of these Hamilton beach Flexbrew coffee machines. All these issues above began to progress within 2 weeks of using the brewer and I will note I am the only coffee drinker in the house and average 1.25 cups a day. By the numbers not a good success rate for the Flexbrew. What I found is the root cause of all these issues are the same thing. The poor lid design. Next the breakdown how does the lid cause all this havoc? Step 3: The LowdownWhen my Flexbrew started 'acting a fool' (its a technical term) I had to remove the lid clamp cover to clear a needle clog. And then i had to do this a few more times soooo I decided to do a series of tests with the lid exposed and find the root cause and a fix. I will refrain from the details because it
was myth busters type 'don't try this at home' stuff. Boiling water/electricity/pressurized tubes = bad things can happen. I am an automation professional etc etc LOL. (I did spray hot water all over the kitchen, and I'm pretty sure the return policy is out the window from here in) But this hypothesis would have to wait to be confirmed. If you don't care about the gory details and don't care to take your Flexbrew apart follow the quick fix note below (all be it at your own risk/ results may vary) and be done. If you want to tear your coffee maker apart read the fix below and continue on please. -----Quick fix------- To rig your Hamilton Beach Flexbrew you will need a pencil or ball point pin. Now jab on the top of the left hand side lid bumper/ port seal pushing the center bumper down into the housing so that it is blocking this exhaust in a semi permentant fashion. Now your machine should produce constant flow and brewing. In my case this fixed all my issues. I can not promise it will fix your issues. But if you are reading this instruction you are probably pretty mad at your fancy coffee machine right now anyway and what do you have to lose right?? Step 4: Lets Take It Apart!At this point I had fought this Flexbrew all morning for a single cup of coffee. The quick fix seemed to work very well i trsted it out over and over and over and over but did not satisfy my peaked curiosity. So I did what any maker would do and decided to take this Flexbrew completely apart, (you know... to verify my hypothesis and generally see what else I could hack on this brewer.) This machine is easier to take apart than the Keurig I worked on before. It is held by simple screws. None of that rubrics cube plastic locking latches etc. If you wish to follow this path, well you write your own destiny. I can't be responsible for what happens to your coffee pot (or you) First: unplug the machine 2nd: dump all the water from the 2 tanks. 3: Look for the circle disks and pop them out. These are the screw caps. The pics above are reference for the different screw points around the Hamilton beach Flexbrew. Then just Remove all the screws in the exterior that you find. The bottom does have security 3 slot bolts but these will come out with the right small flat head and pliers for grip. Step 5: The HackOnce stripped bare it is clear to see that bumper that I plugged in the earlier step is a dump valve of sorts. When the port is not sealed this becomes the path of least resistance for the pump air flow. Therefore no pressure will build in the boiler tank = no brew. Also once seeing the machine stripped bare I decided I liked it better this way. Why not have a minimalist brewer. The tank filler plunger was discarded. I used some hobby mending straps to create a simple mechanical cam latch for the
needle sealing assembly. Step 6: Closing ThoughtsA few side notes. To function I had to retain the temperature transducer from the bottom of the secondary boiler. This is the component that plugs into the yellow terminal on the control board. I plan to meter this later and did a resistor etc to replace it. With out this connected the unit will not deploy a fault message but will not go active via the ON/brew start button. I know some may say this is dangerous with the boiler exposed and what not bla bla bla. But I say no more dangerous than the huge
burning hot exposed coils of your stove top. But yes it is different and did I say will void any return policy..... Be the First to ShareRecommendationsHow do you unclog a Hamilton Beach FlexBrew coffee maker?Pour 2 cups (1 pint) of plain white vinegar into the carafe water reservoir. Be sure to place the carafe on the hot plate to catch the vinegar. Press the BREW NOW I/O button once. After 30 seconds, press the BREW NOW I/O button again to stop the brewing and allow the vinegar to clean.
Why is my coffee maker not dispensing water?When your coffee maker stops pumping water, the appliance probably needs to be descaled. Hard water build-up may be affecting your coffee machine's ability to pump water through it to make coffee. Simply run a descaling cycle to clear the build-up.
How do you unclog a single serve coffee maker?The most common method of descaling calls for using a white vinegar and water solution. Simply brew up a few cups of vinegar water (sans the coffee pod) and then rinse repeatedly with water. That means, rinse, rinse, and rinse again to get rid of any lingering vinegar taste.
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