Before this coffee maker, if I wanted hot water, I would have to use my kettle (which is fine, but takes up counterspace), or run hot water through my old coffee maker without coffee in it (which was also okay, but not ideal). This coffee maker combines the two functions into one nice and sleek space-age looking unit. I haven't even started using the features for brewing smaller cups of coffee. I'm usually running a full pot, and it does a great job of that. I wish it did have a "keep warm" button, because after the coffee maker's built in timer runs out (I think it's two hours), you can't just turn it back on to get it to keep warm. And if you push brew again without water, it throws you an error. So if you like to keep your coffee warm for 2-4 hours, this may not work for you. But if you only need it warm for 1-2 hours, this will work splendidly. If anyone knows how to make it work for 2+ hours, let me know!