The machine itself makes good coffee and works as advertised. The carafe, however, is extremely fragile. The first one we bought, the carafe was broken around the rim, right out of the box. We exchanged it for a whole new machine. This carafe was not broken, but we found it very difficult to clean properly due to the way it is designed - you cannot take it apart and rinse the lid separately. Then, one day less than a month later, we rinsed it and there was a CRACK! sound - sure enough, it had cracked right at the rim again (where the metal band holds the handle and lid onto the carafe). We think this is a terrible design flaw.