I have been using this daily for three months. Shortly into the second month, the coffee started to taste burnt after only 15-20 minutes on the element. Not just a little, but undrinkable. So the element is too hot...have tried a variety of coins to lift the carafe a bit to relieve it, but then it's too cool...Ugh. Extremly disappointed - I expected way better. Other than that, I like everything else about the machine, so it gets at least 2 stars instead of none.