I bought this as a Christmas present for my boyfriend and I this year. Went to set it up Christmas eve so that he would wake up to the smell of fresh coffee in the morning! When I plugged it in and ground my coffee beans in it, I set the timer and went to walk away....as I was walking away, I could smell burning plastic!!! I turned around to see smoke billowing out of the machine. I'm so glad I was right there to unplug it instead of going straight into the basement like I had planned. This thing almost caught my house on fire!!! 
Maybe I got the lemon of that batch, but still a very awful experience with this product!