We go through coffee pots quite frequently and never invest a lot of money in one. This coffee maker does a great job at soaking the grounds, extracting the golden goodness that most of us need to jump start our day. It is easy to program. You just set the time you want it to kick off and you're done. We went to this one after having two coffee pots that had insulated carafes. This one doesn't keep the coffee hot as long as those carafes did, but for the price it does a decent job. Easy to operate. Easy to clean. Easy to program. You can also pack it along when camping if you have a power source to run it.