I figured that those folks who complained about the pot leaking while making the coffee just got unlucky and got a bad one. Well, I guess I did too! It made one great pot of coffee and the next three times I used it, it spewed water all over the counter top. It goes back to the store tomorrow.

We've had this coffeemaker for 2 years now, and despite the design flaws, will repurchase.

Upside:

1) Taste. Simply put, makes the best coffee we have ever tasted. Blows away the average cup served by starbucks/coffeebean/Petes, etc.

2) Keeps coffee HOT. The carafe keeps the coffee piping hot for hours. We make a pot in the morning to drink during the day, and it's still plenty hot after dinner if we warm the cream in the micro for 30 seconds. No loss in flavor. All of our friends love the coffee when they come for a visit, which seems to always be hot and ready for guests. I have never purchased a machine that makes coffee this good which is the most important issue for us in a coffee maker, period.

Downside:

1) Yes, you need to line up the lid - so what? A few turns counterclockwise will line up the threads. Tighten, visually inspect, and you're good to go.

2) Occasional overflow. This is always due to user error, either we forgot to line up the lid or overfilled the filter with coffee. In three years, this has only happened 3 times. The last time we set the coffee maker in a tray with a big lip at the edges to catch the overflow. This worked great, but we didn't consider the maker would be sitting in the coffee, and this ultimately burned out the controls. Perhaps we will set this on something in the tray, so that if it spills over, it won't be sitting in the liquid.

That having said, we are thrilled with our coffee maker, and will repurchase exactly the same model. I consider 3 years of excellent, hot coffee worth the investment, especially because overflow was due to our own user error and can be avoided in the future. I would not hesitate to recomemend this model to any of our friends and family who appreciate excellent coffee on a daily basis.

We've had this coffee maker for about 3 years now and it has been a good overall purchase. Our favorite feature is that it keeps the coffee VERY hot for a VERY long time. Dislikes include:
- LOUD alarm that cannot be shut off. Sometimes we just turn it off before it is finished because it is so annoying.
- You must align the caraffe perfectly with the drip basket. One slight misalignment will cause coffee to drip everywhere.
- After three years, the whole contraption is getting a little tired. The top lid of the caraffe seems to get backed up more often than it used to. Is that to be expected for a three year old coffee maker that gets used 1-2 times a day? I guess it's up to you to decide...

Best thermal caraffe I've ever used. Coffee stays hot well into the afternoon when brewed around 6:00 AM. The unit itself is a little tall and must be pulled out from under the wall cabinet to pour in the water. Coffee tastes fine, though I haven't made anything other than Folgers yet. It's also nice that the caraffe holds 12 cups. There's finally enough coffee for my wife and I in the morning. The pour spout spatters a little if you're not careful.

I purchased this less than a month ago, and as another reviewer noted, the machine is terrible. I've probably used it less than 15 times, and already it's stopped working. Press the "on" button, and be delighted by its one to two minute "brew cycle", where nothing happens. My machine is currently on its way back to Amazon.