Had an older Cuisinart Grind 'n' Brew unit - bought this one after 9 1/2 years as a replacement - and LOVE LOVE LOVE it. With the stainless steel insulated carafe, gold-tone 'forever' filter (I use paper), and incredibly simple to use - it is a MUST BUY.Note: The lid on the thermal carafe is identical to my old unit - it's important to rinse the LID out thoroughly to clear any residue that may have slipped through the filter - particularly important if you grind your own coffee or use the (included) gold-tone "forever" filter. The lid has a ball that is hidden inside the lid, and the ball can get 'stuck' on grounds residue - which why it's important to rinse the lid after every pot.I prefer the purity of paper filters, and I am continuing to use my flat bottom filters even though this unit has a cone-shaped reservoir more ideally-suited to conical paper coffee filters.First pot brewed like a champ, and far superior taste to anything I get from S***bucks or P***'s coffee shops, at a much lower cost. The thermal carafe works well, and was the principal reason I went with Cuisinart once again. Also, the thermal units do NOT have an electric warming plate, which prevents over-cooking the coffee whilst it sits on the warmer.Handy water gauge along the right side of the unit - I only filled it to 10 cups and had no overflow issues.Why buy this? It works well - simply put - does what you want and nothing more. Has its own charcoal water filter (you can buy more from Amazon as I did) - filtering out the chlorine out of domestic water supply is VITAL to great taste. I also use a Brita water pitcher (with its own charcoal filter) so my coffee is extra filtered, and the taste reflects that.Even with a decent size portion of Coffee Mate Hazelnut sugar-free - the temp is just right. Hot but not scalding. No warmer plate means no scalded "police station" coffee, which turns bitter just minutes after fresh brewing!I also bought a JustInCase safety deck (available on the web) which is 2" deep, to put this unit on. The idea is in case of coffee maker wardrobe malfunction (translation: coffee going all over the countertops, floors, carpets, etc), the JustInCase unit catches all that mess in a handy tray which you can pour down the sink - and nothing goes anywhere else. The JustInCase unit showed up from Idaho in a couple of days, and exceeded my expectations.Malfunctions can happen on ANY coffee maker, ranging from 2 paper filters instead of 1, clogged lid in the carafe, over-filling the water reservoir, forgetting to put the carafe in or putting the carafe in at an improper angle, etc. As such, the modest cost of an anti-spill device protects against the inevitable coffee overflow that can occur without warning - especially important for those who use 'auto-brew' or who leave the room during brewing.I gave up on grinding my own beans. Those burr grinders clog up and are a PITA to clean. I buy the 3 lbs of K****kland coffee from the membership club, and Bob's my uncle.All told, I'm extremely happy and recommend this. Would give 6 stars. BTW, the object sitting below the coffee maker in my uploaded photos is the all-black JustInCase spill-catcher! Available on the web.UPDATE 10.28.2017: INSIDE OF THERMAL CARAFE exhibited flaking brown flecks, now suspect may have been coffee grounds that built-up over the past 27 months of use. I mistakenly thought this might have been teflon de-laminating from the interior of the carafe, but Cuisinart support says it is stainless interior, so it had to be coffee sludge. I am going to purchase a new carafe and try to do a better job of cleaning between brews.