The carafe is poorly designed and it's nearly impossible to pour a cup of coffee without spilling. The same holds true if you use the carafe to fill the water reservoir. When removing the carafe to pour a cup of coffee during brewing, the maker drips onto the hot-plate causing burning on the plate - contrary to what the manufacturer declares. The cover needs to be closed to keep the coffee basket from pushing up when you place the carafe under the drip maker. We purchased this for our camper. When we realized how much of a mess it created to make a couple cups of coffee, we put our house coffee maker in the camper. It's messy and not worth the time for a couple cups of coffee. I recommend looking for something other than this model.