A few months ago we invested in a new coffee maker. We were using a Cuisinart grind and brew model and we needed to upgrade. Particularly since Alex basically inhales his coffee and he hated cleaning all of the parts on the Cuisinart. After much research we decided upon the Capresso Coffee Team. We had owned a Capresso in the past and hed been very happy with the quality of the brewed coffee. This model had a burr grinder and a thermal carafe. The grinder was separate from the brewing area so that it did not need to be cleaned with every pot. Even better, I found refurbished models available from 1st in Coffee. Two and a half months later I can honestly say that this is my favorite home coffee maker ever. There was a definite learning curve, it took a while to figure out exactly how to screw in the lid to avoid waterfalls of coffee cascading across the countertop. Now that we've got the system down it's a breeze. Combined with beans from Counter Culture Coffee it makes our mornings that much better. And let me tell you, with a baby in the house that first cup of coffee is more important than it ever was before.