Bought it for a camping trip. Used for 3 days straight on an open fire, covered in soot but was easily washed off with a bit of scrubbing. Coffee tasted great. Make sure you have pot holders or something to take it off the fire with. (Make sure the handles are up and away from the body!)You could use wine corks to cover the handles and reduce your chances of burning yourselfWe used corn husks to hold the handles ?Needed a larger coffee pot for camp. This is light, inexpensive, and is easy to use and clean.Made plenty of coffee for up to 6 peopleBought to replace four year old one that perculator broke. great size works well,hope to get at least four years out of this one.only problem box was tore up opened and retaped and bulb for lid was missing luckily old one fit so we could still make coffeesent back. I’m sure it would have worked fine, but it was too big for my desired use.The Coffee Maker was originally delayed, along with everything else lately, but arrived with a barely held together package. Not a big deal but incase that bothers you. My biggest issue was that one of the key pieces of the coffee maker was no in the package, making the coffee maker non-functional.The product is very lightweight, and seems to be a great size for a handful of individuals or perfect for the coffee crazed individual. I was not able to brew coffee so I can't speak to the functionality of the device.There's good and bad here,light weight perfect for camping,heats good,and if done right good flavor indeed. I was to return it but won't due to the fact it was a good price although the purculator is nothing like the ones many decades ago...everyone had them up to the early 70's...you just HAD to. If you can swing it get the stainless steel for durability this item is for ocasional use due to how the stem which tends to float due the water boil if just a bit of coffee is used, it seems to need more weight at the plate...another con...because it is so thin and fragile and easy to break. I wished for same quality as in the past but no, however it looks great on the stove and does make good coffee. I'll keep her. L BThe insides of these are not stable, they sit a little sideways/crooked, so the coffee grounds sometimes comes out the sides of it into the coffee. Pretty nasty. Three of the same exact products were the same exact way, so it is a design flaw, not a defect. Makes 4 cups, even 6 cups alright. I would never make anything more than that in this; otherwise that 'basket' would overflow each and every time.