Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The carafe I received is not what's shown in the picture - for that, I have to dock a star. What I received last week is an all stainless carafe, inside and out. I also own a glass-lined Melitta (the one in the picture), which came with the Bona Vita drip coffee maker (my wife got me this one, because she drinks regular, and I drink decaf - it's handy to have two separate pots). Because I have both, I'm in a good position to review both. The all-stainless unit is obviously sturdier - and I suspect that's why they replaced the old model. If enough people complain about shattered pots, they'll eventually change the design. The lid on the all-stainless also has fewer places to gather gunk than the glass-lined one. That said, I think the stainless one is ever-so-slightly less neutral - it colors the taste a tiny, tiny bit. I also think the glass one keeps the coffee warm maybe 10% longer, but the stainless one is still great. If you have the glass one (or any glass-lined pot), NEVER put your hand in it. The pressure of your hand pushing on the bottom of the lining can separate it from the rest of the pot. That's bad. Use a sponge-on-a-stick. They're both great pots. If you care about sturdiness, you'll prefer the all-stainless. If you care about the "perfect" coffee pot and are willing to follow care instructions religiously, you might prefer the glass-lined one. Either way, Melitta should have come out with a different model# and given us the choice instead of using the same picture (even on the box!) with a clearly different pot. For that, I doc them a star. Otherwise, either one would be worthy of 5 stars for its own strengths (OK, 4.5 for the stainless, since they got lazy with a couple of the details). If you want an automatic drip coffee maker, search for the BV1800TH. It's nearly perfect. EDIT: added some pictures - the glass-lined is on the left, all-stainless on the right. You can see how they got sloppy with the styling on the stainless. However, notice that they "fixed" an issue with the lid - the old one collects gunk.