I read the reviews prior to purchasing this coffeemaker. We knew about the leaking around the bottom, but from one of the reviews we thought it could be easily fixed.
When the coffeemaker arrived, the first thing I did was tighten the screws as described in one of the other reviews. Put water in the container and it leaked badly. I then tried food grade gasket paste but that did not stand up to the heat. So I found a good grade ruberized gasket that would work. Okay, the coffeemaker could now finally make coffee.
The coffee was strong, hot, and good. Has an automatic shutoff after two hours. The container it brews into is not air tight, but the coffee was still good enough the next day that you could nuke it and enjoy it.
One big minus was that if you used the reusable metail filter you had to have it centered perfectly - and I mean perfectly - to keep grounds from going into your coffee. For some reason, the brew basket is much bigger than the filter and you have to align it by eye.
The coffee maker worked for 6 months and then the rubber gasket wore through. I could not find another one. Only 6 months of use out of this coffeemaker that has an obvious engineering defect straight from the manufacturer. (They put a metal plate at the bottom of the "bucket" that the coffee brews into. The metal plate is warmed from underneath to keep the coffee hot. However, when they attach the plate to the plastic bucket they use 4 screws; and nothing else. This is where it leaks. There is no way to tighten 4 tiny screws into plastic enough to make the connection watertight. The manufacturer really messed this one up.)
You will be disappointed if you purchase this product. I would recommend you purchase something else.