After spending hours and hours reading water distiller reviews, I bought this one. I am happy so far. I have used it once to make a 8L of distilled water running the machine back to back twice plus the initial cleaning cycle.I turned off machine before the water boiled away totally to prevent the build up getting stuck on. I used the directions. It came with a small jar of citric acid to clean the build up but it was not enough for me to use it this time. I also bought a big bag of citric acid separately.For initial set-up out of the box, you do have to fasten strips and screws around the glass pot and need a screwdriver to do this.Mid-way though the distilling process, I dumped out the water into another container then into the glass bottles I was using for storage (it is not hot) to prevent the receiving pot getting too heavy.It was not too loud.I noticed the water had a slight odor to it. Since I bought the distiller to make CPAP machine water, it did not bother me and I did not notice it when using it.The main drawback is the machine is a lot bigger than it looked in the picture, so I need two areas in my storage cabinet for the red base and then the top part and pot.I will update my review if my machine stops working or I notice anything major.