The media could not be loaded. First off, the coffee maker did arrive in good condition. So, I opened the box and discovered shiny glass and metal... Silver and black... Classy. It seems moderately well made. So, then, I looked at the one page of instructions... then I put on my 2x reading glasses. Then I read the instructions. More directly, I saw the words that were strung together... I have to say right here, this is singularly the WORST Chinese to English "translation" that I have seen, and I have seen a lot! Apparently, my number should not lean on my number, and something about disasters... and humor. So... well, back to the internet. (Since there was no mention of the type of fuel required, which BTW, can be most any liquid burner or lamp fuel, but I don't really recommend paraffin based. More on that later.) So, in reading the Q&A on Amazon, I discovered that I can use tap water, (No, not for the fuel....) so I started with that. Put my water up to the 5c mark (By the way, this is not 5- 8oz cups... It is closer to 2 larger coffee mugs) put my grounds in the top section (Oh yeah... the filter... you have to drop the spring/wire/chain thing down the tube and HOOK IT to the bottom of the tube!) I firmly seated the top chamber on the the bottom, and lit my lamp.Make sure that you have the neck of the lower chamber in the clamp... not the neck of the upper chamber. So... Water & Grounds in, lamp lit... About 5 minutes in, I started to realize that 1.)my wick was too long, 2). I had the lamp shield upside down, & 3). there was a thick layer of carbon building up on the glass...
BUT... It still looked cool! Really! Okay, now here is a warning... if you are looking to grab a quick cup of joe on your way out the door, this is NOT your coffee maker. The 5 cup, with tap water, took well over 40 minutes to brew. (I tried with the recommended boiling water and 3 cups. It still took 34 minutes. In fact, I made my first cup of pour over drip coffee after 15 minutes, and I still had it dripped and half drunk before the science experiment was done.) So, FINALLY , I was ready for the first cup of amazing vacuum brewed coffee. It was .... underwhelming. I mean, it was okay... but it was like diner coffee. And the MESS! It took me another 30 minutes to get all of the lampblack and carbon soot cleaned up. It was EVERYWHERE! And that soot... you can't just wipe it up. I ended up cleaning the floor, the counters and the sink. AND scrubbing the coffee maker. So, lamp oil... NOT a winner.

As I said, I decided to give it a second try. I shortened the wick to about 1/4" (Needs to be half that I think) and used BOILING water up to the 3 c. mark, 3 scoops of grounds. The result was a slightly better cup of coffee, and less soot... but it still took forever.

So, my final assessment is, if you want something that looks kinda cool, and will make an okay cup of coffee to go with dessert after dinner, then go ahead and spend the $30. Otherwise, I recommend that you put the money toward a Keurig, or buy a drip cone and a permanent filter (like hemp or bamboo).

EDIT/UPDATE: We sprung for a butane burner and it made all the difference. Sure, it's still a little messy. But No carbon, and no waiting! The whole process took maybe 10 minutes. We bought the ivation Butane Micro Burner, and it was AWESOME. Now, I just need to fine tune my coffee ground quantity. Updated to 5 stars!

This is exactly the same as the one sold by DecentGadget - both are marked BSeng TCA-5, so why pay 5 bucks more?
Heard a few complains about the thinness of the glass and the complicate process of making coffee. I found neither one is true. The glass may not be as thick as a lab beaker but it is not thin and fragile as people say. Of course it is glass and we should handle it with care, like any glassware. it has a round bottom that if placed alone, it may roll over, but that's it.
Using this device is quite simple like any other siphon coffee maker, but you have to follow the steps. Fill the glass bowl half full will make a large cup. Put the filter in the upper container AND LOCK WITH THE PULL PIN. This may be the step that people miss. DO NOT PUT IN THE COFFEE YET (this may be another step that people miss). Heat up the water. I use a butane burner instead of the enclose alcohol burner - much faster and easy to control the flame. It takes about 4 minutes but if you can't wait, put in hot water instead and it will boil quicker.
When 95% of the water gets into the upper chamber, THEN add coffee and stir thoroughly.. WATCH THE LOWER GLASS CAREFULLY to make sure there is still some water left, then turn off the burner. Coffee will sift through and drop into the lower glass chamber. That's it.
I think most people complaining about glass too thin is they crack the glass while the flame is on with no more water left in it.. Duh, it will crack any glass of any thickness. It is fun to make coffee this way, better taste and it takes only 6 to 7 minutes. I like it.

When I first bought this it was because it's so cool looking and honestly a bit gimmicky in my initial assessment however this thing Brews the absolute best coffee I've ever had a beach my $120 Krups maker, my very expensive K-Cup failure it does take a little bit longer to brew but believe me when I tell you it is hands-down the absolute best way to brew and it's only about 1000 year old ancient Chinese secret or Japanese Secret trust me when I tell you once you prove it this you will never go back two percolators drip makers gravity Foods whatever you may own this hands down is the Pinnacle of coffee makers. Things that go back this many centuries don't hang around because they're junk there's a reason this thing is still around is because it's the best, money back guarantee if you don't like it then you really don't like coffee I've never had such a vibrant and clean tasting coffee like this I cannot recommend it highly enough

This coffee maker is neat! It isn't efficient enough for daily use, but it's awesome to get out with dinner guests or on the weekend!

Works fine, makes excellent coffee, terrific value. True, the instructions could be a bit more clear but they are hilarious, and after drying tears of laughter we just went to YouTube to find out how to work it.

From the instructions:

Coffee cooking steps

1. You will be illustrated in accordance with cloth fixed on the glass filter.

2. Number of leaning on a number puts appropriate amount of warm water or hot water going down the seat coffee pot utensil inner, proportion place coffee powder of finishing dawdling away again with one people share one tie spoon What upper picture seat Of honour inner.

3. When water will begin to get up small bubble, the seat kettle has under at any time a seat of honour being thrust into, disturbs lightly with stirring a spoon now after water rolls the seat having a meeting to go up higher, Move, use coffee with homogenous commixture of water.

4. Complete go up of water, about one minute, will be in favor for move away, lampwick puts out the fire with light cover on envelop, seat kettle Lieutenant General continues keeping Xu water yield here under now be regular.

5. Coffee filters the meeting automation after the cooling, the seat of honour, a use the person and lower seat of glass splits the returning to seat kettle middle down along Guan Zhong stream, still light swing seat of honour.

6. The direct take up seat of honour is had ready again with attached to plastic cement cover pursue what be shown as above on laying down a table horizontally being OK to fix a seat of honour glass, tepid that coffee cup is OK enjoy Have accepted both fragrant And pure coffee.