We love our new coffee maker! It works as well and reliably as our 6 cup Ilsa and now, when we have company, there's coffee for everyone at the same time, instead of some having to wait for the 6 cup maker to cool enough to brew a second time.Love Ilsa's coffee makers - easy to use and when we're fewer people, the insert lets us brew less in the same pot.It's costly, but worth it.Coffee is acidic and aluminum ingestion is linked to many health issues.Stainless steel is the way to go!You might need a flame tamer on a gas stove - but the instructions say clearly to keep the handle away from the heat. Our handle never gets hot. The only way the handle could fall off, as I see it, is if it gets overheated repeatedly AND gets used for leverage when opening and closing the maker.I place our pot on a rubber glove on the counter, then use the other rubber glove for friction on the top part when screwing the two sections together and apart (small hands). Our 6-cup maker has been around since the mid-90s and has never failed!