I bought 2 Sunbeam HTM3 Hot Tea Makers and like them a lot but decided to take the 1 I kept for myself to work and get another one. I had paid only $20 for each one and when I saw the prize on amazon for over $40, I don't think it's worth that much. So I decided to try the Zarafina which costs a lot more. I did receive it as a gift but I still want to send it back as it does the following (and I have only had it a week):

1) Tea won't dispense (no idea why...but after a certain point the machine simply decides it wont dispense the tea)
2) Tea is not warm at all
3) tea does not taste that great
4) starts to boil and then stop while trying to brew the tea
5) Once it is brewed if it is hot (I wouldn't know as mine has never come out hot) you have to drink it right away as there is no way for it to stay warm,

I will have to check with amazon how I return this item as I received it as a gift. I would not recommend this item at all. I love tea and drink a lot of it and am very disappointed since I had read most of the reviews on here.

I purchased my unit at a Linens 'n Things that was going out of business (coincidentally, for the same price as listed on Amazon) and was a bit concerned about the quality of the tea, based on reviews posted here. I got the unit home, unpackaged it - terrific packaging, by the way - and set it up. I brewed my first batch, fully expecting to have mediocre tea.

I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the brewed tea. I purchased the Zarafina white silver needle and black golden monkey tea, and both have turned out spectacularly. I have spent quite a bit of time in England and have become spoiled by how good their tea is, and consequently haven't liked anything I've had domestically. To be honest, we just don't put the importance or effort into tea the English do, and it is usually reflected in the taste. This unit does a pretty good job of coming close to English tea. (I'm sure there are some Englishmen out there that will argue the Earl Grey point with me - that is why I've used the word "close". Go easy.) Keep in mind the quality of your tea will affect the outcome - you're not going to get amazing Earl Grey out of this thing if you use Lipton bags. Garbage in, garbage out, so to speak.

As noted in a previous review, there is a note not to get any moisture on the electrodes on the bottom of the tank, and there is a cap provided to keep it watertight while you're washing it out. I haven't had any issues with the electrodes, but based on the previous review, I've been pretty careful not to get them wet, either.

Overall, great unit, pretty low maintenance, and outstanding tea. I'm a big fan.

My Zarafina unit is pretty much exactly as advertised. It seems to make very good tea, and is very simple to use and understand after the first time.

Cleanup is a little bit of a hassle due to all the parts, but that again was known beforehand.

The carafe is not a "thermal carafe" as I've read elsewhere, it is actually just a regular stoneware carafe, and as such, does not keep the tea hot for very long.

The cups are very nice, with some heft, and do not have handles, which I like. But, they are made of the same stoneware material and become VERY hot to the touch, which is a problem since, as I said, no handles.

I use loose leaf teas from Adagio.

One minor annoyance is that I can't seem to ever position the carafe just right to where the tea flows in perfectly. I always have some tea that spills across the top of the carafe, which is no major problem, as the tea can drain from the top to the bottom, but still makes things more messy than necessary.

Overall a very good product, and highly recommended for regular hot tea drinkers. I am no tea connoisseur, but even I can immediately tell a difference between the loose leaf teas and a Lipton teabag.

One thing I read online that has been helpful is I practically always brew a second carafe full from the same tea leaves. I brew all my first pots on "medium" then brew the 2nd pot on "strong".

I drink the first pot hot, and then I put the 2nd pot in the refrigerator to have iced tea later.

It is amazing how some teas are so much different cold vs hot. I've been pleasantly surprised by some.

You're basically getting the 2nd pot full for "free" so why not?

The Pros:
I bought the Zarafina Tea Maker Suite from another company since I found a great deal on it. I switched over to loose tea a year ago and the machine really worked wonders for me. I was always forgetting to remove the tea strainer from my cup before the tea went bitter when I used a teapot to heat water. The Zarafina Tea Maker Suite brewed my tea for me and decanted into a little pot and I never had to worry about bitter tea. And while there are 5 different tea settings on the machine I typically use the herbal/medium setting for my green tea (which is all I drink). That setting gets the water to a hotter temperature which I prefer and on a medium strength setting I only need to add one scoop of loose leaves for the perfect cup

The cons:
I used the machine to brew 3-6 pots of tea a day and I'd only had it 2 months before it stopped decanting. It would release 2-3 tablespoons of fluid and then nothing. I had to move the teapot into a precise spot before it would actually decant. By month 4 it was not decanting at all, no matter how I positioned the pot. I contacted Zarafina and they have shipped out a replacement machine free of charge and have not asked me to ship my clunker back to them.

The size is rather small at only 16 ounces but sipping from the tiny cups allows me to savor the flavor of the tea rather than gulping it down.

The tea infuser basket seems to let smaller tea leaves loose in the water no matter how tightly I try to fit the lid on the basket. The basket does stain easily but I am able to take it apart and run it through the diswasher and the stains disappear.

The brewing chamber stains just as easily but as other reviewers have said, one of those Magic Erasers does the job of removing stains quick enough. And the brewing chamber does keep the flavor of stronger teas so cleaning it out after a flavored tea or running a pot of water to clear it out is necessary.

Overall:
While that seems like a lot of negatives, they're not as great as having the machine brew the perfect cup of green tea for me. The convenience of setting it up to brew and having it decant before it becomes undrinkable outweigh the cons listed. Now if only it would continue to decant without breaking down so soon! At least I found a good deal on the one I purchased.

This item works well and makes great tea. I keep it in my office to brew tea daily while I'm working and it makes tea making easy and enjoyable. I love that it has settings for various types of loose teas, which allows me to put some silver needles in the loose tea container, move the dial to white tea, and forget about until later when I come back to pour a cup of perfect tasting tea.