While a huge fan of the coffee my Ratio Six produces, I remain disappointed that we had to pay anything for a defect-corrected carafe. This isn’t a $30 coffee maker. Further, I was quite surprised, after inspecting the replacement carafe, that the same corrected functionality can be achieved by gently removing the flexible plastic piece above the spout of the original defectively-designed carafe. I’ve tested the piece-removed carafe for a couple of days now and it works fine. And if for some reason, I want to have dripping all over my countertop during pours again, I can put the flexible plastic piece back - it attaches/snaps back in easily. But hey, for $40 I now have a lesson learned *and* a carafe planter suitable for flowers or cactus or something. TLDR version: Definitely buy the Ratio Six or the Eight if you want fantastic pourover coffee in the precise amount and strength you want. Now that the carafe has been corrected, you won’t have that to deal with. But yeah, if you already own one, maybe save yourself $40-$75 and simply remove the plastic piece. Doh.