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!