My family is exhausting. My kid dropped the coffee maker and "broke" it. My wife said to trash it behind my son's back so he doesn't feel bad about it. I took it instead and tested it out...that plastic dome piece seems to have broken which prevents water from brewing directly into the carafe. However, the carafe lid is such that a "misalignment" is caught by additional openings. So if you're just brewing hot water, there's no issues. Also, the k-cup side seems to work fine too. Just made myself hot-chocolate to test. All she had to do was say, "Kid dropped it, please check it out", but no...had to say, "Trash it". I bought this for her as a gift a few years back. 😔 (...forgot the pics...) (edit: called it "k-pop" instead of "k-cup" 🤦 )