This tea maker works GREAT. A lot of the reviews helped me determine the best way to make tea the way we like it. Here's what I found out...We don't like our tea watered down, so I didn't use the iced tea directions that came with it as it’s designed to make just over a quart of tea with the rest ice. We wanted to have a full pitcher of tea, let it cool, put in the fridge, then add ice later.Valuable lesson that I learned... Do NOT fill the water in the pitcher beyond the "Water 3 qt line” (which is just over a quart of actual water). It doesn't seem like you're putting much water into the machine, but if you try to put a lot more water into it, it'll come right out the spout in the front and the little hole that's in the back (I made a big water mess the first time trying to put more water in). The machine will actually fit about 1.5 quarts of water, but I found that when I put that much in, it didn’t brew the rest of the water and had some tea backed up into the tea bag basket.Here are the steps that I used to make a full pitcher of strong, sweetened tea (my family likes Celestial Raspberry Zinger Herbal Tea):1. Fill the provided pitcher with water to the “Water 3 qt” line (filtered, if you have it); again, it’s just over 1 qt of actual water. Remove the tea basket holder and pour the water into the machine. Put the tea basket holder back in.2. If you plan on making a full pitcher of tea, put 12 tea bags into the basket, slide the water spout back over the top of the basket, close lid, and set the switch on the front to "strong" (modify to fit your needs).3. Put the pitcher securely in front of the machine with spout under the opening (see photo). Push button on the side to turn it on and brewing will begin (takes about 10 minutes to brew - power switch light on the side turns off when it’s done). It'll fill the pitcher with about 1 quart of actual tea. We wanted a full pitcher of tea with NO ice, so...4. Carefully open the water reservoir again (the steam is HOT) and remove the basket but KEEP the same tea bags in the basket. Using a separate pitcher, fill machine with just over 1 quart of water. Turn the machine on again to brew adding to the current tea. This fills the provided pitcher to about the 2 qt line.5. Repeat step 4 once more to get 3 full quarts of tea!6. OPTIONAL: Pour the 12 tea bags into the pitcher to let it steep about another 15-20 minutes (to get the most out of the tea bags). If you like it sweetened, ADD 3 TABLESPOONS OF STEVIA IN THE RAW (calorie-free, natural sweetener) or whatever your preference. Let cool for a bit then put into the fridge. Serve over ice. It turns out PERFECT.The other awesome perk of this tea maker is the design of the pitcher. It fits perfectly on the door of our fridge and even on a short shelf (see photo). Just be careful of tea spilling out of the spout as one side of the lid is an open spout for brewing, and the other side is a straining spout, so there's no "closed" option like with a circular pitcher. Just something to be aware of.I highly recommend!