I was sort of expecting it to be huge, based on some of the photos, but it really isn’t much taller than my coffee maker, and doesn’t take up much more countertop space. As far as the distillation process goes, it’s slow, but not intolerably slow. I can do 3 or 4 gallons in a day with almost no work aside from rinsing the stainless interior of the unit in between batches. Setup was super easy and not much of a learning curve at all. Build quality seems good and it appears to be durable. I have a couple of decorative fountains and my partner’s CPAP machine, all of which take distilled water, so this machine will easily pay for itself in a very short period of time. If you use a CPAP or have other needs for distilled water, I would definitely recommend this unit.