I have had a Silvergen for 2 years now. Like you, I did a good bit of research and settled on this one. Easy to use and no problems with it.
The instructions said that only distilled water could be used. I did have access to an unlimited supply of reverse osmosis water, so I thought I would see if that would work. Nope!! The machine would simply refuse to work. Very smart little machine. Only distilled water will work.
My biggest problem was trying to find brown bottles to store the CS. Fairly expensive for jars, but I did buy some off the web. I do give away some CS and use it liberally myself.
With so many uses for CS I find the Silvergen to be one of my best investments ever. I am most definitely a happy camper.