I found this device difficult to use. I'm an experienced cook, and I like new gadgets as long as they do what they say they will do. It's important that they make meal prep easier & more convenient. I also like quality, particularly when it comes to kitchen tools.Experienced cooks need reliable, solid, easy-to-use tools, and this is a.) not reliable because it sometimes takes 2 people to operate safely, b.) not solid because it is almost entirely made of molded plastic except for the razor-sharp exposed blades, and c.) not easy-to-use because the entire machine needs to be rinsed off with every use. It's not a matter of breaking it down into parts & cleaning the parts. I'm saying that food gets into every crevice, and you need to wipe or rinse the main cabinet which also contains the blade storage compartments. I have owned a Cuisinart for many years, as well as a Kitchenaid Mixer, so I don't have a problem taking apart a machine for cleaning. But, to clean this thing, you have to wipe or rinse the main body of the machine, as well as its individual moving parts. What a pain!I also don't have a problem with manually-operated devices, as long as they are safe and as long as they work. On my first attempt, I tried to spiralize a sweet potato for a sweet potato carbonara recipe. In order to grind this SOB potato, I had to hold & turn the potato in place because the very sharp plastic teeth on the gripping piece kept stripping through the raw end of the potato, and the plastic handle did not have the strength to continuously crank it over. You have to use smaller, softer veggies for the machine to work smoothly. In addition, my husband had to use both of his hands to keep the press moving forward and to keep the suction cups firmly attached to the counter. If the suction releases, the spiralizer becomes completely useless because the design relies on the force of pressing the vegetable through the blade.The shallow catch tray that doubles as a cover for the machine is another impractical aspect of an overall poor design. It is an inch deep, so you can imagine what happens when big piles of spirals start to build up almost immediately. I couldn't use my normal cutting board to catch the spirals because it has a textured surface and the suction feet could not get a secure hold. So, you have to dump the spirals as you go, which just adds another inconvenient step to using this device. In addition, the machine can't be moved easily because it is suctioned onto the countertop!All I can say is that this thing is way to flimsy for practical use, at least in my kitchen. I'll try it again with softer vegetables. The long spirals are pretty neat, but not worth hassling with this beast. As a side note, eating a plateful of sweet potato spirals is NOT like eating a plate of pasta. It's like having a plate of sweet potato fries for dinner. Not same.The basic side-ways design is flawed and potentially dangerous if you're fumbling around with a stubborn vegetable that keeps slipping away from the grip. A top-down feed would make more sense than a side-to-side feed. That way, gravity would be working with the direction of the feed, and the force of pressing down on the vegetable would help maintain the suction attachment to the counter. Spiralizers are a trend, but I'll wait until I see one that is a sturdier machine before I buy another one.