A good sonic cleaner is a fantastic tool to have in your thrifting repertoire. And as a lapidary I also use them for cleaning polishing compound out of crystal vugs or micro cracks on some of my stone pieces. I ordered this one when my $15 one finally wore out, and it's a significant step up.Setup is dead simple. The power cord plugs into the back, and there's a power switch right above where the cord plugs in. Then knobs on the front to set heat and time. Couldn't be simpler!I put two pairs of thrifted sunglasses and a pretty but dirty piece of rock in here for my first use, and I was blown away at how much more powerful this is than my cheap one!It is a little loud, but that's probably to be expected of a massive chunk of vibrating stainless. The heat function worked perfectly, and the timer was accurate. My pieces came out with all visible gunk gone, and ready to use! The rock specimin had a bunch of dirt packed into delicately textured crystals, and while it took more than 1 ride through this to get the stone clean, it did ultimately come away looking like a museum specimen too! (I did soak it with some iron-dissolving solution between washes to achieve that.)All in all, this is a huge step up from what I've used before. It performs like the ones at jewelry stores at a fraction of the price!