I use this to wash cloth pads and occasional stained undies every day of my cycle, as I have very heavy flow and my front-loading, water-saving washing machine doesn’t thoroughly or efficiently clean pads without me running multiple, wasteful cycles.In the morning, with the agitator attachment in, I fill the container maybe half-full with plain water, and I add pads throughout the day (letting out a heavily-soiled water and adding fresh water if/as needed). At the end of the day, I churn and rinse a few times with plain water, then spot-treat with Ecover for stains if needed, add detergent and OxyClean and soak for an hour or so, then agitate, soak another 10 mins, agitate, then rinse with plain water a few times, change to spinner basket and spin and hang dry. The pads come out *perfectly* clean, I’ve used NO electricity, and I’ve probably used way less water and cleaning products!Now for some specifics.Capacity: I think you’d be hard pressed to fit more than a pair of pants and a shirt (IF that) into the machine at one time. FYI unless you have a deep, basin-like sink, you’ll need to use a smaller vessel (like a mixing bowl) to fill this up, and you will need way more water than that little Pyrex measuring cup in the video.Churning: this is pretty easy (watch the video- do a half-turn clockwise, then a half-turn counter-clockwise, over and over). Of course, the more you are churning, the more muscle you need to put into it. The most I filled the container was maybe 3/4 full, and it was a bit of an arm workout for a few minutes!Cleaning: I specifically purchased this machine because it has an *agitator* (others don’t), and I think the agitator probably helps with really churning the items and removing soil and stains. The churning produced a really good amount of suds with a minimal amount of detergent, so I knew it was efficient. I did have a few pads where the staining wasn’t removed with just soaking in plain water, and they came out beautifully with the detergent/OxyClean/Ecover treatment and the soaking/churning/soaking/churning routine.Spinning: This is very effective (I can’t squeeze more than maybe a drop or two of water out of each item, after a briefly spinning twice) and doesn’t take too much energy. Items dried *maybe* a bit faster than they did when I was manually squeezing them out before.Sturdiness: after seeing reviews of *other* machines, whose churning/spinning handles broke off, I made sure to be a little gentle with this (eg., pausing for a second before changing direction when agitating, instead of abruptly jerking the handle). The agitator and spinner basket seem sturdy, and everything has held up so far through several loads, so no complaints there. Note: the plastic suction cups at the bottom of the container won’t stop movement altogether, so you have to hold the machine with one hand while churning and spinning with the other.Value: I am very pleased with this item and it suits my purpose, so I was fine with the price (which seems in line with other machines- though the others DON’T have an agitator). I *do* think the price of all of these machines, with their small size and plastic parts, is pretty inflated, but I guess that’s the market.Other uses, besides pads: I would definitely use this to wash small baby/child items that are stained and need to be soaked & washed right away, when you don’t have any other clothes to put in the washer; I feel like this machine *might* even do a better job than my machine with a tiny load and stains like that. I would NOT use this for cloth diapers (I saw a review on another machine that mentioned this idea), just because the capacity is so small compared to what you use in a day, and cloth diapers are typically quite soiled. I, personally, would NOT use this for adult-sized clothing, except in a REAL pinch; I think I will stick to my washing machine for that. And I saw a clip of someone using a similar machine to wash delicate lingerie; I think this requires a bit more effort than I am willing to put in, when I can just throw these items into a mesh bag in my machine, but if you are particular, that is definitely an option.Overall, I am VERY pleased with this purchase and would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to *thoroughly* clean smaller items while saving water, electricity and detergent.