This is a very basic, no frills electric dough divider. You place dough in the tray, spread it out, then put the tray in the machine. Turn the machine on, and then press the start button. The entire tray lifts up and comes back down, and voila, you have 36 equally divided pieces. It's very quick and relieves the stress on your arms when compared to using a manually operated dough divider with a push lever, such as the one commonly seen from Dutchess. With this machine, processing a batch of dough is also much quicker, the dividing process is mere seconds. In our own testing, you need to use flour to prevent dough from sticking to the tray or dividing knives. DO NOT USE OR SPRAY COOKING OIL, as this caused the dough to become sticky and created a huge mess for us to clean up. As long as you aren't using a very sticky dough and you don't spray any oil to the tray or knives, this machine performs perfectly. Another important thing to keep in mind is that the machine needs to be cleaned daily, which entails wiping down the surfaces and dividing head with a damp cloth. It's pretty simple, don't use any harsh chemicals like bleach. We found simply using water was enough. You can also lightly spray the machine with a food safe sanitation solution after wiping down the surfaces to disinfect the machine.