I love making as many foods from scratch as I can, controlling the quality of ingredients, but homemade pasta used to be something that I just needed to be in the right mood for to do. For years, I have a hand-crank unit that attaches to my countertop with a clamp and found making pasta to be so time-consuming (not to mention how aggravating it is when the crank arm falls out time after time!)... I made pasta MAYBE 2-3 times a year with that unit . A buck a box for store-bought pasta was worth it to me not to have the crank hassle. Now with the Kitchenaid roller I can make pasta 7 days a week if I want and whip it up in less than an hour (including resting time for dough). It is so easy and fun, I have already way surpassed the number of pasta batches I've made all previous years with a crank model (in just 3 months). Ravioli, lasagna, egg noodles, linguine (I even got adventurous one day & decided to make tortellini - well half the dough went for tortellini, the other half became ravioli - if you've ever made tortellini then you know why). But all have been wonderful and SO EASY. The taste is SO MUCH better than store-bought and it's so cool that if I want pasta for dinner and don't have the noodles I can make them so quickly.My roller works great and I have not had any issues with cleaning like some other reviewers mentioned. It says not to submerse in water which I don't. It comes with a tiny brush that I use to wipe the roller out, then I use a dry towel and wipe it clean. Each time I use it, there are never any left over hard pasta pieces from the time before (like my crank model would have). Also I did not have any issue with grease getting on my pasta the first time I used it (just in case I made two batches though). The only thing I hope Kitchenaid will change at some point is the setting number size or color (the setting numbers on the dial are the same color as the unit so they blend right in). When you have flour on the dial and need glasses for reading (not making pasta), it is hard to see the setting number as they are quite small. Other than that I absolutely LOVE the roller and highly recommend it to any of you crank pasta makers out there! You will have time to make your pasta and eat it too :)