The only thing keeping me from 5 stars is the side mount knee bump can be be disconnected and used as a foot pedal. The problem is the cord is a little short for my liking. I will just purchase a service cord to make it longer so I have the foot pedal on the same side of the machine as the controls to start the machine and control the pace of the plunger and not have to stretch my leg and foot to the foot pedal.. Its about 6 to 8 inches to short for me.Very easy to disassemble and clean compared to my old stuffer The old stuffer was top feed and the horn at the bottom with the opening at the top and the bottom of the cylinder being closed. When disassembled for cleaning the cylinder is open on both ends making cleaning a breeze. It is nice working the stuffer by my self and not having to find a helper to run the crank. If you have stuffed meat to a small casing with a crank stuffer you know that when you stop stuffing, the person on the crank must stop turning and go backwards to prevent overflow coming out of the horn. This machine, when you let off the foot pedal, the plunger will go down slightly creating back pressure and the meat sucks back into the horn preventing overflow. There is a setting for this that can be adjusted, but the factory setting on my machine worked perfect. I did contact the seller to purchase more gaskets so I have them on hand in case I need them. I do not anticipate needing them, just want to be safe. The seller said it would take 2 weeks to get them as they would come from the county of origin (China). This machine is very heavy duty from the cylinder to the pistol to the lid to the two handles that secure the lid to the cylinder. The hydrolics are very simple and no different than any piece of equipment I have used in the past that were hydrolic. I believe this will be well worth the price as other name brand machines cost five to eight thousand dollars. We use this for our venison and our favorite item is snack sticks. Its great not having to struggle with the force need to force meat through a small horn on a hand crank stuffer. Between my friends and family we typically make 500 pounds of salami and snack sticks. This process just got a whole lot easier. Im not a processor, just a guy that enjoys turning venison into salami and snack sticks for family and friends. One other trick I discovered watching an on line video, when you are done stuffing and will disassembled the stuffer for cleaning, place your hand at the end of the horn covering the opening, turn the piston in the down postion, run the machine for a couple seconds, then pull you hand off the end of the horn. The back pressure will suck all the meat in the horn back into the cylinder. When you take to horn off and clean it there will be no meat in the horn. Any one who has stuffed meat thru a small horn knows getting all the meat out of the horn and getting it clean is the worst part of the clean up at the sink. No more shoving straws, pipe cleaners, or long brushes on a wire handle that just bends every which way trying to get through a horn that is full of meat. This trick is simply amazing.