I have read about people saying how difficult the compact cold press juicer is to clean or open and close. If you follow this advice you will love this machine.Cleaning fiber out of the exit shute: Turn the bowl upside down. You will see an inch and a half long rubber flap that is attached by a screw. You can lift out the opposite end from the screw. Don't pull hard so you don't rip it off the screw. This will open the area where the food is expelled and make it easy to clean. If you have removed the auger, you can now take the flat end of the brush to push the stuck fibers back into the bowl and flush them away with running water. Next issue: You need to remove the rubber ring from the center of the bowl and clean it. To remove, push it up from the bottom. It is also easier to put it back from the bottom, than from the top of the hole. Next issue: Some have said it takes superhuman strength to close or open the cover with the feeding tube. If the auger is not seated properly, the bowl will not drop down far enough into the base to easily snap the cover into place. Press the auger into the bowl before placing the bowl into the base. Then put the bowl into the base and gently make a small turn of the auger until it drops onto the axle of the motor block. After it drops over the axle give it a firm but gentle push to make sure it is seated. Now when you put the cover on with the sieve or frozen attachment, make sure the part of the cover that snaps into the motor is next to the snap-in spot. Now it will snap in easily. No forcing is necessary if the machine is assembled correctly. Next issue.: difficulty in opening the machine when finished. If you pour a little water into the feed tube while running the juicer, it will soften the last bit of food in the juicer and make it easy to open. Next issue: If you slice celery and other fibrous foods into small slices, so as to shorten the fibers, they will not wrap around the auger. Also, if you cut your hard veggies into small chunks, for example, rather than pushing a long carrot through the juicer, you will probably ensure that the motor will have a long life. Here is a little more advice. When you have time, prepare your veggies for several days of juicing and put them in containers in the fridge. Then it will be easy to make a juice when you are in a hurry. If you don't have time to clean your juicer, take a minute to disassemble it. Don't bother rinsing, just put the parts in a bowl of water to clean later. Put a drain strainer over the garbage disposal when you are cleaning your juicer parts, then throw what you rinse out in the compost or trash. You can overwhelm your drains by putting the pulp in the garbage disposal. I speak from experience! Enjoy your juicer, it is awesome!