I used this to clean my retainers and I added a cleaning tablet with it into the water. I wanted to get this because I have been using a toothbrush to clean my retainers and that makes me nervous because I don't want to stretch out my retainers and that's what it feels like I have been doing. When I shut the lid and watched it, I could see the water bubbling, not just because of the tablets, but you can definitely tell that it's cleaning the retainers. When it was done, I let them sit in the reservoir for about 20 minutes, and after pulling them out, they looked really clean, so I'm very happy with this. The only thing I would say is it is definitely not compact. It is pretty big, but I'm just going to keep it under my sink and use this instead of a toothbrush to clean my retainers.