For an inexpensive doughnut robot it worked better than I expected. Yes, there is a little learning curve with any donut machine, mostly getting the batter mixing temperature correct/moisture right. This didn't come with a plug but we were able to get a 30 amp plug and wire it in so we could plug it into a generator to run it from our concessions trailer. It does pull a lot of juice and occasionally trips the generator and shuts it off but otherwise works pretty well. We averaged about a donut a minute once it gets going if that helps on production time for those of you figuring out how many it makes. If you're trying to decide on machines, we ordered the larger double row machine first and discovered the larger one needs a 50 amp 120 plug which isn't common in the USA. It needs to be direct wired which wasn't an option for us. Lenovo was nice and gave us $100 refund on the large machine when we contacted them but they wouldn't take it back so if you're trying to decide and power is an issue go with the smaller one (this one), if you need a double row maybe get 2 of these instead. This 1 row donut machine does tip them out of the oil automatically when they get to the end. It worked great for the price!