A trash compactor is somewhat of a novelty these days so I don't have many to compare with. However, I would not want to ever go back to not having one. The floor switch is flimsy and most of the time does not open the drawer. The switches are a bit archaic and I could see them breaking. I'd much rather this thing be a smart compactor so I could incorporate it into alexa routines - especially goodnight for a solid pack. It does a good job at actually compacting though, we can go a week without changing a bag in the kitchetn and there's 8 people in my home.