I always thought that the light duty plungers were so much easier to keep clean.....unfortunately, my home requires that heavy duty one & it's a lot more difficult to make sure it's clean because it's the kind that has the huge center where it fills with air to shove into the toilet.....but that huge center also is what gets so really gunky. I don't have a problem most of the year because I can take it outside immediately & wash it off with the hose & clean it after that...but during the winter....the job of cleaning it is much more difficult having to do it all inside.....yeech. There are definitely a lot of gross jobs around the house & when one is living alone like I do.....there is no one to pass them off to like I used to do.