Some people might question whether or not a grit guard works, but in my experience, I feel that it does. I have one of the translucent Lowe's bucket and with my 2 stacked grit guards, I can see what happens to the soapy/foamy rinse water. When I agitate my wash media against the grit guard, there's a lot of turbulence of the water that would normally stir the grit/debris back up in a bucket with no grit guard. But with 2 grit guard stacked, the water at the very bottom is for the most part, undisturbed. I'm no rocket scientist and I'm far from a genius, but if I had to explain how a grit guard works, I think that basically what it does is allow you to agitate your mitt/towel/sponge against it to loosen whatever grit is on your media, and then all the panes of the grit guard prevents water from sloshing around, creating turbulence and stirring stuff back up.