The operation of the Warsaw heavy ion cyclotron is presented. Technical solutions adopted were intended to accommodate the needs of different groups of users requiring a wide scope of beam species and energies. The accelerating structure of the machine, with two 45 degree dees, allows for the operation in the harmonics modes from 2 to 6 (first harmonic mode is also possible, although the acceleration of protons and deuterons is currently not within the scope of interest). Available energies range from 2 to about 10 MeV/amu due to the wide range of the stripping extraction system. Development of the multiturn stripping extraction technique was necessary to achieve the flexibility in energy variation, otherwise not reachable due to the highly saturated iron structure, which makes impossible the change of magnetic field and radio-frequency within the desirable limits. At present, the cyclotron, equipped with the ECR ion source, is capable of delivering ion beams from gaseous media up to Ar. Available ion beam species, their energies and intensities obtained up-to-date are shown. An overview of the experiments performed on the Warsaw cyclotron, including basic nuclear physics research, solid state physics and materials science, is intended to demonstrate the potential of the facility. The efficiency of the cyclotron and the ion beam line optics is discussed, as well as the plans for the future upgrade of the cyclotron and its infrastructure.