Appliance Reviews

The Tex-Mex grill is one of my favorite ways of cooking. It worked great in our apartment this summer. It is great for one or two people. I cooked fish, Veggie burgers, omelets, french toast, eggs and the list goes on and on. It cooks fast when closed on both sides. It even does biscuits and cookies without heating up the big oven. Great for cooking just a few cookies. Great for grilling buns. Very easy to clean and attractive on your cabinet.

This is a great product at a great price!! It makes wonderful omelettes in minutes. Just whip up two cups (I used 5 eggs, a bunch of low fat ham, onions, peppers and low fat cheese) & pour. I just sprayed both surfaces with PAM. In a few minutes you will have yourself a piping hot breakfast (for 2!!). It would be great for a college student or anyone, like myself, who has a teeny tiny kitchen. It's also very attractive. I'm fixing brownies now!!! Gotta go!

I love omelettes, but never made them at home because I hated to deal with the dirty pan. With this little gem I can put my egg mixture in and in about 3 minutes have a perfectly cooked (no runny stuff) and attractive looking omelette. It's so quick I can even have breakfast before leaving for work. Now, on to the best part... it wipes clean in an instant!

I remember looking at can openers in a store about 5 years ago and an old man handed me a swing away. It didn't look fancy like all the others I was weeding through, but he said "This one is the only one NASA trusts and the one I use at home is probably older than you!". He showed me the gears and how it's pretty much impossible to wear them out. It was cheaper than the fancy ones, and only a little bit more than the low-end ones in the mall shop I was at.

It worked great, but was 'borrowed' permanently by an ex-girlfriend (she did leave her fancy one...which would butcher any can you attempted to open with it)...

I finally talked my wife into trashing the dollar store one she picked up a couple years ago....she thought all can openers were the same.

My wife is happy we got it, especially the fact that it has more leverage to open the tough cans she used to struggle with.

We been looking for a can opener for 10 years that was easy to use. This is the one. I ordered 3 more for gifts, don't need an electric one, this one is just as easy to use. A Plus item.

bought one for my first apartment (in college!) it's been almost a decade and this can opener is worth every penny. it's sturdy and easy to turn. even my mother, who has arthritis in her fingers, can manage it! i paid full price for this can opener at the time ... and i'd spend that much again if i had to -- but i don't have to!

My neighbor borrowed it when her electric one stopped working. She now owns one too! This is a fantastic kitchen tool!

I love to marinade almost every meat I cook. I used to put my meat in a container far too large for a 2 person serving in a bowl or casserole dish and cover it in saran wrap to open my refrigerator the next day to the scent of marinade all over the place. Also that was pretty darn messy and a waste of good marinade!
Well what took me 10 hours before now takes 1 hour in this food saver. I was skeptical that the marinade wouldnt permiate the meat thoroughly enough. Boy was I wrong. My meat was never more tender in 10 hours than just 1 hour in this foodsaver container! And I dont lose any of the flavour of my marinade that happened sometimes with the cover and overnight method.
This container is mega durable, easy to open after sealing closed. I'm going to purchase more of these, they're so wonderful!

In addition to its excellent use for marinading meats, I find the square canister to be far more practical than the round containers for storage in the fridge because the shorter height can more easily fit on any shelf and can be stacked. It just makes a lot more sense than trying to fit round containers into a square hole.

It's perfect for square or flat foods like sliced cold cuts, whole sandwiches, square cut cheese, hor d'oeuvres, leftover slices of pie, garlic bread, and pizza slices!

According to Tilia, the square base is the only container that is microwave safe for heating food (not for cooking), so it can be directly used for reheating soups, casseroles, leftovers, etc. without having to transfer to another dish that will need to be cleaned later.

Tossed salads can be prepared in advance, vacuum sealed to maintain freshness, and then conveniently eaten directly out of the container, unlike the round containers that are too deep to use in this way. With a small insulated cooler and a refreezable gel pack, you can easily take a fresh and healthy salad to work without finding a soggy wilted mess by lunch time.

Over the long term, a reusable container is more cost effective than the resealable bags.

As far as a vaccum canister it is far superior to round containers that are availible. The nice part being that it is a better shape for leaving in the fridge and stacking things on top of it.

The tray iself is made of some pretty thick plastic, its not a wimpy thing. Two parts, there is a lid with a silicone gasket around the edge and then the bowl of the tray. The bowl can be machine washed. There is a valve on the top with 3 settings. Open/Vaccum/Close. To use hook the accessory hose up to the valve in Vaccum mode and engage the pump. My 550 takes about 20+ seconds to evacuate the air out with about a pound of meat in the tray.

Its kind of weird but the top is held on by vaccum pressure so if the tray is emty and you grab the top only the lid comes off. But once the vaccum is pulled they are very well held together.
The tray can hold a good amount of food. I like the dimensions.

It is said that using vaccum makes things marinate faster. I'm not sure how true this is as I have never done a side by side comparison. But I have observed one thing. I was making some Jerky and I put one batch in the tray and vaccumed it and put the other batch in a non-vaccum container of similar dimensions. Left both overnight. In the morning when I went mix the meats up so it would marinate evenly all of the marinate in the vaccum tray was gone, it had been sucked up by the mean. The regular tray still had marinade in it. Same meat, same basic marinate (one had chili pepper for some extra heat). The strength of the marinade seem stronger in the finished product as well. So I guess there is something to it.

Either way when I marinate something for a short time I always use the vaccum (if for no other reason than to justify all the money I spent on it).

The works great! We have used it for a couple of weeks now and we haven't had any trouble. Our old one that was made by a different company wasn't very durable and was pain to deal with. However this is very easy to setup. Just plug it in and start mixing the batter. Then spoon about 1/2 to 3/4 a tablespoon onto the iron and lightly press down. After about 35-45 seconds, lift the iron and pullout the pizzelles. It takes a little time to get good at it, but once you get good, they'll become your favorite snack! It comes with a recipe book too!

I recently got married, and my sisters purchased this for my shower. Our mother's family is Italian, and pizzelles were always a treat when we were growing up. As I got older, I made them myself using my mother's old iron, and as a bride, I wanted to have my own. This iron is very easy to use and makes perfect pizzelles. After the iron heats up (about 7-8 minutes), it makes two cookies in about 30 seconds. You may have to adjust the amount of batter used as well as the cooking time in order to get the perfect shape and doneness, but the results of this trial and error are well worth it. The pizzelles remove from the iron easily with a spatula; I experienced no sticking, and clean up was a breeze. Highly recommended!

i have this pizzelle maker. for years, my daughter has asked to borrow it to make these wonderfultreats, actually a family tradition. now she has her own!a very easy, quick machine to operate. the pizzelles can be decorated to match any event...even rolled for ice cream cones!clean up is a snap and the machine stores easily. great gift for even the novice baker.

This steam free frother works great.

I bought my Aerolatte 2/12 yrs ago and it still works perfectly, although it is a battery hog. (Do try rechargeable) I hardly ever have coffee drinks out, I can make the best drinks at home now with the Aerolatte. I do not recommend using this for anything but milk or hot chocolate, because you cannot dishwash it. I have found that cold milk works the best, but it will do fine with warm. I have given this for gifts many times, everyone seems to love it. I have the aerolatte without the shaker, so I don't know if the shaker is useful, but if you can find the stand that goes with the Aerolatte buy it

I love my Aerolatte. I found some good coffee recipes on the Aerolatte website for all kinds of different coffee drinks from mochchitos to cappuccinos. I have to say that the cappuccino I made was just as good as the ones I've had at Starbucks and that the Chai was pretty close. For the coffee drinks, the Aerolatte website suggests that you use a strong coffee like espresso to make most of the coffee drinks, I used Starbucks Espresso and it worked out great.

As a low-fat treat try blending up ice-cold milk, it becomes very stiff foam and is a good treat!! So far I have made several of the coffee recipes on ther website and they were all very good. I also love the shaker that comes with the kit; it sprinkles the cinnamon perfectly. Also, the Aerolatte is so easy to use and to clean. You just run it under water for a sec when you are finished.

This is a very fast and powerful juicer. It has two speeds which is great for soft and hard veggies and fruits.
Juices hard pears, for example, in a flash and gets ALL the juice. Only hard pulp remains. I've used others in the same class and price range but this is head and shoulders above them. And, easy to assemble and clean. Wonderful.

OK I got this juicer just as soon as it came out. I read all the reviews of all the juicers I could find, and it was clear that Breville was the best way to go. And the raves were all about the previous model which had less power and only one speed. I love the juicer but I guess I was expecting a divine product by the review I read. I'll just say it is good quality without drooling all over about it...

PRO'S:
~Great Power
~easy to clean, (do it sooner rather than let stuff dry on)

~smartly designed electrical plug
~motor cannot run if parts are not locked together (for safety reasons)
~product has few angles and many curves, which makes cleaning easier since pulp/juice can be hard to reach where there are corners
~two speeds: fast for power, slow for soft items
~it really can make 8oz juice in 5 seconds!
~huge food chute can accomodate an entire apple... you save time not needing to cut many things pre-juicing.

CON'S:
~tomatoes - even on slow setting, the juicer doesn't effeciently grab all the juice of a tomato. perhaps do tomatoes first, then recycle the 'pulp' back through juicer to get more juice
~even though the plastic is durable and dark colored (to distract against discoloration) carrots do tend to stain it immediately.

The con's are really quite trivial but I thought I should mention them since I was expecting pure perfection based on the reviews I read. I love the product and I would not swap it for anything. Besides, it is extremely affordable for what you get out of it!

This is a great juicer. My last juicer, a warning juicer, was a piece of junk. This this was very well thought out and well designed. Easy to throw pulp away, easy to clean, easy to juice with big shoot. Don't waste your money on cheap juicers, they don't work well, get this one!

My experience is limited to the Omega 1000 and 4000. Both are very good machines, but one of them has some distinct advantages.

As the other reviewers have noted, this machine is very solidly built & should easily outlast the 15 year warranty. However, I think the model 1000 will probably last even longer.

Why? Because the 4000 is so much more pleasant to use that you will use it more, because the operating principle is a little different.

Both machines have a chute that you feed fruits & vegatables into. At the bottom of the chute is a stainless steel disc/blade that grinds up the food into a pulp.

On the 1000 model, the pulp is thrown out by centrifugal force into a drum that is just like a washing machine drum - it is perforated stainless that traps the pulp on the inside and allows the juice to strain out. Just like on a washing machine spin cycle, it is possible to get the contents out of balance so that the whole machine shakes & makes a real racket! This is very easy to do on the 1000 if you load apples or other foods with skins, because the skin will often stay intact so it has to go on one spot on the drum, throwing it out of balance like a pair of jeans. There are some "tricks" that help in this case, such as saving some carrots for this emergency. Many times feeding a carrot will stop the shaking.

Another consequence of the "spin-cycle" approach is that after you have feed a few pieces of fruit, the pulp in the drum can clog, trapping all the juice inside. This happens especially when you try to juice bananas, pineapple or strawberries.

The model 4000 works differently because the spinning drum is cone-shaped, which forces the pulp to ride up the sides of the drum for a brief period & then it flies out into a pulp ejector chute. This means the 4000 never gets the shakes like the 1000, and also the drum stays much cleaner, which allows you to keep juicing much longer. For example, this morning I juiced apples, carrots, celery and grapes in that order on both the 4000 and 1000. Although in both cases I got exactly 12.5 ounces of juice, the juice from the 1000 had no grape color and less grape flavor.

The other advantage of the 4000 is that it when you turn it off, it stops in just a few seconds. On the 1000, it continues to spin for much longer because of the heavy food in the drum, dribbling all the while and sometimes walking across your countertop!

So I give 5 stars to the 4000, and only 4 stars to the 1000. The 1000 does have an optional citrus juicing attachment that is rather nice. If you can't stand pulp, the 1000 also accepts some very inexpensive coffe-filter-like filters that virtually eliminate pulp from the apple-carrot-celery etc. types of juices. You really can't use it with tomatoes, strawberries, etc., because it will clog instantly.

Cleanup is pretty easy on both, once you get the hang of it. The only tricky part is getting the pulp out of the strainer. I use a stainless scrubby pad gently on both sides, which seems to work well on both models.

The 4000 gets the nod because it doesn't have any vices.

The Omega 4000 is a very well built, professional grade machine and the manufacturer supplies a 15 year warrantee!!! I believe its well worth the exta $100 or so you might pay to go from a consumer machine to professional grade. The machine is easy to use, produces fantastic results, its easy to clean and its built to last. This is certainly a product that will not dissappoint.

This juicer may be a little pricey,but its a good one.It is built to last! Juicers of this design have been known to last for 20 years! It has a powerful GE induction motor and a thick stainless-steel disc blade.Made in USA!

I've had this waffle maker for several years and it makes THE BEST waffles! They are crispy on the outside and melt in your mouth moist on the inside. It also is great for people who don't have a lot of space in their kitchen. It stands upright for storage. Also, what makes this waffle maker rate above others is the fact that it is VERY easy to clean! Other waffle irons can be hard to clean because the batter will ooze out and into little hard to reach spots and then you have to wait for it to cool and try to wipe it out somehow. I've owned other waffle makers before that did this. There's still dried out, old batter from places that were impossible to clean out! The Proctor Silex one does not have this problem. I practically don't even have to clean it! After I'm done, I'll wipe it gently with a paper towel, and that's about it! This combined with the fact that the Proctor Silex waffle maker also makes better waffles than other brands makes this the best one on the market.

This Waffle Iron makes truly delicious waffles. I never really cared for waffles, but after trying them baked with this maker. I absolutely love waffles now. It's so easy to use and make waffles. And as other people have stated, "they're moist on the inside and crisp on the outside". I may never eat Pancakes again. The waffles far outshine pancakes. Everyone needs to have one of these in their kitchen.

Once I tasted these waffles, I knew that I was going to eat these waffles from this waffle iron EVERY DAY!!! They turn out light and fluffy,just like they're supposed to be! I think every house hold should have one of these waffle irons!!!

Top quality, and it turns out consistent, beautifully made krumkakke (spelling of "krumkak(k)e depends on what part of Scandinavia your family hails from) very quickly. Over the years, as each of my kids left the nest, the irons went with them. We've tried and used several models. The trouble with most stove top units are their stability on the burner surface, and it is more art than science. This unit makes it possible for even a beginner to put out something Grandma would have served to her guests, with pride!

My mother used to have similar one so long ago. I decided to buy this one because it has the same style. Great cookies, easy to use and clean.
The recipies could be a little more accurate but ...I can experiment on my own.
Being able to make two cookies at a time is a wondeful feature - my kids always eat one cookie after each cycle and we keep the other for the guests. Thank you!

This was so much fun to make small cones for ice cream and so beautifully decorated that everything came out perfect. I made all kinds of fillings from creams to puddings and filled them up. They are beautiful and very nordic in design. You can even just make cookies and also very pretty, easy to use, nothing to clean, and impressive to show.

With marriage pending, I've had a lot of decisions to make regarding kitchen items. I recently purchased this knife, and could not be happier with its performance. My mother has always had cutco knives, which I considered to be of excellent quality, until this knife arrived. It is razor sharp, and cuts through vegetables as a hot knife through butter. I was surprised by the weight of the knife itself. It is heavier than most, largely due to the stainless steel handle, though comfortably so.

The stainless steel appeals to me as an aesthetic property. One small caution to those of you who are neat freaks... If you plan on displaying your knives in a block on the counter, it will take a small amount of work to keep the handles fingerprint free, as with most stainless steel, they show every smudge.

Barring that, consumer reports rated these knives excellent, as they did with the grand prix and classic lines from Wusthof (all of these lines have the exact same blade, merely a different handle). Henckels also did well, and Twin Select, their stainless line, scored higher than Wusthof, though I feel it is merely a matter of preference. Make sure that you try it out before you buy it. It should feel comfortable. Wusthof.com lists stores at which you can "test-drive" their knives before purchase. I would highly recommend doing so.

this knife is awesome. it has a good weight and feel to it when you are chopping or slicing. it is so sharp-goes through tomatoes like you are cutting butter. with a knife like this you really don't need too many others except a good serrated knife. it is worth every penny.

Item arrived on time, was packaged properly and was in excellent condition. I would purchase from this seller again.