Appliance Reviews

I find this steamer a hassle to use. I purchased it primary to cook rice. The tray is big enough to cook two cups of rice - not much if you have a large family. Everytime you want to add something in, you have to take out the fan and it is a hassle, not to mention the danger involved due to the extreme hot steam!!! Everytime you are done cooking, the water needs to be empty and it makes a mess. I find that the rice cooks much faster in a convention rice cooker - a much cheaper appliance. Overall, I am disappointed in the product. If you have young children, be sure this thing is out of reach when in use.

When I received my steamer as a gift a few weeks ago, I thought, "Oh no, another specialized appliance I'll use once or twice." Was I wrong! I've used it several times a week since I received it, and I love it! I haven't tried rice or grains in it yet, but my veggies come out perfect every time, and the fish filets I cooked in it were delicious. I especially love it for corn on the cob, and broccoli with sweet red pepper was divine. I haven't had problems with water running out or overflowing, but what I cook usually takes 10 minutes or less. And of course, I use oven mitts to open it during and after the cooking cycle. That seems pretty elementary to me, although the gift came with an oven mitt in the box to draw my attention to that point. I may still use my stove-top steamer sometimes, but I get much better results from the Cuisinart steamer.

I have used my steamer for rice, boiled eggs, fish and veggies.
Like one of the other posters I too did not put enough water in the reservoir the first time I made rice (the instructions don't say how much?) so I was sweating it for the timer to go off before the water was gone. Now I fill it up all the way if I am cooking rice.
I have not had the overflow problem some of the other cooks have had. I plan to use mine alot this summer to keep from standing in the hot kitchen. I wish the rice bowl was bigger, I don't like the plastic, but read you can use other bowls, glass or plastic, as long as they allow the steam to circulate around it.
I have not burned myself either, I read the instructions and have been cooking for years, so this was common sense for me.
It really is a trial and error thing, I wish they encluded more recipes with the steamer.

I bought this blender for its jar size, its 600 watts of power and the Cuisinart name. I assumed that meant high quality and dependable. I bought it in 11/03 to make smoothies, milkshakes and the occassional pina coloda. Two weeks after I bought it, it stopped working completly. I returned it to the place of purchase for an exchange. I figured it was a fluke. Now, less than 6 mo. later the blade assembly has stripped (blade spins freely from plastic gear housing). I consider my use normal - smoothies 1 to 2 times per week and the occassional milkshake or pina colada. And, when I call Cuisinart to inquire about the warranty, I have to leave messages that do not get returned in a timely fashion. I am very disheartened over my expensive Cuisinart mixer.

I use this blender for two things: frozen fruit smoothies and milkshakes. I got it because my old blender was not powerful enough to chop up the deeply frozen strawberries I use to make smoothies. It is loud, but I expected that with the immense power that this blender packs (600w!). The three settings are enough, I use ice crush to blend stuff really quickly. Bottom line: Yeah it's loud, but comes apart easily and blends powerfully and quickly, I would buy this product again.

I am recently married and, because of this, we have been able to try out a few blenders. We have tried a $100 Oster, an $80 Waring, and this ...Cuisinart. The Oster worked fine, but it was very loud. The Waring worked ok, but it was very loud and broke after the second pitcher of drinks. Now, this Cuisinart is awesome. The 50 oz. jar is big enough for a pitcher of frozen drinks without overflowing and it is at least half as quiet as the Oster and Waring. With the Waring, I felt guilty about running the blender for more than 30 seconds in my apartment. But with this Cuisinart, the noise isn't a problem at all. This Cuisinart has the most power of the blenders I tested, and the ice came out the smoothest. I usually buy bags of ice to make drinks because the ice is smaller and "softer", but when I wanted to test this Cuisinart I had no bags of ice. So, I used the icecubes from my freezer which are bigger and harder. The drinks came out perfectly smooth anyway, without one piece of unblended ice. PERFECT!
The one thing I cannot comment on is the endurance of this blender. I've only owned it a short time, so I'm not sure about it's lifespan. But if a perfectly smooth drink made quietly is what you want, this is the blender to do it!

Avoid the troubles associated with this unit and the extremely poor customer service from L Equip USA. This juicer will break in less than a year and you will have to ship it yourself at your expense to the manufacturer for evaluation and possible repairs. If you need a reliable juicer for your daily diet, avoid this toy.

I bought the L'Equip juicer because they are known for the quality. I was willing to spend more because they supposedly had this great Warranty. After just 3 uses, the housing cracked on my machine. I called the company and told them of the situation. They told me to ship it to them. I came to find that the warranty does not cover cracked parts. I now have a $200 juicer that can not be used with a worthless warranty.
Look to other names willing to stand behind there products

This little bugger is good to juice about a quart of juice before I have to empty the pulp recepticle - even though I use for this quart of my green juice a whole bunch of kale, a whole bunch of parsley, a whole cucumber, one apple and four or five stalks of celery and one lemon ...

It handles even sligthly welded kale and parsley - the toughest thing to handle even if fresh - as I was advised by several juice stores with professional-size juicers. Apparently, if you have a juicer with the mesh basket that holds the shredded left-overs, kale and parsley consistently jam that basket up because of their structure and the relatively large amount of 'waste' after juicing.

It handles even these with ease and never jammed up. The pulp ejector principle keeps the running smooth, no need to stop, disassemble and clean any part. If need be, just change or empty the recepticle at the back and keep juicing and juicing and juicing as I once did for a party for about 30 min. straight

Its compact design does not jam up your kitchen. Design-wise it looks nice, too - which is a lot to be said about a juicer ...

And the cleaning literally takes only about 2-3 minutes - mostly, running water will do the trick after I hand-clean the parts of green left-overs into the compost recycling. The mesh sieve will need a light rub (not even scrub) with a dish brush and that's it! Assembly and disassembly is quick and easy - even with wet or green left-over-covered hands. The pulp-ejector system does not throw or let stuff fly around in the kitchen either (I know so well, because my kitchen is all white).

And all that for a price that some people pay on a designer-citrus press aka 'juicer'

If I had to find a downside it would be that I have to cut apples in about six pieces, half cucumbers and feed kale one or two stalks at a time - but that would be unfair because, of course, such a samll machine cannot possibly handle whole cucumbers ans such like the four or five times bigger commercial-grade juicers ...

The parts do not lock in and flour is flying all around. It is wet and when you try to put it back together, the flour keeps you from doing so. The flour jams the "turning gear" and threatens to break the machine. You cannot clean it as there are 100 tiny, tiny crevices which make cleaning impossible.

I sent it back and for 8 months have tried to get a refund. I still do not have one although I complied with all requests, including the receipt from UPS.

Actually I've used it often and the pasta was fantastic. However, clean up is not fun. The most disappointing thing tho is that if you need to make two batches... you need to start early. The machine makes one batch without a problem but the motor overheats shortly into the second batch and you have to let it sit for quite some time before it's useable again. Very frustrating if you have 3 or 4 or more to feed.

I bought mine over a year ago and used it a couple of dozen times. The machine does make great pasta and is relatively easy to use. Unfortunately, the face plate cracked the last time I used it rendering the machine unusable. I tried to buy a replacement from Ronco for 3 months without success. Ronco's customer service is non-existent. You can't get through on their 800 number and they do not reply to e-mails sent to their customer service department. They also do not have a facility on their website to place orders for parts. I ultimately did get through to their parts order department by phone, placed the order but never received a thing! I will NEVER buy a Ronco product again!

I actually own the VS200 maybe this is a later model. ... Like the other reviewer has commented this sealer really works. I am having no problems with it. It seals great. Besides if it didn't seal just right, check and do it again. It's easy and very effective. Get yourself a sealer and start saving money and hassles. You really can't freeze much without one because the best of ziplocs always seem to let in freezer burns. My only tip would be that when sealing something really juicy, freeze until juice is solid. If you do this you will find that you get a much better vacuum and more air removed more quickly from the bag. But the little trap inside is very easy to clean out drips. Also, stop the sealer quickly if juice is going inside before it has a chance to get inside the vacuum pump. Also has separate hose available and canisters like the pricier Tilia. I haven't tried Tilia but since I'm happy with this why should I spend more?

I bought the BS200 and my initial reaction was sceptical but after taking a look at the suction pump I quickly realised why several people had found problems.
If you follow the instructions properly the air removal is fine. It is not industrial quality but for the price you can't expect that. The sealing is good as long as you use it properly...

Vacuuming tip:
Put the object in the middle of the bag and then slip the bag in the machine. Smooth the bag over the sealer propely with on creases.
Start vacuuming and then push the object in the bag up towards the vacuum head getting it as close to the machine as you can.
Smooth any pockets of air towards the vacuum head. You have to do this manually as the vaccum pump is not strong enough otherwise. When you are satisfied with the air removal seal the bag. Presto. If you can't do this you are dumb! It's easy.

Another good tip is to wet the food (where appropriate) before vacuuming as this makes the bag/item contact much better. If it's meat or so on there's no problem but other things like vegetables work better moist. This also protects them when freezing.

What do you expect for this money? Follow the instructions properly and you won't be dissappointed.

For the money it works well. You do have to make sure that you smooth out the bag and position the end into the channel for vacuuming. If you do this it does have sufficient power to make a good vacuum seal. For anything with high moister content freeze first even if for just a couple of hours. The vacuum will suck the juices from meat and other items and if this gets into the sealing area you will lose your seal. Also hold firmly. If used correctly this is a good unit for the money.

Thsi blender worked well, and we were pleased with its relatively quiet performance. That is, we were pleased until, after just over a year of very light useage, it simply stopped working. Dead as a doornail. We had a really cheap blender that didn't work as well and was very noisy, but it at least lasted for several years.

Summary: great value, blender works as well as anything I've tried (even models costing many times more), food processor simple but effective at what it does.

I've had this product for about two months now. I'm very pleased with it to date. The blender is reasonably quiet and powerful, but most reviews told me that. The real surprise for me was how well the little food processor attachment works. It doesn't do anything fancy, certainly (no kneading bread or making pasta), and its capacity is obviously limited. However, for simply chopping veggies like carrots, onions, peppers etc. it's worked nicely for me and it's a whole lot more convienient to use than a humongous food processor. I see a review here that says the attachment doesn't chop well and tends to leave some large pieces while turning the rest to mush. I'm not sure what to make of this, perhaps they were putting too much in at a time, but I can report I've had no problems like that. I did have a REALLY cheap food processor that did things like that but this product is IMO easy to modulate.

....

I've had this blender and food processor for 1.5 years now, and it's a wonderful widget at this price point for a young person learning/expanding cooking knowledge, with limited kitchen space and a limited budget to stock kitchen tools and gadgets.

Kitchen appliances are like any other tool: buy cheap, buy twice. I'm glad I spent another $10-20 over the next step down, because a glass pitcher beats the heck out of plastic jobs that crack and split easily. My pitcher still looks quite pristine despite reasonable use! The speed and evenness of the blending is great compared to my various former roommates' machines, with a wide range of speed, and the option of separate power burst as well as ice-crusher functions.

Yes, the food processor attachment is a simple thing -- only one twin-blade attachment that fits on easily, somewhat small in volume -- and therefore won't do everything perfectly. But, the alternative is spending a lot more $$$ for a Cuisinart or whathaveyou. At my level of cooking and budget, I'm not going to shell out for the real, upscale Cuisinarts, so this beauty-in-simplicity food processor is a great addition, doing almost everything I need it to do (onions, peanuts, whatever). It takes up very little extra precious space in my kitchen. The processor also has a nice safety design-it won't fit onto the base until the lid is on correctly and everything turned into slots just right, such that you can't accidentally hit a button and process your fingers or send your vegetables flying. :-)

The thing I love most about both this blender *and* the food processor, compared to anything else I'd seen previously, is that all parts are well-designed for exceedingly quick and easy dismantling and cleaning, with few if any nooks and crannies that you can't reach. The hole-stoppers in both lids that also function as 2-oz measuring cups are an extra-but-minor plus--a shot measurer if you need it.

Bottom line: for me, this blender+processor has been a high quality device for a reasonable amount of money. Skilled/experienced cooks who have a need for greater versatility will probably want to buy a separate, more complicated, more expensive, and harder-to-wash food processor.

While I expected this dual-slotted toaster to provide additional flexibility when compared to a "typical" toaster, it couldn't even handle the basics properly. Issues included:

(1) Regular slices of bread heat unevenly. This apparently has to do with the bread holders being positioned too close to one heating element and too far away from the other (i.e., not centered).

(2) The heat settings are inexact and inconsistent. At "3," I would get a warm piece of bread. At "4," one burned side and one warm side. And that was only for one of the two toaster slots - the two slots never seemed to heat "in unison."

(3) They should call this model "The Crumb Factory" - if you like to wipe up crumbs, just pick up your toaster. They fall everywhere.

I have generally liked Proctor-Silex products, but I must say this one is a no-buy. It failed us - we just gave it away (I'd feel too guilty trying to resell it!).

If you need more carbon in your diet, this is the toaster for you! Set to 2, it barely toasts. Set on 3, your bread is prepared for carbon dating. Good thing I don't eat much toast.

I absoulutly love this. It is the first time I can walk away from the toaster and not worry that my food is not burning. My favorite part is that thick foods( bagels) usually get burned around the edge since the area is small and the edges touch, this doesn't happen. Thanks for easy living. kara

I received this as a wedding present in June of '03. I waited quite a while before using it since it is only my husband and I. I did, however, use it many times over the holiday season when we were entertaining. I was very impressed with it. I use it all the time now. Easy to use if you read instructions, easy to clean. I think its great.

I wanted to start cooking at home, but I work long hours. I started researching recipes and found slow cooker recipes for many dishes (not just chili and soup). I bought this Crock Pot and I love it. I've owned this one for about a year and use it at least once a week but usually 3 to 4 times a week. I couldn't imagine not having it and have made counter space for ours. I love tossing in the ingredients in the morning and coming home to a cooked meal. It's kind of like having a chef! The crock pot will cook for the alloted time and then reduce the temp to warm. I've left mine on for up to 14 hours and still had an excellent meal when I got home.

We received a 3-quart slow cooker at our wedding- fine when there's just 2 of you to cook for. Add 3 more to your brood, and there's a problem- the standard meal for a family of 5 ends up becoming a bubbling crude flowing onto your countertop- as if I didn't have enough to clean up already!

When it was time for an upgrade, I decided to choose a slow cooker with a more modern, sleek look- no cutsey country flowers or cranberry colors for this girl. The Rival 5-Quart slow cooker is a dream- the stoneware pot itself is removable (something I didn't have on my first crockpot, so I couldn't toss it in the dishwasher)for cleaning or transporting. The coolest feature is when your food is done cooking, this cooker automatically changes to a "warming" setting, thereby keeping your food piping hot without scorching it. To date, every meal I've cooked has come out beautifully. I am, however, keeping my eye on the digital readout for the timer- you would think the heat from the cooker would crack it or something. So far, so good, though. This is the perfect slow cooker for anyone who's sick of crock pots with a "grandma" motif- check this one out! It's a bit pricier than most of the slow cookers out there, but well worth it in my opinion.

When I first bought the blender I thought it was wonderful with it's abundance of recipes,however, after I used it twice the plastic teeth broke off and I still can't contact the company to get a replacement. The number on the manual is wrong and no such luck otherwise. Huge waste of money!

This blender is very powerful and it crushes ice very well if used properly. (The trick is to chill the pitcher first.) And as I was looking for just a good blender that crushes ice, this alone is worth 5 stars. Period.

But that doesn't do this nicely designed blender justice because there is one little design feature that I believe most people would like. Look at the buttons. Unlike some other blenders, the buttons are sealed toggle buttons. I really like sealed buttons in kitchen appliances for two reasons: 1) you just can't get any little particles or water into the machine through the gaps between the buttons and the mounting surface---there is no such gap. 2) it's really easy to clean by simply wiping across the whole surface---no careful navigation needed and the time I saved during cleaning is well worth the price.

Now honestly I was very skeptical about the "computer chip" inside a blender before I bought it. And now that I have used it for a while, I can tell you that the computer chip is almost useless. See, it's just for recipe data storage and you can browse through them via that little LCD screen. Not that the recipes are bad (actually they are pretty standard like those from books), but that it's not really that useful in real life. If I am to design a blender with a computer chip inside, I guess I will consider how to use the computer chip to control the blending process instead of just for display. But unlike bread machines that need more sophisticated kneading cycles, I can't really think of how a blender would need such feature. As such, consider that a gimmick.

To sum up, if you want a good blender with an elegant design, then buy one. But if you are simply excited about the computer chip gimmick, well, maybe you can find use of it such as impressing your visitors.

I was assigned the task of obtaining a blender and a "smoothie" recipe book. My wife had a simple Waring in mind, but that model was not in stock. I looked over the features on this one as well as the preceeding reviews and decided to take a chance on the Lectrix and to take a pass on the recipe book. We have not been disappointed. This blender handles mixing chores with ease, and has no problems at all with ice cubes. It's also reasonably quiet. However, the best part is the built-in recipe book. It's simple and intuitive (we did not read the manual) and gives all sorts of great drink recipes, including the smoothie blends that were part of my original assignment. It's not often I go out on a limb like this and come off a domestic hero, but in this case, I've gotten 2 enthusiastic thumbs up from the boss!

I insisted on having an Oster, because that is the brand I have always had--I have old hand me down appliances from my mom--and they were great! Oster was THE blender, back in the day.
I bought this model because of the "ice crushing" claims.
My motor is burned out after using it to process banana peels and egg shells in water for my roses---!
I did not leave it running. I used it no more than 15 seconds at a time. I did not use it in a manner inconsistant with the instructions (I'm fairly certain both items are much softer than ice!)
I thought I was going to have to throw the machine outside it started smoking so badly!
I will NEVER buy another product from the Oster or any of their other many companies-.
I will get a crank ice crusher and I will let my banana peels compost with the rest of the heap.

I love this blender. We purchased it off [...] about 8 months ago, use it at least 5 days each week, sometimes twice a day, and love it. It does a great job of crushing ice for our smoothies, so I don't know why the earlier reviewers are having problems. We've used this to make salsa with just the right consistency, the smoothest of smoothies (no ice chunks here), gazpacho, whipping eggs for really fluffy omelettes, and mixing for muffins, cornbread, and cakes. This guy does it all with plenty of power to spare. With the easy clean button, clean up is a breeze. We take it apart once a week for a really thorough cleaning, but it's never looked gummy or dirty from the the easy clean method. We've had a series of other brands, including some [$$$] models, that didn't do half the quality blending of this one. YES, YES, YES. I would highly recommend this blender.

I use this blender or food processor EVERYDAY. In the morning, I make whole fruit smoothies, at night, we enjoy espresso drinks. The food processor is so powerful the other day I turned frozen berries into sorbet! I just put everything in gave it a rough chop on ice crush mode then turned it on and slowly started streaming in juice until it had a nice smooth texture. The only thing I can say for ppl who are having problems is they're not using enough liquid. You need at least a half cup of liquid to crush ice you can't do it dry. Milk shake add more milk, smoothies more juice or yogurt to thin it out, it will thicken up once the blade can freely whip air into it. Bottom line is if you want something powerful that does it all... GET THIS.