During a pleasant hour or so browsing through the local home goods store I came across this 4 in 1 Salad Spinner Mandoline Slicer from the Sharper Image®. We have a box grater and a mandoline slicer, but the old salad spinner died a long time ago never to be replaced. This one item would do everything but put the dishes away!
“This is awesome,” I thought, totally ignoring past gadget disappointments. I had to have it.
The unit comes with three blades; a slicer, a coarse grater and a fine grater. There’s also a grater for hard cheeses built into the mandoline lid which fits on top of the bowl.
There’s a basket for spinning freshly washed greens or berries or what have you and another lid with a pump handle to operate the spinner.
Finally, there’s a third lid which serves as a cover for the bowl.
I brought it home and tried it out. It held twelve ounces of fresh spinach (twice as much as normally sold in the bags, by the way) and spun it dry without problem.
With the spin test out of the way, it was time to try the mandoline. First, I shredded some carrots. Not too shabby! The shreds looked fine, and the bowl caught all of them. Cabbage was shredded next. Again, nice neat shreds. The mandoline is easy to operate and the food pusher is comfortable to use. Next, after switching to the slicing blade, an onion. Again, not bad, but not that good, either. The blade isn’t adjustable. The slices are fine for onions, but not as thin as I like them. They are definitely thicker than I like for bread and butter pickles.
Washing the unit was simple, although I avoided immersing the spinner top. You’ll probably want to avoid washing the bowl in the dishwasher, where the heat may warp the plastic. Storing the unit turned out to be a challenge for me. The blades fit nicely inside the mandoline top, but the shape of the pieces makes it difficult to stack them neatly on a shelf. Lydia’s Flexitarian Kitchen is a cozy space and lacks the shelf space needed to store this item neatly. I ended up putting it back in the box and storing it in the pantry.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather pull my box grater out to shred some cheese or carrots. And I’d rather wash a knife and cutting board if I need to slice an onion. Having to store the unit in the box means it probably won’t come out except to wash greens once or twice a week. For the other tasks, it would take less effort to use the tools I already have available. And that’s a shame, because this Sharper Image® 4 in 1 Salad Spinner could be a great time saver in the right kitchen. For me, it’s another case of gadget remorse.
If you’re still wondering about this item, follow this link to Amazon.com (where I’m an affiliate) and check out the reviews.
UPDATE 4/8/13: I kept using my tried and true box grater and knife for everything. The second time I washed greens in the sink (old school) I ended up giving the whole thing away to a young co-worker who is setting up her first kitchen. Don’t tell Rick, he predicted something like this would happen 🙂
Does your spinner still work? I picked one up at the thrift store the other day. Everything seems to be I working order but the green salad basket does not make contact with the spinning lid so while the blades on the lid spin, the basket does nothing.
After revsearching online, I now see that I am missing the mandolin lid. I wonder if that is a necessary piece to bring the basket and the spinning lid to meet.
I can’t tell you Alyson because I gave my all in one away and just bought a small spinner. I don’t recall needing to have the mandoline lid to make the spinner work, though. Maybe check if yours has gotten warped in some way.
I got this for my dorm and it was the best! You can use the lid and bowl to take a dish you make to a party. You can also use the spinner for washing fruits like berries. I made in a rice cooker cheese fondue and the big container and grater for cheese was perfect. It impressed the girl who watched me. Every dorm needs one.
I’m glad you were able to use it, David 🙂
I bought mine the other day at a thrift shop – maybe it was yours? 🙂 It looks brand new and the slicer blade (?) was still taped in place. Thought maybe someone got it for Christmas and didn’t want it.
I’m wondering WHERE do you store the white plate like plastic thing which holds the slicing/dicing blades? At the store the whole thing was taped together so you’d get all the pieces. I thought maybe they just didn’t take the time to put it together for storage, but now I can’t figure out where to put that white plastic thing.
There was a white rubber seal (ring) which I tried to put around the top but it broke immediately so maybe that’s not where it belongs ??
How in the world do all these pieces fit together for storage OR was that ill thought out (aka not thought out) ? Maybe the reason you didn’t like it?
Have been looking on line but see ones now that have a round push down spin thing, whereas the one I bought has the lever thing like in your photos. Wonder which is the new/improved (ha) model.
Hi Tavette! I had to store mine in the box, what a pain! Hope you are able to get it to work the way you’d like it to. Thanks for dropping by 🙂