Chopping and slicing vegetables in the kitchen can take a lot of time and can, at times, be dangerous if you’re trying to rush it. Enter the Slice-O-Matic. When chopping lots of vegetables at the same time, it can also be a hassle to slice them at the same consistency so that they cook evenly.
The Slice-O-Matic attempts to solve this problem by creating a system of slicing that gives even, consistent slices of vegetables without getting your hands too close to the blade.
Overview
The Slice-O-Matic is a unique kitchen device that is essentially a series of blades above a container. A vegetable is placed on to the blades and slid back and forth to chop it in to whatever size needed based on the size of the blades, the slices being caught below and held safe.
The Claim
The Slice-O-Matic makes a lot of promises for such a tiny kitchen device. Claiming to speed up the sliciing process and give quick, even results every time, the Slice-O-Matic makes a big name for itself in advertising. The device is supposed to be easy to assemble, simple to clean, and is allegedly to become an integral part of anyone’s kitchen.
The Hype
For foodies and home cooks alike, the Slice-O-Matic sounds like a great deal. No one likes unevenly cooked vegetables because you can’t get a routine slice and, let’s face it, taking the time to chop each vegetable individually on a cutting board takes a lot of time and can be very dangerous. The Slice-O-Matic is supposed to take all the danger out of slicing veggies and other foods, and give people that are busy a few extra minutes in the kitchen.
The Cost
The Slice-O-Matic costs about $20 plus shipping and handling charges from the website, coming with a set of different interchangeable blades to give different types of slices.
The Commitment
There is only a serious time commitment involved in using the Slice-O-Matic – the time it takes to clean the machine and to unstick vegetables from the inside after they’ve gotten caught could have just been used chopping the vegetables by hand and not fussing with such a bulky and ill-made contraption.
Evaluation
According to consumer reviews, the Slice-O-Matic is a mess of a product that only makes things more difficult for users in the kitchen. User complaints say that the Slice-O-Matic doesn’t really chop vegetables like the advertising says it does, breaking easily when harder vegetables like potatoes are put in to the machine and generally being ineffective because the vegetables always get caught in the machine.
Another user complaint is about the make of the product – that it breaks easily and it is a hassle to use and clean. For a product that advertises itself as helping save time and effort in the kitchen, the Slice-O-Matic does neither. It would take less time and be more effective to simply slice the vegetables by hand instead of using the Slice-O-Matic.
Final Slice-O-Matic Review
Overall, the Slice-O-Matic is one of the worst kitchen products to come out to date. The design of the product is clunky and hard to handle – cleaning it is a pain and can take longer than it would have to chop the vegetables themselves. Vegetables constantly get stuck in the mechanism and need to be pulled out and realigned, making it so that it’s not the “leave it and go” product that advertisers say it is.
Furthermore, the hole that you put the vegetable through is not large enough for all vegetables, meaning that your slicing prowess is limited, making the product virtually useless because you still have to break out the cutting board and knife for larger vegetables.
Here’s the Slice-O-Matic getting mixed reviews from new users:
While it’s true that most people in the video obviously hadn’t read the directions and therefore were not using the product correctly, its cheap construction is apparent, and it’s rather awkward and difficult to use for most people, providing only slightly good results with lots of work.
Our Recommendation
If you want our honest recommendation, stay away from the Slice-O-Matic and go buy yourself a nice cutting board and a set of knives. They are a far better investment of your money and will save you time and stress in the long run. The Slice-O-Matic is fitting example of a kitchen gadget gone bad and has no place in any modern kitchen.
I just bought mine and used it for the first time today. I absolutely LOVE it. I have very painful hands and chopping food is becoming more than I can deal with. I still have to work at age 65, so I have to make good use of my time and money. I love to cook and hate restaurant food, so this little gadget just might become my newest best friend. I used it for chopping garlic, onions, and key limes. I am completely happy with it.
Sometimes, a professional meat slicer is better than a rinky dink consumer grade slicer. The quality of the cut is really nice. You can slice many different meats, cheeses, and vegetables with a commercial meat slicer. We’ll show what to look for when choosing a high quality, professional meat slicer.
“stay away from the Slice-O-Matic and go buy yourself a nice cutting board and a set of knives.”
What about getting a good mandoline? A flimsily-made mandoline like the Slice-O-Matic is no argument against mandolines in general.
It is the biggest piece of rubbish & should not be allowed to be even sold. On 1st use the handle snapped off the blades dont lock in etc etc. Cheap plastic crap.? wasted my monet costs more to send it back. I am extremely angry & dissatisfied.
I bought one..I used it twice.
the second time, I used it to slice potatoes. ..it work until the handle broke both sides on the white faces of he machine..the handle came right off..not sturdy enough. .the mechanism should be metal…very desapointed
I love the Slice-O-Matic. I like being able to cut my fruits and vegetables quickly and without the mess that most fruits and vegetables have so when I saw the Slice-O-Matic I had to buy it. I love mine. I can cut all my vegetables up for my salad in half the time without all the mess. It’s easy to use and easy to clean. I purchased mine at Walgreens for $9.99 and I plan on buying a few more to give as gifts. If you want an easy way to slice your vegies and fruits, then this is the perfect gadget to do it.
Ugh!!! I purchased the Slice-O-Matic because I fight with putting my food chopper together. I thought, based on the “live” video that I was watching, that this gadget was supposed to be super easy to use. It isn’t! I’m not able to easily slice and dice veggies, which is so disappointing. I have tried this slicer a few times, and each time I become more frustrated. I wanted to send it back to the company, but then I would be out of even more money. If anyone has had great success with using the Slice-O-Matic I sure would like to learn the secrets of using it.
I love to cook, but I’m terrible at chopping, and no matter how much I practice, I just can’t get into a rhythm. This looks like something that would save me a lot of time, but I’m really glad I read the reviews and watched the video–the machine’s top speed (if you’re a pro at using it, and don’t eat potatoes) is about as fast as I can chop, anyway. I wonder what it would do to fruits or softer foods like tomatoes, because those are what I really have trouble with. It seems like, so long as you’re chopping zucchini or cucumber (which are super easy to chop with a knife) the Slice-o-matic might do okay.
How much does a decent knife cost? More than $20? Probably not. Then this is truly for people who just like gadgets and can always find justifications for buying them, especially when the gadget can ‘help with household chores’. Sure, no one like chopping (except me, I actually really enjoy the repetitive nature- especially mushrooms. The soft, flesh like texture being sliced through with a sharp knife is wonderful) and I guess this could help, although, wait, what’s this? It doesn’t work well with onions? Or anything hard? Um, call me harsh, but this thing is completely pointless. Buy a knife.
I liked the idea of this until I saw that it has gotten only 1 thumbs up compared to 4 thumbs down, and was given a bad review. The concept seems great. It would be nice for thin slicing that’s hard to do by hand, such as when making potato chips. But yeah, it doesn’t look very easy to use and if it jams up all the time, definitely doesn’t seem worth it. And if it only slices softer vegetables, well, then that just seems like a waste of time. If you’re making a salad, you’ll need to take out and dirty a knife and cutting board anyway to do the harder vegetables like carrots. Knowing myself, I’d end up just using the cutting board for everything, and the Slice-o-Matic would end up stashed away in a cupboard somewhere.
It looks like something I would use to save time chopping up food (particularly fruits and vegetables). Although as others mentioned: don’t use it to chop carrots. In addition to not slicing either. Just make sure it actually does what it says it’s going to otherwise it’s probably not worth your money. It looks cheaply made though. So should I stick to the knives or give this a whirl but not expect anything amazing to happen chopping wise? I guess I’ll have to find out for myself.
Why is it that all of these types of kitchen products that claim they can slice and dice fruits and vegetables quickly and easily never seem to work? It is so disappointing because I could really go for a product like this. I am a vegan, so I am always cooking up meals that incorporate a variety of colorful vegetables, and something like this would easily cut my prep time in half. It is very unfortunate that the product does not live up to its claims. But I’m fortunate to have found this review before heading out and wasting my money on it.
I hate chopping and anyone who knows what I am talking about can empathize with me however, I do agree it works better with cucumber and other softer veggies. I just hate chopping anything though I love to cook, chopping takes the love right out of it so I am happy with anything it will do. So saying that, it is going to be the miracle kitchen device is not quite true. It is a convenience for a lot of things but don’t dump the food processor yet.
Yeah, maybe don’t slice carrots in this. I’m not sure why it’s always chopping a cucumber on TV, but that works pretty well. Anything firmer than an onion and you’re taking your chances. But I’m against the concept of the Slice-o-Matic in general. I received one as a gift and rarely used it. Personally, I enjoy prep work in my home kitchen and find the process of peeling, slicing and chopping to be somewhat therapeutic. Of course, I don’t have three kids screaming at me that they’re hungry or anything, so if speed is your concern I could see using this. Even if you’re in the market for a chopping gadget, that Slap Chop thing at least takes up less space, but it chops, not slices. And if you need carrots and don’t own a knife, just buy them chopped and frozen.
This thing is garbage. I tried to slice a carrot and didnt slice the first three times I tried and when it finally started to slice….broken! Dont waste your time or money
I think Slice-o-matic is excellent. It certainly helps out in the kitchen and keeps everything nice and tidy.
It doesn’t turn you in to a master chef but that’s not the idea.
I think if anything this is the opposite – if you were a master chef you wouldn’t be using this!