Woo, it’s fun to play with.
You can take out the blade and give it to the kids.
[upbeat music] I’m Dan,
and I’ve been designing kitchen gadgets for 40 years.
I’m gonna test some vegetable gadgets
and see if I can find a way to make them better.
We will want a larger gear.
Give that a little bit of a radius.
The base is gonna come out here.
These are the products I am going to check.
Upright carrot peeler, rolling garlic chopper,
Fullstar vegetable chopper, Rapid Slicer,
hand-held spiralizer.
[upbeat music]
Upright carrot peeler.
[drumming]
Its purpose in life is to allow you to peel a carrot
in one swift, downward motion.
[whooshing]
Let’s see how effective it is.
It comes with a clamp to allow you to clamp it
to the side of your counter.
[whooshing]
If I did that here,
you won’t be able to see what’s going on.
So I brought another table to put on this table.
So let’s clamp it so that it’s snug onto the table.
And as you can see,
there are some small curved blades here in three places,
one on each side, and they’re a little bit offset.
So in theory, it’s gonna peel all sides of the carrots
as the carrot goes through.
This device also comes with a plunger
to keep pushing the carrot all the way through.
I’m gonna start with a rather medium-sized carrot.
So put it through the carrot hole, give it a push.
I’m just gonna pull it down from the bottom.
I think that would be easier than using the plunger.
Boy, it peeled it pretty nicely, except for the very tip.
You still would have to go at this with a hand-held peeler
if you wanted to get the rest of that skin off.
Let’s try it with a slightly smaller carrot.
And this time I’m going to employ the plunger.
See if I can use the plunger to keep my fingers
further from the blade, and carrot on the floor.
Again, it was quick.
Again, it missed the very tip because the curvature
of the blade is not gonna catch that.
Let’s see how it compares
with a more common vegetable peeler.
[upbeat music]
[timer dinging]
In terms of effectiveness,
I would give the upright carrot peeler a three.
You still have some hand work to do.
I’d say it peels 70, maybe 80% of the carrot.
[whooshing]
Now let’s try the left-handed oil test.
I’m making my non-dominant hand slippery.
It’s gonna quickly highlight
[whooshing] areas for improvement.
Since I’ll be using my left hand,
I switched sides of the table
so I can get to it a little more easily.
So tightening it with a slippery left hand,
it’s a little tricky.
I could feel a whole lot of pressure points.
Also, I’ve gotta be a lot more careful
to keep my fingers in place.
This is just a simple wing nut.
And boy, it’s not feeling great.
Left-hand in the middle, I think it’s lined up.
It’s peeling already.
Because my left hand is slippery,
I’m not gonna be able to pull down on the tip of the carrot.
Let’s give it the plunge.
And that worked, again,
I still have some handheld peeling to do.
In terms of usability, I would rate this a two out of five.
They may only make sense if you have
a lot of carrots to the peel.
[whooshing]
Let’s give this a redesign.
It’s got a lot of parts and it’s got a lot
[whooshing] of moving parts,
which is always a little concerning,
either smaller parts that can break
or just stop functioning correctly.
A simple thing to do is the plunger, this little wing nut,
it’s just a little too fussy and a little too painful.
What I would opt for is the sort of clamp handle
you see on like a standard hardware C-clamp.
Basically a metal shaft that you can spin 180 degrees
and pull out if you interfere with the edge of the counter.
The way these blades are arranged,
because they’re offset by angle,
it really does peel a reasonable size carrot 360 degrees.
So that part is effective if your carrot is thick enough.
The question is how are we gonna deal
with the tip of the carrot?
I think what I would consider is some way
to peel the very tip of the carrot.
If there was some way to create a peeler here,
and we’d have to do that 360 degrees as well.
So there may have to be two smaller mechanisms here.
That means that when you push the tip of the carrot in,
it’s gonna cover it by peeling the tip of the carrot.
I think that would be the improvement.
Let’s talk about the plunger itself
which comes in two pieces.
It would make more sense to have this be
a little bit of a funnel shape.
It doesn’t have to be stepped
because if it’s a funnel shape,
once you get down to the bottom,
it’s just gonna find itself.
With these steps, it may just get hung up.
[upbeat music] In terms
[bell dinging] of a buy rating,
I would give the upright carrot peeler a two out of five.
If you’re just looking to peel a couple of carrots,
this probably isn’t worthwhile.
[whooshing] Rolling
[drumming] garlic chopper.
It is designed to crush garlic
[clicking]
as you roll it around the table.
[whooshing] Let’s see how effective it is.
It actually has two little hatch doors here
that can peel up. [clicking]
[whooshing] They are really tight.
And it comes with a separate tool to allow you
to more easily scoop the garlic out.
We have some garlic cloves here.
They are already peeled.
I think that’s gonna be required for using this.
Let’s place it in, [clicking]
close up the top and let’s play with it.
[clicking]
So far we have a complete garlic clove
and it is not crushing or chopping it at all.
That garlic clove is just jammed.
The blades are not getting through.
And something is slipping.
Give it another try.
I’m gonna push down a little bit.
[clicking]
No, that’s a letdown.
I have not chopped this clove of garlic at all.
Let’s try another piece.
I’m gonna try a slightly smaller piece.
Get a small piece of garlic.
[clicking]
This may be chopping,
but let’s just keep going before I open it up.
[clicking]
Okay, I feel like that should have been enough.
Look like we have some fresh chopped garlic this time.
It’s not exactly crushed.
Maybe I didn’t go enough,
but I expected that that would have been,
done some more crushing.
And so what I’ve got here are garlic chunks.
Not as effective as I would’ve wanted.
[banging]
Not loving it.
In terms of effectiveness on a one to five scale,
I would give the rolling garlic chopper a one.
It doesn’t work well at all on larger cloves of garlic.
And even on the smaller cloves,
it wasn’t crushing in the way that you would expect.
[whooshing] Let’s test its usability.
And I’m gonna use my left hand.
It is rather [whooshing]
egg-like, so I’m a little concerned already
that it’s gonna be a little hard to handle.
Man, I’m afraid of breaking a nail.
[clicking]
Yeah, that took more effort than it should have.
Stick it in there, close it up.
[clicking]
And yeah, I could feel that the wheels are skidding.
The blades are not spinning.
Go back and forth a few times.
Maybe it’s loosening up.
It is at least starting to chop.
Let’s keep going a little bit.
See if I can get it a little more fine.
We’ve got chopped garlic top and bottom.
One of the problems with that scoop,
the fork is that it’s clear and it’s easy to lose,
especially with a slippery left-hand.
It’s just a little more out of control
and needs a little more squeezing to keep it in control.
But this is what I got,
that clove of garlic turned into a pile of crushed garlic.
The result is okay.
It was the effort that is questionable.
In terms of usability,
I would give this a two out of five.
I don’t really think it was thought through
as far as it could be.
[whooshing] Okay.
So let’s see how I would redesign this.
I think a big problem [whooshing]
with this is the gear ratio is just all wrong.
The blades are not chopping at all
through larger cloves of garlic.
So I think what I would experiment with is
changing this ratio quite a bit.
We would want a larger gear attached to the blades.
That means as you’re rolling the device around,
you’re getting a lot more cutting pressure on the blades.
I would make these lips not as tight,
but also a lot more generous
so that you can get a finger under there really easily.
And as for the cleanup tool,
you’re gonna lose this instantly.
I would probably make it big and green
so that you can find it again.
And probably with the logo
or the name of the gadget on there,
so that when you do find in your drawer,
you know what it is, you know where it goes.
I guess the other thing I would do,
because it was difficult to clean out the top,
I would also make this two-sided so that there’s a way
to scoop out the garlic from both the bottom and the top.
[upbeat music] In terms
of a buy rating [bell dinging]
on a one to five scale,
I would give the rolling garlic chopper a one.
It gives the promise that it’s gonna work,
but it’s really a disappointment, fun to play with.
You can take out the blade and give it to the kids.
[whooshing] [drumming]
Fullstar vegetable chopper.
It is designed to chop many kinds
of vegetables with one single push.
[clicking] [whooshing]
Let’s see how effective it is.
Now, I’m going to start with an onion and I’m gonna use
the smaller squares, [whooshing]
the smaller grid because I wanna dice the onion.
And let’s see how we do at dicing.
This is coming down, I’m gonna give it a push.
A bigger push.
A bigger push.
I hope it doesn’t break.
[banging]
Whoa, I got through, man that took a lot of work.
I’ve got the attachment with the larger squares.
This is not gonna dice as finally as the first one,
but let’s give this a try.
It may be easier to cut through.
[banging] Okay.
That wasn’t nearly as difficult because again,
we’re not doing as much cutting,
but we have much larger pieces that we’re ending up with.
I’m a little disappointed that the first one
was as difficult as it was.
I’m gonna start again with a potato
with the smaller grid.
Let’s see if I come down and give it a squeeze,
what I’m gonna end up with, and this is not that easy.
Come on potato.
I think at this point if I was in my kitchen,
I would step on it.
This is not wanting to go down easily.
I wonder if there’s a different technique
for potato ejection.
[banging]
Oh, that worked the second time.
But again, I had to use my full body weight
to get it to happen.
Let’s see how the Fullstar vegetable chopper compares
to using just a boring old kitchen knife.
[upbeat music]
[timer dinging]
I would give the Fullstar vegetable chopper
a two out of five.
It’s effectiveness really depends
on the type of vegetable you’re using.
Some of them are easier than others.
So now, [whooshing]
I’m gonna try the left-handed oil test.
Let’s see if making my left hand slippery
[whooshing] is gonna reveal
any more areas for improvement.
I’m gonna prepare an onion as I did before.
I’ve got the smaller grid inserted again.
It’s a little more slippery with the oil on my hands.
I am now going to try to cut.
Let’s see if it’s as difficult as it was before,
I need some body weight.
I feel like it’s starting to cut.
Man, I still need a whole lot
of body weight on this to get through it.
I’m gonna try now sneaking up on it.
[whistling]
[banging] Whoa, that’s the trick.
So it did it and it cut it into small, diced pieces,
but I’m not sure everyone would wanna
put that effort into it.
So it felt like it was gonna break doing that.
So in terms of usability,
I would give this a two out of five at best.
It really takes a whole lot of work.
You really need to give it a full body press
in order to get that onion to dice.
[whooshing]
So let’s talk about a redesign.
This would be easier of course,
[whooshing]
if you cut the vegetable into smaller pieces.
Like if you cut the onion into smaller pieces.
Since I can’t redesign the onions,
I think I’ll think about redesigning the device.
What we really need on this is more leverage.
And leverage is the function of the distance
your hand is from the hinge.
I’m pressing down here.
If I was twice as far away,
it would take half as much effort.
So I would take this handle and I would extend it
as far as reasonably possible.
So again, if this goes out twice as far,
it’s gonna take half as much effort.
The base is somehow gonna come out to here.
I think another thing I would experiment with is
the shape of this blade.
So this blade would actually be a little bit higher
than the vertical blades.
Like all the horizontal blades would be higher
than the vertical blades, would that help?
I’m not sure, but it’s worth an experiment.
[upbeat music] In terms
of a buy rating, [bell dinging]
I would give this a three out of five.
It’s a good idea, it has some promise,
but I’m not sure I want to body slam
every vegetable I have in the kitchen.
If you’re not using it for vegetables,
it could make a really nice fish tank.
No, that’s, that’s, that’s cruelty to animals.
[whooshing] Rapid
[drumming] Slicer.
It is designed to allow you to cut a whole line
of cherry tomatoes with one horizontal slice.
[whooshing]
Let’s see how effective it is.
I’ve got a bowl full of pretty good-looking cherry tomatoes.
Let’s start loading it up. [whooshing]
I’ll take some of each color, okay, 18 cherry tomatoes.
I’m gonna put the top on.
I’m going to use a bread knife, a serrated knife,
because I think that will chop through tomatoes
a little more readily.
I’m gonna put some pressure on my left hand
and let’s see what I get.
I think that worked, not bad.
I thought that was pretty quick.
If you’re trying to get through a whole lot of tomatoes,
I think you can get through them more quickly
than doing one at a time by hand.
Let’s compare it to using just the normal bread knife.
[upbeat music]
[timer dinging]
In terms of effectiveness.
I’ll give it a five out of five.
It did what it promised to do.
And it did it pretty well and pretty quickly.
My thought is though, you may be able to do a hack
just by using two plates that you already have
in your kitchen, that could be worth a try.
[whooshing]
Time for the left-handed oil test.
This is really a two-handed operation
because of the movement, [whooshing]
because really, your left hand is operating a knife.
Let’s see if there’s any left or right-handed bias.
I’m gonna use the same number of tomatoes I had before, 18.
I’m just gonna use my right hand to hold the tomatoes down
so that they don’t escape, and go across.
And there’s really no pressure here.
Any sort of slipperiness that’s gonna show up
is really based on the knife handle,
not the Rapid Slicer itself.
And I think we’re good to go.
In terms of usability, I would give this a five out of five.
I really don’t think there are too many complaints here.
[whooshing]
Let’s talk about a redesign.
I would be concerned about these
[whooshing] little crevices, the way this,
these little fins come down.
When you get a piece like this,
these very tight corners can be hard to clean.
And I would give that a little bit of a radius
because it would be less likely
for little bits of food to get stuck in there.
Something else I would do,
this works great for cherry tomatoes,
but I think it could be a lot more versatile
if the floor of this piece
was adjustable.
That way you could do larger tomatoes.
You can do grapes. [upbeat music]
In terms of a buy rating, [bell dinging]
I would give the Rapid Slicer a four and a half.
I think there could have been just a couple
of details that could have added some improvements.
So Rapid Slicer, four and a half out of five.
How do you feel about that?
Happy! [whooshing]
Hand-held spiralizer. [drumming]
It is designed to cut vegetables
into thin spiral spaghetti-like strips.
[whooshing] Let’s see how effective it is.
I’m gonna start with zucchini.
[whooshing] Believe my role in life here
is to squeeze this down and start spiraling.
Wait, for some reason I’m feeling it easier to spin
the spiralizer than the zucchini.
And there is a tube-shaped thing in the middle
that is keeping the zucchini centered.
It seems to be spiralizing.
My hand is getting a little tired from spinning,
but it is definitely a spiralizing.
Let’s see if I can speed it up by spinning
and pushing down at the same time.
I’m definitely getting spaghetti out of it.
And it’s working.
Just be prepared to be in it for the long haul,
it’s taking a while.
I feel like it’s spinning unevenly now,
somehow I think I got off center.
Let’s see, I may start using the cap right now.
I don’t really need it yet.
It’s still sticking out a bit,
but I’ll keep my fingers away from the blade by doing that.
I think my technique here is gonna be hold the cap steady
and spin only the body of the spiralizer.
I think I just need to go soak my wrist in some Epson salt
or something because I’m a bit worn out.
Let’s say you don’t have a hand-held spiralizer.
Let’s compare it to a hand-held julienne tool.
You’re not gonna get the crazy long spaghetti strands
that we got with the spiralizer,
but we’ll get something relatively close.
[upbeat music]
[timer dinging]
In terms of effectiveness,
I would give the hand-held spiralizer a three.
The end result was fine.
It just took a whole lot of effort to get there.
[whooshing]
Let’s test its usability by oiling up.
This really is a two-handed operation.
[whooshing]
I’ll try to favor my left hand in doing the actions.
And again, I’ve got about 40 degrees of range of motion
which means I’m gonna have to twist this thing nine times
before it goes a full circle.
Definitely more difficult to spin this thing.
I also noticed when I pick up this cap, my hand’s slippery,
it’s not that easy to pick up.
So the end result is fine.
It just took a lot, a lot, a lot of work to get there.
In terms of usability, I would give this a one.
The end product looks fine,
but it’s so much work to get there.
I’m not sure you’re gonna be willing to do it a second time.
[whooshing] Okay.
Let’s talk about a redesign.
I don’t see any way to avoid the fact that it’s
[whooshing] gonna take lots and lots
and lots of spins and lots and lots and lots of time.
I think this could use a little bit of shaping to it
so that you don’t have to do so much squeezing.
I think I would give this a bit of a wave shape to it.
Even with slippery hands, you’d be able to grab this
without having to squeeze the hell out of it.
I don’t think this thing should be a fin at all.
I think this should be a round piece on top.
And instead of holding one hand steady,
you can decide which hand wants to do the spinning
because it would be easier to spin a round cap on this,
like a mushroom size cap,
mushroom shape cap coming up out of this.
I think what I would add to the party here
is I would make this blade with the blade part here
to give you the flexibility of going
clockwise or counter-clockwise
with just the addition of one small piece.
[upbeat music] [bell dinging]
In terms of a buy rating,
I would give the hand-held spiralizer a two.
I think the output is really nice,
but I think you’ll be in for a lot of work.
[whooshing] Once again,
there’s some hits and misses,
and the hits were also not as much of a hit
as they could have been.
The worst thing you can do
with a product or a brand is over-promise.
You really wanna meet people’s expectations.
To design a great product,
you really need to exceed those expectations.
[upbeat music]
