Thursday, September 20, 2007
Review and Opinion: Waring Pro Professional Food Slicer FS150
I've had this food slicer from Waring around for a bit - possibly since before we moved to western Massachusetts, when it was originally sent by the company for a review. Better late than never, I guess. What prompted the evaluation was coming across it and need to make some economy lunches for the kids - read that as making a roast beef and slicing it myself.
The advantage to slicing your own more uniformly and thinly than you probably can by hand is two-fold. First, you know you're not loading the lunch meat up with water and even, possibly, preservatives. The other is cost. Figure that deli counter roast beef (or turkey or ham, cheese, and whatever) can easily run $6 or more a pound.
But you can get a roast on sale for half that amount a pound. Add in a few cents for the energy to do the cooking, and you're still way ahead. The FS150 has a street price of about $100. If you go through 1.5 pounds of deli stuff a week, you could be saving $4.50 every week, or over $200 a year. That means you break even in the first six months.
As for the unit, I found I could get pretty thin slices, turning a knob in the back that adjusts the opening next to the blade. However, to call this unit "professional" is unrealistic. The blade has a gear built in and a somewhat serrated edge. Unlike the units you'll see behind the counter, where the blade spins at an enormously high speed, this one turns dependably but far more slowly. As a result, it takes a bit more work to get the slicing done. The mechanism that holds the food in place is plastic and just fits over a metal arm, leaving that part feeling inadequately anchored and a general sense of flimsiness. Also, I found that bits of meat collect on the bottom of the slicer at the lower part of the blade.
Cleaning this is a real pain. I had to unscrew the blade each time and remove it to get it clean enough, and then had to remove a curved plastic part under the blade, because it got messy every time. Nothing can go into the dishwasher, and there is some sort of grease in the gear mechanism, which left me handling it gingerly, because I didn't want to relube the system (and I'm not even sure what I'd use to do so), and didn't want the substance spreading out over the cutting edge. However, it does the slicing, and I can go through a three or four pound roast in just a few minutes. The suction cups on the feet also kept it pretty steady on the counter.
Overall, I'd suggesting checking a bit more to see if some additional money would get something with more cleaning convenience and a bit more metal where the meat meets the blade. What this review really did was get me to realize how useful a slicer can be. You could pay off even a more expensive slicer inside of a year, and possibly faster, depending on your consumption.
The advantage to slicing your own more uniformly and thinly than you probably can by hand is two-fold. First, you know you're not loading the lunch meat up with water and even, possibly, preservatives. The other is cost. Figure that deli counter roast beef (or turkey or ham, cheese, and whatever) can easily run $6 or more a pound.
But you can get a roast on sale for half that amount a pound. Add in a few cents for the energy to do the cooking, and you're still way ahead. The FS150 has a street price of about $100. If you go through 1.5 pounds of deli stuff a week, you could be saving $4.50 every week, or over $200 a year. That means you break even in the first six months.
As for the unit, I found I could get pretty thin slices, turning a knob in the back that adjusts the opening next to the blade. However, to call this unit "professional" is unrealistic. The blade has a gear built in and a somewhat serrated edge. Unlike the units you'll see behind the counter, where the blade spins at an enormously high speed, this one turns dependably but far more slowly. As a result, it takes a bit more work to get the slicing done. The mechanism that holds the food in place is plastic and just fits over a metal arm, leaving that part feeling inadequately anchored and a general sense of flimsiness. Also, I found that bits of meat collect on the bottom of the slicer at the lower part of the blade.
Cleaning this is a real pain. I had to unscrew the blade each time and remove it to get it clean enough, and then had to remove a curved plastic part under the blade, because it got messy every time. Nothing can go into the dishwasher, and there is some sort of grease in the gear mechanism, which left me handling it gingerly, because I didn't want to relube the system (and I'm not even sure what I'd use to do so), and didn't want the substance spreading out over the cutting edge. However, it does the slicing, and I can go through a three or four pound roast in just a few minutes. The suction cups on the feet also kept it pretty steady on the counter.
Overall, I'd suggesting checking a bit more to see if some additional money would get something with more cleaning convenience and a bit more metal where the meat meets the blade. What this review really did was get me to realize how useful a slicer can be. You could pay off even a more expensive slicer inside of a year, and possibly faster, depending on your consumption.
Labels: FS150, opinion, professional, review, slicer, Waring
