Sick to death of OCSD (obsessive compulsive safety disorder)!
May 18, 2011 6:50 PM Subscribe
Where can I find affordable coffee grinders or food processors that do NOT have annoying safety locks?
Every single time I buy any appliance with those ridiculously stupid safety locks, the itty bitty tiny locking mechanism breaks off, rendering the entire appliance useless.
I am sick to death of safety locks. I've been through 3 different food processors in 2 years. The worst part is that I only use them maybe once a month, or actually even less than that. Clearly over-use is not the issue. No other part of the food processor ever breaks. It is only the locking mechanism.
I've had the same problem with coffee grinders. Already this one is wearing out. I have to shake it and play with it to get it to run. It's nearing the end of its life, and I want to buy one that I'll be able to keep more than just a few months.
Why do companies force these paranoid things on us? Shouldn't we have a choice?
I can pay up to about $50 on a coffee grinder and not a whole lot more for a food processor.
Regarding the food processor, I cannot justify spending $200+ for something I use so rarely, so please skip the "you get what you pay for" advice. I'll just go without on the food processor and those who make them inexpensively, but still insist on phobic locks, will just not get my money.
I'm even willing to go with a manual grinder if need be, so long as it works and doesn't have a lock!
Thanks in advance.
Every single time I buy any appliance with those ridiculously stupid safety locks, the itty bitty tiny locking mechanism breaks off, rendering the entire appliance useless.
I am sick to death of safety locks. I've been through 3 different food processors in 2 years. The worst part is that I only use them maybe once a month, or actually even less than that. Clearly over-use is not the issue. No other part of the food processor ever breaks. It is only the locking mechanism.
I've had the same problem with coffee grinders. Already this one is wearing out. I have to shake it and play with it to get it to run. It's nearing the end of its life, and I want to buy one that I'll be able to keep more than just a few months.
Why do companies force these paranoid things on us? Shouldn't we have a choice?
I can pay up to about $50 on a coffee grinder and not a whole lot more for a food processor.
Regarding the food processor, I cannot justify spending $200+ for something I use so rarely, so please skip the "you get what you pay for" advice. I'll just go without on the food processor and those who make them inexpensively, but still insist on phobic locks, will just not get my money.
I'm even willing to go with a manual grinder if need be, so long as it works and doesn't have a lock!
Thanks in advance.
Why do companies force these paranoid things on us?
Liability law. Anyone gets hurt by a unit that doesn't have such a safety lock, even if the person was doing something phenomenally stupid, the manufacturer gets stuck for a multi-million dollar judgment.
Shouldn't we have a choice?
Even if you consciously chose to buy a unit without such a safety interlock, that wouldn't relieve the manufacturer of liability if you got hurt with it, or someone else did after you bought it. There's this principle called "joint and several liability" which means that the defendant with deep pockets has to pay the whole damage claim even if he was only 2% responsible.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 7:22 PM on May 18, 2011
Liability law. Anyone gets hurt by a unit that doesn't have such a safety lock, even if the person was doing something phenomenally stupid, the manufacturer gets stuck for a multi-million dollar judgment.
Shouldn't we have a choice?
Even if you consciously chose to buy a unit without such a safety interlock, that wouldn't relieve the manufacturer of liability if you got hurt with it, or someone else did after you bought it. There's this principle called "joint and several liability" which means that the defendant with deep pockets has to pay the whole damage claim even if he was only 2% responsible.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 7:22 PM on May 18, 2011
By the way, if you are sick of this kind of thing, believe me when I tell you that the manufacturers themselves are even more sick of it.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 7:28 PM on May 18, 2011
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 7:28 PM on May 18, 2011
Immersion blenders are generally 50-100 bucks, generally one one button, and often come with chopper attachments. You can make most things like hummus, easily with an immersion blender. There is a nice 300 watt Kichenaid one on sale right now. Our 200 watt Kitchenaid has been a champ for years.
posted by rockindata at 7:32 PM on May 18, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by rockindata at 7:32 PM on May 18, 2011 [2 favorites]
I'll second the immersion blender. Why, just last week, I was making avocado dip with it, and stopped midway to get some stuck chunks of avocado out. One hand in the blade, the other hand still holding the plugged-in blender, finger on the button. Nothing keeping me safe, no siree! And then I realized, WTF AM I DOING, and put it down.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:59 PM on May 18, 2011 [5 favorites]
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:59 PM on May 18, 2011 [5 favorites]
2nding Chocolate Pickle - this is industry-standard and there is no way you will find any reputable or decent quality machines that do not have safety mechanisms.
I know you don't want to hear this, but I feel compelled to point out that if you spring for the $200 Cuisinart it will likely last your for the rest of your life. Literally. My parent's Cuisinart is over 25 years old, mine is over 10 years old, they are both going strong.
posted by gnutron at 8:09 PM on May 18, 2011
I know you don't want to hear this, but I feel compelled to point out that if you spring for the $200 Cuisinart it will likely last your for the rest of your life. Literally. My parent's Cuisinart is over 25 years old, mine is over 10 years old, they are both going strong.
posted by gnutron at 8:09 PM on May 18, 2011
I have no advice on particularly durable or hardened appliances, but in the interest of reducing the annoyance when something does break, is there a Bed, Bath and Beyond near you? I recently had a blender I'd bought there a year previously break, and based on some comments in AskMe I decided to try taking it back. "Hi, I bought this blender a while ago," I said while fumbling to pull it out of the bag it was in, "and—"
"And you'd like to return it?" the cashier said cheerfully, before I could finish. "Would you like a refund or to exchange it?" They refunded the full price I'd paid almost a year ago without blinking. Now they're the first place I check if I need something — I love a place with an easy return policy.
The safety interlock is one thing I've never had break on an appliance. Plenty of other things have broken, especially because I'm married to someone who (deliberately or no) destruction-tests everything he touches, but not the safety interlocks. I really and truly do not mean this to sound like blaming you, so please don't take it that way — I wonder if there's something about how you're closing the latch that's particularly hard on it?
If not, you may need to adjust your sense of how much is reasonable to pay for a food processor. A $50 food processor is, candidly, likely to be cheap, flimsy crap. You can buy the $50 one and have it break and have to replace it (lather, rinse, repeat) or you can buy a more expensive and more solidly-made one for $200 and have it last for years. Your choice. My Yankee ancestors would say that false economy is no economy at all, and would urge you to spend what it costs to get a solid tool.
posted by Lexica at 8:36 PM on May 18, 2011 [1 favorite]
"And you'd like to return it?" the cashier said cheerfully, before I could finish. "Would you like a refund or to exchange it?" They refunded the full price I'd paid almost a year ago without blinking. Now they're the first place I check if I need something — I love a place with an easy return policy.
The safety interlock is one thing I've never had break on an appliance. Plenty of other things have broken, especially because I'm married to someone who (deliberately or no) destruction-tests everything he touches, but not the safety interlocks. I really and truly do not mean this to sound like blaming you, so please don't take it that way — I wonder if there's something about how you're closing the latch that's particularly hard on it?
If not, you may need to adjust your sense of how much is reasonable to pay for a food processor. A $50 food processor is, candidly, likely to be cheap, flimsy crap. You can buy the $50 one and have it break and have to replace it (lather, rinse, repeat) or you can buy a more expensive and more solidly-made one for $200 and have it last for years. Your choice. My Yankee ancestors would say that false economy is no economy at all, and would urge you to spend what it costs to get a solid tool.
posted by Lexica at 8:36 PM on May 18, 2011 [1 favorite]
Yep. The Magic Bullet works for us. There's a flat blade grinder I use for coffee and blender-type blades we use for everything else. I use it for coffee 2-3x per week and for other stuff about 2-3x per month. If you want to do things in quantity, there's a bigger attachment you can get for it now (like a regular-size blender size cup thingy), but I've been just fine with the smallish cups. It works by having tabs on the cup push down on thingies in the motor part. We broke the tabs off one cup somehow, so it doesn't work anymore, but there are 6 cups that come with it, so that problem hasn't been a hassle at all since the other 5 still work.
posted by BlooPen at 9:27 PM on May 18, 2011
posted by BlooPen at 9:27 PM on May 18, 2011
Buying used/refurbished/out-of-sales-channel kitchen appliances like espresso machines, blenders, mixers, food processors, and coffee grinders has saved me hundreds of dollars, and allowed me to, in some cases, get commercial versions of products I otherwise simply wouldn't have bought on a pure price/use basis. Shopping local thrift shops, Craig's list, and flea markets can pay big dividends, including scoring a commercial grade Hobart stand mixer that sold new for $800, for $30, as I did a couple years ago. I have a heavy duty Waring Products WFP14S Food Processor that probably sold new for about $400, that I got for $40, new still in box, at a flea market. You can get high quality merchandise, on a budget, if you're willing to shop hard.
posted by paulsc at 9:59 PM on May 18, 2011
posted by paulsc at 9:59 PM on May 18, 2011
If you really enjoy coffee, it's worth getting a decent burr grinder. The Capresso Infinity is probably the best burr grinder available at its price point (between $50-$100).
That said, this only really matters if you're brewing freshly roasted coffee and care a lot about its flavor - if you're getting grocery store stuff and brewing it in a coffee maker and adding milk/sweetener, it doesn't really matter.
Also, it really is probably worth saving up for a better thing. Not too long ago we got a Bodum coffee press. It was just under $30, and although the screen didn't have the tightest seal and you ended up with sediment in your cup, it worked, so we used it. Then it broke, and we replaced it. $60. Then the replacement broke, and we got a third. $90 total. At this point we finally figured our shit out and spent $90 on a gorgeous Frieling stainless, insulated press pot. It's glorious, it makes better coffee, it keeps it hot, it will never break, and if we'd bought it the first time 'round we'd've saved money.
So you know, maybe you have to save up for a bit for the better thing. Or maybe you take paulsc's route and spend that time relentlessly shopping for the better thing. Continuing to buy cheap crap is going to end up costing you more time + money than getting a good thing, though.
This is why, of course, people say things along the lines of "it's expensive to be poor".
posted by kavasa at 11:51 PM on May 18, 2011
That said, this only really matters if you're brewing freshly roasted coffee and care a lot about its flavor - if you're getting grocery store stuff and brewing it in a coffee maker and adding milk/sweetener, it doesn't really matter.
Also, it really is probably worth saving up for a better thing. Not too long ago we got a Bodum coffee press. It was just under $30, and although the screen didn't have the tightest seal and you ended up with sediment in your cup, it worked, so we used it. Then it broke, and we replaced it. $60. Then the replacement broke, and we got a third. $90 total. At this point we finally figured our shit out and spent $90 on a gorgeous Frieling stainless, insulated press pot. It's glorious, it makes better coffee, it keeps it hot, it will never break, and if we'd bought it the first time 'round we'd've saved money.
So you know, maybe you have to save up for a bit for the better thing. Or maybe you take paulsc's route and spend that time relentlessly shopping for the better thing. Continuing to buy cheap crap is going to end up costing you more time + money than getting a good thing, though.
This is why, of course, people say things along the lines of "it's expensive to be poor".
posted by kavasa at 11:51 PM on May 18, 2011
I have a Bodum coffee grinder (blade) that is over 10 years old. Has annoying safety tab built into the lid but it hasn't broken and it doesn't add any hassle to the grinding of beans.
posted by arcticseal at 2:22 AM on May 19, 2011
posted by arcticseal at 2:22 AM on May 19, 2011
I'm inclined to agree that a $50 food processor is going to be cheap junk, and that's likely to be a bigger part of the problem than you realize. On the other hand, $50 is more than enough for a basic spinning blade-type coffee grinder.
The safety features on my food processor are well-designed and I am glad they are there, but if you find them totally unnecessary and are willing to be disciplined about safety then you could have a friend with decent mechanical / electrical skills disable the safety for you. I don't recommend it, but it would be fairly easy to do.
posted by jon1270 at 3:34 AM on May 19, 2011
The safety features on my food processor are well-designed and I am glad they are there, but if you find them totally unnecessary and are willing to be disciplined about safety then you could have a friend with decent mechanical / electrical skills disable the safety for you. I don't recommend it, but it would be fairly easy to do.
posted by jon1270 at 3:34 AM on May 19, 2011
I use this very affordable burr grinder and am very pleased with it. I suppose it somewhat violates your "no safety switch" mandate, as you do have to have the cover to the hopper secured, but it's not some flimsy dohickey that will break-off on the second use.
The B&D grinder does require a simple, 5-minute hack to get get it to make a really fine grind, but, other than that, I think it's a great value in a simple, no-nonsense grinder.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:57 AM on May 19, 2011
The B&D grinder does require a simple, 5-minute hack to get get it to make a really fine grind, but, other than that, I think it's a great value in a simple, no-nonsense grinder.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:57 AM on May 19, 2011
Just as a point of reference the $700 food processor I have at work, where the only people using it were hired to work in a restaurant, still won't turn on if you don't have the lid on and turned so that a tab on the lid is hitting a switch on the unit.
And yes, this one was made to be used in professional kitchens.
posted by theichibun at 6:38 AM on May 19, 2011
And yes, this one was made to be used in professional kitchens.
posted by theichibun at 6:38 AM on May 19, 2011
Just as a point of reference the $700 food processor I have at work, where the only people using it were hired to work in a restaurant, still won't turn on if you don't have the lid on and turned so that a tab on the lid is hitting a switch on the unit.
I came in here to say this. Even pro-grade dangerous equipment will have those safety features. Actually, pro-grade equipment will especially have those features, because people working in commercial kitchens are going to be working under much more pressure than you are.
It might be a good idea to get something with a warranty so that if it does break because of the failure of a $0.15 plastic safety part, the company, not you, is responsible to replace it. I say this not because you have a lot of time to replace your appliances, but because a company in the position of having to honor a warranty like that is more likely to build that part so it doesn't break unnecessarily.
posted by gauche at 7:15 AM on May 19, 2011
I came in here to say this. Even pro-grade dangerous equipment will have those safety features. Actually, pro-grade equipment will especially have those features, because people working in commercial kitchens are going to be working under much more pressure than you are.
It might be a good idea to get something with a warranty so that if it does break because of the failure of a $0.15 plastic safety part, the company, not you, is responsible to replace it. I say this not because you have a lot of time to replace your appliances, but because a company in the position of having to honor a warranty like that is more likely to build that part so it doesn't break unnecessarily.
posted by gauche at 7:15 AM on May 19, 2011
Response by poster: Wow, thank you so much everyone! Burr grinder it is then. I truly love all the feedback.
I also agree that the manufacturers are sick of it too. It's just too bad, isn't it? Anyway I do know about those pesky liability issues. I'm a nurse. Liability is my middle name. Which, by the way just for everyone's reference, is one of the top reasons health care is so expensive these days. Because of the "liability issues" we have to spend more time documenting than giving patient care. This in turn means that companies must hire more staff and thus the snowball begins. Okay, sorry. /soapbox
Love the warranty idea, but the problem is the timing. For example, I had a similar appliance (a simple toaster to be precise) which came with a 1-year warranty. The thing worked like a dream until day 366. No kidding! That was eons ago though, but still, it has made me wonder how much good those warranties really are.
Love the immersion blender idea! While it is out of my price range, it does other things that I am interested in. I noticed one of the first reviews says, "I have now put the food processor and blender into the cupboard." I'll have to research that a bit further. I have an immersion blender already, but don't use it all that much (a lot like the food processor). In any case, I like that I now know a good brand to select from.
About the food processors, I think my problem (not using them much) is just what I'm complaining about. I have an OCD about how things are shredded or chopped. I like mine even and certain sizes. Maybe there's a support group for people like me. :P
How do you mark best answers when the whole page is loaded with them?!
posted by magnoliasouth at 8:14 AM on May 19, 2011
I also agree that the manufacturers are sick of it too. It's just too bad, isn't it? Anyway I do know about those pesky liability issues. I'm a nurse. Liability is my middle name. Which, by the way just for everyone's reference, is one of the top reasons health care is so expensive these days. Because of the "liability issues" we have to spend more time documenting than giving patient care. This in turn means that companies must hire more staff and thus the snowball begins. Okay, sorry. /soapbox
Love the warranty idea, but the problem is the timing. For example, I had a similar appliance (a simple toaster to be precise) which came with a 1-year warranty. The thing worked like a dream until day 366. No kidding! That was eons ago though, but still, it has made me wonder how much good those warranties really are.
Love the immersion blender idea! While it is out of my price range, it does other things that I am interested in. I noticed one of the first reviews says, "I have now put the food processor and blender into the cupboard." I'll have to research that a bit further. I have an immersion blender already, but don't use it all that much (a lot like the food processor). In any case, I like that I now know a good brand to select from.
About the food processors, I think my problem (not using them much) is just what I'm complaining about. I have an OCD about how things are shredded or chopped. I like mine even and certain sizes. Maybe there's a support group for people like me. :P
How do you mark best answers when the whole page is loaded with them?!
posted by magnoliasouth at 8:14 AM on May 19, 2011
I have a Cuisinart hand blender. It is pretty sturdy and close to $50, so I don't think it's any more expensive than a comparable other-way-up blender. If you want an example of funny legal ass-covering, it has "this blade is sharp" printed on the blade.
posted by RobotHero at 8:49 AM on May 19, 2011
posted by RobotHero at 8:49 AM on May 19, 2011
magnoliasouth: "Maybe there's a support group for people like me. :P"
There is. It's called being a head chef.
posted by theichibun at 9:28 AM on May 19, 2011
There is. It's called being a head chef.
posted by theichibun at 9:28 AM on May 19, 2011
I have an OCD about how things are shredded or chopped. I like mine even and certain sizes.
Then I withdraw my Magic Bullet recommendation. It is not good for this kind of work. It's more like "Here's a chunk of something that should be in somewhat smaller pieces" than "This carrot should end up shredded this particular way."
posted by BlooPen at 7:39 PM on May 19, 2011
Then I withdraw my Magic Bullet recommendation. It is not good for this kind of work. It's more like "Here's a chunk of something that should be in somewhat smaller pieces" than "This carrot should end up shredded this particular way."
posted by BlooPen at 7:39 PM on May 19, 2011
About the food processors, I think my problem (not using them much) is just what I'm complaining about. I have an OCD about how things are shredded or chopped. I like mine even and certain sizes
Yeah, that's a problem inherent to food processors, I think. I'mmildly compulsive detail-oriented about such things too, and I rarely use the FP for chopping or shredding. I use the FP for pureeing things (mmm, pesto), mixing tart crusts, making dough for energy bars, that kind of thing. For slicing and chopping it's either the chef's knife, the mandoline (I use a Benriner that cost less than $20 and works fine), or the Microplane box grater.
posted by Lexica at 3:04 PM on May 20, 2011
Yeah, that's a problem inherent to food processors, I think. I'm
posted by Lexica at 3:04 PM on May 20, 2011
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I have a cheapo Capresso that apparently isn't available anymore but this Cuisinart looks similar.
I have a $200 Cuisinart food processor so that doesn't really help you (it's great though!) but maybe try one of those magic bullet mixer things if it fits your needs. I've got a cheap knockoff of that and despite looking like it will fall apart at any second it's held up for 6 years now.
posted by ghharr at 7:04 PM on May 18, 2011