Durable Food Processor

[Annieh]

I'm about ready to throw my processor off the roof. It's terrible. Which one have you had good experiences with? Looking for a processor which comes a long lifetime. Is anyone familiar with robot coupe processors? more details here. Thanks.

[chromedome]

Are you looking for one to use in a commercial kitchen, or just at home? Robot Coupe is a good brand, but it's a bulky and costly piece of gear.

[pastrygirl]

Agreed, robot coupes are workhorses but may be overkill for home use. 

 

What brand/size do you have now and what do you use it for?  What makes it ‘terrible’?

[paulraphael]

I've got an 11-cup Cuisinart from the early 90s that's endured much use and abuse. It hums along like it's a piece of commercial gear. Not sure if the quality's changed since then. 

[Darienne]

Ed bought me a 12-cup Cuisinart food processor a couple of years ago.  It weighs a ton.  A ton.  I have to keep it in a cupboard which means gearing up the muscles to take it out.  And it's SOOO big that storing the pieces takes three spots on my somewhat shallow shelving unit (which was fine with my last food processor).

 

Also the 'pusher assembly' is not something I would ever pick to own in a machine.  This is a photo from my unit.  This rod is skinny and plastic and you have to fit it into a larger part of the unit.  If it breaks...you are out of luck.   I haven't broken it...yet...because I treat it with the care I would use on fine crystal.  Unbelievable!

 

It has 'on' and 'pulse' and 'off'.  And while I don't like 24 choices for speed, I could have used more than the allotted ones.   

 

No, I am not really enthusiastic about it.  But you guessed that one.

 

ps.  Make that four places.

 

 

Edited July 21, 2018 by Darienne (log)

[pastrygirl]

2 hours ago, paulraphael said:

I've got an 11-cup Cuisinart from the early 90s that's endured much use and abuse. It hums along like it's a piece of commercial gear. Not sure if the quality's changed since then. 

 

There's another thread on here extolling the virtues of early, made in Japan Cuisinarts.  Maybe the OP should look for a vintage one.

 

I used a Black & Decker processor at a job last week and hated it.  Super loud, small bowl, and weird design that made the blade hard to remove.

 

I have a small 7 cup cuisinart from the mid or late 90's that has a good power to bowl size ratio, but my new 13 cup one sucks in that department.  Fine if I want to shred a lot of carrots, but won't mix too much heavy, sticky stuff (peanut butter in my case).

[heidih]

I still have my Kitchen Aid one from at least the late 80's?  It is a beast in a good way. I like the small bowl you can insert for smaller batches. As noted above the quality of the product may not be as good today. My main bowl disappeared in a recent move. I'm still hopeful it will turn up in a storage box. Grrrr!

[weinoo]

On 7/21/2018 at 11:15 AM, paulraphael said:

I've got an 11-cup Cuisinart from the early 90s that's endured much use and abuse. It hums along like it's a piece of commercial gear. Not sure if the quality's changed since then. 

Oh yeah - I have one from the70s that is a monster (the cord could have been used on a major power tool)...it's now in storage, as it finally had an issue with the latching mechanism on the bowl, and I figured I deserved a new unit.

 

The Cuisinart (DLC-2011N) I bought 6 or 7 years ago has always, and continues to work just fine. I still think they make the best product (food processor, that is) for home use, though they don't make them like they used to.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

8 hours ago, weinoo said:

Oh yeah - I have one from the70s that is a monster (the cord could have been used on a major power tool)...it's now in storage, as it finally had an issue with the latching mechanism on the bowl, and I figured I deserved a new unit.

 

The Cuisinart (DLC-2011N) I bought 6 or 7 years ago has always, and continues to work just fine. I still think they make the best product (food processor, that is) for home use, though they don't make them like they used to.

 

You could buy a replacement bowl like I did.

 

[weinoo]

3 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

You could buy a replacement bowl like I did.

 

I definitely could do that, or could've done that. But I felt like maybe a new one would be more fun, since I didn't have any of the weird attachments for the old one. And - the new one is certainly lighter!

[gfron1]

Someone on here convinced me to buy the Breville Assistant (many people on here have convinced me to buy many pieces of equipment) and I would most likely not recommend it for a variety of reasons. I say go get a refurbed robotcoup and be done with it.

 

[paulraphael]

One thing with the cuisinarts (and probably every brand) is that the metal blade is going to get dull eventually, and make it seem like the machine has lost its oomph. It may not be immediately obvious that the blade is the problem. These blades have tiny serrations and so are probably impractical to sharpen, but replacements are pretty reasonably priced.

[andiesenji]

I had a Cuisinart 11 cup from the mid-1980s until three years ago when I gave it to a neighbor who desperately needed one.

 

I also "had" a 14 cup Cuisinart that I bought in 1998 as a backup for my 20 cup and it was still working nicely until a month ago when it suffered a fatal accident.

I had used it, rinsed the parts and put them in the dishwasher, grabbed a dishtowel from the counter, which was unfortunately hiding the cord and I yanked it off the counter and it did not survived the impact with the floor. 

In fact, I just listed all the perfectly fine parts, all Made in Japan, not China! on ebay yesterday.

 

There are several on ebay, for very reasonable prices.  This is a workhorse of the line - as long as you get the "vintage" ones made before 2002.

I highly recommend it.   Look for a listing:  DLC-7 Cuisinart  or DLC  SERIES 7 CUISINART.  14 cup.  

 

Mine has an extra lid - the flat lid used for dough, or anything that did not need feeding, although it does have center access for adding liquids or whatever to doughs, I used it a lot for making crumb pie crusts. 

 

I still have my big 20 cup and will be more careful with it, but it is much too heavy to move the way it's little brother did.  

 

Here's one with a lot of extras:  eBay item number:152949213228

And one with some extras: eBay item number:253762141945

 

Here's the lineup of my three machines around 2005.

Edited July 24, 2018 by andiesenji (log)

[andiesenji]

17 hours ago, paulraphael said:

One thing with the cuisinarts (and probably every brand) is that the metal blade is going to get dull eventually, and make it seem like the machine has lost its oomph. It may not be immediately obvious that the blade is the problem. These blades have tiny serrations and so are probably impractical to sharpen, but replacements are pretty reasonably priced.

I bought an extra blade a couple of years after I bought my DLC-7 and several years ago the original blade bent at the tip, but did not break, when it encountered a nectarine pit.  I carefully discarded that one and replaced it with the "new" one. 

 

 

[StevenHarris]

We've been very happy with our Warning WFP14SC food processor.  It's expensive, but if you're looking for the next step up from "kitchen grade" tools I recommend the Warning Commercial line.  We have the blender and food processor.  When it was time to replace the old stuff we decided to move up two steps to entry level commercial tools.  I'd suggest shoppers take a look at some of the Vollrath tools as well.  Only thing left over from the "good ole' days" is the KitchenAid stand mixer.

 

Careful patient shopping can get some great discounts.