I provide honest ratings and reviews on tech, toys, and consumer home goods that I've purchased and used. Reviews are based on hands-on testing and personal observations. All opinions and comments are my own.
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Takeaway: Easy to use, uniform size and thickness tortillas, ready in minutes.
Takeaway: Easy to use, a cinch to clean; but fine adjustments to temperature are not possible, especially in F. Still makes amazing restaurant quality food.
Takeaway: Heats up fast, cooks evenly, uses little oil, great tasting and healthy meals, easy to use. I already have a 2.5 Qt air fryer, but I wanted to get this larger 5.8 Qt one, so I could make more portions at once and bigger meals like a whole chicken. This air fryer measures 16" tall and has a 12" diameter but is 15" wide including the handle. The power cable is 4' long and heavy duty. It comes with an instruction manual, though it has tons of spelling errors and pretty poor grammar. Luckily the unit is largely self explanatory. You'll also receive a short recipe book with a handle full of recipes, a stainless steel rack, and a 6" non-stick round baking pan.
The fryer bowl is easily removed by simply pulling firmly on the handle. The bowl is a rounded square that measures 11" x 10". The inner basket is removable for easier cleaning and has a release lock and cover just above the handle so it doesn't come apart by accident. I like that this model has a small support tab in the back of the outer bowl that keeps the inner basket from rubbing and thus scratching the non-stick surface (a problem that I found with my other smaller air fryer). Both the bowl and fry basket have non-stick surfaces, and the frying basket has fluted sides and a perforated bottom to allow air to circulate uniformly inside the unit.
On the front face of the unit you have the display and touch controls which I like better than the analog dials on my Farberware unit. You can set the temperature in 10 degrees Fahrenheit increments from 180 to 400 and time from 1 to 30 minutes in 1 minute increments. After the timer runs out, the machine shuts itself off automatically and beeps loudly 5 times. There is no setting for "always on" for safety reasons. If you open the fryer at any time while it is on, the entire unit shuts down (display, fan, heating element) until the fryer bowl is replaced and then it will start back up and pick up where it left off. This helps prevents burns and undercooking as the timer does not continue to run while you are stirring or flipping your food.
There's a mode button to will select from a variety of preset modes, which you can also customize after choosing a setting. I've already made a number of things in the air fryer including a whole 4.5 lb chicken, corn tortilla strips/chips, French fries, potato chips, and kale chips. The only improvement I would recommend would be that the heating element have a mesh screen over it to prevent foods from blowing into it and burning as the kale chips and potato chips are sometimes light enough to "float" in the chamber and touch/burn on the heating element, but the stainless steel rack placed over them while cooking helps to prevent that. Everything came out delicious by the way and you don't have to use much oil to get things crispy and crunchy (but do use a little to keep things from burning too quickly or becoming crumbly).
Overall, the air fryer works great. It heats up fast and cooks food evenly and quickly. With this bigger air fryer, I can make more portions if I have guests coming over and don't have to do as many batches. Since more food can be placed in a single layer, I don't have to turn food as often as with my smaller air fryer. The touch controls are straightforward and exact versus analog dials, and I rarely go a week without using this appliance several times for cooking or reheating various foods. It does a very nice job with prepared frozen foods and reheating fried leftovers so that they're crunchy again.
Takeaway: Compact, non-stick cookware safe, works well, easy to clean. This stainless steel steamer basket has a 7" diameter when folded up and a 3.5" height. The plastic handle on top is extendable an additional 1.5". The leaves of the basket open up to a width of 11" and have small perforations. On the bottom are three fold out legs that allow up to 1.5" of water underneath the basket. The feet on them have silicone rubber pads on them so they won't scratch your non-stick cookware. The plastic piece in the middle is hard plastic though, like the handle. The steamer basket is lightweight and the handle lets you remove it from your pots and pans easily. Let's try it out in my non-stick flat bottomed wok. After adding a little water, I can place the steamer into the pan and add some pork buns to be steamed. So there they are steaming away; the perforations allow the food to be steamed on all sides. Although the handle is plastic, you'll still want to use gloves when lifting it out of the hot pan as the surfaces may be hot and the steam itself could burn you. After a minute of cooling down it's safe to touch the handle and remove your food. None of the plastic seems to have been affected by the heat, although your food only comes in contact with the steel parts of the basket. The food also releases easily and doesn't stick to the metal. The steamer basket stores compactly, is easy and convenient to use, and works well.
Takeaway: Leak-free drizzle pourers w/tight seal, wide funnel for spices/herbs to make infused oils. You'll receive a green glass bottle, stainless steel funnel, 1 pourer with a flip cap, and 1 pourer with removable rubber cap. The bottle is dark green to keep out light which helps prevent spoilage of the oil inside. It has a screw on plastic cap and plug which can also be saved and used for storage. The two pourers are nearly identical, but the flip cap one is for frequent usage because it can't be tightly sealed, and the removable cap version is better for storage and transportation since it won't spill if tipped over. The funnel is rust resistant and has smooth edges with a 2" diameter hopper and 1/2" neck diameter, which are both large enough to accommodate dry crushed spices and herbs if you want to infuse the olive oil.
The nozzle diameter of both pourers is about a ¼" so any crushed herbs and even peppercorns can be dispensed with the oil without clogging the tip. The pourers fit tightly into the neck of the bottle and don't leak. I found that the pourers also work well with other bottles, so I can have oil and vinegar on my salads. Overall, the bottle and pourers both met my expectations with leak-free operation and generous drizzle amount.
Takeaway: Fast and convenient; makes delicious food but no included recipes, could use better instructions. After owning a stovetop pressure cooker for many years, I have to say there are few occasions now where I would use that over an electric one. The electric ones are more convenient, heat up faster, and don't need constant monitoring. This Blusmart electric pressure cooker has a capacity of 6 qts and measures 15" tall with a 11" diameter. All the accessories are inside when you receive the unit: 4 ft power cord, rice scooper, measuring cup, condensation cup, and instruction manual. The inner bowl and bowl chamber both have non-stick coatings on them for ease of cleaning. On the bottom of the lid is a removable gasket and debris filter, though you have to pull pretty hard on the silicone handle to extract it. The bowl also has measurement lines for the capacity of the unit and water measurement lines for cooking rice.
The manual is readable, but isn't a great English translation. It doesn't explain well what the differences between the modes are or how to use them as there are no recipes included with the unit. You've got presets like rice, cake, chicken, fried foods, and soup. Then the 'manual cook' button allows you to set a delayed start time from 30 mins to 24 hours in 30 min increments. The red key is the power/cancel and keep warm key, and there are up and down keys for time adjustments in 1 minute increments. When you press any of the presets, it'll just input set values for the cooking time under pressure. With any preset, you can increase or decrease the time under pressure and the unit automatically switches to keep warm when the timer runs out.
So far in the pressure cooker I've made rice, chicken stew, beans, steamed veggies, hard boiled eggs, zucchini bread, quick preserves/jam, corn on the cob, and boiled pot stickers (which I later air fried). The unit takes about 5-10 minutes to pre-heat and pressurize, depending on the amount of food you put in, before the timer counts down, so expect a 5 minute setting for 1 cup of rice to actually take about 15 minutes. The one thing that kept throwing me off at first is that the pressure valve isn't marked as to which direction is seal and which direction is release (counter-clockwise is seal). I also recently found out the square tab that sticks out of the stick of the lid is so you can store/stand it upright in the handle on the side of the pit. That's clever, but again, not explained in the manual. There's no recipe book included so I'm kind making up recipes as I go.
The things that really impressed me was the cake function. I didn't actually think it would bake a decent cake, but my zucchini bread came out wonderfully moist, evenly cooked, and fluffy. It also released cleanly from the bowl and wasn't burned at all on the bottom. I liked that I didn't have to fire up the big oven and that it took half the time to finish cooking than in the oven. I was also able to make quick fruit preserves/jam by adding chopped fruit, lemon juice, and sugar with a splash of water and putting it under pressure with the release valve open for 20 minutes. This eliminated the hours of standing in front of the stove stirring and reducing jam and it came out wonderful and slightly caramelized.
Overall, the functionality of the pressure cooker is very well done. The construction is solid and durable. It's easy to use and saves me time versus traditional cooking and baking. It's also cleans up easily. My main complaint is that there weren't any recipes included and the different settings aren't explained well. Like for 'fried' am I supposed to use oil and deep fry under pressure? Should I use the gasket or not and should the valve be open or closed in this setting? It's unclear and the instructions weren't too helpful in that respect. A bit of clarification would help me fully utilize the device's potential, which currently I don't feel like I have enough information to do. Otherwise, I'm quite pleased with it and plan to use it a lot more and experiment with different recipes.
Takeaway: Lightweight, sharp, cuts cleanly and smoothly; easy to handle
The utility knife comes in a gold cardboard gift box. The blade length is 5" with a height of 0.75" at the widest section and it has a 4.25" handle. The balance of the knife is weighted towards the handle and the weight of the knife overall is 3 oz. On the sides of the blade are laser etchings in a design called a Damascus pattern. The etching appears on both sides, but isn't super deep onr contrasted so it is only visible from up close. Its wavy grain-like pattern complements the woodgrain rings in the handle nicely. While I like the look of the handle, you can't see whether or not the spine travels through the entire length of the handle (which typically means that is does not). The blade is pre-sharpened and can slice through paper in the straight line smoothly and cleanly using little force. The VG-10 Japanese steel that it is claiming to use has a high hardness rating which means it should hold its edge well, but is also suceptible to chipping if it cuts into hard bone or hits stone or other hard metals if stored in a drawer. However, the steel grade is not printed on the blade itself, so it's difficult to determine what material was actually used. The knife makes food prep easy when cutting, slicing, and mincing. It performed well on veggetables, fruits, and boneless meats fileting with ease and enables you to cut very thin slices. Overall, it's a decent utility knife that is sharp and easy to handle. I recommend this knife be hand washed only to preserve its edge, etched pattern, and wooden handle.
Takeaway: Heavy-duty, stainless steel pastry cutter; great for baking and doughs like bread, and pizza. This pastry cutter is made of stainless steel and measures about 6" long. There is a ruler with markers on it, but it's actually slightly off and you'll lose about 1/16th of an inch from one edge to the other. The height of the tool is about 4.75" inclusive of the plastic handle. The thick handle is nice and chunky and provides a good grip and the tool weighs about 6oz. The plastic is a thick ABS that won't crack or shatter easily and the unit is dishwasher safe. The tool is heavy duty and doesn't flex of bend under pressure making ideal for dough cutting and bench scraping.
It's sharp enough out of the box to use for baking but not enough to cut your hands. I use it when making pizza for dividing the dough and it cuts in nice straight lines. It's easy to clean and won't rust.
