Chef'sChoice Premium Electric Food Slicer

[edit]I am updating this review because the company contacted me, six months after I wrote this review, and told me the part I need is back in stock. The fact they did that is a VERY good sign that they are now taking care of their customers. [end edit] I bought this product in 2014. It is now 2022. The product is far from perfect, but with some care it can do a very nice job of slicing. However, if it breaks outside of warranty, the company will not sell you the parts you need. I had a nylon bushing break and, if they had sold me the part, I would have had the slicer up and running in less than ten minutes. Now, however, I have a pile of junk. So, yes I am disgruntled, but this review is going to be fair, and will tell you exactly what to expect if you do purchase this product. First, it can slice very well, and does a great job on meat and vegetables. I can do a good job on cheese, but not on large pieces, more than an inch high. That is how I broke my slicer (more on that below). The slicing control works well, but it doesn't give you fine gradations at the thin end of the adjustment range so it can be difficult to dial in a really thin slice. In addition, this slicing adjustment knob tends to wander and, if you don't pay attention, the slices will get thicker and thicker as you create each subsequent slice. I "fixed" this by using my 3D printer to create a thin shim that wedges between the knob and the slicer body and, by adding friction, slows down the slice adjustment creep. Another issue is the "flap" created when making many slices from a hunk of meat. The problem is that because the tolerances in this inexpensive slicer are so large, there is a huge gap between the slicing table and the blade. As you run the slicer table back and forth, the meat can "ooze" down into this gab and this creates a flap of un-cut meat. The problem this creates is that the flap starts pushing the meat outward and you begin to get uneven slices. You have to cut the flap off every 3-5 slices before you proceed. This really slows down the slicing operation. I designed and 3D-printed a part that fills the gap and fixes the problem completely, but most people don't have access to such a thing. The next issue is cleaning. I will admit that I have not owned another slicer, so perhaps difficult cleanup is a problem that everyone will have. However, this is very, very difficult appliance to clean. First, there are seven parts that you have to clean: The bed (the meat rides on this) The pressure plate that holds and presses the meat (so your fingers don't get near the blade) The screw that holds the blade The blade The slice separator (small piece of plastic that helps the slice peel away from the machine) The slicer adjustment plate The body of the slicer Some of these are greased (food-grade lubricant) and shouldn't be immersed. If you attempt to clean the greasy area, your cleaning pad will just smear the grease all over the place. The blade is scary to clean because they do not provide any sort of cleaning jig to hold the blade while you clean it, and the inside is coated with a thick coating of grease which must be kept intact. The body of the slicer traps food in various areas, especially in the chute on the far side of the blade, and also in the area behind the blade, after you remove the blade for cleaning. It takes awhile to clean that. I don't think I've ever cleaned it in less than ten minutes and, if the meat is warm and juicy (everything slices better when cold, but that isn't always possible), it can take almost twice that long. The unit comes with a serrated blade, but you can purchase a non-serrated blade which some say lets you slice more thinly. I bought that blade but in my eight years of using the unit about once a month, I never found it to be significantly better for any task. In addition, for things like cheese, it tends to bind more, and the part I broke was probably stressed by this binding and might not have broken if I had been using the serrated blade (I forgot to change back to it after I sliced the ham for a ham & cheese sandwich). Once you get the hang of it, and figure out how to overcome the wandering setting knob, and learn how to spend 10+ minutes cleaning it, you can get some really nice, consistent cuts, and you can indeed get "deli cuts" for things like ham. So, it is not a bad machine, and I did get close to 100 uses before it broke.