Appliance Reviews

I can only give this slicer 5 stars, if I had a choice I would give it 10 stars.
I got this as a Christmas gift. My first use was to test it at slicing the dinner turkey leftovers for lunch meat. It worked perfectly.
I have since used it to slice roast beef, sharp cheddar cheese, ham and vegetables.
The meat is cut as thin as you want, I prefer very thin, no problem.
This is a dream machine, it is built to last and easy to clean.
I have tried to find something negitive to say but I really cannot. If you need a slicer Buy it,
No I don;t work for chefchoice. I am really a satisified customer.

I'm very Happy this product.
Slice the Hardest Italian Salami and the softest Bread the Same
way.Easy to clean. I'm recomending this product for everybody.

I first ordered a model 645 Veri-tilt unit but was disapointed because the "travel" on the slicer was not adaquate to slice my much loved prosciutto.The blade was only 7 inches and was serrated. It also lacked a blade cover so I was sure it would "drag" when slicing. (At $20.00 a pound for good prosciutto I didn't even try!)

The larger model 662 with the 8.6 inch smooth blade was a far better choice! It had a covered blade that only exposes the cutting edge of the blade to the meat surface. This is also a much safer configuration then the "exposed" blades found on the less expensive models.

The unit is solidly built and appears to be of a very high quality. The travel on the slicing cariage is long enough to cut most meats. The "rump" side of the average prosciutto is still a bit larger than the travle distance of the slicer but this is easily overcome by trimming the sides of the meat to slightly narrow it.

I have been thrilled with how thin this slicer can can "shave" a piece of meat. I can actually read through some of the slices. I have used this slicer to cut Roast beef, salami,turkey,chicken, tomatoes,onions, prosciutto, and even limes! It has never failed to perform as I had hoped. This is truly a "deli" quality slicer even if it is a bit small. Don't get me wrong, it is still a rather large machine and needs a bit of counter and storage space to operate. I actually am happy that it will fit in my cabinet, because my wife wasen't thrilled with the idea of this thing being on the countertop all of the time!

Having this machine has saved me both time and money when entertaining friends. (We throw parties a few times a year and it has made quite an impression on our guests!)

I have not tried the included blade sharpener yet but the instruction are clear and quite simple. I'll post again once I have tried the sharpener.

Thanks, Amazon for a great product and a gracious return policy!

By way of background, I should say that I have been very pleased with my Krups pump espresso machine (approx $200) that I have used nearly every morning for the last four years to make my morning latte, but I was hoping to find a faster, less labor-intensive way to do so. I thought the Capresso C1000 would be the answer based on the glowing reviews here. What a huge disappointment! After using it for two weeks and talking with Capresso's customer support line, I have not been able to come close to the quality of espresso my Krups produces. The results are also very inconsistent. The grinder frequently would become clogged and not grind beans through the entire cycle, in which case either a small weak shot or no shot at all would be delivered. Even when it didn't clog, while the shots produced had a nice looking head of crema, there was still less crema than what my Krups makes and therefore the shots were less flavorful. The Capresso support staff indicated to me that the clogging problem is due to the use of oily coffee beans, and instructed me to set the grind to the coarsest setting and to stir the beans during the grinding process. If you ask me, this greatly defeats the purpose of a machine that's supposed to be largely automatic, and the coarse grind may have accounted for the decreased strength of the shot. Anything but the coarsest setting would result in frequent clogging. I didn't try changing to a less oily bean because I know that just about every variety that I enjoy and buy from Peet's has a high oil content; it's part of what makes the coffee flavorful, so why would I want to compromise to accommodate the machine? Finally, I think it should be noted that this machine probably better suits an office environment where it would get turned on and off once a day after numerous brews. For someone like me making a single drink in the morning, it's still a pretty labor intensive process: turn it on, put an empty cup under the coffee dispenser and let it do the required rinse cycle that must be done prior to the first brew of the day, dispense the espresso, switch to steaming the milk (manually, but faster than my Krups), run a required rinse cycle of the milk frother that is necessary after each frothing, place an empty glass again under the coffee spout since it again rinses itself when you hit the power button to turn it off. So you avoid the hassle of grinding and tamping the coffee yourself and cleaning out the spent grounds, but in my opinion, it didn't come close enough to the quality of espresso produced by my $200 machine or save me enough time to justify the $900 expense so I returned it.

Let me start by saying that anybody who isn't independently wealthy has to gasp the first time they hear the price of a machine like this. Believe me, I understand. These machines *are* expensive. So you ask yourself, "Can *any* coffee machine really be worth [$]"

I'll skip the suspense and tell you...Yes! It's worth it. I don't live in a mansion and I don't drive a Mercedes, but, by golly, my coffee is top notch.

Compare with the cost of a Starbucks' coffee. If you are drinking [$...$] coffee drinks, you already appreciate the quality of a fine coffee. If you drink one of those every work day for a year, you've spent an amount equal to the purchase price of a machine like this.

The basic machine operation is extremely simple. A tank on one side holds water. A bin on the other side holds coffee beans. Turn the machine on. Press a button. One minute later, you have a perfectly brewed cup of coffee. It is not bitter like you often experience with drip coffee makers, just a robust, rich coffee topped with excellent crema. On the first cup, my machine always wants to do a rinse cycle first, so that adds another 45 seconds. Dump the grounds out when you are finished.

As other reviewers have said, it does take a few days to get the machine dialed in to deliver coffee that is perfectly suited to your taste. You can adjust the amount of water, the amount of coffee, and the grind of the coffee. It might also take a few weeks for you to try out a few different coffees to find your personal favorite. Once you've got it down, it is one button simplicity and you don't have to fuss with it again.

You never have to drink coffee that's been scorching on a burner for an hour. Every cup is made on demand, so it's fresh and at the perfect temperature. The machine also allows ground coffee to be loaded via a bypass door, which is handy to make decaf as needed.

You can also use the steamer want to warm milk for cappacino drinks. I also sometimes use the want to get boiling water for a quick cup of tea.

There are two things that kept me from giving the machine a 5. First, the steamer wand is a little fussy. It works fine, but really doesn't have quite the robust feel that I'd like. It feels a bit flimsy. Second, there is no cup warmer on top of the unit so you are usually putting coffee into a cold cup and that isn't ideal. I know that more expensive units do have this feature, but at [$] this one should have it too. These are nitpicky things, but I think reviews should be critical.

One other item I will mention for those that are considering buying one. Remember that the machine has a coffee grinder built in. That means that when you press the button to brew, a coffee grinder whirrs to life for 10-15 seconds. It isn't horrible, but you might want to think twice before setting it off at 5:00 AM if there are light sleepers within earshot.

I've been using my machine for a year now. It is fantastic. My dinner guests always enjoy a great coffee after dinner. When away from home, I miss my coffee machine almost as much as my family!

It's rare these days that something actually performs as advertised, but this machine delivers. It makes excellent espresso at the push of a button. No grinding, tamping or associated mess involved. The coffee crema is the best I've ever tasted. Capresso has added an instructional video along with the manual making the machine much easier to operate. Buy this machine, add good beans and you'll amaze yourself and your friends with the espresso drinks that this machine produces. The C1000 is expensive, but you get what you pay for. My only regret is that I spent so many years drinking bad coffee at home.

This slicer does a great job cutting all meats and cheeses. I have used several professional deli slicers in the past. For the home, I would definitely put this one up against all of them. It cuts tomatoes, cheese, and ham so thin and precise each time. The motor is very quiet and also very strong. The meat cradle could be just a bit larger but I have cut a ten pound ham and turkey breast with it and had no problem. Amazon is a hundred dollars cheaper than a leading chef catalog and the optional blade is twenty dollars cheaper. I will be returning this slicer to them, and re-ordering it at Amazon.com.

This slicer does a great job cutting all meats and cheeses. I have used several professional deli slicers in the past. For the home, I would defenatily put this one up against all of them. It cuts tomatoes, cheese, and ham so thin and precise each time. The motor is very quiet and also very strong. The meat cradle could be just a bit larger but I have cut a ten pound ham and turkey breast with it and had no problem. Amazon is a hundred dollars cheeper than a leading chef catalog and the optional blade is twenty dollars cheaper. I will be returning this slicer to them, and re-ordering it at Amazon.com.

I RECENTLY PURCHASED THIS ITEM AN WAS OVERWHELMED WITH HOW WELL IT WORKS. IT WILL ALLOW YOU TO SLICE PAPER THIN TO THICK. IT IS GRAT FOR CHEESE AND MEATS TO PREPARE FOR SANDWICHES. WE REALLY LOVE IT AND ARE PURCHASING ONE FOR A WEDDING GIFT. GREAT SLICER!

The Chef's Choice 667 slicer performs as advertised with its sturdy construction, powerful motor, large 10" belt-driven blade, and smooth quiet operation. This slicer does indeed produce deli-thin slices!

Out of the Box

The Chef's Choice 667 slicer comes out of the box with a 10" stainless-steel blade, blade sharpener, owner's manual, Allen wrench, small plastic serving tray, and temporary blade guard used for handling the sharp blade.

The plastic blade guard easily screws onto the blade using two large plastic knobs. This temporary guard covers the razor sharp edge of the blade and makes it easy to handle when it's removed from the slicer or during cleaning.

The plastic food tray is used to catch the food as it's being sliced, but it's too small and does not fit squarely under the blade.

The Allen wrench is used for removing the main blade guard during cleaning.

The blade sharpener is attached to the top of the unit and is held in place by a thumb screw. Simply loosen the screw, lift, and pivot the sharpener into place. A rear-mounted grinding wheel sharpens the blade while a front spring-loaded push-in grinding wheel removes any burrs.

The included non-serrated blade is excellent for slicing meats, vegetables, cheeses, etc., but is not well suited for breads. To slice bread you'll want to buy the optional serrated blade (~$90).

First Impressions

Operating the slicer is straightforward. Plug in the unit, load the carriage with the food to be sliced, flip the on/off switch to "on", and finally press the safety interlock switch. The interlock switch prevents the unit from starting up should the on/off switch be left on while plugging it in, a nice safety feature!

Once powered on, you must exert some pressure on the food pusher and slide the carriage forward and back while setting the thickness knob to your desired setting.

The slicer itself is very sturdy and appears to be well made. The main body is made of die-cast metal and the blade stainless steel. The carriage is smooth and rides on a single ball bearing. The motor/blade is powerful and is belt driven.

Some parts of the slicer utilize plastic screws, namely the friction adjustments for the sliding carriage and the thickness dial. There is also a small plastic piece which keeps the food pusher from scraping the carriage. This plastic piece fell out of its hole while I was operating the unit. I used SuperGlue to reattach.

The carriage is secured to the sliding arm with two bolts and small thumb nuts. These small nuts are awkward to remove and/or tighten and require the use of pliers. The bolt holes are slightly oversized and require lock washers, which I do not like. I would have preferred larger nuts (or knobs) and properly sized bolt holes to facilitate easy removal and reinstallation of the carriage tray.

The travel on the food pusher is somewhat limited and you may have to cut large roasts in half so they'll fit in the carriage. The bushings on the food pusher arm rod are made of plastic, I would have preferred brass or some other material.

Slice thickness is controlled by a large knob calibrated in millimeters. Maximum thickness is 0.6 inches. Once set, I didn't have to make any further adjustments. Friction is set by a plastic screw inside the base of the unit.

The bottom of the slicer is covered with a black plastic cover which seems a little flimsy for a "commercial quality" slicer. Four screws and four rubber feet secure the bottom cover to the unit.

The unit is moderately heavy, roughly 30 pounds, and it stays put on the counter.

First Experience

My first experience with this slicer was making thin sliced (almost shaved) roast beef sandwiches. I slow roasted a 10 pound Sirloin tip roast until it was rare and juicy. The slicer effortlessly sliced the meat to perfection. The motor showed no signs of stress and the carriage moved smoothly and easily.

This is my second food slicer. My first was an inexpensive Rival slicer which could not handle roast beef. It was noisy, flimsy, and downright dangerous to use. The cuts were uneven, thicker at the top and thinner at the bottom. I was worried that getting paper thin slices from a consumer-grade slicer was not possible. The 667 proved me wrong. It surpassed all of my expectations and performed similarly to the big Hobarts that I've used in the past.

Caveats

I do have some major complaints about this otherwise excellent slicer.

There are several joints in the housing of this slicer which allow meat juices drip inside the body of the unit. One such joint is located right where the motor housing attaches to the main base. This joint is located right where the sliced food falls as it's being cut, a very poor design. There is another joint where the blade thickness arm protrudes through the base. Juices from my roast beef dripped into the base of the slicer through these joints and started dripping out near one of the rubber feet on the opposite end of the unit. Yuk! The only way to clean up this mess was to remove the screws, rubber feet, and plastic cover from the bottom of the slicer. One shouldn't have to disassemble an appliance to properly clean it!

Also, to remove and clean the blade, you must use the Allen wrench to remove a single screw in the center of the front blade guard (poor design). Next you attach the plastic blade guard. Finally, using a screwdriver, you must remove three Phillips-head screws which secure the blade to the spindle. Not only is this inconvenient, but the screw heads will eventually wear and/or strip after repeated cleanings. Note: The blade should be removed to thoroughly clean the slicer since it's difficult to clean behind the blade. Another poor design.

In Summary

Overall, I am very happy with the performance of this slicer. It's sturdy, powerful, quiet, and slices exceptionally well. However, clean-up is another story.

This slicer is definitely "consumer grade" (not "commercial grade" as advertised) and will make a fine addition to any gourmet kitchen. When slicing juicy foods, I'd recommend using lots of paper towels placed strategically to catch the liquids before they can get inside the unit.

There should be an option of zero stars especially in the case of products like this. I write to hopefully put the nails in the coffin of this horrible excuse for a waffle maker. I am now on my 6th unit. The longest I was able to get it to function was 4 months, the average was about 4 uses and one arrived DOA.

We love waffles and (if available) would use it once a week. I believe that anyone who has anything favorable to say about the Waffle Pro is not a big waffle fan, uses the unit infrequently, and was very lucky and received one of the few stable ones they made.

At first I was happy with Edgecraft customer service. They were accomodating and replaced the unit. But after 6 failures it is now painfully obvious to me that they have a serious problem with this unit and are too greedy to recall it and make it right.

This is the most expensive waffle iron on the planet when you factor in the time, energy and money spent repacking and shipping it back. And please do not forget the disappointed faces of my 4 children when breakfast goes from something special to a disaster.

If anyone has a suggestion for a decent waffle maker please pass it along as this one is now going into the trash.

I sent the first one in for repairs under warranty because it shorted out. $ ...and 6 weeks later we received the "repaired" unit, which just "shorted out" again last week, after 5 months more of use.

WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT.

LISTEN. DO NOT BUY CHEF'S CHOICE PRODUCTS . . . ANY OF THEM. Chef's Choice is the Mexican-made "Sony" of kitchen appliances.

Complete and utter junk.

JS

I've owned this product for over three years and love the way it bakes, especially the option for crisp exterior and soft inside waffles. However, for the second time the thermostat has failed so the unit is back at Edgecraft for about three weeks service time to make the repair. Am having waffle withdrawl with the length of repair time. The good news is they are very customer and service minded and have repaired the unit for this problem no charge even though the warranty had run out for the first failure, and now for the second repair. Aside from the reliability issue, I love this baker better than the other four I sold at yard sales.