Home and Kitchen Reviews

February 17 2006
I did some research online and read people's review then decided to buy this soy milk machine. I know all the time that soy is very good to people's health especially for women so I had great expectation that this thing would work out. I ordered online from their own website and got it after 1 week. It was much bigger that I had imagined. Back in China, my mom used to use a handy soymaker. Anyway, I used it 3 times and it was good. Just that the soymilk didn't taste as fully cooked. Also washing the machine is a bit complicated since the head (where the electric parts are)is undetachable from the grinding part. So you need to hold the heavy head when washing the grinding part. You need to be very careful not to splash water onto the head. It's a bit tricky.

At the 4th usage, it only heated up without grinding at all so we pretty much harvest whole boiled beans. I called the company to fix it but they said I have to pay the mailing. Even though I found online that they have a retailer in my city but they insisted that I mail it back. Also if I still decide to return it later after fixing it, the 30 day warranty won't be extended. It still starts from the date of purchase, not from the date after you fix it. So I decided to return it for refund anyway. I paid $20+ for the mailing.

Another thing I found out about the manual is that, there is inconsitency among different language versions. One version says "push the grind button 3 times", the other versions says "push the grind button 4 times". I don't know which one to follow.

It's quite a lesson to learn. Well, I'll have to look for my soy machine again. I didn't the machine from Amazon so I wouldn't know if the experience would be different if I did.

March 21, 2006
This is a follow up of my previous review for this soymilk maker. I returned the machine and wrote the review here in February. The supervisor of the customer service called me after he saw the online review. He said according to their policy, in case the machine is broken, they should pay for the shipping. The lady who handled my case has worked there for 1+ year but was oblivious of this policy. He also offered to give me a completely new machine with 2 year warranty as a compliment. Well, I tried the new machine out and it is working good. Now I've got the refund for the previous machine as well as the $20 shipping. I guess I should give them a second chance of proving themselves.

I use this at least 4x per week and it makes consistently great soymilk with ease. Not too hard to clean, and mine came with a tofu press, tofu coagulator, sample soybeans and instructions. It's heavy, durable and looks like it will stand up to hard use over a period of years.

This is a good soymilk maker. My friend bought it. I searched the web and bought the exact same machine from a US distributor at $10 less. It has a different brand name (soyajoy) but exactly same machine because we compared the two machine in every detail. I always make sure I search the net to get the best price.

Do not buy this fan. It's small in size and really slow. Does not circulate air at all. If you are more than 3 feet away from the fan the air doesn't reach you !!!

I just received this 30 minutes ago and it's going back by tomorrow's mail !!

Update: Returned this fan and bought Honeywell HT800 Turbo Fan from Amazon. It's very powerful and way better compared to this one

Short and simple, it's a fan, it moves air and it does a good job doing it. Over all I'm happy with it. The only issue I have is that it's really loud. I bought this to use at work and it was just so loud I couldn't hear on the phone. Maybe it's just the one I got though; maybe I got a bad one or something. So I just took it home and I use it there, who cares how loud it is when I'm sitting at my workbench in the garage. It cools me off and that's all that matters.

i'm making this review for my old teacher. it is yellow. CASE CLOSED THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!

Use a knife, it works and it works better than this paper weight.

If you did in fact buy this piece of junk, here's how you can actually make it work like a professional food slicer.

(no, really don't try this)
First, remove the blade
Second, attach it to your power mitre saw you have in the garage.
Third, watch your fingers when holding the meat.

or

If you have to give a gift to someone you don't like then this is perfect.

Otherwise, send it back or take it back!

I have had this model since Chistmas and have used it almost daily. It works fine, but does require some attention to use it properly.

As so many others have written, cleaning it after each use is a big chore. The unit is poorly designed in this respect.

VERY IMPORTANT! WHEN HANDLING OR CLEANING, THE THICKNESS CONTOL MUST BE IN THE FULLY CLOSED POSITION! DO NOT LET CHILDREN OR A GUEST USE THIS MACHINE----EVER!

But once you get the hang of it, you can do an adequate job by closing the thickness control to zero and wiping the front side of the blade with a wet towel or a wet towel with a bit of soap.

With care the back side of the blade can also be cleaned in the same manner but turning on the motor for a moment to revolve the blade while pressing the cleaning towel from the reat on the closed thickness control.

Yes, I know that this is not the safest thing to do, and hence the criticism of a poor design. One must also remember to wipe the back of the bell housing for the blade as meat/food slices often touch this part as they are being sliced.

I have unplugged the device and tilted it in a sink with the blade facing away and then carefully sprayed parts of the blade and housing after soaping them with a paper towel to remove food or food particles.

This was necessary after cutting potatoes for homemade potato chips (delicious).

You must be careful in rinsing this way as some water will invariably drain into the machine. So do not drench the machine with an indescrimanent spray all over. Low water pressure and a carefully directed spray is the only way.

Any water that gets inside can be removed by tilting the machine both directions a number of times. You then need to let the unit dry for several hours before pluging it in again.

This is not the safest action for an electric device, but there does not seem to be another way at times to clean it otherwise. I do not recommend that others do this.

I have removed the blade and inspected the parts behind the blade twice. There does not seem to be much in the way of food debris collected there so a careful wipe on the lower parts of the unit was sufficient. The gear grease was not disturbed, but the plastic seal part that rides next to the blade to stabilise it and is held in place by the friction of projections is definitely flimsy, but is easily replaced back on the unit if you disturb it. I understand that a new part is unavailable if damaged. Another lack of Customer No Service from Waring.

The carriage slide rail bushing will start to stick and the unit will be come difficult to use after a while. As recommended by others, a small drop or two of vegetable oil seems to do the trick. While olive oil has been recommended for this, a more fully saturated vegetable oil or PAM would be a better choice, since over time unsaturated oils such as olive oil become oxidized and sticky.

A major problem with this unit is that there is no way to sharpen the blade! Waring is silent on this in the manual and as far as I can tell they do not offer replacement blades either.

Chef Choice machines are infinitely better in this regard as they offer a blade sharpener and several styles of replacement blades.

I would never, never buy this or the upscale slightly larger unit from Waring, the Model FS 800 again!

These units and the lack of factory support are a waste of money. They are not designed for the serious cook or user. It is only a matter of time that I will have a $100 nonfunctional white elephant on my hands. I also feel that the $10 service fee some charge as "insurance" is a real rip-off for a poorly designed unit. No such fee should be priced at more than 5% of the original value, in my opinion.

Go for a Chef's Choice machine, if you must have one.

But in any case, all of these machines are going to be far more difficult to clean and to keep sharp than a good chef's knife.

Ok, listen. First of all what you people gotta know is the following: this is NOT, as Waring coyly implies, a "professional quality" slicer, whatever that is supposed to mean. This slicer is a rickety toy. However, it will slice your food. Yes, as other reviewers have stated, it seems to overload easily and issues a smell of electrical burning. But I kind of think that is a plus. What you gotta do is look at yourself in the mirror and get real with yourself. You gotta say, "OK, I'm a cheap b@stard. I shelled out 99 bucks for this thing thinking I was getting away with something. Now I realize I'm not getting away with anything. In fact Waring has gotten away with plenty." But look on the bright side: this thing WILL slice your food and may not burn out right away. What's that you say? This thing is impossible to clean? That's not true. It is not impossible to clean. I cleaned it today and it only took me forty minutes. What you gotta know about cleaning it is, rule #1 is DON'T REMOVE THE BLADE. The blade is simply not meant to be removed. Yes, Waring wants you THINK you should remove it, but this is just smoke and mirrors. If you remove the blade you will find that the plastic gears inside are coated with some ungodly gunk that most definitely does not belong in contact with your food. This gunk will smear over everything as you try vainly to clean the blade. Then you will replace the blade and it will now have a wobble. Trust me, DON'T REMOVE THE BLADE. What to do? Well, to own a device like this you gotta have know-how and make-do. You gotta stay loose. What I've started doing is just giving the thing a rub down with Isopropyl alcohol. I figure this will kill the germs and cut the grease and will evaporate without residue. So now I don't even dream of removing or washing any part of this product. Pretty crummy, I hear you say. Well, that may be. But ask yourself this: did you ever stop to ask yourself how often the guy behind the meat counter stops to really clean the slicer? God knows its gotta have meat particles on it for hours and hours that get coughed on and sneezed on and then he slices your ham for you and... BOOM... you're sick as a dog thinking its the MEAT that was bad. Hey, there wasn't anything wrong with that meat until it came in contact with the slicer. That's when it all went wrong. I mean think about it. I'd really like to see some statistics on the percentage of people getting sick off deli slicers.

I really like the six quart stock pot. The size is just right for making soup for 1 or 2 people or cooking spagetti. I also found that the stainless steel construction is durable and the extra aluminum plate on the bottom distributes the heat well. It is a very good item.

This stockpot is just perfect. I ordered mine off www.amazon.com and it was just excellent. Also it is very nicely priced and it is of good quality. I also like the handles of it because they are so big and won't get hot while cooking food! I also love the handle on the top of the pan because it is like the side handles. It is awesome. This is the best stockpot I ever ever purchased before. I highly recommend it. Thanx for reading my review.

I've had mine for about 5 months now, possibly less. A couple of weeks ago, I noted that it smelled rusty. And indeed the bottom had already started rusting! I used this pan regularly and also noted that it does not bake evenly. I tried to keep the little rust off my food by lining it with foil before baking but it's too much trouble and I still don't feel secure. I don't think I want to use it at all anymore now. I think it will be worthwhile to invest in something pricier but of better quality. This is not worth your trouble. Or try Pyrex for other purposes.

After using these only a few times and keeping them in storage for 2 years, all of these pans have rust on the inside and outside.

This low cost loaf pan does everything you would expect a loaf pan to do. It's dark color absorbs enough heat to produce desired browning. It also releases cleanly. The protruding lips serve as handles (although if they were a little bigger they'd be easier to grip while wearing oven mitts). All in all, this is an excellent buy for a loaf pan - you should buy two since many recipes call for making two loaves.

If you have bugs around a light outside, you cannot live without this. I couldn't hardly walk out my front door without breathing in the bugs. In three days I went through three of these as they got so full of bugs, but I can now walk out the door. They caught thousands of bugs including big ugly flying beetles. They work great indoors too. I keep them hanging near the lights in the garage and they really do a great job.

This is by far the best trash can we've ever had. We had spent nearly $100 on a stainless steel trash can from Sam's before, but everytime you put something into it the lid always got some kind of gunk on it. This trash can is perfect & well worth the price! We haven't had any problems with the trash bag holder ring, and the automatic lid makes things so much easier. Now trips to the trash can don't result in a dirty mess! Our only request would be that this trash can could be a little bigger. The next largest size is WAY to big for a small kitchen. This can is the standard size though. I would recommend this to anyone else who is sick of having to clean a trash can lid!

Best invention ever, I love it I will never have another trash can. I was so tired of touching gross, trash can lid and constantly cleaning it. I love it and I am giving them as gifts now.

I love this trash can. It works perfectly. All you have to do when it arrives is pull it out of the box, put the batteries in, put a trash bag in and yoy are ready to go. There is a ring inside the trash can that holds your liner in place. Just simply wave your hand over the front and the lid comes open and closes by itself. It is a little noisy but I have teenagers so if the lid is opening then I know they have eaten something. lol..... Anyway enjoy the trashcan. Well worth the money!!

This is a very good product, and you can get it, along with any other products on Amazon up to $500 Free! Participate in this special promotion and get a free $500 Amazon Gift Card at this web site: awesomestufffree.com/amazon

The idea of using a pressure cooker always scared me. "What if it blows up.", "I can be scarred for life.", "What about kids safety.", etc. When I finally started to look at them, I knew this was it.

I work for a machining company and asked a machinest and an engineer how safe it looks. Then I explained how it worked. They both admit they see nothing wrong with it and deem it very safe if used as directed.

I know this thick anodized aluminum will hold the pressure. It has not two, not four, but SIX locking screws. Screw down simultaneously on opposite sides for a level seal. Plus, it has three locking hooks that stops the lid from blowing off when you undo the screws. Not to mention the rubber pressure gasket in the lid that releases steam if the pressure gets too high. Just be sure to replace it once a year, as rubber deteriates over time.

Because it doesn't use a rubber ring gasget and is metal-to-metal sealed, it can last many life times. The steam valve is regulated with a special metal knob you sit on top of it. It can get hot, or even lost. But don't worry, you can buy a new one. The company will even send you new safety labels free of charge to replace the worn ones on your pot.

Naturally, you have to follow the safety rules like:
* ALWAYS handle a hot pot with kitchen mitts.
* Never fill past half way when cooking veggies or rice that expand. Half way includes any water and extras. For other stuff, 2/3 way is good.
* NEVER pour cold water on it when it is hot, or apply cold wet towels.
* ALWAYS let the pressure gage DROP to zero before you open the pot.
* Open the lid AWAY from you, something you should do with any cooking pot.
* NEVER lift the pot by the lid handle, only by the pot handles.
* There are more: READ THE SAFETY GUIDELINES FIRST!

READ AND FOLLOW ALL THE SAFETY RULES and don't try to over pressure cook your food. You will have fast, safe and delicious cooking experiences for decades.

Sure, you could buy cheaper ones, but I wouldn't put my trust in them. Especially if you have children. I'd go to the moon in this thing.

Addendum 5/19/06:
We pressure cooked two 4lb roast beefs for the first time, then cut it into 1/2" slabs. Those slabs made for a juicy and tender sandwich. Was as easy to chew as the thin sliced roast beef! The tenderness is fantastic.

I didn't cap it off until the water was hot, that's when I started counting the cooking time of 50 minutes. This cooked it fully with no pink in the middle. Next time I am guessing 35 minutes to keep it a little pink. Took about 30 minutes to reach 15 lbs of pressure, and the very instant it reached, the pressure regulator started to whistle. Used a mitt to remove the HOT pressure regulator. Took about 7 minutes for the pressure to reach zero. Best part of all, the whole house didn't smell like food!

We love the pressure cooker so far. We have canned chicken and hamburger and it is great.