Bella - Electric Food Slicer - Stainless Steel

I finally used this food slicer on New Year's Day (2018) real early before the Bowl Games commenced around noon Central Time. I read the owner's manual while the Butt Ham was cooking which is helpful and could be considered required reading if one chooses to streamline and expedite his inaugural use with minimal confusion or delay. I would stress this as there was a section that advised the maximum size of the food to slice. Therefore, I carved the lobes away from the body of the ham at the seams of the muscles and then sliced these smaller chunks of ham at the desired width. The final product was beautiful, but the process was quick and efficient with no sloppy errors that one would experience with a butcher or carving knife. The core of the butt was later custom carved to extract the remaining meat to include with the pot of black eyed peas which is customary for New Year's Day. The slicer is very easy to manage, manipulate, clean and eventually put away for storage until later use. After the entire slice is ejected out behind the blade, be very careful when retrieving the slice away from the rear housing of the slicer which reminds me, however, for Best Buy to pass on to the manufacturer a recommendation to engineer the design of the rear housing so that a trough, so to speak, will send the slice product sliding down toward a platform or tray away from the rotating blade; otherwise, if a slice does not eject entirely from the blade it will need to be manually retrieved which will first require turning off the slicer altogether. I could see where one would become impatient and try to pull the slice away from the blade from behind and catch his finger on the edge of the spinning blade. Use extra caution with any circular slicer, for that matter, as this would be no exception. The manual expressed this warning several times which I noticed right away when reading it. I especially value the plastic adaptor with handle that is pressed against the meat chunk when slicing back and forth which keeps the operator's appendages and tissue away from the spinning blade as the chunk gets smaller and smaller until it is completely sliced. Good call there as this accessory is essential. The size is ideal for home use and is not nearly as heavy or bulky as a retail or industrial slicer or meat saw. Good buy; good value! Cannot wait until I slice the brisket in preparation for Super Bowl VII on February 4.

---Let me start by saying this is my first meat slicer, an item I've long contemplated but never thought necessary. That was until I received a Best Buy gift card, and caught this Bella Meat Slicer as a Deal of the Day. Couldn't resist. The GOOD: In my case it was only a few dollars, but I wouldn't have paid $59 full price for it. It works well, having used it now 7 or 8 times - rump roast, pork loin, ham, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, squash, and zucchini. It's also very safe, the guide keeps your hand and fingers from being exposed to the rotating blade. The BAD: 1) It's difficult to clean, literally taking longer than the slicing. With a roast or loin you end up with quite a mess - juices and food particulates all over the unit, in gaps and between cracks, a proper cleaning requires not only time but a sponge, dishrag, small brush, toothpick, and q-tip for good measure. A royal pain. The BAD: 2) Whatever you slice lands on the unit behind the blade, there's no receptacle to capture it. That seems ridiculous to me, and I've devised a way of stacking the slicer atop a cutting board atop a baking pan to keep foods from just freefalling onto the counter. I have to imagine that a higher-end slicer accounts for the problem somehow, but this one certainly does not. All-in-all I'm satisfied for two reasons, one being that I acquired it on the cheap, the other being that it does the job I need it to do. If I had to use it daily or every other day, as opposed to once every week or two, I'm sure I'd grow tired of the laborious task of cleaning it when I was done. I think 3 stars is about right, 2½ might be more accurate.

I would recommend for a first purchase for the price. Got as a deal of day and am not disappointed. It is not without its hang ups, as any slicer may encounter. There are several settings for thickness of slicing, the smallest being very normally thin sliced. We do prefer shaved sometimes & this slicer just can't get that finely cut. Clean up is required after each application but is minimal effort maybe 10 minutes. The blade removes easily for cleaning but the rest of the unit can not be submerged so you have to clean the unit with paper towels and a good cleaner. I am concerned about the long haul as the blades are lubricated with like a gel around the gears which will wear off after time. The owners manual makes no recommendations so I'll have to do a little research on my own. Have used it only for meats at this point both cold and hot. While you do get slices, you also get spin off pieces that collect behind the slicer wheel which you occasionally have to turn off the blade to empty out. I think it's just related to the sharpness of the blade, which don't get me wrong, is definitely sharp & I'm sure would take a chunk out of any finger but it is not the hundreds of dollars deli type of slicer with precision. I only use occasionally, maybe a couple times a year or as the opportunity presents itself and this slicer is perfect for that type of application. If you are looking for something to use more often, sharper & have a little more bells & whistles, your gonna have to upgrade.

Be prepared to clean the heck out of the blade before using it. Mine was COVERED in dollops of grease from the motor mechanism. I don't know if there's something wrong with mine or not, but the blade spins quite slowly (but still cuts just fine) compared to the gear on the inside when the blade is taken off the appliance. When the blade is off, the gear spins super fast (and the unit actually sounds like a normal appliance of this type would). But with the blade on, it chugs along like it's laboring to do so (and it also sounds like it's struggling to turn). Aside from this, it cuts through meats and cheeses with ease, and does exactly what it's supposed to do. It would have been nice of them to design a "catch" on the back for the food that you're slicing. Pros: Cuts with ease. Does what it's designed to do. Super easy cut size adjustment mechanism. Blade comes off easily for cleaning. Cons: Really short power cord. Doesn't stay put very well on the counter top (via suction cup feet). Kind of a pain to clean due to compact design choices. Pretty noisy. All in all, It was worth the $30 I paid for it from a "Deal of the day". But I probably wouldn't pay more for it.

I would not buy this product again, nor would I recommend it. Wish I had read the reviews on this impulse buy. Where to start... This slicer is LOUD LOUD LOUD! Wear hearing protection in the kitchen much? Well, you wish you were operating this slicer. All kidding aside, this slicer is ridiculously loud for a kitchen appliance. Next, it sucks to clean, it follows the grain of the meat that you're slicing, the thickness gauge on it is rudimentary and will move on you constantly, even mid slice. I honestly have nothing good to say about this product. I wish I had opened it immediately and tried using it so that I could have returned it for a refund, as Best Buy's return policy on this product also blows and you only have 14 days to return it.

OK, I paid less than $30 for the machine and I am very happy with it. With what I know now, I wish I had purchased at least two more for Christmas presents. It is not a $130.00 plus pro machine but, as a home machine, it does a great job cutting vegetables, meats, cheese and pepperoni sticks for adding extra slices to frozen pizzas and love the SPAM. I get 21 nice even slices out of a can of SPAM. Take your time and let the machine do the work and everything is happy. I got one extra for my daughter and she loves it too. I told my neighbor about it and he purchased two of them. He loves it too.

For the price it does an acceptable job. It makes the boneless turkey breasts and boneless ham from Costco a really good deal when you can do your own slicing. The slice thickness adjustment works for me to get the desired thickness. On the bad side, the catching of each sliced piece is haphazard. The cleanup is a bit tedious especially around the area of the thickness adjustment knob. I still bought 2. One for me and one for my neighbor. It was a "BestBuy" for the price.

Purchased thru Deal of the Day. I use this to cut pork meat into fry-able portions. I get the Pork bu*t, slice them into 2cm thick cuts, then marinate them before frying. I find that it is best to cut when meat is half-thawed. 4 stars because it is quite a challenge to clean and precarious as the blade is very, very sharp. Good thing to have in your kitchen as cutting by hand can be very tedious. This beats the electric knife too. Now, it takes me longer to clean the thing up than cutting meat itself!