For this review, I tested four kitchen gadgets ranging from genuinely useful to completely unnecessary. The main attraction was an all-in-one mixing bowl with a built-in scale, but I also tried a self-stirring rice washer and egg scrambler, an orange peeler that claims to remove membranes, and a double-barrel grape cutter.
Some worked much better than I expected. Others definitely did not.
Where to Purchase
Below you can purchase the items covered in this review.
- All-in-One Bowl
- Rice Washer & Egg Scrambler
- Orange Peeler
- Double Barrel Grape Slicer
All-in-One Mixing Bowl With Built-In Scale
The first product was an all-in-one food scale and mixing bowl that I paid $39.99 for. The idea is that it can replace several kitchen tools by combining a mixing bowl, digital scale, measuring cup, and measuring functions into one product.
The stainless steel bowl is removable and sits inside a base with a digital display built into the handle. It can measure up to 11 pounds and offers several modes for weighing or measuring ingredients, including water, milk, oil, and flour.
I started by comparing it to my regular kitchen scale using a bottle of water. Both scales gave essentially the same result, so accuracy looked promising.
Instead of doing a series of small measurement tests, I decided to give it a more realistic challenge by making a batch of my coconut sugar cookies entirely with the bowl.
I weighed butter, sugar, vanilla, flour, and shredded coconut directly in the bowl, zeroing the scale between ingredients. For the most part, it worked quite well. Measuring very small amounts, such as 5 grams of vanilla, was a little touchy, but larger quantities were easy to measure accurately.
One annoyance was that the scale automatically shut off fairly quickly. If I took too long between ingredients, I had to turn it back on again. The bowl is also somewhat small, so I think it is best suited to smaller recipes rather than large batches.
After mixing the dough, I removed the bowl from the scale, covered it, and put it directly into the refrigerator. That was one of the more convenient aspects of the design.
Most importantly, the finished cookies came out exactly as they normally do. The measurements were accurate enough that I couldn’t detect any difference in the final result.
There was also noticeably less cleanup because I didn’t use any measuring cups or measuring spoons. I only had the bowl and a couple of utensils to wash.
One thing I didn’t like was that the inside of the bowl showed more scratches than I expected after just one use. Mixing bowls certainly get scratched over time, but I was surprised by how quickly this one showed wear.
Overall, the all-in-one bowl worked. I’m already used to using traditional measuring cups, spoons, and a scale, so I don’t personally feel a strong need to replace them. However, someone who gets accustomed to weighing everything directly into one bowl could probably reduce both clutter and cleanup.
Self-Stirring Rice Washer and Egg Scrambler
The second gadget was an unusual combination: a rechargeable device marketed as both a rice washer and an egg scrambler.
I started with the rice-washing function. I added two cups of rice, covered them with water, and turned on the stirring mechanism. It did stir the rice surprisingly well.
Unfortunately, washing the rice turned into a much longer process than I expected. After the first cycle, the water was still extremely cloudy. I drained it using the built-in strainer and tried again.
Then I tried again.
And again.
After numerous rounds, the water was still cloudy. The gadget technically worked because it was moving the rice around and removing starch, but I didn’t think it was any faster or more efficient than simply washing rice by hand.
I also wasn’t thrilled that the USB charging port is exposed even though the gadget is designed to be used around water. The charging cable on mine also fit somewhat loosely.
Next, I tried the egg-scrambling function. I added eggs and a little milk and turned it on. This worked better. It mixed the eggs reasonably well, and the finished scrambled eggs turned out perfectly fine.
That said, scrambling eggs by hand only takes a few seconds anyway. This gadget worked, but I couldn’t come up with a compelling reason to use it instead of a fork or whisk.
My final impression is that both functions technically work, but neither one really needs a dedicated electric gadget.
Orange Peeler and Membrane Remover
The third product was a four-pack of orange peelers that cost me $4.49.
The gadget has a small blade designed to score the outside of an orange, which is similar to other orange peelers I’ve tested. The more unusual feature is a second section that’s supposed to remove the thin membrane surrounding individual orange segments.
The regular peeling blade was actually quite sharp and worked reasonably well, although it felt a little uncomfortable when I was cutting toward my hand.
The membrane-removal feature was another story.
The product came with no instructions, so I tried following the method shown in the product images. The opening seemed too narrow for some of my orange segments, and instead of neatly removing the membrane, it mostly cut, mangled, and broke apart the orange.
I tried multiple segments and different angles without much success.
This was easily the biggest failure of the group. I had much better luck simply peeling the orange normally and leaving the membrane alone. If I really wanted it removed, I think a small knife would work better.
Double-Barrel Grape Cutter
The final gadget was a double-barrel grape cutter that I paid $12.99 for. It is designed to cut two grapes at the same time, which theoretically makes it twice as fast as a standard single grape cutter.
I bought this one mainly because the mechanism looked interesting, but it ended up being one of the most successful products in the video.
I started with a couple of different varieties of seedless grapes. You simply place two grapes into the openings and press the lever.
The resulting pieces weren’t perfectly uniform, but the grapes were successfully quartered. More importantly, the process was extremely fast. Once I got into a rhythm, I was able to go through grapes very quickly.
I then tried some unusually large cherry tomatoes. These also worked well, although positioning mattered more. When I placed one sideways, the gadget mostly crushed it and squeezed juice out the side.
When I stood the tomatoes upright, however, they were quartered surprisingly well.
This gadget is very sharp, so it is something I would handle carefully, but in terms of performance it did exactly what it was supposed to do.
Of the four products I tested, the grape cutter was probably the most immediately effective. Whether someone really needs a dedicated gadget for cutting grapes and cherry tomatoes is another question, but unlike some novelty kitchen products, this one actually works.
Video Review
Check out the full review below.