Side by Side Comparison of: Weston vs EdgeCraft

Great buy. works wonderful. I mostly use it to slice roast beef. Slices thin without tearing the meat.

I have had no problems with the unit whatsoever. I have been cutting London broils and bottom round roast to make jerky and also cutting boneless hams to make ham jerky I wish I bought a slicer like this 25 years ago. What took me 2 hours two hand slice 10 pounds of jerky last week took me 15 minutes with the slicer and that was being very cautious due to it being new to me. The unit runs very smooth it has no quirks whatsoever that I can find the surfaces are very smooth and clean up very well. I have not tried anything hard like she's where some people say they have problems with that but I don't expect that a slicer price that this budget would cut through a gummy products like cheese effortlessly. The hands that I did cut up or semi Frozen and I did that on purpose so they would not leak water or the juices I should say, all over the place it sliced through the hams send me Frozen effortlessly. I would recommend this for any amateur cook to add to their kitchen collection

Gave this to my husband for Christmas! He was very happy because I found one even bigger than he could find when he was looking! ;0) Men like powerful tools, even power tools/appliances for the kitchen! :0) He said with wide eyes, "That's practically a commercial meat cutter!" Lol It is heavy duty! We haven't used it yet. I,'ll update when we do. I see LOTS of beef jerky in our future! Lol

I love this food slicer, it has a 9 inch blade that is large enough to slice large roasts. It is very easy to clean, and has a powerful motor to go through hard cheese. I have used this on so many things from roast beef to sliced eggplant. It goes through everything like butter.I am actually thinking of ordering another one for my sister. I think a food slicer is a must for any kitchen that cooks for a family. I have tried to slice roast beef with a regular electric knife, and I can never get it as thin as this food slicer could. There are so many other ones out there that don't have as large as a blade as this one, or as strong as a motor. So I think this one is good for the money.

Great quality slicer. We smoke all of our own lunch meat and this was perfect for what we needed to slice thin meat. Would recommend!

I'ts been more than a year that i own this machine, at first i was skeptical about it because of bad reviews, i'm glad i decided to buy it, i use it every 2 weeks mostly on ham blocks for sandwich,stills runing smooth as the day i first used it, cannot be easier to clean just twist remove the blade locking center cap with a coin and carefully pull the blade out, as for the back and forth movement base just tilt to clean the bottom and back, i always put a little cooking oil on the rod where it is attached before using,and it just goes smooth smooth smooth, i have never pushed it more than the 15 min continuos operation cause the manual says so, but other than that it is a well built sturdy kitchen appliance, if you just want a self cleaning machine or if you want to run a meat deli business on it is a different story, but for the home......is more than perfect!!

Honestly, like some reviews I read prior to buying this, I was a little skeptical as to what I should expect from this slicer, but now that I've used it just a few times, (and having purchased the optional smooth blade as well) I'm pleased with the ease of usage, nice slicing job it does with meats like roasted turkey breast and smoked ham. These required the use of the smooth blade. I haven't actually used it for bread, or vegetables yet, but I'm sure the results will be fine. It's well designed in that there are just a few very easily disassembled components to wash up in hot soapy water when finished your job, so the maintenance is not bad at all. If any complaint can be reiterated from reviews I've read myself, it would be the relatively loud noise during the operation of the appliance. It's noisy enough to cause issue listening to a tv anywhere in the vicinity of it, but not so noisy that raising the volume of the set wouldn't overcome the annoyance. But really, it's not a big deal. I got it to slice a variety of things, and does that quite well, and it has enough torque that it doesn't slow down or bog down at all when you push something over the blade. It's well engineered (and I'm an engineer), made from good quality materials with good finishes, and I expect it to last a long time. The rubber feet keep it from moving around on the tabletop. It came with a "catch" plate, a smoked clear plastic tray with slightly upturned edges that is useful for slicing off onto when using it, and that works well. Meats like the turkey breast and smoked ham easily sliced off as thin as you desired, and with the ability to slice upwards of 3/4"+, I think it will fulfill all of my slicing needs.

This slicer is great! My parents bought one a few years ago (same model) and it has become a staple in our kitchen! We bought a 2nd for me to take with me when I move out. We mostly use it to slice bread (since we make a lot of home made bread, or buy unsliced so we can get a thinner slice). We have used it to slice meats and it does a great job. When you decide to slice meats (or slice a lot of anything really), I would do it in smaller batches. We managed to blow a fuse when doing a ton of meat. We replaced the fuse (our original came with one, I have not actually checked if the new one did too - I would assume so though) and it worked again. So when doing large batches of stuff, give it a moment to cool down every now and then.When it comes to cleaning, first off, be careful you don't cut yourself on the blade, but also make sure you keep it lubricated. Behind the blade is supposed to be slimy! Be sure to use food grade lubricant though, just to be on the safe side. We only ever add a bit more to it after we've washed it after cutting meat. We don't wash it after cutting bread.Overall, great slicer for your average kitchen.

I am more than impressed with the way this slicer works. I am able to cut slices of bell pepper so thin I can see through them. It also neatly cuts through hot meat. It is sharp, the motor does not bog down with anything I have cut. It is made of mostly metal, with a few pieces that are plastic. I have a small kitchen. This slicer is not so large that it takes up too much value kitchen counter real estate. There are 2 things with this product that are not perfect. The first is that sometimes the feet don't catch the counter and the whole unit will move ever so slightly. It does not happen often, and the unit is easily readjusted to a more stable position. This could be because I have tile counters and one of the feet gets put in the grout which is slightly lower than the tile. The other area that I don't like, but I think I am getting used to is the fact that when you take the blade off you turn it in the opposite direction from what is common. There is an arrow to remind you. I am getting used to it, but the first time I tried to put the blade back on it took me a while to figure it out. This product is well made and I expect it to last for years. I would purchase it again.

I've had the Chef's Choice electric slicer for several years now. I enjoy eating deli meats, but don't like paying deli prices. $16 a pound is too much, when you can buy roasts for a third of that and cook them yourself. This lets me cook my own roasts at home, and then cut the meat thin for making roast beef sandwiches.There's a knob that lets you adjust the thickness of the cut. You can make it as thick or thin as you like. One recommendation: Be sure to buy the non serrated blade for it as well. It allows you to make even thinner cuts, especially with meats. You can never cut roast beef too thin!Clean up when you are done is not too bad. The slicer disassembles, so you can clean the slicing tray and blade mechanism. The blade can be a little tricky to remove, there is a plastic piece that holds it onto the motor shaft. I find that a quarter is the perfect size to fit into the slots on it, so you can turn and loosen it, to remove the blade. Be careful! The base is sharp. I hold it by the hole in the center, and carefully wash it off. There is a small black plastic piece that you also need to remove near the blade, be sure to observe the orientation, to make it easier to re install, as the correct orientation may not be obvious.There is a plastic tray included that you place under the slicing mechanism, the cut pieces fall onto it. You may have to periodically remove cut food from this tray, if you are slicing a lot, once it starts to pile up.There is also a plastic piece that you hold to apply pressure to the food being cut, to push it into the cutting blade. You sometimes need to re-orient your food as as you are cutting it, to make sure there is a good edge presented to the blade, or optimum cutting. If the piece of food is large, you may have to cut it into several pieces first, and then slice them individually.It takes about five or ten minutes to completely clean after use. So you probably want to slice up an entire roast at once, rather than slice on demand.I've easily saved far more money cutting my own deli meats than I spent on this electric slicer, so it has certainly paid for itself, and then some. Highly recommended!

I cant really complain about any aspect of this thing. I have so far sliced pork belly, numerous lunch meats, tons of potatoes for home fries and this gem hasn't let me down yet. Cleanup takes me about 5 minutes including lubricating the unit. I did opt for the smooth blade, and honestly I haven't even used the serrated blade that came with it, Purchase a tube of food grade lubricant as this unit does not come with any. I do suggest that you freeze any meats that you are planning on slicing prior. Just keep in mind that this is not the same slicer you see at your local deli, it is however an awesome home model that should do most anything you ask of it without complaint. Go ahead and buy it and start saving money on those expensive deli cuts.

I wasn't sure if I'd want a deli slicer so I selected this model because it was pretty cheap.It has turned out to be an excellent choice.Pros: once you figure it out, it can slice a roast into nearly paper thin deli slices. I bought it to make roast beef for sandwiches. It has surpassed my wildest expectations.Main trick is to refrigerate the roast before slicing. The slicing is easy, and reliably paper thin.Clean is easy. Sliding tray and meat holder go in the dishwasher. The rest of it cleans up with just some warm water and a soapy dish towel.Cons: first few times, the spiked meat holder got sliced with the meat putting nasty little plastic bits in the meat. I know now not to let the meat supply get that small; or maybe it is because all the plastic prongs are sliced off?The bottom catch tray is a joke. I eventually tossed it and simply put a cutting board below. Even a huge cutting board will fit just fine giving me plenty of space to move the sliced pile out of the way.The trick with cooking a good roast for slicing is to sear the bejeezus out of it. That keeps the juices in while cooking. I use a superheated cast iron pan and get every possible surface seared. Then as it is almost done cooking, I resist the urge to cut the meat to see if it is cooked. That's is a disaster and will release all the juices. I use a meat thermometer instead, looking for 140-160 degrees. 150 is a nice medium rare. 160 is a bit overdone. That way I end up with nice reddish roast beef for yummy sandwiches for the work week.

works well! excellent for size and performance in home. Works smooth made well and does not have a serrated slicing wheel nice clean slicing! Besides easy to clean and store away.

I bought this to use mostly for processing my big game animals during hunting season. I have used it to slice lunch meat a few times but mostly jerky from venison. I wasn't expecting commercial quality, so for the price I paid it does a decent enough job. One issue with the design is the slide that rides on the bar is a little loose or sloppy, so it binds up a little here and there. Not that big of a deal for me, I can work through it. Never tried cheese or bread so can't comment on that. For my use it does what I need it to do.

Worked good, but I think a serrated blade would work better trying to cut semifroze meat for jerky.Strips were straight to a certain point then the tapered blade would thin it out. Hope they have a serrated blade.

I use this unit for slicing homemade Canadian Bacon, Corned beef and beef Brisket. It does everything I need it too.It will not produce razor thin slices but when your feeding hungry people who needs razor thin.This unit is very easy to clean. The plastic locking plug that releases the blade looks to be the only part that will wear out before its time.

This is my first slicer so I don't have a lot to compare it to, but it does exactly what I wanted, it slices meats and is easy to clean.

I use the slicer to slice cooked briskets. I researched many of these lower priced non-commercial slicers. I can not afford to buy the commercial Hobarts, etc that typically cost $1,500.00 - $3.000.00 (~$700.00 used). After reading a ton of reviews on the under $200.00 slicers I found this one to have the best reviews so I purchased the Weston. I use it to slice brisket for a mobile catering unit and catering jobs. The motor is a bit slow but strong enough to cut more than the deli meats and cheese that others have reported having problems when using non-Weston units priced in the same <$200.00 range. I typically cut about 4 x 15lbs briskets every 3 to 4 days and I have had no problems. I just wish it would come apart better for easier cleaning of all the fat left from the briskets. The cleaning would be much easier on deli meats and cheese. It's worth the money.

We have had this unit since 2013, it has performed flawlessly, It is slow so it would not work in a commercial setting ,but is great for household use. I deducted a star because over time the worm gear that controls the thickness of the cut has gotten loosey goosey and you have to watch the knob to make sure the thickness doesn't change on you. We have cut everything from cheese to ham, chicken, turkey and tomatoes using this slicer. It saves a fortune on buying cold cuts and avoid all of the issues with processed meats. It is easy to clean up and performs almost as well as machines costing thousands of dollars.

I've had my EdgeCraft 610 for almost a month now and I've used it for slicing bread, cheese, bacon and beef tri-tip. I can report that this slicers is truly a workhorse. The torque is amazing, the motor doesn't bog down no matter how fast I slice. Clean up was easy and not a big hassle. One small item that could be improved is the plastic slicing tray that is provided with the slicer. It is very thin and it got cracked first day out of the box (my fault, it was dropped on the tile floor). Truth be told I much prefer to use a plate of the kitchen, they just feel better.As was recommended by others I purchased the non-serrated blade and am happy I did. Note to manufacturer: You should have included the non-serrated blade with the slicer, paying an additional $30.00 for a blade the slicer should have come with standard leaves a slight bitterness for your consumers (This is the reason, along with the flimsy plastic tray, that I didn't give it 5 stars).Overall I'm very impressed and extremely satisfied and would recommend this slicer to others.

I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised by EdgeCraft, the company that produces the Chef's Choice product line. We have had this slicer for 1.5 years, and are generally quite happy with it. This past week, it produced some odd squealing noise and suddenly the blade stopped turning. Taking off the blade and the housing cover confirmed that the motor screw had totally shredded the main gear, which is of course made of plastic.Instead of throwing out yet another cheaply-made-yet-more-than-100-dollar-item I decided to fix it. I called the company using the number on their website. An actual human being answered the phone after only a couple of rings. Overcoming my initial shock and surprise, I explained that I had a slicer model 610 that had stripped it's main gear. The employee said "Ok, we'll send you a new gear for free", took my shipping info, and that was that! I asked how much the gear would normally cost, figuring this will be a bi-annual ritual going forward, and the rep said that as long as I wasn't calling every few months, they would continue to replace them for free! All this, out of warranty?!? How many stories of higher-end companies are there where they've said "tough bananas" to their customers who spent several hundred dollars on their small appliances? I'm...floored.As for the slicer itself, it has functioned well enough for us so far. We primarily use it to slice eye round roast super thin, and probably do this on average of 4 times per month. Yes, the thickness guide does flex a bit when slicing as all lower-end slicers seem to do. Yes, meat does end up with that annoying "tail" that starts to get caught in the trough between the slicer deck and the blade housing. We did find the slicer useless for gluten free bread that had any kind of thick-ish crust as you can't really push the bread all the way past the slicer blade, leaving a small piece at the corner that gets caught between the blade and the thickness guide, causing the slice to fall apart. This slicer is not perfect.We do find that is does wonderfully slicing meats very thin, especially if they are cold, but with ease even straight from the oven. We did buy the straight blade and don't use the serrated blade for meats, and it does seem to slice better. Since EdgeCraft is sending us the new gear, it is probably time to purchase the blade sharpener, as clearly this little slicer is going to be used for years to come.As for replacing the gear, it is not a difficult job. 2 screws on the face plate where the blade goes hold the face plate in place. After removal, there are 8 screws holding the motor assembly in place. You may have to pop the on-off switch up out of the housing to make room for removing the motor. This is done by squeezing 4 tabs at the corners and pushing up. No need to detach any wires. Once the 8 screws around the motor are removed, the whole assembly can be pulled out. On the back of the gear is a nut holding it in place. Remove the nut and the gear slides off the shaft. Lube the new gear with petrol-gel, and re-installation is the reverse of removal. Maybe a 15 minute job at most. And you can clean out the interior while you are at it. EdgeCraft recommended lubing the gear in this manner a few times per year, but that may be a bit much for most people, although the rep did indicate that people who do that have gone several years without issues with the plastic gear in their various slicers.Even with the slicer short-comings, we highly recommend it!

I definitely recommend this product. I bought it for my wife who was getting frustrated with the cost of sandwich/deli meat for my four kid's school lunches. We also did not like the taste, fillers, water, and chemicals in them. So she has been going to the store and buying a raw turkey breast, a pork shoulder, and maybe a london broil steak or roast beef every week or so. She slow bakes them, breaks them down, the slices them all up and bags them. Does take time but the taste is SO much better, and the cost recovery has more than paid for the slicer. The slicer has been very robust, easy to clean, easy to use, safe, and very effective at its task. Thumbs up!

I use this thing all the time. It's very light and fairly easy to clean, and small enough to stow without rearranging the entire kitchen. I would recommend some heavier latex or rubber gloves because the blade/blades are sharp and you can easily nick yourself when cleaning. I buy the big slicing hams, Chuck Roll, and Bottom Rounds, from Cash & Carry and the machine slices well. I can get deli thin slices on the ham, and do for the round - we use it for stir fry meat - if I want 1" chuck steaks from the Chuck Roll it handles that also. I like my ham just a little thicker than the prepackaged stuff you get at the grocery store, it takes me about 5 minutes to slice and zip lock bag, and then freeze the packages on a 10 - 15# Cash & Carry ham, at $2.17 a pound that is waaaay less than the store. :) Great for slicing cheese and I also make my own bread and this slicer cuts the large 2# loaves perfectly.It's a tad on the loud side but not so loud you have to wear ear plugs, about the same loudness as a handheld power mixer. Most deli slicers I've used are very quiet but they are also over $1000.00. The cutting fence is a little flimsy and wish it were sturdier but if you don't bare down too hard on your food item when slicing all the slices come out even. I see reviewers complaining about the retaining screw for the blade...yes it's plastic and you have to turn it counter clockwise to unscrew. If you don't torque down on the thing when tightening it should last a good long time, and it unscrews easily with a butter knife for blade removal. Also I would recommend a food grade lube - sold here on Amazon - just a little dollop on the backside of the blade after cleaning. In fact I lube it every 3rd cleaning and it's never lugged or seized or shown signs of wear on the gears.Overall I really like this slicer, it gets the job done for a non commercial kitchen and saves me time and money. I should get many years out of this before I have to buy another and for the price vs. a pro slicer like Hobart it's a bargain. I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because the slicing fence is a little flimsy...they could have beefed it up a little more!Cheers

I bought this based on the reviews and I'm very happy with the results. I don't have any other food slicers to compare it to however.Pro's: I mainly got it to slice meat and except for a small learning curve, it has done a very good job of that.Cons: Nothing big, mainly nit picky.1. It would be more convenient if the control knob for the depth of cut was marked in inches instead of being numbered from 0 to 20, requiring me to use a ruler to measure it.2. It isn't difficult to clean, but it takes enough time that it isn't worth using it just to slice a few pieces of meat for dinner, so I still use a knife for that. Best use is for slicing large amounts of meat at once.3. The hardest things about it to clean is the blade because of the large amount of grease on the side of the blade with the gear. Most of the other parts I just wipe down with a disinfectant wipe.4. For slicing meat, I've found that freezing the meat slightly doesn't help that much and I need to freeze it nearly solid, or cook it first to get really even slices.5. Not a problem, but I still haven't figured out when I'd use the pulse feature on the on/off switch, but it may be more useful when slicing something other than meat.None of the things listed above are a big problem, mainly just things I had to get use to and I would definitely buy this slicer again. It does a great job for the price.

I bought it to slice bacon, it does not have enough throw to fit bacon between the blade and slider. I never used it but it looked OK, bought it specifically for bacon.

I used this to cater a wedding reception and it did help speed up food preparation but the blade grabs the meat or cheese that you're slicing and spins it around quite often. I think the blade doesn't spin quite fast enough and the spikes used to hold the food in place are too short and too dull to hold the food securely.

We like this food slicer just fine. It is pretty easy to use and to clean. Our only complaint is that it doesn't really slice the meat thin. Once you try it gums up pretty quickly. The thinnest slice we do is about 1/8"... and we do that seldom. We probably should have made a bigger investment so that we could get the thin sandwich cuts, but for the cost this slicer is not bad.

Has a weak motor which causes the blade to slow significantly as soon as anything but soft lunch meat hits it.

I knew that this meat slicer would not be like the commercial slicer I used in the deli. However, I was hoping that it would be a bit more user friendly. I almost returned the item after trying to slice meat from the refrigerator. The meat holder is a useless piece of plastic. The teeth that are supposed to hold the meat in place are not long enough to hold anything. I ended up using my hand (even though I don't recommend this practice as the blade is extremely sharp and you may cut yourself). I decided to give it a second try with partially frozen meat and this time the slicer did a better job of slicing down to the last portion. It made uniform slices for the jerky I was making. The clean up is quick and easy. I was able to get to all of the areas that were exposed to the meat. I wouldn't try cutting cheese on this unless you have the muscles to hold it in place. Once I got the hang of it, slicing slower and pushing the meat toward the blade it worked for my purposes and the cost was within my budget. I will continue to use the slicer.

Slicer is slow & noisy. Blade is heavy and dangerous to clean. (I use a potholder to grab the blade. It comes with a small rubber/plastic slide that you can grab it from, but it would be too easy for it to fall off while handling). The clear plastic food holder has little spikes/nubs that don't hold meat real well. Slicer motor gets hot quickly. I got through about four apples, and had to turn it off for a few minutes to cool. We have had our slicer for about a month. We have sliced apples, corned beef, and a beef brisket. Kinda afraid to try anything else. I guess it is an okay slicer for occassional usage. If you plan to do a lot of slicing like me...anticipating lots of veggies and stuff from the garden this year..you might want to look over a few others. I know that is what I will be doing. I would have been a bit happier paying about half or less, of what I paid for this model.

I have owned two of these over the years. What I like is that it is a good meat slicer that gets nice thin slices and it is pretty easy to clean (although all meat slicers are somewhat difficult to clean). However, there is a "gotcha" that you need to know about: it has a fuse in the bottom. This fuse will go out at some point, so you should go ahead and order some extras: Littelfuse/BUSSMANN GDC 1.25A (GDC-1.25A) 250v Slow-Blow Glass Fuses, T1.25A 1.25 amp, Pack of 5 Now, there is a second gotcha: one of the reasons that the fuse goes out is that the motor get stuck. When it gets stuck it starts trying to draw a lot of power, and then the fuse blows. If this happens you may think that your appliance has died, but it hasn't! Open the slicer, take a pair of needle nose pliers and turn the shaft to get it unstuck, and apply some motor oil to lubricate anything that might be sticking it. Then, replace the fuse in the bottom. And you'll be back in business!When this happened to my first slicer, I didn't know what to do and just threw it out and replaced it. Then we used a different slicer for a while, but it broke eventually and we went back to this one when we got a good deal on it. When this one blew again, I just decided to turn it into a father/son project and we tinkered with it until we discovered the above. So it's got a design flaw that you need to be aware of before you buy it. In both cases, the slicer lasted 1-2 years before we encountered the issue. We lubed it consistently and well the second time, thinking that that might be the problem, but apparently not.

It works pretty good. The Blade does move a little so its hard to get a very thin cut. And its a little pain to clean it. Not everything removes, so you have to really get tin there with a cloth.

Just used this to slice a 5 pound eye of round to make jerky. Maybe I should have frozen the meat sections more. I cut the roast into 5 sections of equal thickness. I grabbed an inner section first so it had even sides. After 4 pushes with the guide, the meat slid off and onto the blade. Here's a plus and minus. The guide grabbers are short so you can cut closer to the end of your meat but because they are short they don't grip as well. I pushed harder with the rest of the slicing and the meat still slid off so not great for raw meat IMHO.I like that the cord stores in the machine. No need to wrap it then. I like the guide lock which keeps it from coming off the machine and also has a lock function that keeps the blade safer.I'm a bit creeped out by the ability to take the slicer apart to clean it. Blade comes off, guide too. There was a bit of meat inside the blade area. That white lube that looks like diaper rash cream kind of threw me for a loop. It also is on the metal "finger" things that keep the part you set the meat on. So okay, i need to keep this lubed like my sewing machine. Back to cleaning though...I don't like that I can only wipe off the rest of the machine. Yeah, I know that grocery stores just do wipe downs during business hours and are supposedly doing a take down after hours. But that's why I keep a slicer! I buy whole deli meats from a Restaurant retail store and slice them myself. I'm curious how this will handle a 5 pound block of muenster next week.All in all, it's okay. I like the machine I replaced a lot more but the gears were stripped as was the blade part the screw goes into. Oh, I had no issues with the machine moving around and found it plenty heavy enough to stay put on my kitchen table.I will update as I use it for other things.

I've used the slicer twice. Once to slice a corned beef and once to slice a ham; both chilled overnight in the fridge. The slicer does a nice job overall but it isn't perfect.The thickness dial tends to move while you are slicing. Its not a huge deal but you end up having to keep one hand on the dial and one on the pusher while slicing. The stock serrated blade really can't slice any thinner than the 2nd tick - any thinner and it just rips the meat apart. The second tick is pretty thin but I'd like my meat slices a hair thinner to replicate true deli slices.I'd recommend the non-serrated blade that is available. I ordered this blade when I ordered the 610 and found it lets you cut a full tick thinner without ripping meat to shreds. If the slicer came with this blade I would have given it 4 stars. The unit is really easy to clean which is a nice plus.

So for occasional cutting of food, this thing is a good value.In my case there is a slight variance between the vertical rest and the blade. This means that over the space of 8-10 cuts the difference adds up and causes slices to come out uneven in a noticeable way. The easy answer is to flip the meat you are cutting every 3-4 slices to even out the variance.I can live with that, but I deducted a star for it. Also deducted a star because it comes with a serrated blade. Serrated does not slice as cleanly as a smooth edge, and it's also more work to clean. The cynic in me says they did this to get more money from those who want the smooth blade, by making us buy it separately. In any case, add the extra blade to the cost of this thing and it's still decent value for those who only need a slicer every so often.In my case, we tend to slice 5-15 pounds of bacon at a time (after we cure and smoke it), or when we are slicing something else for a party. It beats the heck out playing with a knife that whole time.It's not too noisy, but you'll hear to from the next room. Cleanup is not that bad and I can usually have it ready to go back in the box in about five minutes.Other things that would have helped: a small extra packet of grease added to the box would have kept most of us happy for years. There is no way I'll go through a whole bottle that sells online.So if the manufacturer is paying attention (or better yet, a competitor), make this slicer better by paying more attention to the blade/guard alignment; use a non-serrated blade; and toss in a small amount of food-safe lubricant. That's a six-star product, right there.

Well, it slices. However, do not expect to chip any meats thin with uniformity. There is gap between the slice tray and body that meat drops in and creates awkward slicing. The plastic catch tray does not sit great on the machine and it kind of an afterthought. I would rate it an entry level slicer. Don't expect professional results out of it.

Will not cut cheese it makes the motor skip the cogs. Sounds like it is breaking. Cutting meat is really a messy job.

this doesn't cut evenly. and the guide fence moves too much so it produces uneven cuts. this was my first one though. i'll upgrade in the future.

I bought this to slice home cured bacon and to make jerky. Not a good product for that. Maybe good for veggies? The motor is loud and the blade doesn't cut meat very well. I sliced around 50lbs of meat over three different uses before the motor burnt up.

If you're slicing old bread maybe this would work. If you're slicing 3/4" ham slices, very very very slowly, this may work. If you're trying to use this to do any butchering (slicing home smoked meats for freezing, slicing pieces of loins for steaks). The blade moces/flexes. The backplate flexes, the holder lets everything slip. Pretty poor set up, but you really do get what you pay for.

the blade is not sharp, no guard over the slicer blade, never again, dangerous!

Took it out of the box ... put it immediately back in the box and returned it.I was optimistic about this product because of the (mostly) good reviews. From a design perspective, the feed tray will not accept a piece of meat over 4 inches ... maybe closer to 3 inches ... that can be overcome by using a knife to make shorter pieces ... I don't like that. This is due to its insufficient depth. In addition, the pusher does not secure to the machine and adds to the limitation on meat length (another reviewer faulted this and I should have listened). IMO, this renders the machine unusable and unsafe.Lastly, the blade was dull. This could have been a manufacturing QA oversight, but in my opinion, the Chinese do not know how to put a good cutting edge on any kitchen utensil. The cheap Rival folding slicer (purchased 15 years ago at a discount store) that this Weston was replacing had an excellent (RE. very sharp) Solingen blade ... excellent blade on a junk slicer! How times have changed.I should have known better than to expect something useable for $95 and will save my pennies for a German-made Chef's Choice ... no doubt with a (sharp) Solingen blade.

I absolutely love this slicer. I would highly recommend it. It's easy to use and easy to clean.

Cheap plastic gears inside that stripped after about 20 uses.

I purchased this and once it arrived, I tested it on a variety of meat products. The unit itself was fairly well made. I was surprised by how slowly the blade rotated. I suppose I was used to seeing those larger, commercial machines in the grocery store deli. I found this was very flimsy. When slicing salami, it would start with the proper width but by the time it was midway through the meat, it had thinned out considerably. Most of the slices only went through 2/3's of the salami, leaving me with wedge cuts instead of slices with consistent thickness. I'm sending it back for a refund and looking for a machine that is more precise, one that will produce a slice with consistent thickness through the entire cut. The picture below is not mine, but is included to give you a visual of the kind of cut this machine produced with the salami.

It's OK but it has too many plastic parts. Not very rugged. I don't use it anymore.

Always wanted home slicer, but have never seen one that was sturdy enough except in commercial lines... this one is no exception. Not strong enough to use they way we would want and can't cut thin deli slices on meats. Had to send back. Customer svc was resistant to take it back, but took it back after one email so kudos to the service team.

The slicer arrived and seemed to work great. We sliced tritip for sandwiches about 5 times then kapoot it just died. I took it apart and the cheap nylon gears were worn out. I am past the 30 day return period and am not sure if i can file a warranty claim. I guess that's why it's still nice to shop at the warehouse club for certain items. When they stop working you just drop them off.

Do not like this slicer. The meat tray does not come off for cleaning. The meat keeps getting hung up on bottom corner of blade/body of slicer due to poor design. This causes meat to slip amd cut uneven. The plastic meat holder/safety guard is to short. Anything 'll her than guard has no pressure and blade pushes it upward.Bacon was first thing I cut and it would shoot the bacon out the car side. So I had to cut bacon down to 4 inch length to cut. Then had roast and same problem happened. So to cut reasonable slices it cannot be thin and much wider than about 4 inches.Easy to clean, belt driven but does not cut how I need it.

Received item was factory flaw motor drive gear is stripped and out of alignment with the belt and slave pulley belt broken before rotated it with motor.

This is not a meat cutter/slicer, since it has never successfully been able to cut meat. It failed mildly the first time I used it, and by the third attempt, it can't even spin the blade. I have cleaned it and lubricated it based on best practices. I will never buy another Weston product, and would suggest you avoid them too!

Slicer did not perform well at all. Blade did not spin fast enough to cut simple american cheese. the cut was rough and the blade would skip towards the end of the slice. Great price but not a great machine. I sent it back for a better more powerful one.

I used it just 3 times. And it's motor was gone.It isn't useful molten meet, ham, some kind of cheese.. etc. It can cut just soft things (For example, vegetable or meet)If you want to use this one, please buy good slicer. That's better.

Blade grabs whatever you slice! On this unit the grinding of the blade is so rough it grabs and flings what you slice to the end of the slicer very dangerous

The only reason why I'm giving Chefs choice a one star is because the Ultra thin blade did not come with the meat Slicer I bought the two blades and only received 1 the serrated blade. This was a huge inconvenience because I wanted certain cuts for tonight's dinner I was hosting. I don't appreciate what happened.

I used it a couple of times and the motor gear started to wear out. It is made of plastic. I called customer service and was told I bought from Amazon and they do not provide replacement parts unless I bought from their own website. This is ridiculous because it is sold by their channel partner. The machine is almost new and I bought two blades too. Now it is almost useless.

I purchased this slicer just over a month ago. It sliced great once I purchased the non serrated blade. After using this just 3 times the dial that controls the slice thickness no longer works and the back stop slides freely. Too late to return to Amazon. What a piece of junk.

Cheap quality plastic screw holds blade in, broke on first use and had to be returned.

There are two main problems to this slicer.1) Food grip allows only to push toward the blade which is fine for large meats and cheeses but useless for salumi like coppa, Lonza, pancetta, salami, etc. .2) The major problem is that the thickness dial is changing position with every slice making progressively thicker slices. By small increments cutting over 6 slices of meat we went from paper thin 1 mm to 4 mm. without touching the dialer.Cannot recommend this product.

Garbage - didn't even last a year. The inside PLASTIC gear that is driven by the screw is totally shot - a groove has been worn down on the inside and it no longer is able to catch and turn. The company did nothing and suggested nothing. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY - THIS ITEM WILL NOT LAST.