Side by Side Comparison of: Progressive vs Proctor Silex

Very cool gadget and I can tearlessly dice onions and other veggies and fruit. You can store the unit in the fridge or dump them in a zip bag without spills. Saves time compared to using a knife. Fairly easy to clean with the supplied "comb scraper" I would recommend to a friend.

This has saved me SO MUCH TIME in the kitchen. Goodbye 2-3 hours of weekly veggie chopping. I actually eat my veggies now, because I don't dread the chopping. Some things like carrots are too tough to be chopped, but as the video recommends, microwave them and suddenly they're softer and can be cut. So happy that I got this! I feel it is durable and of great quality. I would highly recommend for those who dread chopping vegetables.

This is one of THE BEST things I have in my kitchen (I have two of them). I use it several times a week, to chop onions, to slice mushrooms and strawberries, and to cut up potatoes for salad or for frying. I used to have just an onion chopper like this, but when I found this item, the onion chopper went to Goodwill. I have bought these for my son and my daughter, and both love them, Whoever came up with this idea deserves a medal. Good job!!

As I've aged my arthritic hands have gotten weaker and more painful. Having a bum left shoulder adds to the problem. A session of chopping while cooking would result in pain that lasted longer than my food does. Sometimes the pain included nicks on my fingers and hands. I tried a "As Advertised on TV" one but it took too much effort to use and clean. After reading lots of reviews for several of this type chopper, I crossed my fingers (ouch) and ordered this one. My 10-year-old neighbor helped me try this out and she was delighted to be able to do some prep work and I was relieved that she didn't cut herself or me. We both enjoyed whacking the top down and decided to dub this "the whacky chopper". This chopper (for convenience, that's what I call it; it also dices and slices soft foods easily) makes short work of vegs, fruits, etc.. Cooking is once again fun and safe. Clean-up is quick, if you wash it immediately, and takes such little effort that I haven't put it in the dishwasher yet.As I am writing this review, my favorite zucchini casserole is baking. I used the whacky chopper for the onions and zucchini and got both chopped in at least half the time it would take by hand. This also makes it easy to keep the chopped food from spilling onto the counter or floor, so that cuts cleaning time, too.RECIPE: (no amounts given; how much you use depends on how much you want to make and this isn't rocket science) I use a little less onion than zucchini (about 2/3 the amount).ZucchiniOnion (sweet, I love Vidalia when available)Bread crumbs, panko recommendedShredded cheddar cheeseButter or margarineSalt, if you really must have it; the cheese and crumbs have salt in themChop the zucchini and onions. (I "pre-cook" the chopped zucchini for 1 minute in the microwave, because I like it well cooked.) Lightly grease or spray a casserole dish (I've even used a loaf pan and disposable baking pans.) Put a thin layer of bread crumbs ( the first time I made this, I used enough to completely cover the bottom and that was was way too much). Layer the vegs, cheese and bread crumbs; zucchini first, onion, cheese, bread crumbs. Make as many layers as you have ingredients for; each layer shouldn't be too thick. Dot the top of the last bread crumb layer with diced butter or margarine. Bake at 350 degrees for at least 40 minutes, adjusting the time upwards depending on how big you make the casserole. Makes a great side dish or a meatless entree and leftovers, if there are any, are great reheated in the microwave. ENJOYGreat timing....my oven timer just went off and the smell of this cooking combined with writing about it has my stomach growling! Thanks to Progressive and Amazon, now I can enjoy cooking again!!!

I bought this a little over a year ago and fell in love with it. But I somehow managed to crack the base. I thought I would have to throw the unit out and get another one, but I contacted Progressive International customer service and they are sending me a new base AT NO CHARGE. Is this great customer support or what? The agent did give me a couple of pointers on using the unit that I thought I would pass on.Always assure that the lid is completely down on the pegs and moving up and down freely. If you ever feel resistance in the lid on a downward motion – it usually means that the lid has shifted up slightly and this causes too much pressure on the peg and results in a broken base. I suggest to always put the lid down on the vegetable that you are chopping and then have a swift motion down on the lid to chop. This might help save needing a new base in the future. If the teeth in the lid are full or if the bowl is full, it adds extra pressure to the chopper plate which could also cause the base or the blade grid to break.I would recommend item as it does make short work of chopping. And the end result of uniform pieces which look nice in salads, etc..

If you're a family that wants to eat a lot of veggies, looking for a product that lasts, chops up vegetables quickly (cube sized) and easy to clean- LOOK NO MORE!! I bought this in July 2010, and its Sept 2013 now, and I haven't got enough words about this little thing. I use it at least 4-5 times a week to chop up vegetables (we're vegetarian, so that's the main component in our diet)-- it does a small size cubes and a medium size cubes that are all great for our curries. It comes with an egg slicer that works for slicing softer things like boiled eggs. Vegetables I have used it for: Onions, Carrots, tomatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, beetroot, radish, squash, pumpkin, peppers, eggs, cheese, and more Indian vegetables like guards (bottle guard, snake guard, etc) all kinds of fruits for a fruit salad/fruit custard/pie - like apples, bananas, strawberry, kiwi, grapes (yes) cantaloupe, melons, etc. It works like a charm and cuts my veggie prep time in a third.I still have to peel and prepare the vegetables- but that's close to nothing. Some hard veggies like carrots and beetroots need extra pressure, I get a small step stool (I`m 5'2") for the extra pressure it needs to cut harder veggies. Sometimes I microwave/steam them first before cutting them up.It would be great if Progressive can incorporate blades with some other shapes in this other than cubes, like thin long rectangular shape- they could also incorporate a grater blade into this. but of course, they're quite clear it only chops up cubes. This is easily the most durable gadget in my kitchen. I bought it for less than 25 bucks back then, seems like progressive has increased the price on this item, but I would still buy it for the current listed price if I knew the worth! I was looking for this to send it to my sister in India, and I`m ordering one right away :)

This is fabulous for dicing firm vegetables - we actually use it a lot for onions. For something like bell peppers, you need to position them with the skin up otherwise the peppers sometimes get mushed. Don't even try it for something soft like a tomato. My biggest complaint with the product is the bottom container. Since you have to apply quite a bit of force to the lid to get the vegetables pushed through the cutting blades, the tiny legs on the container can cause the pressure on the base to be uneven, allowing the bottom to crack - this is my third one in roughly 4 years. Some would say that getting more than a year's use is still a good deal, but it is irritating none the less. I really think it would be studier with no cracking of the base if there were no feet and the container just sat flat on the surface - maybe I'll even try to remove the feet and see if that helps this time.

This is a handy tool if you're into mass meal prep. I try to feed my family whole, real food, which means I spend a good portion of my day in the kitchen. This helps cut down the time a bit. I like to chop 3-4 onions at a time, then freeze them in a ziplock freezer bag (much more affordable than buying pre-chopped). I also dice potatoes for the freezer for quick home fries or throwing in a soup. The slicer kind of butchered my mushrooms, but got the job done. I haven't tried any berries yet. Overall, I'm happy to have this in my cabinet.

I think this does the job nicely. The container is large enough that you can dice for a short while before having to empty it. It's a little tricky to store everything in a compact manner, but it works quite well if you cut some of the larger vegetables into sections and then dice them. My teenage daughters use this easily, too. It requires some reasonable pressure and you want to spread it evenly so that you don't apply improper leverage such that the parts snap because they are only plastic. My only frustration with it is that the part in the lid that presses the vegetable into the dicer is grooved such that they give you a small comb to clean it with. I would have found it easier if they just made it solid such that I didn't need a comb to do that. I've found that this cleans well in the top rack of the dishwasher, although about half the time I wash it by hand just to be safe.

I am very happy with this after 2 years of having and using it a lot. I do use it mostly for dicing potatoe salad ingredients, which are already boiled therefore soft and also raw mushrooms. I have a toddler and an infant now too, therefore my time in the kitchen is extremely limited, so this thing comes handy and I would not want to be without it, but after chuckling at some of the reviews here about how not to loose the cleaning tool, two days after getting this the cleaning tool disapppeared only to be found some time later in the sink disposal - chewed up and useless. I've been using a dish cleaning brush to clean it with instead, but it is laborious and boring and much harder then it should be, so I stopped by here to see if anyone mentions how to get a replacement. If I figure it out, I'll come back and let you all know

I purchased this to replace an Alligator chopper that I really like and have used for 5-6 years. It is cracking so I thought I'd try this one. While it chops well, it doesn't have a cutter that chops as finely as the Alligator. It has some nice features though including more than one size of chopping blade and the storage box.However - this broke with the first use. One of the hinges broke in half that holds the lid on the base. I have contacted Progressive and am waiting for a reply on whether the lid can be replaced. I don't have time to run around shipping returned items. I will if that is the only resolution.8/7/2013: I contacted Progressive International via their website customer service. I received very quick service and information. I received the free replacement lid. Here is the response.I am happy to send you the replacement lid for your Fruit and Vegetable Chopper at no charge. This will be sent via US Mail and will arrive within 7-10 days.Also, a helpful tip to keep your Chopper lasting longer is to always assure that the lid is completely down on the pegs and moving up and down freely. If you ever feel resistance in the lid on a downward motion - it usually means that the lid has shifted up slightly and this causes too much pressure on the peg and results in a broken base. I suggest to always put the lid down on the vegetable that you are chopping and then have a swift motion down on the lid to chop. This might help save needing a new parts in the future.For future reference, parts for this item are available for purchase. The prices below include postage. To order, please send a check or money order with your request along with your mailing address and phone number to the PO BOX below. As soon as your request is received, the parts will be mailed.Base - $8.00Blade - $5.00Cleaning Tool - $2.50Lid - $6.00

I chop onions all the time and I am one of those people whos eyes burn and tear. I bought this to try to avoid the cry fest that happens while chopping onions.First the good... This product works great. I can quickly chop six onions, cucumbers, green/red peppers etc. I chopped potatoes, onions, peppers at once and the vegetables all collect in the bottom bowl. It took me seconds to get everything ready for home fries. The chopper really does a great job. Cleanup is quick and easy as long as you don't lose the comb thing. I misplaced it for a few days and I quickly learned why people warned not to lose it. I couldn't clean the spikes in the top no matter what I used. In desperation I actually try to clean it with a spackling tool. Once I found the rake all was well again.Now the bad...You have to really push hard to get this thing to work. Cucumbers were fairly easy but everything else took a lot of muscle. I can imagine that someone without a lot of strength would have a very hard time chopping things. As it is now, I have to remove at least two layers of onion before I can get it to push through. Also I thought I would try to layer fresh herbs between the vegetables to get a quick chop. Dumb idea, as it made a huge mess of the white top and not enough made it through to be worth the cleaning effort.

I didn't realize at first that I needed to cut my veggies into pieces before using this. I put half an onion on there, and the lid snapped into two pieces. It still works, but not as well. It also requires a lot of force, so I sounds very angry whenever I use it, haha. More importantly, it's too loud for me to use while others in the house are sleeping.

The first one I ordered worked wonderful! I noticed one of the cutter blades was bent when I was going to put it in place so I sent it back. The replacement I ordered had an open seam around the the entire lid and when you pushed down to chop it would raise up the top half of the of the back of the chopper lid and took WAY more pressure to chop something. I thought that must be defective so sent it back and got another one. It has the same open seam around the lid! I guess they changed the design. It does not work near as well as the old design with no seam. Thank goodness we have Prime shipping. I don't want to reorder this brand because I'll probably get another one with the split seam design.

I like the chopper BUT the top must have a bad seal that allows water to get in. We've only hand washed it the times we have cleaned in and water is now stuck inside - I can hear it sloshing and I imagine it is pretty gross. Since the return period is over - we're sort of stuck figuring it out. The blades are nice and the holder is cool.

It's a great product. Don't be afraid of it! Whether you read the 1 star reviews or 5 star reviews, everyone says the same thing, use it smartly! If you try to put a hard veggie such as an entire carrot in it (yes the manual actually shows this happening) it will most likely break something. It could be the blades, the blade holder, and/or these, plus the entire catch container underneath. I tried this and had the entire unit shatter under my hands. (still have my fingers though) If I cannot find a way to have this replaced, or find just replacement parts, I will definitely buy another one. It is a good product and though the manual may have you believe this is made of Adamantium, it's plastic... be smart.P.S. - If Progressive reads this, please contact me. It broke following your manual!

I find it unbelievably frustrating that no small dicing blade is included in this, considering the pusher is a perfect grid of small squares. I actually thought I was getting a space saving multi purpose dicer/chopper from the picture, but if you look closely at the picture none of the included blades is actually a small square 1x1 grid to match the grid of small squares on the pusher, only 1x2, 1x8, and 2x2 blades to create larger chunks. If you actually want to do (what is for me) the more common and tedious task of smaller dicing, you will need to buy one of the other nearly identical tools to be found here on Amazon or elsewhere, the only difference being it would have a 1x1 blade to match the grid on the pusher.Other than this complaint, if you want to chop up larger pieces of veggies, this will do the trick adequately. As other reviewers have already said, just don't try to force too many (or too large of) pieces through the blades at a time. I find it best to use a firm, sharp slap of the palm to force all the veggies through in one quick motion, rather than squash them slowly through the blade.

You really do get what you pay for.If you want to dice up some tomatoes, cucumber, egg, green bell pepper, onion, avocado, strawberries, etc, this thing is PERFECT!!!I'm a both OCD and lazy. So dicing is kind of a nightmare for me. The Progressive chopper is perfect for someone like me. I can get my perfect dices, and not spend an hour doing it.But you have to be realistic about it. It's not going to cut your time in the kitchen down to nothing. Whatever you put in there has to be prepared before you start dicing. For perfectly diced onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, whatever, you have to slice the vegetable first. Then place each slice on the chopper.So far I've diced pretty much every vegetable I could think of, and only had problems with a few of them. It did dice my celery up for me beautifully, but the string from the celery got all caught up in the white part that pushes the vegetables through. Had to clean it after every few stalks. When I sliced my potato up thin enough, it worked ok with a bit of grunt work, but it wasn't going to go through the thicker slices without breaking the darn thing. And you can forget ever using a sweet potato. you have to slice the darn thing thin as a piece of paper to get THAT to work.There are a couple of things I would change about this product if I could:1) I wish the metal they used for the blades was a harder type metal, for two reasons. First, it bends too much to slice through hard veggies. Second, I imagine it's going to go dull a lot faster than something like stainless steel would.2) I wish the chopping surface were larger. Everything has to be cut down to fit it.Oh, and one side note... do NOT lose that curved white comb they send with it. It makes cleaning the chopper fast and easy. Without it, you're going to be sitting there cleaning the darn thing for an hour. (Trust me, I lost it once, and wanted to pull my hair out. Thankfully, I did find it eventually. Now I always put the darn thing in the same place.)

I had one of these before that worked great for years and then broke which I chalked up to wear and tear. I liked it so much that I bought a new one. I haven't had it that long and the whole top broke in several pieces. I am very disappointed with the quality. I don't know if they started making it cheaper or what. I'm wondering if Amazon will send me a new top as the rest of it is still fine.

I received this item today and I'm very disappointed with it. For $30 I was very surprised to see the protective case was broken on both hinges and a crack on the top. I haven't used the product yet and I did return it. I was hoping for a much nicer product for the price I paid.I did return the product with no hassle. Now that I have actually tried it I still would not purchase this again. First the price is high for the limited amount of work it can do. It may save you some time in prepping food, but you gain that time in cleaning it. Also, it does NOT cut carrots! It might if you cut the carrots into slices first, but it is not strong enough to cut through a whole carrot. I did cut eggs for egg salad and it worked beautifully. I also cut celery. It did cut it, but you really have to push hard. It made me think that the blade would not hold up for very much of that. All in all I'm very disappointed in this product and I would not recommend buying it unless you just have to have a new gadget and you don't care how much money you spend.

Item was purchased on Apr 28, 2015.So far I have used it to chop potatoes, zucchini and peppers. The square chopper is decent and it worked with all of these veggies except for a crack on the support rubber arms. See PictureOnce I switched to the slicer though the whole product fell apart. The slicing blades kept getting deformed every time I tried chopping zucchini. The pusher lid started to jam into the blades and this kept happening with every press.Now the product is rendered 50% useless because you can't use it to slice and the rest its pieces are falling apart.

It is ridiculous. I don't recommend this. Your work/pain simply shifts.Now instead of simply washing a knife, you need to wash knife sets, the plastic piece that receives the knife and the container for staging items. Just get a nice knife instead. Someone actually claims in the review that the item is easy to clean. Hell no. I presume someone else cleans items in the family. The part that receives the blade on impact is perfect for bacterial infections. Tiny square holes are impossible to clean. The item is not diswasher safe. You have three pieces clean instead of a knife. It make a huge racket/noise when trying to chop onions.

I was very excited to get this in the mail. My old cutter, which I had for almost 5 years, had finally broke, and I was looking forward to trying this new one. I was excited to see that everything came in a great plastic see-thru box - no more hunting around in my cabinets for the cutters! But then once I put one of the cutter plates into the apparatus and pressed down on the lid, to my dismay I noticed a huge design flaw. Basically, when you lift up the lid, the cutter piece (the yellow, green, or red piece shown in the picture) comes up with the lid - it doesn't stay down on the box. And what's worse is that, because it lifts up with the lid, it jams the lid's hinge, and now the lid can't lift up all the way. The only way to rectify the situation is for you to push the cutter plate back down onto the box, every time you make a chop! My old chopper did not have this problem, the cutter plate had these rubber edges that held it in place, so that the lid could move up and down freely, and I can keep my hands free to continue loading the chopper with food. I am going back to my old chopper, which by the way is half the price, also made by Progressive, is named after a kind of onion, and is also sold on Amazon!

My husband has cut his hand multiple times when he helped me slicing or chopping veggies. I picked this product up so that I could rest easy when my husband volunteered to help me do vegetable preparation at meal time. He was able to use it with some difficulty. He set the chopper on the floor and used his foot to push the potato through. However, when I used the Progressive Prepworks from Progressive fruit and vegetable, I did not have the upper body strength to push potatoes through the grates! I resorted to standing on the lever but my 100 pound weight was unsuccessful at pushing the lever down to cut the potato! My husband bought me a Magimix 5200XL which I use three time a day and I absolutely love! The Progressive Prepworks now sits in my cupboard collecting dust. I might try to sell it on e-bay. Note: my husband only used the product one time. Lol. But he uses my Magimix 5200XL twice a day.

I bought this progressive chopper excited to finally be able to chop vegetables for salad with ease. Just one month after I bought it the cover cracked while I was preparing a simple salad. For close to $30 I expected it to last me way longer then one month! The plastic cover is made with cheap materials and is made of two connecting pieces, not secured fully!Would recommend the idea to anyone that would like to add quality

Don't waste your money. I tried chopping celery and it was just shredded. I tried onions, the only way it would chop the onions is if they were already sliced very thin. The pusher top is almost impossible to clean with the little plastic tool that is provided for that purpose. I would return it if I hadn't already thrown the box away. If all you want to do is slice soft bananas then it may work for you.

It said it could cut carrots easily. Well I should have known better. After a few uses the blade broke while cutting/slicing carrots. The plastic lid also broke because it is used to apply/press the vegetable your are cutting. Useless product for me especially since I needed something to cut carrots into small pieces, I should have returned it in the first 30 days when the blade broke off, but I didn't.

First bad Amazon Warehouse experience to date. Item arrived with a hing cracked/broken, however the hard plastic housing and the card board box were new. Furthermore, the item was listed as "like new," but there were old pieces of onion on the chopping blades. That's just disgusting and shows a lack of inspection. Still, I have had almost all good luck, previously with many warehouse buys. I guess this one fell through the loop. Also, The fact that this hinge can break so easily, leads me to believe the product is not a great buy if you're looking to chop big stuff. So CHOP with CAUTION!

I bought this dicer with the expectation to make daily use during dinner time, while cooking for two. It was clear since the beginning that the 45 degree angle for applying pressure was not ideal (as opposed to 180 degrees), which end up requiring a bit more of pressure, and get vegetables to escape here and there from the chopping block. But this is not all the problem. Here's what happened: to our dismay, while I was cutting our carrots the other night, the colored part of the dicer broke, rendering the whole thing unusable, after only a couple of weeks of use (maybe 5 times?). Thus, unfortunately, it is not a high quality piece: both design and material are wanting. We are shopping only for metal gadgets of the sort.

After using this product about once every 2 weeks or so (and not heavily at all), the plastic piece on the side that holds the cover attached to the container. This happened while I lifted the cover up to place more onions on the grate. I will be contacting Amazon regarding warranty service as this product should last more than just 3 months.Overall, I did not find this chopper easy to use at all - it was difficult to press the cover down to get the vegetables through the chopping grates and still find a good knife much easier and simpler to use. I bought these due to the overwhelming percentage of positive reviews, but I should have paid more attention to those negative reviewers who have the same problem with this product like I did. Think twice before buying this item.