KitchenAid Food Processor Attachment KSM1FPA White Stand Mixer Slicer Shredder Accessory

I had an opportunity to purchase the KitchenAid Food Processor Attachment using some rebates that I’d gotten from an earlier KitchenAid promotion and when i saw a sale for this i decided to give it a try. I’d been looking at it for some time because it was the only item on the market that would dice and not just slice items like my Cuisinart. I’d been looking at the various videos that KitchenAid had on-line as well as independent reviewers and had seen some really impressive results and listened to some very negative comments. It appeared that individuals that bought or reviewed the attachment either found it very helpful or totally hated it. Being an engineer i was curious to see the construction and worried about the mechanism’s quality. So when i received the attachment I had to run it through some tests. The first thing I noticed was how heavy the attachment was. It’s not a lightweight piece of equipment! So my first concern was about the stress the weight would place on the mixer. I’m still worried about that after several hours of use. Like any of the KitchenAid attachments it’s a little noisy when running and there is some vibration. I attribute that to the causing what some reviewers said about the attachment ‘falling off’ the mixer. I don’t believe that’s an issue if one keeps in mind that vibration in any piece of equipment tends to loosen fasteners over time, particuarly friction secured fasteners like KitchenAid uses to hold their attachments to the mixers. My advice? Check the fastener for any sign of loosening if you’re going to use it for a lengthy period of time. So on to the tests. First was a twenty pound bag of russet potatoes, peeled and sliced to fit the hopper. I found varying advice on the speed setting. What i discovered was that in general the harder the item to be sliced and diced the faster you want to set the speed. Potatoes took about a seven to eight setting while larger carrots I set to ten. Apples worked fine at lower settings. Tomatoes (I used Roma) worked well and seemed to do better at a medium speed. That surprised me at first, I was expecting them to do better at a lower speed because of their firmness, but I think it’s because of the skin. I did not try any skinless tomatoes – that might be a test for another time. Cucumbers were best at a low setting (Note: I peeled the cucumbers in my testing and the softer they were the worse the results – English cucumbers worked the best for dicing). Another thing that I found interesting was that i got the best results when dicing if I DID NOT use the pusher to force the vegetables into the hopper – letting their own weight and the angled blade pull them in worked just fine. A big WARNING – don’t try to use the attachment to dice meat – that was a disaster! I have not tried cheese yet and if (when) I do I’ll add to this review. So the dicing aspects of the attachment worked better than i anticipated. Since that was my primary reason for purchasing it I was very happy. I moved on to the slicing blades and was interested to note the adjustable thickness setting on the slicing blade (KitchenAid calls it their ExactSlice System). That’s an interesting touch and i wonder how long that’s going to last. Endurance is just as important to me as functionality since I tend to keep my technology until it expires! I would have preferred a metal mechanism, but that would have necessitated a price increase that probably would have made the overall cost a nonstarter. It worked fine as did the shredding and julienne discs. I typically prefer my Cuisinart for those functions (so many more blades and options) but if I’m going to do dicing as well as slicing and julienne cuts the KitchenAid is my tool of choice. Next was cleanup. How labor intensive was that going to be? I found that cleanup was actually easier than for my Cuisinart. I should note that i clean my tools immediately after use, no matter which brand or device. I’ve learned my lesson from letting debris dry in hard-to-reach places! The KitchenAid came apart as easily as it went together. Most of the pieces came clean in just a spray of warm water and a quick dip into a soapy bath and rinse. A nice scrub brush gets almost anything off easily and KitchenAid has thoughtfully provided a small tool for clearing any food stuck in the dicing grid so you don’t end up with bloody fingers. I also like that there is an insert that lifts out to protect the mechanism from any food particles or fluids that go around with the blades. That was a feature I hadn’t really considered important until it came to cleanup – then that made things a breeze. The included storage case is nice, but I have two concerns. The first one is a little picky, but I had a difficult time in getting the blades back into the case so it would close properly. Turns out that the adjustable thickness slicing has to be in placed into the storage case with what I’ll call the plastic sweeping tab rotated so it’s located to the right of the case or it interferes with the closure. A picky concern, true, but I was beginning to think I’d lost my mind when the case wouldn’t close the first time. Second, the location of the hinge for the case means that in the open position it does not rest on the surface, but is slightly elevated. I’ve seen the same design on other cases and the failure mechanism is when left in that position for too long or if there’s an impact it damages the hinges. A very small design change would have alleviated the possibility with zero additional cost in either materials or fabrication. Overall I think this one’s a winner! Concerns? Well, like all bladed kitchen tools how sharp they are tends to make a huge difference. I am concerned about how well the dicing grid retains its edge since there’s really no way to resharpen it. I didn’t look into the cost of replacement, but i suspect it’s not cheap! The other blades? Well, they seem to be the same quality as the Cuisinart’s, and I’ve used those blades for at least ten years without issue.