Customer Reviews

Chef'n Lab 921 Dual Grinder

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is the worst kitchen tool I've yet purchased. I had it about two months. First off, it gives your hand quite a workout to get enough pepper on your food. Second, aiming the pepper/salt takes some getting used to, as it doesn't land exactly where you expect it should.

Last, the materials are cheap and flimsy. After what I would consider minimal use, the handles broke while dispensing pepper. Again, the device broke within two months of purchase.

Buy this, and you'll most likely regret it.

I have owned one of these grinders for about a year now. The grinding elements are starting to lose their effectiveness, and thus the amount of work required to get a goodly amount of pepper (my favorite spice) has increased to the point where I no longer use this thing very much. I have gone back to my more traditional twist-to-grind stainless-steel cylindrical mill and find it much more satisfactory.

Not a bad product, but not great. It has novelty, but has proven not as useful as I would first have expected. I keep it around only for my 9-year-old son, who still likes using it for seasoning his scrambled eggs.

I loved this for the 6-8 months I had it. But, its flimsy and the thing broke while i was using it. I think I'm going to buy another one though. It's pricey and cheaply made but works great.

I wanted this because I thought it would be handy to have a "2 in one" type device for salt and pepper. I had never had a salt grinder, so I thought this would be great.

After several months of usage, here is my opinion:

1. Seems a little fragile. Mine is working fine, but I have friends who have the same model and the handle broke on theirs. the handle is just plastic, so I can see how it could break rather easily.
2. Pepper and Salt don't come out fast enough for my taste. There is a lever at the bottom to adjust the flow, but even turned all the way up I don't seem to get enough stuff coming out.
3. It looks cool sitting there on my table.
4. Once you pry open the doors on the side to get the salt and pepper in, filling is pretty simple, you just have to make sure you have a small funnel or cut a paper plate to make a "chute" to funnel the stuff in.
5. It came with salt and pepper already loaded inside.
6. If I had this to do again, I don't know if I would have bought this, or decided to go with two separate grinders, one for salt and one for pepper. It would be a toss up I guess.

I give this grinder 3 stars because the idea is so darn clever... adjustable grind size, and both salt AND pepper in one device. It's kind of fun twisting from the salt side to the pepper side too.

Unfortunately, all the complaints of output amount are true. I find that almost no salt comes out unless it's set to the coarsest grind. I can get a fine grind of pepper, but again, it just creates a faint dusting. When I seasoned a pot of mashed potatoes, my hand got so tired that I had to ask someone else to finish grinding.

Also, I'm not sure exactly how it works, but it seems to leave a lot of what's been ground inside the chamber, which means I don't get 100% freshly ground pepper, thereby defeating the entire point.

It's not TERRIBLE, but I plan to keep this on my table, and get another, more functional grinder for the kitchen.

I am sure there is a lesson in my experience. I fist purchased the salt and pepper grinding mill balls and found the salt/pepper did not go where I wanted it. I also found that in order to get a reasonable amount out of the grinder I had to select the maximum coarse setting and over a period of six months the efficiency became so bad I finally threw them away. Based on a salesmans advise I purchased the dual grinder thinking my problems might be isolated to the shape of the feed tube. I am sad to say that I again found it's performance to be a big disappointment.

Granted, grinding fresh cracked pepper or salt is not an exact science as far as "aiming" the finished product where you want it to go in (or on) a dish, but this is really awkward to use. Even after practice, I've found if I actually just want to salt and pepper one item on the plate, I have to steady the grinder with one hand while working the lever with the other. The grind is a bit inconsistent as well. I thought it looked nice, and it does, but it's not too terribly functional.

This is a super grinder for 3 important reasons -
(1) It is nice looking enough to use at the dinner table
(2) It is neat enough to grind directly onto a specific item on the dinner plate while not salting and peppering everything.
(3) Guests are impressed by its versatility and your cleverness in finding such a unique item.

This duel S&P grinder is a great tool for the kitchen. I just got it last week and have already used it quite a bit. It's easy to use and you can even get by with a one-handed grind which is helpful when you are seasoning raw meat or have one hand otherwise food covered. I'm actually going to be getting a couple others to pass along as gifts.

After ruining a set of separate salt and pepper grinders , I found this product and love it! Another review said it was awkward to use, but I disagree. After buying a second one for my parents, even my dad uses it with no mishaps!