Customer Reviews

Chef's Planet Innovative Black Nutcracker

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

 

 

Do not believe this line - "Ergonomically designed nut cracker is ideal for cracking all sizes of nuts." This nutcracker does not work with smaller nuts, such as unopened pistachios (or, for those who love Japanese foods, the shells of of large ume plum seeds -- which are about the same size as a pistachio.)

From the description, the design seemed like it should have worked. There were two problems - (1) the cone is still too wide to trap and wedge smaller nuts even at the bottom and (2) range of the lever does not reach the smaller nuts when inside the cone. Because the nuts don't wedge themselves, squeezing the handle simply moves smaller nuts inside the cone. Because the lever doesn't reach the smaller nuts, the nuts ultimately reorient themselves until they are "safe from harm's way."

While I could see how this item might work for a larger nut - like a large walnut, it's not why we purchased the unit.

In fairness, I wouldn't have been so harsh in my one-star review here if the manufacturer's description set the proper expectation of nut sizes or types that this unit would work for.

This product was recommended by Fine Cooking Magazine. They usually know what they are talking about. After years of pinched fingers and uncrackable nuts I was ready to pay $14.00 for a nut cracker. Well it works, even on Brazil nuts. But it often doesn't crack almonds if they are small. And it's kid friendly! I don't have to stop what I'm doing every other nut and crack it for them.

I ordered this last year for my mom who loves to eat pecans but due to arthritis had a hard time using a nut crackers. She loves it so she will not let anyone else use it. It is definitely worth the money.

I bought the ches's planet version of the Drosselmeyer real thing and I was really disappointed. Is is plastic and it does not work for hard nuts (and most of them are). The real thing (Drosselmeyer) is made of iron and works beautifully. Worse, the immitation is dangerous for kids and old folks. When they try to crack had nuts, the hard plastic will open up gaps and kids will get they fingers pitched between the iron handle and the hard plastic.

I used this to crack filberts and after a few minutes the plastic snapped. So I bought a new one and after about fifty filberts it broke in the same way. Something as fragile as this should not be on the market.

This product is a complete ripoff. Its a flimsy piece of plastic which can't crack nuts at all. Amazon should be ashamed for letting this outright piece of garbage onto its web site. Avoid at all costs.

This broke on my first walnut and it pinched my finger to boot!! I returned it for a refund.

The product works well for just the right size nuts. If too small, such as almonds or too big like many walnuts, it doesn't do the job.

works great on large and small pecans - my wife has cracked almost 4 gallons of nuts since christmas 2008 - less mess than other crackers

This product doesn't look like much, but it does successfully crack all kinds of nuts, even the tough brazil nuts. Unfortunately, the shell shards can get stuck in the handle. If you don't carefully clean them out before releasing the handle, the handle can break off. Wish the manufacture had warned me!