Customer Reviews

Oster FPSTMC3321 3-Cup Mini Chopper with Whisk, Black

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

This attractive little processor is a big disappointment in the kitchen. The 150W motor wasn't up to chopping even a quartered onion into a small dice. In fact, the manual itself advises, "Chopping ... Cut food into approximately 1/2 inch pieces and place up to 3 cups DRY food in the bowl at a time." So you need to chop your food into 1/2" pieces before using this processor.
Note also that this processor chops DRY food. I made the mistake of trying to puree a tomato. When I removed the bowl, tomato juice ran out the bottom all over the processor and the kitchen counter. The center post is just too short for the tall bowl, so liquids run out as soon as you lift the bowl up. The only way to avoid this mess would be to lift the entire food processor, then tilt it (while holding the blade back) so that the food runs out of the bowl into your container.
A whisk attachment comes with this processor, but it's good only for whipping cream. I used it to whisk eggs, and ended up with another leaking mess.

I love my new Oster Mini food chopper! The reason for a 4 star rating: Use caution if blending liquids as they tend to foam up and flow out under the blade/whisk and into the motor housing. This happened to me. After letting it dry out for a few days, it's working fine. And the hot chocolate was delicious, although I will use a larger blender next time! So be careful! This could happen with any food processor, large or small. This is a pleasure to use! Chop an onion in seconds, make bread crumbs instantly, many other uses. I recommend it!

We bought this feeling confident of oster products. Was very hard to get the lid aligned to get it to chop. Then when tried to remove it to empty container very hard. Have a bit of arthritis so the manuvering it took to twist it was hard. After the third try, it ended up falling from my grip. dropped it, plastic bowl broke. SO I spent $15.00 for two chops. I am currently trying to findonlinehelp to replace the bowl. If I cant find it, I guess I wasted $. Had always had faith in Oster products, will think twice now. ESPECIALLy if I can't get service.

Noise: Pretty irritating. Definitely worse than my full size KitchenAid food processor. But these things are never pleasant.

Appearance: Really cute.

Sturdiness: Plastic bowl is thick and sturdy, like my full size KitchenAid. The KitchenAid and Cuisinart mini-choppers have made their bowls flimsy. It also has a decent weight so doesn't jump.

Chopping ability: If you put in 1/2 an onion at a time (2 quarters), totally flawless and quick. If you put in a whole onion, cut into quarters, you have to keep opening it to move things around to get to all the big pieces. If you put in a whole onion cut into 1/8s on high, and you're too impatient to open it up repeatedly, you will eventually get a perfect puree with no big pieces. If you put in 2 raw carrots cut into pieces, it gets to all of them without making juice out of them, though it takes some time and it left 1 bigger piece, but so does my KitchenAid.

Clean up: Really easy. I just ran it under the water, wiped with a soapy sponge, and it took 30 seconds.

Summary: None of the mini-choppers that I have seen look good: the two good brands have made their equipment flimsy, even the ones sold at fancy department stores. And all mini-choppers have the limitation that they can only do a certain amount, and you can't just press a button and walk away: you have to press the button over and over until it's done. So I figure I may as well spend half as much and get this one. There is a new Hamilton Beach (Hamilton Beach 72705 Deluxe Food Chopper, Black) that I just found on Amazon that may be good as well. Get a small (~7 cup) food processor, or a food processor with mini-bowl insert. If you get a mini-chopper, get one of the less expensive ones. Or check out the die cast Cuisinart to see if it feels substantial.

Narrative:
I've spent way way too long shopping for a food chopper for my boyfriend who hates onions but wants to cook Indian food in his slow cooker. My base for comparison is my 7 cup KitchenAid food processor bought in 2005 that I am really happy with. I wanted to get a chopper that was just like my KitchenAid, just smaller because my boyfriend has a small apartment.

I was settled on the Cuisinart DLC-4 for more than twice as much as this one, but when I went to a fancy department store to buy it, the base felt hollow and flimsy, and the bowl also felt somewhat flimsy. Definitely not as sturdy as a full size. Cooks Illustrated also apparently said that this one jumps around when you use it, and I see why. There is a higher-end Cuisinart with what looks like a metal base for 10 more, but it was out of stock.

I went to a big box store to get the KitchenAid 3 cup chopper, and the base felt pretty sturdy, but bowl felt really flimsy, like it could bend and crack easily, and the process of turning it into the base required enough force that I could see it cracking at some point. I have seen lots of reviews, and only the most recent ones mention the top feeling flimsy, so I'm guessing that they recently decided to cut corners and make the bowl's plastic thinner. That's consistent with what I saw in two reviews online that they took apart the Cuisinart and KitchenAid, and they discovered both used nylon/plastic gears, not metal, so they may be lighter and flimsier all around.

I looked at the less expensive models and I found this one which has more sturdy plastic than both the Cuisinart and KitchenAid and costs half as much, and it was attractive. I was disappointed to get home and read these reviews, but I figured that I would try it. I chopped 2 onions and 2 carrots. At first, I put in 1/2 an onion cut in half and it chopped perfectly, so I added the other half an onion (cut in half), and it had trouble getting to all the pieces, leaving some big ones, but eventually it did after I stopped and pushed things down. If I had pulsed, may have been easier to get all the pieces. For the second onion, I stuck the entire onion in, cut into 1/8s and I just pressed high, and it pureed it, but it took awhile. And the carrots chopped just as well as in my KitchenAid. It does make an annoying sound, but what can you do.

I was thinking of taking this one back and just getting a full size food processor since there you can just put a few onions in at once, push a button, and walk away to get an onion puree, but then I discovered my cat had decided it would be good to bite the side of the box while I was asleep. So I'm guessing the store will not take it back. In sum, get a small food processor from one of the 2 good brands instead of any mini-chopper.

I was looking for something to replace my 25 year old Sunbeam 120 Watt OSKAR, a smaller capacity processor with a squat shaped bowl. What a disappointment! Thank goodness I kept my old Sundbeam OSKAR. The Oster does a poor job of chopping. Cranberries, onions, apple pieces were among the things I attempted to process. The result was shredded pieces on the bottom and untouched pieces on the top. (with the container not half filled). Even with constant stopping and manually re-mixing, the results were unacceptable by any standard. As in all processors, both the container and the cover must be perfectly engaged before the chopper can be turned on. Getting the cover aligned and clicked into place was a challenge made more frustrating by the many times this had to be done to re-mix the food so the blade would do its work. The one thing I could imagine this product doing well would be mixing and emulsifying liquids. But that is limited because the cover doesn't have a hole in the top so there is no clean way to slowly drizzle oil into a prepared dressing. Honestly, I very rarely write negative reviews because usually there are some redeeming features in a product. This one was so dissatisfying that I didn't even package it up as a Goodwill donation. I didn't want to disappoint anyone else with something that looked so good but performed so poorly.

I got this as a gift to replace a Cuisinart DLC-2 that the motor burned out on. I will be replacing it with yet another small food chopper. The first complaint is that the bowl has a number of ridges inside of it, that make it impossible to scrape out with a spatula, a very poor design. I'm guessing they were put in there to try and help with the other big problem, it doesn't do a very good job of chopping food evenly. some of it gets pulverized to liquid, while the rest of it remains in large chunks. Want to use this to make baby food? forget it. One other thing to note is that the blade is VERY sharp, much sharper than one would expect. This isn't necessarily a complaint, but it is worth noting.

While I had some complaints about the Cuisinart DLC_2 I had before, mainly motor strength, this one is no where near the machine that is. I would absolutely recommend that machine over this one.

If any manufacturers actually read this, what the market needs is a small food chopper that isn't a toy. I want a small machine, but with a bigger motor and a few of the additional features of a professional device.

I purchased this food processor as a gift for my mother. When we gave it a try, the HI button didn't work at all, only the LOW button... annoying! So we returned it and got another and it had the exact same problem! We called Oster and they were kind enough to send us a new one for free. The HI button on this one worked but guess what?! The LOW button was broken on this one! What a joke! Avoid Oster!

I bought this product because the instructions state that you can grate hard cheese. What a joke. Even after cutting the cheese into super small bits it still would not grate. It is really ironic because this is a pretty cheesey device if you get my drift. Definitely recommend though if you need to chop marshmellows or stir soup.

I purchased this item today and was very excited to try it out tonight for the dinner I was making. Total FAIL. I took it out of the box, plugged it in to test it out and only the high button worked. I tried it one more time before I put it back in the box, and now BOTH speeds are not working. I noticed that some other people have commented that this product was defective, so it appears to be a common issue with this particular model.

CONS: The lid is difficult to twist and maneuver into place. There's a trick to it, but once you know the trick the lid goes on fine. Too bad the directions just say, "Twist lid into place," without further details.

High speed is uber-powerful and will make onion juice, instead of chopped onion, if not used properly.

The unit is smaller, so you have to chop your onion into 1" or so chunks to fit properly, which still leaves me crying. A whole onion will not fit in at once; only about 1/3 to 1/2 of an onion will fit in the chopper at a time. It's just too small for my needs, and I'm only cooking for two people.

PROS: Easy to clean. Quick to take out for little jobs. Small; easily fits in pantry shelf. Looks stylish.

OUTCOME: I would not recommend this unit to a friend.