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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Mighty Giant with an Achilles Heel, October 27, 2001
I've had my DLC-X for roughly ten years now. I bought the largest size specifically for doing bread. Even though it's a very large and impressive-looking unit, it takes up only a little more space than the smaller, more popular models. Also, at that time, the 'X' had a stronger shaft setup and a heavier-duty switching system than the smaller models. The ability of this machine to chop, shred, slice, etc., is amazing. One of the Cuisinart tricks I've used for years to save time is the practice of mixing up a salad dressing, then shred and slice the remainder of the salade, finally inverting the whole thing into a large bowl where the dressing drains over the salad. Being an appliance freak, I bought all the accessory disks, which on this machine are the size of 45-rpm records, and the whisk attachment. This attachment fit on the center shaft and rotated a small set of twin beaters around counter to the attachment rotation. It worked well for whipping cream, but I broke the gears in two of them doing mashed potatoes and a fairly sticky candy. As these were running about $75 each back then, I never replaced it. In my opinion, the greatest design weakness is the plastic lid with its engagement mechanism on the back side. I've been through three tops because the Lexan eventually cracks and breaks. No, I don't abuse the lids or use the mechanism as an on/off switch, it just seems to happen. Perhaps in the newer ones they've strengthened this area, hopefully so. The feed chute is a pain to clean but Cuisinart was trying for max flexibility. Nothing, certainly, that I can't live with. My other regret is that Cuisinart hasn't made the flat lid w/o tube available for this model. I'd buy it in a heartbeat. My cooking style has changed somewhat over the past ten years. I don't use my 'X' as much as I used to, but am glad to have it waiting for me when I need it! By the way, I discovered that a generic case made for a sewing serger accommodates my machine like it was made for it! This makes it very easy to transport the machine and not have to worry about breaking something off.
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