Swissmar V-Prep™ Mandoline Slicer – Versatile Kitchen Slicer for Julienne, Shred, Cube & Slice – Includes Multi-Function Bowl & Safety Holder – Essential Kitchen Gadget – White

Blades stay sharp, easy to clean, stores safely. This is my second unit. The old one still functions after 10 years but is finally beginning to dull. Good product.

I've had a couple of mandolines in the past, and my experience was that they were super cheap and didn't work at all. They were complete piles of junk, and dangerous because they didn't cut well, causing it to stick and your hand to slip. This one slices extremely well, it's almost scary. When I first got it, I did a trial slice of a red potato. I didn't think it was working properly because there was no force needed at all. I looked down and half the potato was sliced already. When I say no force needed, I don't mean a little force, or hardly any force. I mean it felt like nothing was happening. I got this because I recently purchased a dehydrator, and need thin, even slices of food. This definitely does the trick. It's pretty well made, has enough attachments to do any thickness I want, and has the julienne slicers at two thicknesses. The thick straight slice is great for just about anything, and the thin slicer is paper thin. Super thin red onions are great for pizzas, sandwiches, or salads. I am pretty decent with a knife, but I can't slice this thin. Although the manual specifically warns against it, I tried out the 'spin it 90 degrees' trick to see if it would dice, and it definitely works. Pull it back over the julienne prongs, then twist it, then go down, repeat... Perfect little cubes. Try dicing an onion like that with the smallest julienne attachment... tiny little onion cubes, works GREAT in meatloaf. The hand guard thing works pretty well, and normally I feel pretty confident with it.. however I was slicing bananas, and they were just too squishy to use the hand guard. I started doing it without the guard, got distracted for a split second, and almost took off the tip of my finger. Two weeks and about 12 fingertip bandages, and it still looks pretty bad. It's pretty obvious, but this thing is sharp! If you're an easily distracted monkey like me, don't try to do bananas without the guard. I ended up buying Chef'n Bananza Banana Slicer specifically for that purpose. I'm a musician, so would prefer to keep my fingertips. Anyway, with more solid foods (onions, potatoes, apples, whatever...) it works very well and is very secure. The fact that it's self contained and has a tray to catch the food, with a lid, is great. I'm super happy with this slicer.

This will be a lengthy review as I have been a user of the original V-Slicer since 1988. Yes it lasted that long, almost 30 years! I was hoping to make it 30 years and then replace, but I dropped the large Julienne insert on its nose and it cracked right down the blade line (it was already cracking a bit, this just speeded up the process.) This is the insert I use the most so I couldn't live without it. So I bought the new V 5000. In all respects it looks like a very similar design to the original. The original included most of the accessories you can buy extra now including the grater, the thin julienne vegetable decorations maker, The waffle fry maker (was really too small) and the peeler tool set. I broke my peeler using the lemon twist maker item on the side of the peeler. This was the only deficit in the set. The new peeler tool comes with another tool that I'm not familiar with but all these are extra now. But as you can see by the pictures (with the old and new items) the blade positions seem to be exactly the same even though the old inserts do not fit in the new frame. The new inserts lock a bit into the frame, where the old ones did not really "lock" in per se, but they were secure enough. They are more so now. The food holder cup is of a similar design and has some kind of like the serrated edges on the raised lip guards that I think have a function but I don't know what it is. The V 5000 includes a catcher and storage box for your cut items. That is a nice addition, Why I bought this set v.s the others. I wouldn't buy any of the other sets that didn't include this. So most of the other reviews will speak for this item and the fact that I have been using my old one for nearly 30 years. It is simply the best mandolin out there. No, you cannot vary the thickness of the slicing more than two, but this is of little concern. The thin slicing, while not paper thin, is pretty much thin enough for almost anything. The thick setting is good enough for thinner French fries and if you needed it twice as thick or more than that, you would use a knife anyway. As many others have said, the blades are extremely sharp, so if you are using this without the holder you have to be EXTREMELY careful. I have never cut myself because I'm so afraid of how sharp this is that I take extreme care every single time if I'm not using the holder. Overall, I have been extremely satisfied with this mandolin. Apparently, they are discontinuing the insert version and going to an adjustable sickness version I'm not sure how the julienne setting will work but I'm sure will be similar to the other mandolins that are coming out with multiple adjustments on the frame. With nearly 30 years of experience with this product is absolutely the best value that I've ever seen for any cooking tool.

I did a lot of reading before I decided on this one. I love this mandoline. It's very sharp. Easy to slice carrots, cucumbers, zucchini, pears, apples, sweet potatoes and onions in no time at all. I keep celery in a bunch, clean it well then slice away. Julienned carrots did ok, but I think larger carrots would have worked better. However, I still ended up with nice carrot shreds for my salad. I put the mandoline on top of the "catch-all basin" then slice. Some people complained it couldn't do sweet potatoes. I had no problem. Granted it takes slightly more effort, but it made beautiful uniform slices for yam chips. Haven't tried fries yet. Also, I did order cut resistant gloves to make sure nothing happens. These blades are sharp. I never get near them and I use a fork to pull out the small leftover scrap. So the thing gets stained. Who cares. I took a star off for the hand guard/vegetable holder thingy. The plastic is a tad flimsy and could be sturdier, but it works fine. The storage container holds everything. I haven't had this product long, but I couldn't be happier with it. Overall, it has truly sped up my meal prepping.

I am a gadget person. Over the past 40 years, I have owned many kitchen mandolins. This is without doubt the best. As a total gadget freak, on Prime Day I went hunting to see if there might be something better. The simple answer is "no," there is not. While looking I also noticed that my current Swissmar, purchased on May 30, 2013, had just passed its 10th birthday. It seemed a good time to write a review of a product that has stood the test of time. During the past 10 years, I have used it on average about once a day. It has, without a doubt, been the kitchen tool that has been the single most used, best-value kitchen tool I have. (And I pretty much have them all.) For most of the past 10 years, it has been sitting on my kitchen counter where it has been exposed to sunlight. I also wash it in the dishwasher sometimes. As a result, the top and the standard blade I use 90% of the time have yellowed somewhat. Besides that, it is little changed from when I received it 10 years ago. The two blades I use less frequently are still quite pristine looking because they are stored in the mandolin container box out of the sun. (They have both had several hundred uses.) After 10 years of daily use, it seems absurd to claim the blades are just as sharp today as when I received the mandolin. However, whatever dulling has occurred, it is too little to notice. After 10 years of daily use, there is no issue whatsoever with the blades being dull. They *seem* just as sharp as the day I received it. Safety: I am a klutz. I am absent-minded and easily distracted. Yet, after literally several thousand uses I have yet to cut myself while either using or washing it. (I can not say that about my kitchen knives.) Yes, like any sharp kitchen tool, it should be kept away from young kids and it should be used with suitable care. Personally, I worry far more about cutting myself with my knives than with this mandolin. Cleaning: I have purchased some fancier mandolins with adjustable blades and/or safety shoots. They are fun for a bit and if doing a fair amount of cutting they can be a bit faster on the cutting end. But "oh my God," the cleanup on all those adjustable parts takes longer than cutting veggies up the old-fashioned way by hand with a knife. I use my fancier, "safer," adjustable mandolin only every few months because getting into all the nooks and crannies is too time-consuming. Cleanup on the Swissmar is really quite easy. Use any kitchen brush, soap, scrub back and forth parallel with the blades, rinse and you are done. There are no nooks and crannies for yuk to hide in. The pictures up-loaded are of my 10-year-old Swissmar mandolin which goes in the dishwasher, is stored on the counter where it is exposed to sunlight, and is used on a daily basis. You will see that the mounted blade is a bit yellowed, but that the others are not. If this concerns you, then store your unit out of the sunlight. 5 or 7 pieces?: I would never consider not getting the 7-piece version. All the cuttings go in this holder, none on the floor. It saves a mess every use. I have no doubt that it has paid for itself several times in rolls of paper towels not used for cleanup. And also again in bits of food that did not escape to the floor. (Sorry doggies!) Also - this is my first review. Quality reviews short of 6 months seem silly to me.

I grew up with the Borner. My mom picked hers up at a yard sale for a buck or two some twenty-odd years ago, and she still has it. Still loves it. Still uses it all the time. When I finally grew up enough to need my own mandoline, my mom again sang the praises of Borner, but hers looked a little dowdy and old-fashioned. (The really old ones were kind-of almond colored with a brown case.) Plus, what did she know, right? So I scoured the market, with a spending limit up to $100. Many were prettier, almost all of them were more expensive, but few could match the positive reviews of Swissmar. Plus I knew they held up to regular use over decades. So, just like my mom, I bought a Borner. And now I see what all her fuss was about: they really are easy to clean, easy to use, easy to love. That said, I'm glad I bought the V-5000. The box underneath does take up a little more counter space, but I can keep going without needing to reposition the mandoline like my mom always does when she slices onto a plate. Plus, I didn't want it sliding around on top of a random bowl, the way I remember hers doing when I was a girl. (This could have been more due to my inexperience than a flaw in the Borner, I really don't know.) At any rate, I'm sold on mine. But one cut when I was twelve was enough to teach me: I'll never get sloppy and forego using the vegetable-holder-thingy. So not worth it.

The nice thing about a kitchen mandoline is that one can do with it things which without it would be possible, but difficult. Thus, with a mandoline one will try new things. Even just simple things as au gratin potatoes. Cleaning by water spray right after use is likely the best, especially on the cross-cutting inserts. They cannot be cleaned with a sponge running over them. Storage of the inserts could be tricky to. For one, they can cut into something, and second, as they are thin pieces of metal, they can likely bend. Keep in mind that the polymer body is likely from polystyrene and as such, fairly vulnerable to organic solvents. I tried to remove a sticker before use and soften the adhesive by Goof Off. The sticker went, but the plastic got permanently etched, even with my fingerprint embedded. So, I will not be returning this one. But I would not anyway. Added after two weeks of experience: 1. The insert for the 7-mm slicer is slightly bent upwards and the locks do not fully engage. If moving the grated item up and down, then at the up motion the insert can get dislodged. Holding on it while slicing might do the trick but then the hand is in the way of the item. The insert is plastic; it might be possible to prestress it and heat it locally by a hairdryer and hope it straightens up. Then again, it might ruing it entirely.* 2. The way the vertical sharp blades are arranged, they slice both in down (cutting) and up (return, no cut) motion of the item. Unless you move down in the exact path as up, the vertical cut will produce double the slices one might expect, and of uneven width. This may not be an issue, but for potato fries I would recommend lifting the potato on the upward motion above the reach of the vertical blades. *Added April 11, 2021. Putting the somewhat bent julienne insert over a dowel, bending it in the opposite direction, clamping it and carefully heating the plastic opposite the dowel and letting it cool, did straighten the piece (Fig.). Actually, it bent a bit in the opposite direction and now it locks tightly in place. (I realize few readers will find this useful, but maybe the manufacturer will take a hint.)

For years I thought I wanted a salad shooter, because while I like a good salad, I hate spending the time to cut stuff up. After numerous bouts of investigating, I stumbled upon the concept of the mandoline slicer. Wow. What a fantastic kitchen toy!!! And extremely easy to use. And very easy to clean. I chose this one in particular because I wanted a good quality slicer that had a catch bin / storage bin. Honestly, I can't imagine why they don't all come with a bin like this. Trying to balance the cutter on the edge of a bowl does not appeal to me, nor does attempting to safely store the very sharp attachments that come with the slicer. Forget salad...now I am making my own spring rolls and broccoli slaw. And slicing things to put on pizza. And, well, yeah, making fancy salads. The slicer comes with a little gadget that supposedly holds the food safely while you slice it. I highly recommend getting a pair of cutting gloves to supplement the food holder because a) It doesn't always behave b) It is absolutely useless with odd shaped things like broccoli stems. The few times I've tried to use the safety holder have quickly gone downhill, and I usually end up pulling out my cutting gloves anyway. This slicer is definitely worth the cost.