Chef'sChoice Food Slicer (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

My wife and I finally had it with buying lunch meat from our local deli counter. From the high prices to high salt, we needed to take some control.The question came down to how to buy a reasonable meat slicer that could easily be put away and moved (we have a small kitchen), easily cleaned, and would hold up under moderate use.It becomes amazing at how many slicers are out there, even from this one brand alone. I'll admit that I can latch onto the negatives, and it seems that the primary difference between this product and the cheaper products is the quality of the materials, most notably the attachment of the blade to the remainder of the appliance. It seems that the plastic tends to break on the cheaper products.Well, this Chef Mate's slicer holds up quite well and definitely feels better built than the ones I've seen on the shelves of my local Sears, etc. Of course feel doesn't mean much. Our previous meat slicer was an 1980's era Krups device, which screamed cheap plastic yet lasted 20+ years. The newer devices don't feel that solid until you step up to the 630 line of devices.The 632 slicer seemed to fit our needs and was chosen for its tilt feature that allows items to be gravity fed. Our experience with the slicer has mostly been a good one so far. The slicer is relatively simple. It goes together simple and is in a relatively small package. I like the locking mechanism that keeps you from accidentally extending the blade, and the small protective shield adds a nice safety feature. I used to have problems accidentally hitting the blade on my old slicer, and I feel this is a bit safer.Cleaning of the device is fairly easy, although I really wish there was a fool-proof way to clean the blade without having to handle it so much. The manual suggests that cleaning can be accomplished without dismantling the pieces, but I find that inevitably meat is getting stuck behind the blade. It isn't the end of the world, and I'm not sure that it can be helped. The guides and movement for the device are nice and fluid, which makes these same pieces easy to remove for cleanup.The slicer allows variable thickness for cutting meats, but I wish the settings were better explained. I imagine over time I'll get a feel for it but I find sometimes that the lowest settings (1 and 2) are so thin that I'm often shredding my foods rather than slicing them. The solution is of course to use a higher setting, and these settings are probably more useful for vegetables or firmer products... and is probably a benefit to those who want to slice foods as slim as possible.The cons I see of this device are all very minor and nitpicking. The slicer doesn't fold up or store real easily. My old Krups slicer could fold down into a flat package like a phone book. It looks like slicers don't do this anymore. The 632 isn't horrible though as it does occupy a small footprint and it isn't so heavy that one can't move it. If you have the kitchen space, it may not matter. For us, we've kept the box for storage.I find the tray for catching the food is kind of an afterthought. It is completely separate, but would benefit of having some guides for fixing or snapping it into place. I find this tray tends to slide and move as it fills up, and I've ended up with food falling off or missing the tray. The tilt mechanism seems a little gimmicky. I can understand the advantages to a gravity feed, but the tray and capacity for your foods is just too limited for gravity to really help out. This isn't an industrial sized slicer, and the tilt vs. upright seems to give me equal results in my tests so for the size of the device, I don't recommend spending the extra $40~$50 for that feature. Last, I am not very fond of all the controls being on the back of the device. Again, it isn't a big deal, but it makes it tough to see what you are doing and setting, and adjustments can be difficult to make. The power switch is also a little tough to engage into a fully ON position without using 2 hands. With use and experience, this problem will seemingly be less important, but it is worth knowing.In conclusion, the Chef's Mate 632 slicer is a nice device that does what it says with consistent quality. It cleans up easily and functions well. However, at its price point there are just a few small minor things that don't really detract from the end products (sliced food), but they do make the value seem a little less than ideal leading me to the 4-stars you see above... i.e. higher prices should be more about the motor, blade, tilt function, and weight and less about the switches and accessories.

The Chef's Choice 632 food slicer is working great for me. I'm very pleased with it. I used '12' as another reviewer suggested, and the slices of homemade bread, the reason I got the food slicer, are PERFECT! I'm really glad I got the model with the VariTilt. I think that makes everything easier, although this is my first (and last?) food slicer, and I don't have anything to compare it with other than the ease of operation. It works well for me. I recommend it.I have good serrated bread knives, but I wanted a more uniform sliced bread for some purposes. Actually I've always wanted a food slicer but never had a good excuse to buy one. The whole idea was a little scary. I've been very comfortable using it---cautious, but comfortable. It isn't as scary as I thought it would be.During the weeks when I was debating about buying a food slicer, I viewed a video of a professional bread baker who was showing how to cut the homemade bread with a bread knife. She mentioned how easy it was and how you get to be good at it, and then she mangled the bread. Right then I decided to just spring for the food slicer. :) Now I use the food slicer when I want nicely cut slices and the serrated knife when I just want to cut off a piece of bread the traditional way.I thought about the safety factor, storage space to keep it when it isn't being used, ease of getting to it when I want it, and found that it's easy to just pick up and move in and out of my pantry. The only problem is, CRUMBS! As I get better at brushing out the crumbs, that will be less of a problem.The Chef's Choice 632 is EASY to operate! I was planning on carefully going over the instructions, because I do better when I do that, but figured out the child-safety switch, the on-off switch, and how to TILT the slicer back and forth. I had a little trouble figuring out how the food pusher works and I'm still not sure I'm using it correctly, so I'll go back to the instructions for that. It served its purpose the way I was using it, but I think I may have it in wrong.UPDATE: Somehow the food pusher guide got attached to something I was throwing away and now I really miss it! The food pusher protects you by keeping you from pushing the food with your hands and losing fingers. I wish I knew how/where to buy another one. They apparently aren't sold separately. I did find one from another brand and ordered it. I hope it works. The moral of the story is, don't throw yours away. It doesn't 'look' very important, but it is.

I bought this slicer to slice raw beefs for making SHABUSHABU and SUKIYAKI. The slice thickness is well controlled with fast slicing speed. Almost no unsliced meat is left. Cleaning is easy. In another words, this is a nicely designed slicer.Why three stars instead of five? This slicer is made of plastic. Although the photo looks nice, the real slicer looks cheap and flimsy. Only blade is metal. Since the drive gears and the shaft are plastic, I think they will be worn out quickly and the slicer will not last long. The plastic enclosure of electric motor was heated significantly after slicing 5 pound of meat.So far I have sliced only 10 pounds of meat. I will report endurance in a year from now.On 12/22/2012: I sliced 5 lb of meat yesterday. After sliced 3 lb, the slicer started smelling like motor was overheated. Plastic motor housing, which has no air circulation holes and has poor heat conduction, became warm.On 7/24/2013: The slicer is still surviving for the use of once every month or two. After slicing 4 lb of meat for SHABUSHABU, the moter housing became untouchable hot and smelled. I stopped slicing for a few hours untill cool down. Since the motor housing has no air circulation holes, cooling down takes hours. I then sliced 2 more lb. The blade is still sherp and the original fast slicing speed is maintained.On 1/4/2015: After slicing 4 lb of meat for Shabushabu, motor overheated and died. Altogether I have used this slicer approximately 20 times. 5 lb of meat was sliced into Shabushabu each time. I should downgrade this to 2 stars.