I was very disappointed in this product, especially after reading all the good review. The suction cups do not grip well, so when you rotate the handle the unit moves around. I keep trying to move my hand around to hold it down, but there is nowhere good to really grasp it. The handle doesn't rotate smoothly. There is not a lot of clearance between the handle and the bottom of the unit, so as the food gets closer to the end, I hit my knuckles on the unit with every rotation. The spiralizer creates a large core, so when trying to spiralize carrots, you end up with more core than zoodles. Long skinny items, such as parsnips and carrots are very unstable and often pop out unless you cut them in half first, and that just creates more waste. When using the slicer, I find that the food gets jammed in between the little space between the core part and the top of the blade. I have to stop every few turns to pick the jammed up food out of this space. I wish I could return the unit but alas it is too late.

That goes double for spiralizing. If you want to work more vegetables into your diet, a spiralizer is an absolute must, and setting aside one or two days a week to prep your veggies will improve your diet tremendously. This Paderno Tri-Blade is one of several spiralizers I own, and it is decent. Below are some details for those of you on the hunt:

A while back I decided to buy a spiralizer and began looking through the options on Amazon. It quickly became clear that nearly every brand had dozens and sometimes hundreds of fake five-star reviews posted on their respective pages. Through other reviewers I learned that the world of vegetable spiralizers is notorious for this problem, Why spiralizers, of all things? No idea, it's really weird. I also noticed that many of the posted reviews for different brands were from people, mostly bloggers, who received their spiralizer directly from the brand for free or almost free in exchange for reviewing it. In the end I bought this Paderno Spiral Vegetable Slicer, because it was the best-seller and I felt I really couldn't fully rely on the reviews for any of the options. I got my Paderno and used it for a while, and it's fine, though not the best I've ever used (more on that in a moment).

We'll break up the review by dividing the various considerations into different vegetable categories, including a lot of things I'd wish I'd known before I bought the Paderno. Here we go:

BROCCOLI STALKS: My favorite vegetable by far to spiralize. I am not a zucchini fan, and of course even clumsily-made spiralizers usually have no issues with zucchinis, as they are soft-ish and watery. The harder vegetables separate the contenders from the also-rans, in my opinion, so we'll start there. The Paderno does a fairly good job with the stalks, but the lack of any kind of catcher for the noodles does drive me crazy. I usually end up placing a sheet of foil below the unit and scooping up my noodles that way (see photo).

PREPARATION SUGGESTION: Use the "Thin Spiral" blade to spiralize 2 large stalks per person you will be feeding. Pan-fry the resulting noodles in olive oil, blitz (or mix) some spaghetti sauce, pre-cooked sausage or meat-substitute, and a handful cilantro together, pour over noodles. Eat a heaping plateful and don't feel sick afterward like you probably would eating that much pasta.

BUTTERNUT SQUASH: One of the big complaints people have about spiralizers is the power of the suction cups, a vital component when you're spiralizing hard veggies like butternut squash. The Paderno cups are okay. The surface (granite, in my case) needs to be clean and very dry, with no grooves or dips. The cups stick to a degree but the unit does slide slowly as you spiralize. With hard veggies, you have to hold the small handle at the base (pulling the vegetable snug to the blade) while turning the crank at the same time. Unless you are unusually gifted you do not have a third arm to also hold the unit to the counter. I would say the Paderno suction cups, three months into thrice-weekly use, barely get a passing grade. They stick but they slide. I will update when they give up entirely.

PREPARATION SUGGESTION: Get a long, lean butternut squash with a small base. Cut base off where bulb starts, then trim skin off the long squash neck. Spiralize neck with "Thick Spiral" blade, then blitz noodles in food processor until they resemble grains of rice. Stir-fry in olive oil with a fajita spice mix folded in. Serve in bowl with protein of your choice. Watch your family eat it like it's their job.

SWEET POTATOES: We spiralize sweet potatoes using any blade we happen to already be using, then stir-fry them with Coconut Secret Coconut Aminos Teriyaki Sauce (a life-saver if you can't have soy and love to stir-fry). I highly recommend washing the blades and unit off immediately after spiralizing to A) make clean up easy instead of ghastly and B) prevent staining. I am a leave-it-until-tomorrow kind of cook but your really don't want vegetable bits to dry out on your unit and make your life miserable. If you wash it right away clean-up takes just seconds.

My current favorite spiralizer is this one: Farberware Pro Spiraletti Spiral Vegetable Slicer with Three Blades. It has two big advantages over the Paderno: There is a chute to catch your spirals and the blades are color-coded, so we can find the right one instantly. I've included some pics of the Paderno and Faberware side by side, so the difference can be seen clearly, and also the similarities. The blade sharpness and strength was pretty much the same on both products, as was the length. The color-coded blades, the chute on the front, and the better suction cups on the Faberware are the major differences that affected performance.

In conclusion, not the very best spiralizer, but serviceable. I prefer the Faberware, but if for some reason you do not want that one, this is a good second choice. Recommended with the above reservations and rating:

GRADE: B/B-

First, please know that we loved this product at first---really loved it! After only a couple of uses, however, a metal bushing unknowingly came off into our zucchini casserole. Thankfully my husband found the piece of metal before swallowing it or breaking a tooth on it. My husband feels we need to write a review to warn people of this defective design as it's very dangerous. Hopefully this design flaw will be fixed in the future as we'd love to own the Paderno Spiralizer again one day. Below are pics of the tiny metal piece (which came off into our spiralized zucchini) that too easily pops in and out of its hole by the turn handle.

I purchased this thing just over 1 year ago, which is unfortunate because apparently there is a 1 year warranty. In the last year I have used it roughly 5 times, hand washed it, and stored it in my pantry with my other kitchen appliances. I was really excited today because I found a new recipe that required spiraled zucchini. I took this thing out, stuck it to the counter, attached the zucchini, and the plastic handle literally CRUMBLED off in my hands. I stood there stunned, then went to remove the zucchini and the piece holding the spiked part on crumbled in half as well.

After just one year of VERY light use (zucchinis only, it couldn't handle a sweet potato), the handle of my spiral slicer broke off into five plastic pieces. I wasn't even in the kitchen at the time. There it was sitting on the kitchen counter, we heard something breaking and I walk into the handle on the counter wtih the connector in multiple pieces. Not only could this item barely handle a zucchini but it could NEVER a sweet potato. This item was NOT worth the $26 I paid for it. I don't know why everyone loves it.