Sunbeam Cafe Series 17cm Food Slicer ES9600
VerifiedMPNs: 35903103 and ES960017 reviews
Save money and slice it yourself – Buying pre-shaved and pre-sliced foods such breads, cheeses and deli meats can be very expensive and add up to hundreds of dollars a year. Buying food in bulk and slicing it yourself is far cheaper by comparison. Personally as a professional cook, I bake loaves of bread, make my own bacon and even shave my own meats for Chinese hotpots and my dad… Read more
always need sliced meats for his sandwiches so it made way too much sense to buy the Sunbeam Café Series® 17cm Food Slicer.
Pros: * Great thickness range in terms of slicing. Can make very thin shavings of meats and cheeses. * VERY safe operating the device with it's Dual safety switch. * Very sharp effective round blade. * Great for large, bulky items such as whole pieces of meat, cheese and bread. * Has good outer metal construction that make the device sturdy to use. * Easy to remove some parts to hand clean. * Nice suction cup feet to grip onto tables and surfaces to keep it steady. * The safety food holder makes it easy to hold smaller food items.
Cons: * The Dual safety switch will force you to hold down the buttons with one hand and slice with the other, could be a problem for some users such as left handed people. * Some important parts of the machine such as gears and central screw that holds the blade in are made with plastic which make it prone to damage and breakage. * Some parts of the machine can trap food and makes it hard to clean properly. * If the blade edge becomes dull it can be very hard to sharpen, or you have to find a replacement for $50. * Need to freeze certain food items such as meat or other softer foods if you want to slice and shave properly. * The plastic guide at the bottom part of the device that supposed to guide food off the slicer is a piece of plastic that is too soft and can misshapen. This can lead to uneven slicing if people are not aware. * There is a learning curve to this machine that people must practice. * The power cable is too short and you will need an extension for the cable. * The safety food holder and some other parts of the machine is not dishwasher safe and must be hand washed. * The safety food holder can be made with extra grip when you have slippery hands.
Overall: If you're doing a lot of slicing and shaving or buy a lot of sliced and shaved foods like I am, then this is a must buy. The thickness range compared to brands of food slicers is far better and wider from 0mm to 23mm when the maximum thickness by other brands is 15mm. The build is hardy metal on the outside but the internals are made with plastic including the main screw that holds the blade. There is a learning curve on how to use this food slicer but once you do it's great fun seeing your handmade food items sliced and shaved perfectly well like shaved lamb shoulder for hotpots (picture below). Some parts of the design can be improved like a longer power cable and replace some parts, internal parts with metal instead of plastic and easier to take apart to clean some of the crevices.
This purchase was made using point on Flybuys.
Bad design – I use this product to slice bread. The plastic guide that is supposed to guide the slice of bread off the blade keeps bending back so that the bread slice gets mangled. This is a very poor design.
Impressive safety aspect – I’ve upgraded to the Sunbeam Cafe Series and am quite happy with the unit so far. Yes, there are some good and bad points too, yet on must remember this isn’t an industrial slicer as we see in Delis. I have used to slice premium cheese to perfect thin slices. You are able to adjust the thickness to your preference. Personally, I haven’t sliced… Read more
meat as yet, but if not pushing too much pressure whilst trying to slice, there shouldn’t be an issue. I have seen where people use pressure to use slicers, there is no need to use excess force. In cleaning the unit, I too removed the blade to clean and found it a little awkward as the grease that is present to keep blade running smoothly was a little tacky. Spend a few extra minutes and using disinfectant and vileda cleaning cloths, it is sanitized and cleaned. What I also found as a positive, is having to use 2 fingers to keep the slicer in motion. You need to use a finger to use on the on/off button and another on the slider. This will only allow the slicer to work. Awkward, but you do adjust, but most importantly, it is a safety aspect.
poorly designed – meat rest does not line up parallel to cutting blade when in use simply applying pressure to product being cut pushes resting wall unevenly away from blade resulting in poorly cut product thickneser adjustment does not help. One good point about product is it grips the benchtop very well will not slide Show details
hard to wash – The machine itself is ok, i used it to slice beef. It can only slice room temp beef, if I use frozen beef, it wont slice properly. it gets messy, fluid from the meat drops eveywhere I got quite nervous seeing the blade lol. But the machine has 2step safety so it blade wont run unless u press both buttons simultaneously. But again, even if you want… Read more
to clean it or put it around somewhere, you don't want to see the blade in front of your eyes, really need to be careful with this machine around.
worst part: cleaning. the materials are mostly plastic, so good luck cleaning the fat from the beef, it took me 40 min to clean everything properly (still fatty and greasy on some parts) and u can't use dishwasher either.
idea wise is good, but implementation wise this product can improve way better. Use stainless steel instead of plastic! for that price point they could afford to use stainless or aluminium. not plastic.
verdict: it is ok if you gonna slice 3 -4 kg beef, worth the effort to set up, clean and put it back. but if you only slice 500gram, it is such a waste of time. (although I must admit that I can't slice manually, better than this machine does).
Bad design – The machine can’t be pulled apart to clean it. So the food stucked everywhere. Therefore it’s not very hygienic. Not very happy customer. Show details
Great Slicer – I purchased this slicer one year ago. I have only recently started to use it. Simple to clean, in fact so easy it is ridiculous. Slices well (meats, cheese, vegetables, bread). Great product and easy to use. Show details
Sunbeam - poor design, badly executed – This product is near impossible to clean, the instruction booklet (and the online version) are different from the machine, and the slicing guide has to be set on at least 3mm before it can slice at all. Show details
This is rubbish – The cog which is attached to the blade does not have to wear much to render the machine useless. I could keep replacing the blade at $50 per time but with two gone in a short time of normal domestic use I won't bother. Each blade lasted less than a year per blade. Show details
A professionally designed and made machine – We purchased our first Sunbeam slicer in 2001 and have been cutting our home-baked bread regularly since. We have never had a problem with it or have had to replace any working parts. We bought a Eurochef brand on eBay as a back-up, but it failed at first attempt because the belt drive was obviously too slack and no adjustment possible. so… Read more · 1
returned it for credit.
We just purchased the latest model E9600 and tried it out today. Wow like a hot knife through butter!
It is a professionally designed and made machine so smooth and quiet and now has an extension table for longer items.
We would definitely recommend it to anyone.
It seems strange to read so many negative reviews on this brand as we have also two bread makers, a stainless steel electric frypan, and an electric grill, all giving faultless performance
Possible problem-fixing! – Having been GIVEN a machine because "it's stripped it's second cutter-gear," I ordered a new blade/gear, and while waiting for the part to arrive, did some careful inspecting and thinking.....I'm a retired farmer, and have had to repair many and varied machines over the years. Now, the problem is that the plastic flanged retaining nut for the… Read more
blade is not long enough to bottom in it's hole (poor design or manufacturing mistake!), consequently when it's tightened to a reasonable tension, the subsequent rotation of the blade causes it to further turn and overtighten to the point of labouring the motor, lowering the revs markedly, and obviously causing great stress through the whole drivetrain! I started to add small spacer washers to the bottom of the threaded hole, and ended up with four- five allowed the blade to remain slightly loose. (this would prevent the drive gear teeth from meshing fully!) A correct thickness spacer, "4 1/2 washers" ?? thick would obviously be ideal. A small amount of Canola cooking oil under the nut's flange as lubrication can only help, too. (lubrication, including boring and cutting tools is the best use I've found for the aforementioned oil!) Obviously I can't prove a long term outcome for this, but I'm quite convinced it is THE permanent fix for this problem!
Needs more robust gears – The most important part of the machine the gears, these are made of plastic, which is hopeless, considering the rest of the machine is die cast metal. This is a like a miss representation of its robustness. I hate products that I am always having to replace the parts for at a price of $50 a pop. Very disappointed.
poor cogweel design / material – With the good reviews of the slicer I had bought it in 2008. I had expected a reliable machine. We own a similar machine from another manufacturer overseas and had no problems whatsoever over decades. Still the same machine and working great in a multi-person house hold. We really used it for anything from bread, meat and cheese. For the Sunbeam… Read more
cafe series slicer I have now the third set of cogweels and blade installed. Unfortunately it starts making the same unhealthy noises when slicing cheese. I am only waiting for the day coming soon again until it does not even cut crusted bread anymore.
Very disappointed. Once you got in the habit of using a food slicer you do not want to miss it any more. Unacceptibale wear of the cogweels.
Find out how Sunbeam Cafe Series 17cm Food Slicer ES9600 compares to other Automatic Slicers & Graters
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Even easy food slicing – Decided to buy an Electric food slice due to problems with hands and being able to cut fine or straight, it is a very solid cafe quality unit, very sharp able to cut all types of foods, have used on meat, bread tomatoes especially good slicing Pepperone for my pizzas, its especially good slicing bread to a fine thickness Fast, sharp, solid build, easy to use, reasonable price good replacement warranty
Cant get the blade sharpened – I bought my food slicer several years ago and have found it to be OK for slicing meats such as Spanish Jamon, salami, etc. It takes some getting used to placing the meat so that it cuts right through and does not leave bits hanging off the bottom or getting stuck on the blade. The biggest problem I have is getting the blade sharpened. It is almost… Read more
useless now that it is several years old. Does the job - once you get the hang of it. Absolutely no instructions on getting the blade sharpened. Almost useless after a couple of years of average use.
Hi Alfe, Thank you for your feedback, we recommend that… Read more
Excellent – overall a great product to have at home, its easy to use, has a safety holder that you put the food in so you dont slice your hands, stays on the bench and doesnt move as the suction cups keep it in place this slicer looks great, slices very well as thin or as thick as you like, is very easy to use, isnt too loud, is not too heavy however does… Read more
take up a bit of room but its ok, fast to use, has a safety switch with is important, is very sharp so everything is sliced with ease there is nothing i dislike about the slicer
I expected more from it – I purchased this to cut extremely thin slices of Steak & chicken for stir fries. It is abysmal for that purpose. Unfortunately the gap between the meat support & the blade is too large. The slices do not go thru completely & the steak all gets stuck, half sliced underneath somewhere. Pity as they could easily tweak the design to fix that issue. … Read more
It does work great if the meat is slightly frozen. but tricky to get the level of frozen just right.
To be fair this was designed for cold meats. It does that job very well. But so does a sharp knife, & they are much easier & faster to clean.
I returned it. Easy to adjust slice thickness. Easy to setup & use. Quick to create many even slices. Cleaning is a pain. Especially as the back of the blade needs the grease in the centre but you need to kill the bacteria from the raw meat on the blade edge. Also meat can get into the small cracks which are hard to get to. Safety switch is annoying, but may save some fingers. Doesn't cut the last 25mm of the item.
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Dear Baldrick, Thank you for your review. Please note all… Read more