Sunbeam DiamondForce 25cm Skillet SKM4000DF

I wish I had discovered this sooner! – I sorely underestimated how much I would enjoy using this skillet. My mother has been recommending a powered skillet to me for years but I never saw the value in it until now! It's so much faster to heat up than my gas top with even heat distribution and incredible temperature control. The non-stick coating is very effective and the lid is… Read more

generous in size, yet lightweight and easy to handle. I hesitated to buy one because I was so concerned about how difficult it must be to wash but in fact it's as simple as any other skillet or pan! The electronics are all contained in the cord/heating probe thing which is compact and very easy to release from the skillet. The rest of the product is totally waterproof and can be submerged in water and can even go on the dishwasher. I think this product is pretty amazing value for what it delivers and its my new favourite way to cook.

A good little skillet if you don't mind extra cleaning and electricity – An electric Skillet? Well, why not, although not for me or my home anyways. But just because I am not in to it, let me not stop you!. I love Sunbeam products and have quite a few of their products in my kitchen. I received this unit as an brand ambassador and as always, it is an honour to review the product to its finest. I will tell you… Read more

later, why I did not find it suitable for my home use.

Packaging: Sunbeam usually does the packaging well and this one was no exception. If you call connecting the Thermostat dial to the skillet as assembly than it was no brainer easy to do so. The product looks quite sturdy and the skillet’s DiamondForce coating appeared to be of great quality, however it was the underneath that got me a little concerned. The base gave a rough metal look rather than smooth finish. The four legs on which it stands were of good quality and so was the handle and the thermostat connector. The user guide instructions were clear, and it is important that you follow that verbatim.

Usage: As recommended, I cleaned the skillet with warm soapy water and a kitchen sponge as I didn’t want to scratch the surface even with a scotch brite. Now here is the problem, that the skillet is not dishwasher safe as I was also extra careful to make sure that water does not leaks into the socket on the skillet where the electric thermostats connect. After thoroughly drying with paper towel, I plugged in and heated it up and as expected it gave that new product, non-stick coating smell but that soon disappeared. The thermostat is very sensitive and heats up the skillet evenly and well and cooking on it was quick and easy too. I made Spanish omelette and it was great with just two quick shots of olive oil spray. The surprise was the wheat tortillas which cooked pretty quickly. Well after this first trial cook, I experimented by cooking chickpea curry and for me it was no different than cooking on a gas top stir fry pan to the skillet with no marked difference in time except for maybe, less consumption of cooking oil.

PROS: This is a nice cooking unit, for someone who is single or just a couple who wants a quick and easy cooking skillet and have time to clean the product with care. As I don’t eat meat or fish, but I am pretty sure that cooking meat and fish like a pan frying, searing, grilling would be fine. The thermostat is detachable, so it is very convenient to store, however I would not put anything in the skillet while storing. I don’t want to scratch the surface unnecessarily.

CONS: My concern was more of the outside of the skillet as cooking gravies and curries there is always a question of splatter and the mess. The coating on the outside of the skillet is good and if you quickly wipe off the mess with wet paper towel, before it gets cooked and dries out. The problem is when the liquid slides down to the bottom of the skillet. The skillet might appear good for the initial few uses; however, it would be interesting to see how difficult it gets to clean it with hand and trying to scrap off the bottom surface. If you see the picture of the base of the skillet, you will understand. Also, the base heats up and it has 4 good legs that raises the skillet off the benchtop surface or any cooking surface, but again it I would be careful on what I the skillet is resting. Then there is also an issue of having a plug point that is conveniently available where we cook. The biggest hassle is cleaning in my family. We want something that we could safely throw into the dishwasher without any worries. If your family is like us, then this is definitely not for you. The other concern is electric consumption and bill, when this unit is going to use around 1300 Kilowatts of electricity on high power, in spite of all the efficiency. For some this may be a game changer, but for me it is more of an hassle, hassle with overall cleaning, electric powered and quantity cooking. Those who are happy with a bit more cleaning especially on the outside and don’t mind electric power, than this one is definitely one for you.

Great Little Unit – Sunbeam SKM4000DF DiamondForce™ 25cm Skillet As with most products these days the unit was well packed and on unpacking no assembly was required. The skillet is nicely made with a high standard of finish. The thermostat dial was labelled with the markings of Min, Med & Max the user guide assigned temperature values to these settings for those… Read more

of us that like to know. A quick read of the user guide informed me that the usual wash in warm soapy water was needed before first time use. The user guide also recommended that the unit be plugged in and allowed to cycle several times through the heating cycle which I carried out before attempting our first cooking adventure. Also a note of value is that you must only use wooden or plastic style utensils in the pan no metal ones please. Several recipes were listed in the user guide which I would try along with some of my own to gain an opinion of the unit Scrambled Eggs: The sticker on the skillet said the unit was fast heating and believe me it was so fast in fact that it melted the butter and scrambled the eggs (set on medium heat as per user guide) before my toaster could toast the sourdough. Lesson learned start your toast before bothering to turn on the skillet. The eggs were nicely cooked & thee skillet heated evenly across its hole cooking surface, the photo attached. Bacon & Eggs: This was also trouble-free event with the fast heat up time noted again, the non-stick surface proved to be just that with the egg sliding freely of the skillet when tipped out onto the plate. Just like those TV adds for other brands of frying pans in TV specials. Meat Pie Filling: Meat pies are something I make probably make on a monthly basis and my usual method is to cook the onions, brown the meat before adding the other ingredients then simmer for around 11/2 hours on the cook-top, this gives plenty of time for the cheaper cuts of meat to tenderise. The skillet did a good job of maintaining a constant temperature during the simmering process and the final result was as good as anything I can achieve on the cook-top (Induction Cook-top & Tefal Non-Stick pans) another feather in the skillets cap. Crispy Skin Salmon: A family favourite which we would eat on average once a week although on some occasions I add Teriyaki sauce at the end to convert the dish to Salmon Teriyaki. Once again, the skillet performed faultlessly, and the salmon came out as it should, as we are expecting the high standard exhibited so far to be maintained. At the end of the first week of usage my wife commented that every dish we tried had come out spot on the first attempt. Gyoza was our next on our list to try and is again a regular family favourite. I used the recipe in the user guide with one exception we like our Gyozas with wings, so we added this to the recipe. For those who have not tried this it is simply a matter of adding 1 to 2 teaspoons (depending how thick you like the wings) of Potato starch, corn flour or normal flour to 100ml of water which is added to the pan during the cooking process. I found that around 60 to 70ml of the flour/water mixture per pan batch was all that I required to gain the required effect. Again no problems were encountered with unit during this recipe. Stir Fry: no problems were experienced when I tried out our recipe & the dish turned out as per the attached photo. Omelette: my wife decided to give one of her favourite breakfast dishes a try and once again she experienced an easy ride through the execution of this dish and the results were as the photo shows. To push the boundaries of this unit I decided to try something that I had once seen in a cookbook somewhere in the past (the recipe I had seen previously was for bread rolls), this I wanted to adapt the idea and to try making Irish Soda Bread in a skillet, having an Irish wife it seemed A normal adaption of the original idea, I just had to give it a go to see if it was possible to achieve an acceptable result. An attached photo shows the result with colour, smell & taste being good. I found the top crust was softer than what you achieve cooking this bread in an oven so I will properly continue to bake this one in an oven as I love a very crispy top crust, some might not agree with me (I know that my Irish brother-in-law doesn’t) but that is my personal preference not his. Some might like their bread with a softer crust and for them the results will be very acceptable. To be perfectly honest I could not fault the unit, it is an ideal cooking tool for a small family of two people (measuring in at 25cm I am guessing that this is the market targeted for this type of unit) for larger families would naturally look further up the range in size to meet your needs. I completely recommend this skillet if you are in the market for this type of product, both my wife or myself could not fault the unit or the results obtained in the kitchen. The non-stick surface worked well & was a breeze to clean. The only option I would like to see is a glass lid instead of the metal one supplied again a personal preference as the metal one made no difference to the results and probably helped keep the price down. This unit will do most things you can do on a cook-top & with the fast heat up time probably do it quicker. Photos of all dishes tried are attached.