5 Odd Kitchen Gadgets that Actually Work

welcome back everybody now today I've got five kitchen gadgets several of them which I've been waiting several months to review and others that would just recently suggested to me so without further delay let's get right to it now usually I introduced my kitchen products when I'm in the kitchen but it's it's a beautiful day here in Las Vegas and I've been I've barely left my house in the last two months so I hope that you can forgive me that I want to sit outside and introduced this particular video but I'm just gonna get started right away with the first item and that is the zip slicer I think I first mentioned this in a Q&A quite a while ago it in fact there's gonna be another short Q&A at the end of this video if you're interested so stick around for that but the zip slicer is basically a tube and in this tube you put grapes or small cherry or grape tomatoes and then you use this sleeve with a blade in it to slice them now this is basically a tube with a notch in it that allows you to swipe this blade almost swipe it like a credit card you load your cherry tomatoes or grapes in there and here's your blade and it supposedly cut someone have like a guillotine I've got some beautiful grapes here and I guess I'm just gonna load it up well that's uh that's pretty small cannot I look at it I'm just gonna drop a bunch of them in there see what happens see yeah that's nice I'm not really sure what to do about that I mean I just throw a bunch in there I didn't really spend much time trying to get him perfect their instructions just say load and slice I can see how people said the size of size does matter look how perfect the picture shows I don't have grapes that big they're decent-sized grapes do and this might be wrong we'll see and hey yeah wow that seemed to cut really fast whatever happened a traffic jam at the bottom there well the good news and the bad news is that a lot of people said that they were not cut evenly and I and I can see that they're definitely not gonna they're cut they're not cut evenly and that's because this is such a big opening you're gonna have to have massive grapes to not have them kind of moving around in there it did work it was very fast let me try another round of these the open is so much bigger than the grapes Joss I'm around other perfect oh this looks this looks better than first why don't we try this one I mean it's not perfect they're still kind of bunched up in there if I'm playing one of those games or you have to get the ball in the hole and hi-yah cuts really fast both times I got a bunch stuck in the in the bottom here this was not cut at all it's a rebel right here this one's barely cut this one's not cut either actually I got half of them didn't get cut oh no I came back this one is good look I got a little he's got skinned well that's really uneven I mean I guess if you're not worried about how uneven they are all right the grapes were just the preliminary let's move on to the big leagues now it looks like they're supposed to go this way but you know when they were all in there they kind of go over they want I think that was pretty even pretty uniform I'm happy with this are you ready are you ready I'm ready let's do it and you know they don't exactly fall out like they show in the picture they're like falling out perfectly cut here they're not falling out they're just kind of smashed on the bottom here particularly these are actually pretty good these Tomatoes being a little bit closer to the size of the opening these look pretty pretty good I mean I'm gonna try to make it a little more real-world I'm just gonna throw some in there and cut it as fast as I can and see if I get similar results oh here we go didn't Jocelin anything hey yeah I did get one fall out let's see with a couple of exceptions I think is still pretty good this right here I only got skin a little bit it's got like a skin Neal but if skin came off but overall I def I seem to work if you've got larger grape tomatoes or larger grapes it's gonna work pretty good if you if they're smaller you might have problems with it but I do think that it works that was a lot less painful than cutting them by hand a lot less messy I like it it seems to be geared toward Tomatoes or regular grapes I think this runs about 15 bucks now if you look at their ratings on this particular item this highlights one of the problems that Amazon ratings have at first glance you see a four point four star rating with over 600 views that sounds great doesn't it start reading their comments and then I meant about this they're about something else so that's one problem Amazon has they haven't been able to fix yet so when I sifted through the comments of those who actually were talking about the zip slicer not an egg slicer or whatever else it was it does seem like the only complaints that I saw were that the tube is quite large so that food kind of jostles around in there whenever you're trying to cut it it's kind of hard to get them all lined up perfectly and then slice through them so that leads to uneven slices the only other complaint is that food sometimes gets kind of all smashed towards the bottom when you're slicing it it'd be hard to cut yourself you have to stick your finger in there I mean I guess you could do that but if you don't mind unevenly sliced food it's actually perfect there is kind of a learning curve it seems like the more I did it the better I got it but although I never got uniform slices ever because the grapes and the cherry tomatoes I had were just they're just too small it did hold up in the dishwasher but if you want to clean it by hand it's kind of hard to get in there with any kind of a scrubbing tencel so even though it may not deliver uniform slices it does do what it's supposed to do next up are these poach pods these are little silicone floating cups that allow you to poach your eggs pretty easily I pay ten bucks for a two pack of these but there's a bunch of vendors selling these same things on Amazon my guess is that they're all buying from the same vendor on Alibaba and they're just rebranded on Amazon that's a pretty common practice actually but it's also just a guess I'm not sure so I tried it out there really isn't much to it it's pretty easy to use and it worked all you have to do is boil some water oil or spray the inside of the poach pod when the water is boiling you put an egg in here you put it in the pot cover it for five minutes and you're good they said to use a slotted spoon to get it out of there some people said they just use their fingers because they said that plastic wasn't that hot I guess I'll touch it and see they say run a spoon around the edge and then pop it out I'm kind of excited here I guess you could touch that I'm gonna I'm gonna follow their instructions though that seems much easier and there's what we got that doesn't look too bad does it I think looks pretty good they say to run a spoon around the edge it doesn't really seem like it's that stuck flip it inside out and push the egg out guess like that I well lost a piece there but there we go what do you guys think let me get this open it looks poached I think it looks pretty poached so I'm happy to report it did hold up well in the dishwasher it washes pretty easily now not everyone is gonna need something like this if you're already good at making poached eggs you don't need a tower device for it but maybe if you're one of those people that makes them occasionally and not very good at it this might work for you next up is the unit lid by copper chef and this is a three pack of stretchable Liz it can cover bowls pots cans a variety of things you can use them in place of your lids if you have lost lids and place a plastic wrap the idea is pretty simple you just pick the unit lid that's closest to the size of the thing you want to cover you stretch to fit and you should have an airtight seal there's also a pretty hard to read dial on the top of this it's it's pretty hard for me to read but what you're supposed to do is mark the day of the week that you put the lid on there so when you're sifting through your fridge you can see how long has been in there if it was easier to read it would be more useful so I bought this 3-pack at Bed Bath & Beyond for 10 bucks in late 2019 actually and it's been sitting in my stack of things to review ever since then so I first tried the small size which on the packaging they show being used for grapefruit I thought that was kind of unusual I'm like why don't you use it for a can instead and that's because it doesn't fit on a can I'm gonna start with the smallest of the lids now on their box they show the two can two larger ones being using containers the smaller being using a piece of fruit I think I'd probably use it over a can before using our fruit let's see what I got first up Canha soda now obviously that's definitely I couldn't work not gonna work in fact if you want to cover your can of soda you might want something like these fresh top caps which I reviewed last year snaps on there that's probably a better option they do have smaller sizes that supposedly will fit on cans but this 3-pack did not let's upgrade a little something a bit larger how about a can of soup well this is I can already tell this is kind of loose this would work but it's not gonna be airtight the problem is I don't have mo this is a standard can sighs all my cans I checked are about the same size as this let me find something with a bigger opening and see if I can get to work now I know that you wouldn't normally use this for something like this I'm just for demonstration purposes because it has a slightly wider opening I need something slightly larger than this can I don't have anything else and let me see here oh yeah that actually works they put some water in here see if that how airtight this really is all right I now have water in there this could be disastrous but it'll be fun to find out either way and oh oh this oh wow I'm actually a little bit impressed I'm super I'm actually surprised I'm surprised more anything that actually worked so to me the small size and the three pack is kind of useless it might fit over a few small containers doesn't fit over a can that's what most you are going to use it for the six of the twelve piece sets do have a smaller one that I do believe fits on cans my three pack did not so the medium size lid did seem much more useful I was able to fit it over a pot a dish a bowl it did seal water from spilling it was airtight I was surprised about that I also used it on a square dish even though they have a square one in the larger sets the promotional materials show around one being used over a square bowl it did work but it was not airtight that's the medium boy right there that's pretty good and say they say you can stack yeah I would say you could stack that I'll put some water in this one too and try it out putting this on seems like it's gonna be a bit of a learning curve I don't feel like I have it down yet I thought there's someone at home was probably really good at these who's probably cringing at the way I'm doing it I'll do my best you ever had a kid and taught them to drive and your foots on that imaginary brake that's probably what someone's doing right now me trying to apply these lids I think that's pretty secure let's see here oh yeah oh yeah I think we're on a roll here it'll be better going toward me I think the instructions say to move it away from you I don't know I think this works this is a ball from teriyaki madness that I use sometimes as a container they say you can use any size Bowl I put a square one can you fit a round lid on a square bowl let's find out alright that's definitely not gonna be airtight because I can't I can tell it it's got some openings here but it would probably work just as well as saran wrap would at least close to it I think I'll give it a passing grade for the square ball now for the large lid I was able to test on a pretty good sized bowl and I tested out the stacking feature because they show it being stacked in the fridge it did work but that little hard to read dial was kind of in a way in May a little bit flimsy so it does stack but that dial kind of gets in the way a little bit I got one more size left let's try just regular big plastic bowl let's see what we got here did you stack I mean it's a little bit flimsy I would I'd be a little bit careful and this dial kind of makes it not sit even like this it's kind of resting on there but you can't stack it I think overall these actually didn't work as I expected him to pretty good idea so in the end I think the unil and worked as advertised they actually held up well in the dishwasher this one has been washed and it doesn't see any more submitting worse for wear I do worry that this dials eventually gonna come off though because it's just I don't see how this is gonna last long term when I do my update 10 to 12 months from now ask me then if it's held up because I plan on using these until then but I would suggest looking for one of the larger sets because it has the smaller option that will fit on cans it has square ones it'll fit on square dishes so I do think the Uni lid works but I would get a larger set if I were to do it next time all right next up this is an As Seen on TV product called the chef's wizard through this box that's got as-seen-on-tv written all over it and there's Kathy Mitchell right there now this is supposed to be an S seen on tv' kitchen gadget 6 in-1 not unlike the handy housewife helper that Ralph Kramden fished on the honeymooners back in the 50s like I said it was pitched by Cathy Mitchell who's still in the box and by the way speaking of the box this thing came mangled this was not me stepping on this is this is how it came but it was only 10 bucks for a pack of two of these so that's a pretty inexpensive the key feature of this is it has a lever that allows you to switch from basically like a spatula to a pair of tongs pretty easily they say you can also use it as a whisk as a slotted spoon or as a salad server there's a lot of different suppose it uses for it so I want to try it out so I first tried them out with a pot of pierogies the pierogies are pretty small and light and I could take him out of there easily I could fry them flip them easily so I basically use it as tongs I first try to use them as a slotted spoon but it didn't really work as well as a slotted spoon it worked pretty well as a pair of tongs so when I picked him up his tongs they were easy to pick up the water drained off I put him in the pan to fry I was able to flip in and they're pretty it worked very well I guess I could use it like a slotted spoon but that's not quite as for picking up you have to get too much underneath it it seems a little bit awkward because you have to have such this extreme angle it's like to be better for tongs like that that's much better is that the most generic sounding As Seen on TV product name ever maybe that doesn't mean it won't work though usually I use a fork I just stab this part and flip them some people use something like this today we're using this Wow I think this might be my go to pierogi flipper after this work quite well I also tried using it as a whisk for some eggs and that actually was it was pretty straightforward and it worked in that aspect as well but when it came time to flipping something a little bit heavier like a chicken breast that's where the chef wizard was not such a wizard after all because these ends here get a little bit weak they don't have a lot of strength and I and to me that leads to what I would say it's probably the biggest con of the chef's wizard and that's the fact that it's flat because you think about it when you have a spatula the handles curved a slotted spoon handles curved why is that because when you're reaching into a pot reaching into a pan you can get around those raised edges so you got an item with kind of a high wall to it with a spatula you can get underneath the items chef's wizard can't really do it it's flatness makes its usefulness as far as replacing the other retention goes a little bit limited it's a bit it's a bit of a design flaw as far as I'm concerned so with the pierogies in the pot I wasn't able to get underneath them very well as a slotted spoon even with the chicken and the ninja foodie grill I couldn't get underneath it as with a lot of hybrid gadgets it does a lot of things but it doesn't do them as well as the items are supposed to replace so as far as usefulness goes I would say maybe three of the six would be pretty useful so a three and one maybe more than a six and one I can see how someone with limited space like in an RV might use something like this but if you've got items already in your kitchen in which most people do I wouldn't expect this to really replace them I'm gonna keep using it for a while but I've already got a spot reserved for this in my boneyard if and when I've stopped using it and finally the last item is a very basic item it's just a a slot utensil rest that I bought for 10 bucks at Bed Bath & Beyond the only reason I'm actually including this one is because these were actually being advertised ago and wants to go and I got a lot of requests for it so I wanted to see if it actually lives up to the advertising hype now they kitchen utensil rest doesn't really do anything but just sit there and then you put utensils through the slots the idea is they keep your counter from getting dirty and to have a place to keep your utensils separate it's made of silicone it's non-slip it includes a small raised edge around the outside so the will not drip onto your counter which is actually a good idea the one I have could hold eight utensils there is a lot of for utensil versions out there I don't think that most people going to actually put eight utensils in there because it's probably better having a little bit of space plus I don't think most people use eight utensils at once I also found that a wide spatula doesn't really sit in there as well because when you put it on the side the handle doesn't really go through the slots keeps your countertops clean you can definitely keep them separate and this big one right here it's not even really using the slot it's just kind of resting on there there is eight I'm not sure how realistic that is by the way I was gonna use these dream farm utensils but I realized they don't need a product like this because they already keep your counter clean because of this notch right here I am gonna simulate a real-world test I found some some diced tomatoes that expired these expired in 2018 let's use those for a test I get these utensils all nasty with expired Tomatoes oh no I got a drippy spoon I still get out of my counter I guess I should move it closer to the edge here to avoid drip edge it seems like if you stagger them they stay apart from each other how about this use a special in a bowl like that nice oh now this one doesn't really use these slots so much I'm gonna put it at the end right here you see this one's causing problems I wanna put that on the last ship wizard gonna whisk your Tomatoes it's getting a little bit crowded I could probably put eight in there I get seven in there the specialist just too big so the special is not gonna work but I got seven in there and then no more touching well maybe that's touching a little bit but they're almost not touching it is almost not touching count now let's take these off here and see we got left my counter was saved from that much stuff it's pretty good now there's a bunch of these on Amazon but I didn't find a lot of eight slaughters in the same price range so I'll link the closest I can find on Amazon and the original from Bed Bath & Beyond that I bought several months ago user radians are pretty high for this one so I think if you like what you see in the photos you'll like this kitchen utensil wrist stick around for a short Q&A at the end otherwise let's wrap this thing up now if I had to rank them I would say that they all worked but there is certainly an order that I would choose them in number five would be the zip slicer the problem of the zip slicer is it doesn't cut uniform slices it has a very specific use for tomatoes or grape tomatoes I'm not sure how often that's going to get used how many people are going to demand this probably not too often I think it works but it's kind of it's very situational number four would be the poach pods there's nothing wrong with these at all but kind of like with the zip slicer it's kind of a specialty item that I don't think a lot of people are going to use too often some people will but most people don't make poached eggs enough to really buy a separate item for them and I think a lot of people don't feel they need a separate item from poached eggs anyways number three would be the chef's wizard now it's one of those things where the sum isn't greater than the parts each of the sixth advertised features isn't really as good as a utensil is trying to replace I can like I said I can see this being good for an RV or a dorm or somewhere you have really limited space most people have the utensils already in the kitchens and this doesn't work better than any of them number two would be the union lid which I actually think I'm gonna use this one my fridge always has containers of the plastic wrap and the plastic wrap is not reusable unlike the Union lid and it has the dial that you can tell how long has been in there I think it's a pretty good item I'll actually probably buy another set that has the smaller size for cans and the square one for different dishes but I think the Union lid actually works and that leads to number one the utensil wrist that's right the most basic generic one of them all is also probably the most useful the most practical the rest of them are a little bit gimmicky this is not gimmicky it's just a very basic kitchen product that actually does what it's supposed to do it also probably has the widest appeal I think more people would get something out of this than all the other items that I looked at today so to me the kitchen utensil rest is my top pick of these five if you're interested I have a little Q&A at the end if you want to stick around for that otherwise thanks for watching and I'll see you next time alright quick bonus Q&A here I'm still pulling from that YouTube community post from about a month ago Dark Knight killa one three wants to know what the biggest upside and downside to do in YouTube is and what the pros and cons are and is there something I would try to change regarding it the biggest upside is that you are in control of what you do it's a fun job I really I really enjoy doing this and I also enjoy all the people I've got to meet while doing this because I'm kind of I'm not really a very social person usually so it's I've got to meet a lot of people around the world but I'd never get to meet otherwise I've also got to use a lot of products that I'd never use either the downside is that sometimes I find myself taking on a project that's way too big I'll sometimes film 3 hours of video for a 10 minute but it's like it's a way overkill I haven't really got the efficiency down yet so sometimes I create way more work for myself than I really need to in my attempt at making my videos as good as I can but I'm not complaining the upsides far outweigh the downsides being a youtuber for a living I have two people that asked about my sunglasses I just want to point out some people absolutely hate these glasses and if you are one of those people I'm sorry but I'm not wearing them to impress you I actually like them I basically just did a search for Amazon for steampunk glasses came with this they're actually pretty cheap do like 15 bucks but if you do like these glasses I will leave a link in the description below Kevin asked how has the current situations changed how you review products or purchase those such items that's actually a pretty good question because I to go do my rounds through the se on TV store through Bed Bath & Beyond through a Walmart se on TV section I fries I used to kind of make my rounds in stores I can't do that anymore so I have to plan way ahead because Amazon's shipping is kind of slower than it used to be I have to do all my shopping on online now so I'm having to really plan out ahead more than I used to I also can't go out to locations I used to go down to Boulder City or go drive around and I just can't so I'm kind of stuck here I mean I'm certainly not complaining but my options as far as filming outside of this location they're they don't exist punky pink 83 8k Emily was surprised to know that I had twins yes Brandon and Noah are twins in fact one of the choices for Noah's name was going to be Emily but that's another story how her name was chosen Joey Kay actually wanted to know what brought me to Nevada and was I born there I was not born there I was I'm from Jacksonville originally but I've been in Nevada for 26 years so I mean I'm kind of a local hi I hope I would be consider local I lived in Southern California my parents came here with the business and I came here for the summer to help them and never left because I actually liked it better here especially this time of year May and October are kind of the best weather-wise here so that's all I've got guys I appreciate your questions I'll hit more in the next video and hopefully you guys are staying safe and I'll see you next time you

Channel: Freakin' Reviews

Views: 476,086

Rating: 4.8576527 out of 5

Keywords: as seen on tv, review, as seen on tv product testing, chef wizard, zip slicer, poach pod, kitchen gadgets, utensil rest, amazon haul, kitchen gadget test, gadget review, testing kitchen gadgets, gadget test, kitchen gadget review, weird gadgets on amazon, poach pods silicone egg poachers, kitchen gadgets put to the test, kitchen gadgets on amazon

Id: mfaWAtoo2U4

Length: 24min 59sec (1499 seconds)

Published: Sat May 23 2020