This video documents how difficult the cutter was to use at first. It got much easier to use once I started trimming the potatoes, as shown in the video.
Years ago I bought a potato cutter at a garage sale. It was all steel and a good size (accepting virtually any potato without cutting it down to size). I've been very happy with it.
Recently we bought a cabin so needed to add a second set of kitchen tools. One of the items we decided we wanted was a second potato cutter. I ordered this one because of the "jumbo" in the name hoping that it would work as well as our previous garage sale cutter.
Thankfully, this product lives up to the jumbo name. It's larger than our garage sale cutter by 20% or so. It is easy to use and clean up. Not to mention it has a suction cup to attach it to the counter which works surprisingly well.
Pros: Large with two sizes of cutting blades; a larger mesh for traditional fries and smaller mesh for McDonald-like fries.
Cons: It's plastic and steel which makes me wonder about longevity.
All-in-all, I think this was a good purchase.
Update
My wife loves this vegetable cutter and has asked me to order another! She has used ours at least twice a week since we recieved it in Aug 2005 and has had no difficulties with it at all. I'm surprised to see that another purchaser has had problems with this product. Perhaps they received a defective one? At any rate, I would still recommend the product.
Buy Progressive International Jumbo Potato Cutter Now
After buying similar product for $7 @ Harbor Freight and having the metal frame bend in half the second time we used it, we thought this plastic frame looked more substantial, and would actually be large enough to put a whole potato in it without cutting it in half. The size is great, you can use larger potatoes, and the plastic frame held up OK. However, first try we put a sweet potato in it & it immediately broke the 1/2" blade attachment. Then we tried a regular potato with the 1/4" blade attachment. It worked after very carefully jamming the potato into the blades and slowly pressing the handle down. I hope we can get a replacement blade, because it's not worth the return shipping & hassle to replace the whole thing. Save up your money and get a professional quality french fry cutter for around $80.
After posting the above review, I emailed Progressive about the broken blades, they said they don't recommend cutting sweet potatoes in this device, and they sent me a replacement blade. While waiting for it, we used the smaller blade on regular potatoes and it broke, too. From now on, we microwave the potatoes for 1-2 minutes and then it works fine. It DOES open up enough to put very large potatoes in without having to cut them in half. The customer service people were accommodating via email, but I would be reluctant to purchase another one.
Read Best Reviews of Progressive International Jumbo Potato Cutter Here
I purchased my progressive jumbo cutter a year ago. Since then, I've made french fries multiple times with guests and family visiting. Everyone that sees it is impressed and wants one, especially when they hear how inexpensive it is.
FIRST, THE VIDEO REVIEW of the person getting a potato stuck IS DOING IT WRONG. You don't slowly push the handle. it's just one quick motion whack! My video shows very large baking potato's. Small potato's are even easier. Additionally, I used the shoestring cutter which adds more resistance than the larger fry cutting blade. So the larger fries are even easier to cut.
Having said that, here's what I think you need to know other than that I am a french fry nut:
Pro's:
1. Inexpensive so if it breaks, who cares? Mostly it's fun and a great way to get someone 'watching' you cook to help out!
2. It really works and it is easy to cut potato's (wife and daughter have no problems).
3. It comes with two size cutting blades, one for small diameter (close to shoestring) fries, one for normal cut fries. If you want fries quick, use the smaller cut fries, they cook in just a few minutes!
4. It's easy to take apart and clean.
5. It has a suction cup on the bottom to help with steadying it. It does work well but remember it's not intended to be like gorilla glue, 'cmon get real!
6. As of this writing, conservatively speaking, I would bet I've sliced at least THREE 10 pound bags of potato's in a year.
7. I've never found anything like this at Wal-Mart. Not sure why. You would think this would be a staple on their utensil isle. It's easy to order via Amazon and its quick.
8. It takes average pressure to cut potato's. If you are working with big dense potato's that require seemingly a lot of pressure, STOP see CON# 1. below to make it easy.
9. If you love 'skin on' seasoned fries and you buy this, watch out!... you're gonna be busy.
Con's:
1. It has plastic parts so don't be overly aggressive on a large dense potato. One quick whack does the trick. If not, reduce the size of your potato.
***Really large potato's, like _baking sized_ potato's (in my video example) sometimes need to be trimmed a bit on the end to shorten and/or cut in half (long ways) because it may be too wide to fit in the cutter (what I did to potato #2). I'm talking HUGE potato's, not your every day mid-sized Russet. Average potato's work well.
2. If the potato is DENSE, no matter the size of potato, it helps slice off the very end of the potato so the natural juice acts as a lubricant which helps the potato glide easily through the cutter (if you'll notice, my 2nd potato was even faster). If you try to be the incredible hulk on this thing, you'll break it. It's definitely not meant for commercial kitchens but is perfect for the everyday kitchen.
I just ordered 3 more tonight as last minute gifts.
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I bought this item based on various reviews here and on other sites. Usually, when the majority of reviews lean one way, I find they tend to be correct. This time? WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!
This veggie cutter is a cheap piece of CR*P! It may be ok if all you want to cut are soft veggies, but if you want to cut potatoes for french fries, dont bother unless you want to blow $20 plus shipping. Mine lasted less than 2 months before it fell apart. A complete waste of my money. I had high hopes based upon reviews I had read on this product, but I was lead down the (potato) garden path. Cutting potatoes (the main reason I bought this) is quite a chore. I had to place it on the floor on a towel to get really good leverage to enable me to cut my potatoes. The main product is plastic and the working parts were less than sturdy steel rods. I am really disappointed with this product. If you are planning on cutting potatoes or other hard veggies, then please do not waste your money. Many people rated this item very high in their reviews. I really cant believe these people cut potatoes with this. This product just IS NOT sturdy enough for that job!! I write this review in hopes that I can save others from throwing their money away searching for a good french fry cutter. If you choose to ignore my warning and it breaks on you (which it will... sooner or later... probably sooner), yes, that will be me you hear saying "I told you so". CAVEAT EMPTOR!!
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We were going to buy a 'bagel guillotine' but were swayed by the great reviews to buy this instead should have gone with Plan A.
