Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

First let me say this is not a $200 processors. When I say 5 stars, I don't mean compared to a $200 processor. I'm comparing it to the handful of other food processors I've worn through near this price point. This machine, in my mind, sets the gold standard for this let's say class of food processors. That said, this thing is a real workhorse. We use it primarily for shredding cheese, usually full pounds of mozzarella at a time but sometimes harder cheeses, and it does so beautifully. We've used it to shred some other things and it's done fine, but I think it's safe to say that the real test of any processor is cheese and I can tell you unequivocally this processor shreds cheese with no problem. If anybody has an issue with parts breaking I can only guess maybe they're forcing it? Any time you're using a power tool, whether it's a food processor, table saw, or weed whacker, you have to let it do the work. If you force it, it will break. If you want to shred a pound of cheese in 10 seconds go look at $200 processors. If you just don't want to have to do it all by hand, this thing is great. This processor's lid, chute, etc all fit together much more easily than similar processors by other brands I've used. I don't have to slam anything into place to disarm the safety shut-offs. It just works as it ought to. I also like the extra large chute, and ability to safely/easily add things to the chute and (gently) tamp them down without creating a mess by opening the top. The slicing disks are extremely effective too. My wife dumped a bunch of strawberries in the other day and reported that "this thing practically liquefied them in less time than the old one could mostly chop them" My only complaint is there's a crevice that's difficult to clean right between the rim of the lid and the rim where the chute meets the main section of lid. I have to grab a bristle brush to get a few shred of cheese out of there. Not a big deal, I mainly mention it for the benefit of anybody else who runs into this and hasn't tried a bristle brush to get in there yet. The important stuff all works like a charm. UPDATE: After reading a Serious Eats article and some Peter Reinhart material on making pizza dough I've started using this to make my pizza dough as well (instead of my KitchenAid stand mixer! Can't believe it myself!). The included plastic blades turn the unmixed ingredients into a fully kneaded warm dough ball in 30 seconds. It's very impressive! UPDATE 10-13-2011: After 17 months of use (bought it last May and waited till June to post review) our food processor died last night. The hub of the shredding disc came apart. As we were looking it over trying to figure out if it could possibly be glued I noticed very small shavings of black plastic on the disc. I looked everything else over and discovered that the center point of the lid that guides the spinning central piece was disintegrating. Uh-oh! Can't really let that get in our food even with different paddles / blades /etc. Now at the current price of 51 this may or may not be acceptable, especially given we were not exactly easy on the thing (lots of cheese shredding and dough-making) even if we stayed within the recommended capacities. It DID outlast its warranty by 5 months. I am assuming by the way that by the time we pay for a new lid and shredding disc and shipping we would be throwing good money after bad to see how much more life we might get out of this motor and we would be smarter to buy a new processor. I'm a bit torn on whether or not to dock a star but 17 months out of a 51 buck product that worked so well until failure still seems like a good value to me. Anyway- there you have it, a log of what is probably a typical full life cycle for this product! Hope it's helpful!