Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This unit replaces a Breville BFP800XL whose motor refused to turn on after a little more than three years. After the Braun shipped, the Breville started working again. Go figure. That said, the unit that stayed on the counter is the Braun. The Breville has a larger capacity. It is looks somewhat more sturdy, even if it isn't. Consumer Reports continues to rave about the performance, and I agree with them. Compare making peanut butter with the chopper blade. The Braun takes 30-50% longer, and never quite gets rid of a gritty feeling. The Breville can handle grinding two pounds of meat; the Braun can do half that. For smaller jobs, both offer inserts. Braun has the better system. It not only chops smaller items better, it prevents splashes into the main bowl. People who complain about the small bowl's fit, probably haven't lined up the arrows on the small bowl with the arrow on the main bowl. The Breville comes with an excellent slicer that opens up to 8mm and closes to 1mm. The basic Braun kit comes with one slicer insert for a separate disk unit. It slices fairly thin (I estimate about 3mm). I got the deluxe model that included a wide slicer which is barely wider than other brands' "normal." I tend to use the "wide" slicer for most of my slicing. The super deluxe model comes with a French fry disk insert, and wasn't available new when I ordered. Where the Braun excels is in the grating department. It comes with coarse, fine, and powder level inserts. Be careful how you use them. The powder level insert is for very hard cheeses only, such as actual Italian Romano or Parmesan. American Asiago tends to melt and make a mess. The Asiago does work with the fine shredder, though. The coarse shredder works on hard vegetables, like carrots and cabbage. It can be used as a substitute for the French fry disk, if needed. This is the first multi-speed food processor I have worked with. I never really felt like I needed it with the Breville, but with the Braun, it's useful. I can better control the speed of drop in the food chute. Canned tomatoes chop better at slower speeds (I used the slicer in the Breville). Braun offers some guidance, but frankly, their overall instructions are awfully thin, and often hard to figure out. The difference in capacity shows in the food tube design. Breville offers a narrow chute in the middle of its pusher. It's over half the width of the Braun chute. The main Breville chute accepts large amounts of food, the Braun, not so much. That said, the Breville processor only works with the main pusher inserted at least part way. The Braun doesn't have, or need that kind of interlock system. So why did I replace the Breville? For several reasons. While the Breville deserves its high rating, it's not the most reliable brand out there. I have had trouble, not only with this one, but also with a Breville toaster oven. Not only did my food processor fail to run for a while, I have had issues with the lid/chute assembly. If you drop them, they don't just crack, they shatter. Replacements are hard to come by. Breville is invariably out of spare parts. The bowl is almost as delicate. It is not dishwasher safe. Yes, Breville touts the bowl and lid as BPA free, but that makes them far more fragile, contributes to extra hassle when cleaning. All of the Braun pieces go in the dishwasher. Even with hand washing, the Breville bowl and lid grew cloudy within a month. After a couple of months in the dishwasher, the Braun's remain stubbornly clear. If you have a dishwasher with a heater coil below the bottom rack, you might want to move the pieces with plastic in them to the top rack to be safe. The Braun system of using disk inserts translates to less space needed for storage, and less space for such things in the dishwasher. And speaking of space, by placing the motor to the side, the Braun sits low on the counter top. It takes up some length, but relatively little depth. The Braun fits below my cabinets without issue. The Breville only fits with the lid/chute turned upside-down and placed into the main bowl. Thus, the Braun sits there looking ready for action, while the Breville looks like a jumbled, cloudy mess. The Braun also frees up quite a bit of space when pushed to the back of the counter, under the cabinets. After a couple of months it's too soon to tell how reliable the Braun will be. At this point with the Breville, I had been on the phone multiple times, asking about a replacement lid. The shattered original had been super-glued together (with a number of gaps) and kept the Breville limping along. Still, I like a system that I don't have to treat like a delicate flower. I will put up with a drop in performance from excellent to merely very good-excellent so I can throw everything in the dishwasher.