Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I wasn't sure I needed a food processor as I have a Vitamix... But, having a fairly large garden and doing a lot of canning, freezing, baking, etc. I found I was spending way more time slicing and prepping food than I probably should. My Vitamix is awesome and I love it but unless you are making a certain recipe it will not work for a lot of prep work. That said, I was thinking that spending this much money on a food processor was probably unwise. I remember the awful food processor I was given as a wedding gift over 30 some years ago. I hated it. It did one thing and not well and it was atrocious to take apart and clean it. This was something I was trying to avoid. A product that you had to jump through hoops to use or clean. The Breville seemed to be the one to purchase from reading reviews and watching videos online. The tear down to clean is simple and so is the changing of blades, etc. I am not someone who ever places parts of appliances in the dishwasher ever anyways so this was not a problem for me in purchasing this unit. I hand wash everything that is part of an appliance. If I spend this much money on something I'm not risking my dishwasher annihilating it by accident. The Vitamix wins in that regard as you fill it with water, soap and turn it on and voila its clean. Then again, it doesn't have any many parts to wash. This Breville food processor is really very easy to change the spindle and slicing or shredding discs or to place a spindle with the blades on it inside. Line up the bowl with the lid, turn and it locks on and then locks shut. A child could use this. I love the power on, start/stop button and the timer feature. I also like the way it stays on but not running when you pull the plunger/pusher out then restarts as soon as the pusher re-engages with the bowl and its spring unit sensor. Very nice system. This Breville has sliced vegetables for dehydrating and freezing and for recipes. I have made salsa with it, tomato sauce and shredded cheese for pizza and for a gratin. I chopped rutabaga and then mashed after blanching. I made a recipe of steel cut oats, apples and sugar for dehydrated crisps. I also tried it for bread dough, choosing not to use my KitchenAid as a test. It worked just fine. It actually made less noise than my older KitchenAid.... I don't feel like it was too expensive given all that I have already used it for and it has performed beautifully. Will it hold up as long as the Vitamix and the KitchenAid? Time will tell. I was even able to show my husband how to use it to shred cheese and he said he would like to try it to make french fries. This from a man who uses a 45 year old french fry cutter... I was shocked. We have each taken it apart, put the items in the sink and hand washed with warm soapy water, placed items on mat to dry and wiped water spots off and put back together. I guess if you are short on time or space this might be a problem. If it is, this is the only issue I can see with the product. There is only one other problem and that is the actual height of the unit. I have added a photo to show the difference between the Vitamix, the KitchenAid and this Breville. You can see it will not fit under my upper cabinets and they are 18.25" from counter to bottom. The small round insert to add liquids to the food processor is what keeps this from fitting under the cabinets. If you don't mind taking it out and leaving it sit in a drawer or the attachment box then it would fit. I find that if the engineers would have done a better job of thinking about where this product is used they would have changed the design to fit the 18" counter/cabinet most folks have. No matter what they "tell" you the measurement is in the brochure it isn't fitting under an 18" cabinet. That means it isn't going to fit on many, many peoples counters and this is an appliance best left out on the counter to be used every day. Hopefully this information helps someone make an informed choice.