Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The purpose of my review is to test this electric Bella unit by comparing and contrasting it to a # 1 manual tabletop spiralizer company, Brieftons, to see which is better and why. See my reviews and videos of these units Brieftons 5-Blade Spiralizer (BR-5B-02): Strongest-and-Heaviest Duty Vegetable Spiral Slicer, Best Veggie Pasta Spaghetti Maker for Low Carb/Paleo/Gluten-Free, With Extra Blade Caddy & 3 Recipe Ebooks & Brieftons 5-Blade Spiralizer (Classic): Strongest-and-Heaviest Duty Vegetable Spiral Slicer, Best Veggie Pasta Spaghetti Maker for Low Carb / Paleo / Gluten-Free Meals, With 3 Recipe Ebooks - White & Brieftons Vertico Spiralizer: Vegetable Spiral Slicer, Fresh Veggie Spaghetti & Pasta Maker for Low Carb Healthy Vegetable Meals Because an electric spiralizer should be better in all ways than manual units, save the buyer time in spiralizing, and produce better quality spirals, this test is important because many buyers already spiralize using manual tabletop units, and they want to step up to a better spiralizing experience by having an electric unit. The following is my journey of discovery using and comparing the Bella. When I opened the Bella box, read the manual, and recipe book, I noticed that there was no mention of spiralizing common vegetables like onions or bell peppers. I wondered why because these are vegetables that many people spiralize and use in their foods. While I was reading the manual, it suggested that I clean the main bed, the vegetable holder, and the blade assembly unit and its back cover (which is what I think is to clean off any lingering manufacturing debris). Next, I tackled trying to remove the blade assembly unit, with its back protective plate cover from the main bed. The release button to remove the unit is very difficult to push in and tricky to secure, to activate the removal of the entire assembly off of the bed. Each and every time that the user wants to change blade #s, the entire assembly unit (with back protective cover affixed) must be removed from the bed before any blade can be changed. This maneuver is difficult and time-consuming compared to manual tabletop units and even other electric spiralizers. The manual also suggests on page 5 a ‘plasticizer warning’. There was no diagram to show what a ‘plasticizer’ was, so I had to guess from the context of what was written that the ‘plasticizer’ was the 4 ¼” plastic legs on which the unit rests on top of a kitchen counter. This warning advises buyers to place the plastic legs on top of coaster or a place mat, which protects the counter from darkening and staining when the Bella electric spiralizer is used. None of my Brieftons tabletop manual spiralizers have this warning, and neither does another electric spirlizer that I tested. The Bella came with a tray and a black plastic ‘toothbrush’ (to clean the unit). The tray is too small to catch spirals and the toothbrush is too big and stiff to clean small, sensitive areas like the vegetable holder and the blades and blade spikes. In fact, these 3 things could be harmed from using this big brush. A smaller, softer brush would be much safer and protect the integrity of the holder teeth, blades, and spikes. Note, however, that the holder is very well-made and has no problem securing foods to be spiralized. (Some brand holders ‘spool’ and don’t hold the food to make any spirals, so the Bella gets a letter A grade on its vegetable holder!) To test the Bella, I spiralized 4 common vegetables that I use on my home-made pizzas: A. Onions on Blade 1. The spiralizing started out OK, but the 2 ends of the bisected onion in the vegetable holder didn’t spiralize for the final ½” still in the vegetable holder, rendering a total of 1 full inch of onion that can’t be spiralized. This means that the unspiralized 1” would either be dumped, used for compost, or I would have to take a chef’s knife and manually slice or chop up the unused but sizeable portion of unspiralized onion. This was a waste of money for a large part of the vegetable that doesn’t spiralize and a large period of time spent on having to manually chop up the unspiralized 1” of food. How did the onion spirals look after the Bella did its work? This unit didn’t spiralize 3-5-foot long spirals like my Brieftons units produce, and the spirals that were produced were mushy (soggy), due to the spiralizing friction to cut the vegetable and the resultant water produced because of this friction. I had to take a paper towel to blot out the unwanted water that should still be in the spirals. This creates a less robust onion spiral that resembles old, stale vegetables. (Result: IT SPIRALIZED MUSHY STRANDS ONLY.) B. Zucchini on Blade 4. (The results were similar to the onions in A. IT SPIRALIZED MUSHY STRANDS ONLY.) C. Red Bell Pepper on Blade 1, which is also stabilized with a wooden skewer that I demonstrate in my Brieftons reviews and videos. The entire pepper didn’t spiralize, and I had to thinly slice it manually with my chef’s knife in order to use it in my pizza instead of throwing the entire pepper away because it wouldn’t spiralize. (Result: IT DIDN’T SPIRALIZE AT ALL.) D. Sweet Potato on Blade 3. Success! Even though the spirals weren’t mushy, they were still not as long as my Brieftons spirals. (Result: IT SPIRALIZED.) After I added the mushy spirals (or chopped-up pieces of pepper) to my pizza, I cleaned off the main bed with a damp cloth, but there was a lot of water from the mushy spirals of onion and zucchini. I then washed off the vegetable holder and the blade assembly unit and its back protective cover in warm, soapy water, using a much softer brush, so that I wouldn’t break off any teeth; the accompanying black ‘toothbrush’ may have ruined the holder and the blade assembly unit. The Bella is the 2nd electric spiralizer that I have tested. The first one, from another company, didn’t spiralize foods at all (it produced only shreds), and almost every buyer in their reviews said that they immediately returned their unit to the vendor for a refund. Compared to that brand, the Bella is a better product, but it still needs more work to get this brand up to speed with the top manual tabletop spiralizers. The online demo videos of the Bella had some creative video editing to make the product seem to do things that can’t be replicated by buyers at home. I do, however, believe that the Bella has the potential of becoming a much better electric spiralizer, so that this brand can attract more buyers who want a brand that is fast, has much less food waste than this model has, does not produce mushy spirals, and spiralizes most of the main vegetables and fruits that the top manual tabletop brands can produce. As such, I can only currently rate the Bella with 2 stars because it could only spiralize 1 food out of the 4 that I tested and the vegetable holder was very secure. I’ll continue using my manual tabletops because they can spiralize all 4 of these foods plus many more quickly and excellently. In the future, I look forward to getting a Bella electric spiralizer revision, of which I will run the same tests as I did on this one and hope to give that improved model a rating that reflects that the model produces great food output. My goal for you is for me to be able to produce a product that allows me to make a pizza with the 4 foods that I tested here and to show off my finished result to future buyers.