Why America’s Test Kitchen Calls the OXO Good Grips Salad Spinner the Best Salad Spinner

Byamazingfoodstv


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Smart design makes this spinner a must-have tool for your kitchen.

The OXO Salad Spinner has been a staple in the test kitchen since it beat out competing models in our first spinner tests way back in 1999. Seventeen years later, we discovered that OXO had made a good thing even better.

*** Our editors proudly maintain an unassailable reputation as an unbiased and advertising-free cooking authority, and our objective reviews are strictly uninfluenced by product manufacturers, distributors, or retailers. ***

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How we tested salad spinners:

We put eight salad spinners through their paces by drying romaine hearts for our Caesar salad recipe and washing delicate herbs to check for bruising. We took each spinner apart to compare the ease of cleaning and storage.

All salad spinners share the same basic design: a perforated basket that balances on a plastic point in the center of a larger bowl. The lid houses the mechanism that grabs the basket and makes it spin. Centrifugal force created by the spinning basket propels the contents of the spinner away from the center; greens are trapped while water passes through the perforations and collects in the outer bowl.

SPINNING MECHANISMS

Differences in the design of the spinning mechanisms affect how the spinners work.

✕ Retractable Cords
Pulling the string away from the spinner can bring the lid with it. And if the string becomes wet or soiled, bacteria can grow.

✕ Crank
Tricky to get started, and because the direction of the force being applied by the user is the same as the direction in which the basket spins, the salad spinner is prone to jump around on the counter.

✕ Ratchet
Clearly designed for the right hand and proved awkward for lefties in our tests.

✕ Lever
The force being applied is slightly off to one side, so the spinner can become unstable.

✓ Pump action
A simple up-and-down motion takes little effort, and since it’s set in the center, the spinner won’t dance around on the counter.

CAPACITY

We made a Caesar salad recipe that calls for 2 pounds of romaine hearts cut into pieces. We recorded how many batches it took the spinner to dry the lettuce: two for the best performers, four for the worst.

DRYING ABILITY

We weighed the greens before and after washing and spinning. One salad spinner threw off about a tablespoon more water than any of the others. The worst performer trapped water on the greens.

HERB-FRIENDLY

Concerned that violent spinning might bruise delicate herbs, we washed and dried a bunch of cilantro in each spinner and examined how well each spinner removed sandy soil. Every spinner got high marks, though long sprigs of cilantro did not fit comfortably in all models.

EASY TO CLEAN

Green baskets obscured trapped greens when we were washing up—we preferred clear or white baskets. Complicated lids were harder to clean; one spinner comes apart for thorough washing and drying.

America’s Test Kitchen is the most-watched cooking show on public television—up to 2 million viewers watch each episode. The show is filmed in the test kitchen of Cook’s Illustrated magazine, located just outside Boston.

Each episode features recipes we’ve carefully developed to make sure they work every time. The test cooks solve everyday cooking problems, test equipment so you never have to waste money on things that don’t work, and taste supermarket ingredients to save you time in the store. It’s a common-sense, practical approach you won’t find on other cooking shows.

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37 Comments

  8. The worst one I have ever had is the KitchenAid (the red one). I bought it and used for less than 5 times before the push bar was shot. Before that I had one from a dollar store and it lasted more than 5 years with satisfactory (per the price at least) performance.

    I have had two KA gas ranges in last 18 years and love their major appliances. I have had KA small appliances and never had a great experience. This is a shame.

  10. I've owned both a Zyliss and an OXO. The problem with the zyliss is if you don't have a firm grip on the pull string and it slips out of your wet hands, the handle will retract violently into the lid cracking the plastic and leaving sharp edges. There needs to be a rubber damper.
    The OXO, while it has a fantastic push down mechanism, it has a crappy bowl that looks like polycarbonate but when I dropped mine it shattered like glass.
    Zyliss and OXO are both dead to me.

  14. FYI we need an updated video. I was about to buy an OXO large salad spinner from Amazon based on America's Test Kitchen review. Luckily I checkout the product reviews and noticed that OXO changed the design since 2016 and the new version doesn't work as well (according to a ton of 1 star verified purchasers that previously owned an OXO spinner).

  18. The manual crank ones from Ikea and Tupperware worked much better than this expensive Oxo one for me. The manual crank allowed me to really get to a higher spin speed resulting in a much drier salad. Granted, this might not be the best for those with arthritis but for someone with mobility, the manual ones will get a drier salad due to the sheer speed one can generate

  25. Why don't you show what happens when water or mold gets inside the area by the spring that doesn't open. It's impossible to clean, and I'm so upset about it, because I use it for cleaning my mushrooms, and it's just absolutely insanely ridiculous and frustrating that if that part gets moldy, or starts to smell sour, you can't clean it! Otherwise, it's perfect. I watched a couple of videos of people popping open the tabs with a screwdriver, but it didn't work for me. It gouged the plastic tab, then slipped and made a big scratch across the lid, finally landing on the top of my hand where it drew blood. All of that just to get it open. Ugh!

  27. I have an OXO and it works well. They've even improved the product over the years. But in head-to-head testing Serious Eats much preferred the Zyliss, not tested by ATK, due to it's unique "wavy" basket design that apparently dries food faster. I'd like to see the Zyliss in the tests. It's the next salad spinner I would buy.

  29. I've been using salad spinners almost daily for decades. I have an OXO (current model) and don't like it very much.

    Pros: Heavier duty plastic than some other brands, so less liable to breakage.

    Cons: Doesn't get lettuce (or other veggies) very dry. This is due to the gear ratio. No matter how fast you pump, the basket doesn't spin fast enough — and I can pump VERY fast (I'm a pianist with very fast hands!). I can always get the lettuce and other veggies much dryer, more quickly, with a spinner with a hand crank. It's not that cranks are perfect in every respect, but generally do a much better job of drying than the OXO. I think OXO could improve their spinner, still using the pump, if they changed the gear ratio so that you can get the basket spinning faster.

    The OXO is also ridiculously overpriced, especially as it doesn't dry very well. I suppose the OXO might find fans among those who don't care if their greens are still quite wet after spinning.

    I think I have a LOT more experience with salad spinners than ATK!

  36. HEY!!! I have that ratcheting spinner they showed… the one with the green basket. I like it quite a lot and it's easy to use with one hand. I will admit that it's designed for righties, but it's also a lot cheaper than the oxo.

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