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Nicer Dicer
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Vendor Commercial
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ASOTVI Review
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February 10, 2008
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| | | ASOTVI RATING: CONDITIONALLY WORKS |
What is it? A manual chopping product for food.
 The product consists of a plastic base and an upper hinged plastic section that features two sets of blades arranged in a checkerboard fashion. One set of blades is intended to cut approximately quarter-inch squares, the other blade set is intended to cut approximately one-half inch squares. A plastic cup in the upper section catches the cut food.
Major claims
Quick! Easy! Safe!
From website: “…the kitchen tool you’ll actually use daily!”
Our first experiment was to cut a tomato with the large blades, exactly copying the picture illustrated on the cover of the instruction manual and recipe guide (see Vendor’s picture above).
 The result was a bit of a mess (See ASOTVI result to the right).
Giving the product the benefit of the doubt, and accepting the possibility of user error on our part, we read the instruction manual and learned that the picture on the cover of the manual and the product’s packaging illustrates improper use. The instruction manual states:
“Lift the top (transparent container locked) and place the item to be cut in the center of the round disc with a flat side facing down. NOTE: food with a peel such as peppers, apples, pears, tomatoes, cucumbers should always be placed with the peel side down. Lower the top (blade) so it rests on them. Place one hand on the transparent container and the other hand on the flat surface to push the cutting blades through the item.” (emphasis added)
This was a confusing statement considering the fact that a tomato is a spherical object that has a peel/skin on its entire exterior. What side is down? We found additional information in the instruction manual, which states:
“The Nicer Dicer works best with small to medium sized fruit and vegetables cut in half. We recommend that you cut larger pieces in 3 to 4 sections to get the best results.”
Thus, using the Nicer Dicer requires preparation of food with a knife before its use. Indeed, by cutting a smaller tomato in half, and larger ones into multiple pieces, and then placing the skin side down, did produce better results. We were not so lucky with peppers, a more rigid vegetable.
From our video results, please notice that to use the Nicer Dicer occasionally required extraordinary force to get the blades to cut the food. This was especially true for the smaller blades. The difficulty we experienced with the Nicer Dicer was readily apparent. Unlike a traditional knife that “slices” through foods such as a tomato, creating a small incision and then using both a horizontal motion as well as downward vertical motion to slice, the Nicer Dicer attempts to “push” a set of blades straight down through food. This action is akin to setting a knife on top of a tomato, and rather than slicing it, pushing the edge of the blade straight down. But what adds to the problem is the crisscross array of blades that spread the pressure of the downward action over a larger surface area than a single knife blade would do. Think of the “bed of nails” concept where if someone laid down on a single nail it would likely pierce their skin, but when there are many nails placed closely together and sharing the load, no injury occurs.
We did observe that for foods such as an onion or a potato, which tend to be firmer than a tomato, but not as firm as a pepper, the product had an easier time “chopping” through them, but still required a noticeable amount of effort.
As to the claim of it being “easy” and “quick,” it was not, in the sense that it required preparation of food with a knife prior to use. If one is going to use a knife to cut fruits or vegetables to begin with, why switch to another product when you can just finish the job with the knife? As to value for the price, we discovered that you can get a Cuisinart Mini-Prep (a small brushed stainless electric food processor that requires no physical exertion to use) for $29.99 or a KitchenAid electric 3-Cup food processor for $39.99. The Nicer Dicer retails for $39.99.
Our conclusion, as is apparent from our review video, was that the product did work in some instances in terms of actually chopping the food, but it didn’t work very well in others—especially with tomatoes. With respect to its major claims of being quick, easy, safe, and expected to be used daily, we observed:
- It wasn’t quick in the sense that time had to be spend in advance pre-chopping the food items, and in the case of a crushed tomato (instead of chopping neatly as expected) the unit needed to be cleaned prior to use on anything else.
- It was easy only in the sense of the number of steps required to chop, but in the case of a green pepper with the smaller blades, it required considerable effort to cut it — a difficult task, not an easy one.
- We didn’t observe any safety issues.
- And with respect to daily use, that would be a personal judgment call on behalf of the user and impossible to speculate. However, as noted, with the availability of small electric food processors for the same or less price, our speculation is that if a consumer has a choice between the two, if they required a product for daily use, they would opt for the latter, not this product.
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Product: Nicer Dicer
Available From: Genius Products
Summary:
- As to the claim of it being “easy” and “quick,” it was not, requiring preparation of food with a knife prior to use.
- If one is going to use a knife to cut fruits or vegetables to begin with, why switch to another product when you can just finish the job with the knife?
$39.99 + S&H
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