I have a Cuisinart and the only issue I've ever had was a cracked lid piece. I can still use it but ordered another to have. I had another brand long ago and it was terrible. Long ago enough that even if I remembered the brand, It probably wouldn't matter -- they would be totally changed or gone.

You might get lucky and find a used Robot Coupe, but at $200 it might be pretty beat.

Curious, I just looked through some reviews comparing food processors and Breville kept coming up - at about twice your planned budget.

Mine is a workhorse, but I don't know how todays product would rate. My KitchenAid 12 C is more than 10 yrs....how many more, I just couldn't say, I'm drawing a real blank on how long I've had it. The bowl (there are two, one for small jobs that fits into the larger on a shaft), and the lid are top shelf dishwasher safe (feed tube a part of the lid).
It's never failed me, no matter what I've done with it.

If I had a complaint, it might be the weight. It's heavy. So much so, it stays on my counter - I don't pick it up and move it around.

I have bought and returned two Cuisinart's from Costco for motors that smelled like they were burning with minor use. I have a Kitchen aid from them now that I like. But I have never made peanut butter

I haven't posted for a long time here- but I just had to comment re my disappointment of the Kitchenaide food processor.

I had a large Cuisinart from the 80's with all the attachments. It served me well throughout many years. Since I dehydrate fruits & veggies (sweet potatoes are my fav) all summer long, I decided to get the new model of Kitchenaide only because I could adjust the slicing blade to thinner than my cuis's slicing blade, and could also adjust the thickness of the slices without having to take the top off etc. I gave my Cuis to a good friend and have used the Kitchen aide for a while now- here are my comments...
1) I wish I had kept my old cuis... yes it walked around the counter a bit and the plastic on the bowl and feed tube, discolored over the years, so I replaced it, and the feed tube wasn't the easiest to get clean.... but the blade stayed incredibly sharp given it's age and what I ground and chopped with it over the years. The chop (fine/coarse or in between) was always evenly chopped, especially when using the pulse button;
2) I guess the two things that bug me the most about the KA are that the push buttons (which are flat against the case) are VERY hard to press, so I have a tendency to leave it running on a speed instead of pulsing nicely and gently, to get the perfect size chop. Yes I'm 67 years old and my fingers don't do anything like they used to, but really.....
3) As for chopping...lets say a few carrots, onions, celery (pre chopped into large pieces)- either the blade is just not sharp enough, or it's positioned in a funny way in the bowl and on the spindle- but I NEVER get the nice even chop I used to get with my cuis. Maybe the blade is too close to the bottom, or too far away, or doesn't get close enough to the bowl sides, or is just not shaped right....
4) the machine itself is a brute of a size- with a wider, deeper footprint and with the big bowl and feed tube, it no longer fits in the same cupboard that the cuis fit into height wise;
5) The handle (on the bowl that that locks the bowl in) is on the side. I didn't think that would make a difference from the cuis which locks in the front.... but it does. While standing in the front (where the buttons are) after dropping the bowl in the slots, it's hard to gauge where the slots are since I'm not right in front of the handle. After the bowl does slip into the slots then i have to push (from the side) the handle to the lock position- awkward and not so easy to do- often I end up lifting the bowl slightly as I try to lock it at the side, and the bowl then slips out of the slots and then I'm pushing down and back and forward to get the bowl to fit and lock.
Unlocking the bowl- I have to pull the handle (from the side) toward me to unlock which oft times pulls & spins the whole machine toward the left if I don't try to hold the bowl down as I spin it towards me to unlock.
6, 7 & 8) The top... it's so much heavier and bulky than the cuis.
The main part of the top without any of the inserts is easily twice as heavy as the cuis'. Putting it on and off and on and off (like when you need to use the spatula lot) is a workout for your forearm. If you try to do so without taking the inserts out first, you'll be moving and lifting 1 pound, 11 and 1/2 ozs each time.
Speaking of inserts- the top has (built into it) the 'half moon opening' that has a max fill line (lets say of carrots laying down to shred), of about 2/3 the height of the half moon to the shredder disc. An overly complicated design of a 1st insert fits into the half moon. Although it doesn't have those '2 lost cavities' that would fill up and not drain of the cuis, the KA's 1st insert has about 30 little surfaces separated by tiny ribs that all need to be cleaned better than a mostly smooth unbroken piece of plastic like the cuis- hard to describe the number and shape of all the varied angles and crevices on this inset.

At the back of this first insert is a 4" plastic rod that fits through a hole in a black plastic piece built into the cover. As far as I can tell it is the thing that stops you from running the machine without the 1st insert in at least 1/3 of the way. That plastic rod seems like very cheap plastic to me and I'm waiting for it to break off, rendering the whole machine useless until the whole 1st insert is replaced (because the rod is glued or 'welded' just at the top of it, into the plastic of the first insert).

The 2nd insert goes into a 2"x3" hole in the first insert. You can use the machine without the 2nd insert by covering the hole in the first with a towel etc., but not for very thin liquids. The 2nd insert is molded into 2 sections- one side is a 1 and 5/8" cylinder (open on both ends)- good for pouring liquid into or adding herbs while machine is running etc. Unfortunately, the OTHER side of that insert is about the same size (slightly different shape) as the tube, but it is open on the top and completely closed on the bottom. This means anything you want to pour or drop into the tube (like oil etc) will, I guarantee, end up to some degree in that 2"x4" cavity- leaving you with a cavity that is impossible to clean out (like the 2 on both sides of the cuis's insert). Why in heaven's name would you make it that like that????

The 3rd insert (yes...... it goes- top cover; 1st half moon insert; 2nd insert with open tube and also closed at one end cylinder; and- lastly the 3rd insert which fits in the 2nd, is a tube with an open top and a tiny whole in the bottom. It's meant to enable extremely slow pouring (thin stream) into the bowl. But it's very hard to clean and to be honest, I think I can pour anything slow enough through inserts 1 & 2.
I could go on about the stupid cover and it's inserts but it's making me too upset to do so.

GOOD THINGS-
1) the blade is on a central shaft that when you push it onto the machine's shaft locks on, When you want to pour or scrap stuff out of the bowl , you can turn the bowl upside down and the blade stays in the bowl.
2) It does liquids ok.
3) The whole machine is so heavy it doesn't walk on the counter.
4) Slicing works ok, but given the amount of time to setup and clean when done- I've gone back to a good, handheld mandoline with depth (thickness) adjustments.
5) It comes with a small bowl as well

Bottom Line- poor design in almost every function, too bulky, poor mincing/chopping capabilities, way too hard to clean the top and all it's inserts, bad buttons (pulsing button has terrible response time off/on).

Hope this helps. Rebecca

Here is a link that might be useful: 13 cup KA processor at Amazon

reba, thanks for the thorough review of the KA fp. If you think yours is bad, you ought to see the one Sister has. It is some sort of fp/blender hybrid. She used it for the first time at Thanksgiving. It was like something designed by Rube Goldberg!

DD makes a fairly large quantity of peanut butter each time. I don't believe a blender would work for her.

Before I posted, I looked to see what Williams-Sonoma had. Wow! Sticker shock!

I finally remembered to check Consumer Reports. Their #1 is the 16 cup Breville at $400. #2 is Cuisinart DLC 2011CHB for $180. #3 is Cuisinart DFP-14BNC at $180.

johnliu, I checked Craigslist in all of the surrounding areas. The Robot Coupes that are available are new and pretty pricey. Most seem to be for sale by dealers. While I was checking I searched on "Breville." I got mostly juicers. I also made a run through ebay. Did you know that Overstock sells Breville on ebay (and only for a few dollars less than W-S)? I'm so confused!

just an option, u can look into a Vitamix....they make peanut butter really well...
u can get a refurb model to save so $$.... i think their cheapest is around $250

this way ur DD will have a blender and FP....

i have a vitamix and KA FP and the vitamix does do alot of the same things that FP does. although it won't make FF or julienne veggies....

have the FP for about 10years and have had no problems with it.... vitamix little over a year and use it everyday for smooothies. its just great, use it for so many other things as well....great investment!!

HTH

I think your daughter should start making nut butters in smaller batches, as a blender works better for that than a FP and takes up less space. Or she could make two batches at a time, if she needs that quantity. You can easily find a 1400 watt blender for under $150, and then she could keep her old FP for the other jobs she does with it (what are those jobs?). I think a blender is a better tool for nut butters, unless she prefers them crunchy.

I rarely use my blender, and so it stays in the garage, and I am tempted to store my Cuisinart FP there as well. I use the FP mainly to make hummus and bean dip, and so it gets used only about twice a month. I use my stick blender for most jobs, including pureeing chili sauce and other sauces. It does a great job on those, as well as mayonnaise. I have really good Japanese knives now that I use for most of my chopping and cutting, but I also have two electric meat slicers - the old one I use for slicing bread, pickles, and vegetables (such as zucchini and cabbage), and the other is heavy duty and will slice meats paper thin. For grating medium cheeses, I use a KA attachment, for hard cheese I use a microplane, and for carrots I use an old style hand grater. I have a good mandoline, but I do not use it often.

I also hate that the Cuisinart top will not disassemble for cleaning.

Lars

{{gwi:2134308}}

It's a little pricey but it's probably something you great grandchildren will be using. ;-(

oh, yeah, Mike, that is a beauty. But at $3 grand+, I'm afraid it is out of DD's budget. And Santa doesn't come for another 11 months. :-)

I think I need to clarify, DD is not just looking for a better way to make nut butters, she is looking for a new food processor. Her blender is adequate for making smoothies.

Lars, your advice to make nut butters in smaller batches is probably good, but she's hard headed and going to do it her way (not that she's unpleasant about it - just hard-headed).

duplicate

This post was edited by bbstx on Sat, Jan 24, 15 at 17:17

One difference between a food processor and a blender, RPM speed.

A food processor typically uses an induction motor, either belt driven or direct drive.

A blender uses a direct drive universal motor.

An induction (asynchronous) motor RPM is line frequency dependent and the speed is fixed. You can have high speed or low speed, but generally not variable speed. I don't know if any FP uses variable-frequency drives (VFDs). Induction motors runs at 1725 rpm, no more than 3600 rpm.

A universal motor rpm is voltage dependent. There is no limit as to how fast a universal motor can turn. The Vitamix blender turns over 30,000 RPM. A universal motor speed can easily be continuously adjustable, from 0 to full RPM. With a PWM electronic control, it can still have high torque running at low RPMs.

chop chop chop slice slice slice, it's all about how fast the blades turn.

dcarch

My last food processor was great while it lasted (which was for about a year after I purchased it) at a thrift store for a song. It was one of the "newer" models which I got at a thrift store back when you could find such things at thrift stores. My contention is that so many people now shop thrift stores to resell things that things like good food processors disappear off those shelves faster than ever. And since I rarely am able to get over to the thrift store, I must buy from the resellers on eBay.

A while back (a long while back) I did a lot of research on Cuisinarts online. I don't know where all that information is now, because it is nowhere to be found -- but I can tell you that back then (over ten years ago) I ran into a LOT of people very unhappy with Cuisinart food processors since the company was sold (back in the late '80s, I believe) and their #1 complaint was that the newer blades broke so easily. That always stuck in my mind, so this time around since I had to go to eBay anyhow I did a lot of research to figure out what to get.

I learned that I am NOT a typical food processor user, in that I am not buying it primarily for shredding, grating or even making bread or pie crusts. For me it is mostly for making my own tahini (just put the sesame seeds in with about a TBL of sesame or olive oil for every cup or two of seeds and let it whir for a while -- maybe 10 min). The tahini is out-of-this world and soooo much better than anything I could buy. Now store-bought tahini tastes rancid to me!

And then of course I make hummus using the food processor.

Another thing I love to make is "coconut butter" using organic flaked coconut. This take about 12 minutes with the S-blade and doesn't really need any oil added. WAY cheaper than buying coconut butter in the jar, and so good for you!

Last but not least, I think it is awful good fun to make my own butter (and buttermilk) using some grass-fed organic heavy cream. I haven't done this yet but have seen a couple videos of it on YouTube.

Anyhow, the fp I am getting is the Cuisinart cfp-5A. Thanks for all the reviews you have done on that model, John Liu, in past years -- helped a lot! It was also good to know that this model is NOT good for making bread, and I was able to buy it with my eyes wide open about that. It will be a drag to have to turn the lid left and right in order to "pulse," but I can live with that. I was able to get the cfp-5A with the S-blade and with the basket and lid having sustained zero chips or cracks for just a little over $70 including shipping, so I'm a happy camper (or will be when it gets here). And in time I may spring for a blade that grates, shreds or slices.

Unfortunately I have not been able to find a manual for the cfp5 or cfp5A. If anyone knows where I can get the pdf of that manual please let me know! Maybe it does not exist, since I cannot even find it on the Cuisinart manuals page which has manuals for 66 different models of food processors!

By the way, what IS the difference between a shredder and a grater in these discs? Would either of these work well to very finely grate ginger? Also, can anyone tell me the serial numbers I would need for the discs that go with the cfp-5 series? I am surprised how little information I can really find on the Cuisinart cfp-5 series. My goodness, I could not even find a YouTube video demonstrating it. Surprising!

Revisiting this thread, because my old Cuisinart is finally giving up the ghost. After searching review after review after review, I added this to my Amazon cart today: https://www.amazon.com/Magimix-Robot-Coupe-3200XL-12-Cup-Processor/dp/B00E0FSYS6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1475610332&sr=8-2&keywords=magimix+food+processor

I need my head examined. This thing better outlive me!

Considering inflation, my original Cuisinart cost about $200 in 1977, that's not so bad. Just enjoy it!

Why not get another Cuisinart? I got the 14-cup paddle model and it's an amazing FP. It also replaced a 10-year old Cuisinart.

I paid ~$180.00 at BBB with coupon.

I hope you enjoy yours!

I've been tempted by a Robot Coupe too, but then my old Cuisiinart gets over itself and keeps working... :)

Way back when, Robot-Coupe was an amazing machine. So was the original Cuisinart until the company was sold, as I recall. I am not sure what is state-of-the-art in 2016, tho.

Consider the following:

1. I wonder why there is no specifications for this machine. (Watts? RPM?)

2. This item has been around a few years, but not too many reviews?

3. They claim to make their own motor. That may not be a good thing. You need a special factory with special machines to make a large quantity of units in order to ensure quality. Although induction motors are the simplest of machines (only one moving part) but vertical motors require special bearing. I double they have the facilities to make special bearings.

Does not mean it is not a good machine.

dcarch

Cooks Illustrated recently reviewed FPs adn top rated the Cuisinart 14 cup -- and they go on sale regularly. I like the Breville appliances I have (stick blender, blender and toaster) -- I would consider them too, but Cuisinart has done well by me.