The Best Spiralizers
We went through over 30 pounds of zucchini, butternut squash, carrots, sweet potato and Bosc pear to test countertop and handheld spiralizers. After creating mountains of vegetable and fruit noodles, we found that the OXO Good Grips – 3-Blade Spiralizer outperformed other top-rated countertop models to earn our pick for best spiralizer. In the handheld category, the OXO wins again with their Hand-Held Spiralizer.
We went through over 30 pounds of zucchini, butternut squash, carrots, sweet potato and Bosc pear to test countertop and handheld spiralizers. After creating mountains of vegetable and fruit noodles, we found that the OXO Good Grips – 3-Blade Spiralizer outperformed other top-rated countertop models to earn our pick for best spiralizer. In the handheld category, the OXO wins again with their Hand-Held Spiralizer.
Table of contents
- How we selected products to test
- Compare the best spiralizers
- Why buy a spiralizer?
- Important features to consider
- How we tested
- Top pick: OXO – 3-Blade Tabletop
- Runner-up: Brieftons – BR-5B-02
- Best handheld: OXO – 3-Blade Hand-Held
- Other spiralizers we tested
- The bottom line
How we selected products to test
The spiralizer hit public consciousness with a bang in 2014, and now numerous blogs, websites and videos are devoted to how to use a spiralizer and spiralizer recipes for more healthful living. Many of these advocate a particular spiralizer as “the best,” and we used these recommendations as a starting point for finding the spiralizers we would test.
We gleaned from our research that initially people were using handheld spiralizers for “zoodles” (zucchini noodles), since zucchini is the easiest vegetable to spiralize into pasta shapes. When the handheld model graduated to the countertop version of the spiralizer, consumers began experimenting with a wide range of vegetables and fruits.
There are dozens of spiralizers listed on Amazon, so we winnowed our selection down to the spiralizers that received both the most and the highest reviews. We then matched these selections with spiralizers that were frequently recommended on culinary and other kitchen equipment review websites.
The 7 spiralizers we tested
| Product | Price | Type | Ease of Use | Stability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. OXO Good Grips - Tabletop | $$$ | Countertop | 5/5 | Strong |
| 2. Brieftons | $$$ | Countertop | 4/5 | Strong |
| 3. OXO Good Grips - Hand-Held | $$ | Handheld | 5/5 | N/A |
| 4. Kinzi - Tri-Blade | $$ | Countertop | 3/5 | Slightly unstable |
| 5. Paderno World Cuisine | $$$ | Countertop | 2/5 | Slightly unstable |
| 6. Spiralizer | $$ | Countertop | 3/5 | Unstable |
| 7. Veggetti | $ | Handheld | 1/5 | N/A |
Why buy a spiralizer?
It’s no secret that physicians and the World Health Organization advocate that healthier diets are primarily plant-based.
Registered dietician nutritionist Michelle Ricker explained to us that body and brain health are boosted by a varied plant-based diet. Adding a variety of vegetables and fruits to our diets provides the diverse nutrients we need for fighting off disease.
Certified integrative wellness coach Kaytee Lynn and her fiancé are natural bodybuilders (meaning no drugs or steroids), and they believe that the purest form of nutrition comes from eating food that’s close to the earth. They frequently use a spiralizer, because it gives them so many options for adding a variety of vegetables to their diet.
There are two types of spiralizers: handheld and countertop. For the handheld, you insert the vegetable into the spiralizer’s opening — either hourglass-shaped or cylindrical — and twist it in a clockwise direction. The vegetable is pushed through a serrated blade and, depending on the blade you choose, emerges as long, thin strands of vegetable noodles or ribbons.
The countertop spiralizer is about the size of an apple corer and is secured to your work surface with suction cups. One end of the vegetable is inserted into a corer blade, and the opposite end is inserted in a pronged disc that’s attached to a crank handle. As you turn the handle, you simultaneously push the vegetable through a serrated blade, and like the handheld, vegetable noodles are churned out from the opposite end.
Spiralizers are ideal for people following a healthier dietary regimen for weight loss or because of dietary restrictions, such as gluten intolerance. It’s certainly an excellent kitchen tool for vegetarians and vegans, but it’s also great if you simply want to add more vegetables to your meals or entice your kids to eat vegetables in fun pasta shapes.
Important features to consider
Handheld vs. countertop
The handheld spiralizer is a great gadget if you have limited kitchen storage. Its compact design makes it easy to fit into a drawer. The handheld works well for soft vegetables, but you need a lot of hand and wrist strength to twist sturdier vegetables through.
We tested two of Amazon’s best-rated handheld spiralizers: Veggetti and OXO Good Grips. The Veggetti is one of the “as seen on TV” products and is very inexpensive. The OXO Hand-Held is nearly triple the price, and although it’s well made, like the Veggetti, it took elbow grease to work.
The countertop spiralizers are much easier to use, but because of their size, they do require cabinet space. We tested five countertop models, and although we had varying results, we did like their features: strong suction cups to hold the spiralizer to the counter, heavy-duty construction and a crank handle made churning the vegetables a breeze.
The countertop spiralizers are not much more expensive than the OXO Hand-Held. In fact, they often cost about the same. So to get the most out of your money, we recommend a countertop model.
Blades
All of the spiralizers we tested had stainless-steel blades, but the quality and sharpness of the blades differed. The blades must be razor-sharp for the vegetable to be evenly and effortlessly cut into pasta noodles and shapes. If the blades are less sharp, the vegetable is shredded.
Three blade sizes are considered to be essential for a spiralizer: spaghetti cut, fettuccine cut and ribbon or flat cut. We found that additional blade sizes were unnecessary and redundant, except for cutting vegetables into fancy garnishes. For example, the difference in noodle size between the Brieftons – 5-Blade Spiralizer’s 2 millimeter and 3 millimeter blades or the 5 millimeter and 5.5 millimeter blades was negligible.
Countertop stability
A major factor for a countertop spiralizer is the strength of its suction cups. Softer vegetables, like zucchini, glide through the blade relatively easily and produce long, even strands of veggie noodles. But if you want to make noodles out of a sturdier vegetable, like butternut squash or beets, the spiralizer needs to be held firmly in place by its suction cups, or the unit will slide across the countertop as you’re pushing the vegetable through. This results in a shredded vegetable with few noodles.
The majority of the spiralizers we tested had four suction cups on the bottom of the unit. We tested both wet and dry suction cups on several countertop materials: granite, wood, glass and laminate. Most of the spiralizers held well on granite and glass and were even a bit difficult to remove. There was no difference in suction if the cups were wet or dry.
Only two of the countertop spiralizers held well on the other surfaces: OXO Tabletop Spiralizer and Brieftons 5-Blade Spiralizer. Moistening the suction cups before adhering the spiralizer to wood and laminate proved more successful than applying the suction cups dry.
Storage
It’s frustrating to put together a kitchen appliance’s pieces before you can use it, so you want a spiralizer that’s convenient, or it winds up abandoned in the back of a cabinet. The countertop spiralizers we tested were all approximately the same size, but we preferred the models that were completely assembled and could be compactly collapsed for storage, like the OXO Tabletop Spiralizer and Kinzi – Tri-Blade Vegetable and Fruit Spiralizer.
You could easily get nicked by the spiralizer’s blades, so it’s imperative that the spiralizer is designed to properly store them. Most of the spiralizers we tested had internal storage for only two blades with the third blade left exposed. For the five- and six-blade spiralizers, a separate plastic caddy was included for the additional blades, which increases the storage space you’ll need for the spiralizer.
The OXO Tabletop Spiralizer was the exception. Its separate blade caddy fits into the top part of the spiralizer, which makes it easy to store in a compact space.
Cleaning
All of the spiralizers we tested are made of hard white plastic, which easily stains from carrots, sweet potatoes and beets. Brieftons’ helpful video suggests cleaning the stains with baking soda. The pronged disc that holds the vegetable in place stains the most, but the spiralizer bodies do clean well in the upper rack of a dishwasher.
Across the board, spiralizer blades are a chore to clean. Bits of vegetable get lodged between the slicer blade and the blade holes, and because you could severely cut your fingers on them, the residue can only be reached with a kitchen brush or a toothbrush. We found that soaking the blades first in hot water loosened the veggie bits for easier removal.
Any spiralizer’s long-term performance is dependent upon razor-sharp blades, so they should not be cleaned in a dishwasher, as the detergent and water jets will damage and dull their edges.
The spiralizer we found to be the easiest to clean was the OXO Tabletop Spiralizer. It has the sharpest blades, and less vegetable shreds got stuck in between the blade holes.
How we tested
Zucchini is the vegetable most consumers use for making veggie noodles with both handheld and countertop spiralizers. Most zucchini are straight with soft flesh and glide through the blades, producing noodles that are long, even strands.
Carrots are also very popular, although they do need to be the so-called “horse carrots,” which are much larger and irregular in shape than the carrots you buy in a bag at the supermarket. The diameter of a regular-size carrot (½ inch to 1-½ inches) is too narrow for the corer, which splits the carrot into pieces as it’s pushed through the blade.
Sweet potato and butternut squash are other favorites, but they can be a challenge with both the handheld and countertop spiralizers since they’re such firm and sturdy vegetables.
Not many of the spiralizers advertise their ability to make fruit noodles. However, the Kinzi does, and since the other countertop spiralizers are nearly identical in design, we opted to test each one with firm, but ripe Bosc pears.
We studied the spiralizers’ printed instructions before beginning our tests, and we found them laughably vague about which blades to use for a particular noodle shape. We then consulted each spiralizer’s website for more information about assembly and operation. Brieftons and Spiralizer have the most complete online instructions, bolstered by helpful instructional videos.
Before our actual testing could begin, we needed to experiment with a couple pounds of produce to get the hang of how each spiralizer worked. We tried out every vegetable and fruit to see which one produced the best thin noodle (like angel hair pasta), thicker spaghetti or fettuccine noodle, curly fry and flat-ribbon shape.
As we learned, you cannot simply insert a vegetable into the spiralizer and crank the handle. Each piece of vegetable or fruit needs to be prepared, which entails trimming it into a relatively straight shape. (Peeling the vegetable is optional.) Zucchini, carrot and pear just needed their ends cut off, so they could fit securely into the corer and the pronged handle attachment that holds them in place.
Sweet potato and butternut squash needed to be peeled and cut into straight pieces at least 2 inches in diameter. The long neck of the butternut squash proved to be the most successful in making long, even noodles, while its bulbous base was too oddly shaped, even when trimmed, and produced short strands or half-moon shreds.
Top Pick: OXO – 3-Blade Tabletop Spiralizer
The OXO Good Grips – 3-Blade Tabletop Spiralizer is our top pick for the best countertop spiralizer. As with many OXO products, it’s thoughtfully designed, well-constructed and very user-friendly. The OXO Tabletop is almost identical in shape and appearance to the other spiralizers we tested, but it’s substantially sturdier and can process hard vegetables as handily as soft vegetables and fruits.
The latest model replaces four suction-cup feet with a single rubber disc, 4 inches in diameter, that is lowered and raised by a side lever. When engaged, the disc pulls up into a concave shape and creates a powerful suction that securely locks the unit in place on a countertop. When the side lever is flipped vertically, the suction cup flattens, and the unit releases. OXO’s suction held firm on granite, glass, wood and laminate and was by far the strongest of all the spiralizers we tested.
The OXO’s three blades are color-coded for each shape: green for spaghetti cut, orange for fettucine cut and red for ribbon cut. The five- and six-blade spiralizers are simply numbered by size in millimeters, which we found to be confusing, and when we wanted to switch blades, it was time-consuming trying to figure out which blade to use. The OXO blades have a separate storage box, which fits compactly into the unit, so no blades are ever exposed.
As with all of the spiralizers, straight or straight-cut vegetables gave us the most consistent noodle shapes. The OXO’s heavy-duty hand crank effortlessly pushes the vegetables through the blades in seconds and produced the longest noodles that most resembled pasta.
For us, the hallmark of a great kitchen appliance is if we want to use it again and again, rather than once or twice and then sell it at a garage sale. The OXO Tabletop is a real culinary workhorse, easy and fun to operate and reasonably priced for such a high-quality product.
Key takeaways:
- The OXO Tabletop Spiralizer lets you create healthy vegetable noodles in three different pasta shapes effortlessly in minutes.
- Its three, ultra-sharp stainless-steel blades are color-coded so they’re easy to find and can be safely stored in the spiralizer’s included storage box.
- A powerful suction pad holds the spiralizer securely to the countertop and doesn’t move when you’re spiralizing hard vegetables.
- The OXO is compact and its sturdy crank handle can be collapsed so the unit takes up less space in a cabinet.
Runner-up: Brieftons – BR-5B-02
The Brieftons – BR-5B-02 5-Blade Spiralizer is a well-made, efficient and user-friendly spiralizer with many of the same features as the OXO Tabletop.
It’s equipped with five stainless-steel blades in slightly varying sizes: 2 millimeter for angel hair vegetable pasta, 3 millimeter for spaghetti, 5 millimeter for fettuccine, 5.5 millimeter for curly fries and a flat blade for ribbons.
The noodle shapes from these blades aren’t really different enough to warrant five blades, and we found that the 3 millimeter, 5 millimeter and flat blades did the job. However, you might want to have the two extra blades on hand in case a blade wears out over time.
The Brieftons’ body and suction disc are almost identical to the OXO Tabletop’s. It differs, however, in how the blades are stored. The unit stores two blades in the lower body and two blades in a small separate plastic case. The fifth blade is positioned upright in the body, and this exposed blade could be dangerous when the spiralizer is stored away or removed from a cabinet.
This is a minor quibble with the Brieftons, because it produced consistent noodle shapes in all sizes with little breakage or waste. It’s easy and fun to use, and at 10 dollars cheaper than the OXO Tabletop, we can recommend the Brieftons as an alternative to our top pick.
Key takeaways:
- Solidly constructed of molded plastic and user-friendly, the Brieftons – 5-Blade Spiralizer produced consistently uniform vegetable noodles with little effort.
- Its five stainless-steel blades give you the ability to cut many types of vegetables and fruits into several different sizes of noodles, shreds and garnishes.
- A super strong suction pad holds the unit in place while you spiralize the toughest vegetables.
- Less expensive than our top pick, the Brieftons is an excellent budget alternative.
Best handheld: OXO – 3-Blade Hand-Held
If you lack storage space, or if you’re just cooking a small amount of vegetables, then you might want a handheld spiralizer instead of a countertop model. We tested the OXO Good Grips – 3-Blade Hand-Held Spiralizer and the Veggetti, and without question, the OXO Hand-Held is a far superior product.
The OXO Hand-Held is a cleverly designed, compact cylinder, 3 inches in diameter, made of heavy-duty plastic, with three color-coded blades that fit snugly on top of each other. The pronged disc that is used to push vegetables through the blades serves as the spiralizer’s cap when you’re storing it away in a kitchen drawer.
Similar to the OXO Tabletop Spiralizer, the handheld has blades for thin noodles (green blade), thick noodles (orange blade) and ribbon cut (green blade). The vegetable sits on top of the blade’s corer, and you turn the vegetable clockwise while pressing down on the pronged cap. The length of the vegetable noodles depends on how you cut the vegetable.
The zucchini produced the longest noodles with little effort. The other vegetables were more difficult to process. The OXO Hand-Held gave us consistently well-shaped noodles, but it took a lot of elbow grease and wrist twisting to push the sturdier vegetables through.
The OXO Hand-Held also comes in a single-blade model for about 10 dollars fewer, but you’ll only be able to cut one size of vegetable noodles. For a little more money, we prefer the options of the three-blade model.
Key takeaways:
- Compact and sturdy, the OXO Hand-Held produces consistently shaped vegetable noodles.
- Three color-coded stainless-steel blades give you the options of making spaghetti, fettuccine and ribbon vegetable noodles.
- The blades interlock and fit together into the main compartment for easy and safe storage in a kitchen drawer.
- The OXO Hand-Held is ideal for single people, couples and small families who want to make smaller portions.
Other products we tested
Kinzi – Tri-Blade Vegetable and Fruit Spiralizer
Kinzi manufactures a line of lifestyle products, such as exercise accessories, water bottles and bathroom scales. The Tri-Blade Vegetable and Fruit Spiralizer is its only kitchen product. It’s composed of lightweight plastic, and as some reviewers point out, resembles a child’s toy.
It has three stainless-steel blades for thin, thick and ribbon noodles, two of which are stored inside the spiralizer’s chassis. The third is exposed but locked in place in the upper part of the body. We found this to be a common flaw in other spiralizers. You could easily cut yourself on the exposed blade when removing it from storage.
Four half-dollar-sized suction cups hold the Kinzi securely in place, and although the unit didn’t move while we were spiralizing, the blades rocked up and down as we were feeding through the butternut squash and carrot.
The Kinzi cut the sweet potato and pear into even, long strands. The zucchini came out as long strands and short half-moon-shaped pieces. However, all of the blades failed in cutting the carrot and butternut squash, which emerged coarsely shredded or ground up into bits.
Paderno World Cuisine – 6-Blade Spiralizer
The Paderno is one of the most popular countertop spiralizers. However, we had several issues with its design, performance and inexact instruction manual. On the plus side, a cleaning brush with large and small bristles and a sturdy, plastic caddy for storing four blades are included. Two of the six blades fit tightly into the unit’s body.
We had a problem with the blades: None of them are marked with sizes. We needed to consult the manual to figure out which blade would cut the vegetables into which pasta shape. Other than the blade for angel hair vegetable pasta, the other five blades are only depicted by size in millimeters and meager descriptions, such as “chipper blade,” “wavy blade” and “shredder blade.” Thus, before we could even begin testing, we tried out each blade to see how it cut the vegetable and then labeled it.
With all of this extra preliminary effort, it was disappointing that cutting results weren’t better. The blade for large noodles was the only one that produced long, even strands. The blades for thinner cuts just turned out short, C-shaped noodles. The wavy blade gave us crinkle-cut carrot chips, and the flat blade produced strips of butternut squash resembling cheddar cheese.
The Paderno runs a few dollars more than the OXO Tabletop Spiralizer, but even with the extra gewgaws, we don’t feel its performance warrants the expense.
Spiralizer – 5-Blade Vegetable Slicer
Spiralizer’s 5-Blade Vegetable Slicer is very similar to the Kinzi and Paderno and has similar issues. Two blades are stored inside the unit’s chassis, and the third exposed blade is locked in on top. However, there is no internal storage or storage caddy for the two additional blades other than a flimsy plastic shell, so you would need to store the two blades in a separate container.
Its four suction feet were not effective in securing the spiralizer to the countertop, even when we were spiralizing zucchini, the most pliable vegetable that offered the least resistance in our other tests. Although we had to continually reposition the spiralizer with the zucchini, it was the only vegetable with which we achieved a true noodle shape.
We followed Spiralizer’s instructions and trimmed the butternut squash and sweet potato into 2-inch diameters, but when spiralized, each came out as half-moon pieces or short ribbons. We had the most success with the pear, which cleanly went through the blades and produced long, thin spirals.
The Spiralizer – 5 Blade is about the same price as our top pick, the OXO – Tabletop Spiralizer, and our runner up, the Brieftons – 5-Blade Spiralizer, but it didn’t perform nearly as well.
Veggetti – Spiral Vegetable Slicer
The Veggetti is the cheapest of all spiralizers on the market, and it’s the one that often introduces people to spiralizing. It works somewhat like a pencil sharpener. You insert the trimmed vegetable into one end of the hourglass-shaped unit and twist. The vegetable passes through the blade and comes out in strands.
There are two blades with the Veggetti for thick or thin strands. Zucchini was the easiest and produced even, but not long, spaghetti noodles. Carrot took more effort to twist, but we also got decent strands.
We had the most trouble with the sweet potato and butternut squash, which were very difficult to twist and would be impossible for someone who has strength issues in their hands and wrists. Neither produced noodles, but came out shredded as if they were put through a cheese grater. The pear was turned into mush.
If you have limited storage and want a handheld spiralizer, we recommend avoiding the mass-marketed Veggetti and going for the OXO Hand-Held instead.
The bottom line
As the dietician nutritionists we interviewed told us, your body and mind benefit from incorporating a wide variety of vegetables into your diet. Eating the recommended five-to-nine daily servings of vegetables and fruits can be a challenge, even for the most diet-conscious.
A spiralizer can help you add the necessary nutrients for your physical and mental well-being in an easy and fun way. We want our kitchen gadgets to be both effective and convenient, which is why we recommend the OXO Good Grips – Tabletop Spiralizer as the best countertop spiralizer. Its thoughtful design and features, such as color-coded blades and compact storage, make this a kitchen tool you’ll want to use everyday.
If you don’t have much storage space in your kitchen, then you’ll want a handheld model, and we recommend the OXO Good Grips – Hand-Held Spiralizer. It requires a little more effort than the countertop model, but it consistently produced long and even strands of vegetable noodles in minutes.
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