10" Premium Chromium-plated Steel Blade Electric Deli Meat Cheese Food Slicer Commercial and for Home use 240W BESWOOD250

Is it really fair to compare a $100 meat slicer against a $300 one? I worried the Beswood would be ridiculously difficult to clean. When it comes to true value for moderate home use, that’s what it came down to for me. I’ve tested both and can only keep one. Here’s what I’ve learned:INTRODUCTION TO TWO TOP SLICERSBoth of these are very popular on Amazon and highly regarded. The Beswood has a smooth 10 inch smooth blade forged in Europe and the Ostba has a 7.5 inch serrated blade. I’m a serious BBQ guy and cook hoping a smaller model would be enough. I want to be able to slice thin and vac seal roast beefs, jerky, hot pot, tri-tips, hams, pork tenderloins, and pork belly. My hope was that the compact Ostba would be time saving to clean vs. the Beswood, and much easier to handle at 10 lbs. vs. 33.SIZE AND WEIGHTAs you can see in my photo, the Ostba is compact and easy to handle. Suction cups are supposed to keep its light weight firmly planted on the counter. The Beswood is truly a heavy “Big Bertha” but weighs less than many comparable 10 inch models. I have average arm strength and can lift and carry without issue.TESTING THE BESWOODSlicing was an absolute dream with the Beswood. Like buttah! I have read this slicer is the equal of a 13 inch Hobart deli slicer, just sized down for smaller businesses, or home use. I realized right away the heavier weight is an asset, not liability. It stays planted on the counter, has a huge tray table to hold the meat, and spikey grabbers to grab it as you slice. The slice dial is in millimeters and I found that 2mm was perfect for ham. See the photo. If you like it ultra thin, or what they call in Pittsburgh “Chip Chop Ham” the slicer complies like an absolute pro.TESTING THE OSTBAI first bought the Ostba. Slicing is adequate. It does slice thin yet the slice thickness wheel is a bit of a guestimate. It gets the job done and I bought it because its 200 watt motor can power through meats more effectively than pretty much all other small 7.5 inch models. The motor is loud but not unexpected. Slicing action is not smooth, but not unreasonable. Even with the powerful motor, you have to muscle a bit through the meat. Unfortunately, our kitchen counters are textured and the suction cups don’t stick. This forced me to grab onto the Ostba with some force so it wouldn’t slide on the counter as I sliced. I worry this can create a safety issue because my attention on the blade and the slicing might get even slightly distracted. This should be a rare issue for others. The Ostba sticks to smooth surfaces well.BESWOOD CLEANING NIGHTMARE? TIPS:I worried the Beswood would be a 30 minute cleaning headache and worried it would have to be disassembled to reach the blade. Some reviews are negative on the Beswood when it comes to cleaning convenience. (Allen wrench every time? No thanks!) In truth, it’s quite easy so let me explain the process:Unscrew the large knob to release the tray table. This cleans right up in a couple of minutes in the sink. See my photo of two easily found ideal cleaning and sterilizing solutions. The rest of the unit is cleaned in place: Unplug. Unscrew the knob holding the built in sharpener at the top of the unit. If there is any gunk inside carefully wipe it out and rinse it. Do not submerge in water however. It’s not hard to clean and takes just a minute. Unscrew the large knob holding in the blade guard, first making sure the slice thickness knob is set to zero. After unscrewing, give a poke forward, and the blade guard will drop into your hand. Again, it cleans up in just a minute at the sink. If it’s greasy, use a non-toxic grease removing cleanser. Simple Green mixed 1:10 is ideal, or stronger if you are working with pork belly.At this point, the blade will spin freely and you can spray with Simple Green, or skip this step and use a food-safe cleaner and sterilizer. “Lysol Daily Cleanser Free From” is new on the market and contains hypoclorous—many pro kitchens use this chemical to sterilize. You can spray, clean, and wipe, or to sterilize, spray, clean, and spray again, leaving the Lysol Free on until it dries. This chemical is very safe and also used for sprays to sterilize kids toys. Having a small brush to get into nooks and crannies helps. The one supplied with the Beswood is barely adequate. I used a nail brush and it had much more precision. I also use a green scrubby pad carefully around the blade edge.The whole job can be done comfortably in just 20 minutes, perhaps 25 after slicing more than 30 lbs of fattier meats. The best news? The blade does not need to be removed! Whew!GLOVE SAFETY AND CLEANUP TIPSpeaking of careful: you must wear cut resistant gloves when slicing and cleaning. I learned a trick to keep them clean. Put on the cut resistant gloves and then place a tightly fitting disposable rubber nitrile glove over it when you work.OSTBA CLEANINGThe Ostba has a bar that can be opened up, easily accessing the blade. Its tray table does not screw in so that is easy to clean as well. Use the solutions I recommend above to complete the job in no more than 15 minutes. However, the 5 minutes saved cleaning the Ostba is not truly gained versus the Beswood. The Beswood is so much smoother and easier to use that it saves time and effort during the slicing process.WHICH TO BUY?These slicers should last 10-15 years with reasonable care. The serrated blade of the Ostba is adequate for meat but once you’ve tried the Beswood, there is no going back. Yet, it’s almost three times the price and needs a large dedicated storage spot. If you can afford the Beswood, or its identical 9” model for $20 less, it is a dream slicer to use. If not, most occasional home users will find the Ostba plenty good enough. The Beswood is money extremely well spent.

My wife and I finally broke down and bought a slicer. With meat prices soaring, we thought it might save us a buck or two and still hope so. We shopped around and looked at cheaper versions, but after reading reviews about loud, cheap, plastic burning, inconsistent cutting, and generally less appealing cutters, we bought this one. I worked in a deli for several years while going to college, so I've used good slicers and right out of the box this one took me back to my deli days. It's a bit lighter than those and has a feature or two I'm not ecstatic about, but in generally I am very please and excited to have this in my life.First, the slicer is beautifully built and fairly streamlined for easy cleaning (though my meticulous first cleaning took at least 20 min if not more, but it was my first time disassembling everything). The instructions didn't really show how to assemble, but the only thing(s) you need to attach are the guards/deflectors so that wasn't bad. I did have one problem in that one deflector screw wouldn't fully tighten. It just sits and spins, and since the side with the screw doesn't have anyway to hold it firm once it is inset, I just couldn't do it. Not a deal breaker as it is tight enough not to wobble, but it would have been nice if the screw set properly.We hooked it up, did all the safety checks and then ran a test run of 2-3 min as suggested in the instructions. It turns on/off easily and was super quiet. I think I expected it to turn the blade a bit faster, but then I am used to professional grade. It made me worry that it wouldn't do the job adequately, but we had a turkey breast we had purchased for just this occasion and it cut through it beautifully!My favorite feature, after reading reviews to the contrary on other models, is the dial for setting thickness. Many don't have a dial with numbers and this does. We tried a 2, just for starters and it did beautifully. Then a 1 to see how thin it would go, and it still performed well. Then we tired a .5 (yes it has half markings) and it "shaved" the turkey just as the professional one would. Since it was turkey, it started to fall apart at this thickness, but that is what I would have expected. The ONLY complaint I have so far, is that the meat holding table/handle isn't quite big enough for large jobs, and the spikes that hold the meat are a bit short. They eventually started tearing through the turkey which made consistent slicing near the end almost impossible, but that is not unexpected on a smaller machine like this. It has been a while since I worked in the deli (20+ years), but I seem to recall we weren't able to cut to the very last tidbit either, but I might be wrong. Either way, it was a bit of a disappointment, but not unexpected. It does have a set of spikes on the side of the handle instead of just the bottom that allowed me to connect it to the meat when it wouldn't initially fit the whole breast, which was nice. I still held it with my thumb though, just to make it a bit more stable and that seemed to work until the meat was able to go completely under the bottom spikes. (Should have taken pictures, but we were having too much fun slicing!)We then cut a few slices of cheddar just to see what it would do. It performed well, and despite what appears to be slow rotation, it cut beautifully, so maybe it's not as slow as I think. The meat was directly out of the fridge, as was the cheese so they cut well. We wondered about frozen cutting, but haven't tried yet as we just got this last night and I couldn't wait to review.Clean up was not difficult. Do remove all the suggested parts as little bits of meat and cheese kind of go everywhere especially with a turkey breast that wasn't pressed. They also provided a brush that you can use to get in the nooks and crannies to get everything out. A nice and welcome touch. Came with lubricant as well so it can continue to slide smoothly for years to come, I hope.Overall, this product is great. I know it's pricey, but so well worth it. I am the kind of man who likes to save up and buy "the good stuff" if I can, and this one was worth it. I would highly recommend to friends.It is a bit heavy and if you don't have a large kitchen, hard to store because of it's size. Ours is in the basement and I worry about that as we get older, but for now, it's totally worth it!Highly recommend this machine. If I find any issues or problems, I'll come back, but if you don't see a return, trust that I am still very satisfied.

Great piece of equipment. Slicing thickness is easily set and very consistent. I've used mine to slice chicken, beef, and pork for use as lunch meat. Very happy with the results.The Beswood is somewhat messy to use, though not surprisingly so. Bits of meat get scattered around the counter. There is also a nylon guard behind the blade near where the meat slices stack up. It's a pain to clean around because it right next to the blade, so I keep a 10mm nut driver handy and just remove it.Oh yeah, the blade. It should go without saying, but THE BLADE IS INCREDIBLY SHARP. It is also HEAVIER than it appears. I was barefoot the first time I removed the blade and realized that dropping it could possibly result in the loss of a few toes. So, buy a pair cut-proof gloves and ALWAYS be careful when your fingers are ANYWHERE NEAR THE BLADE! HANDLE WITH CARE!You should not be surprised to find that, without hesitation, I would buy the Beswood again.