My spinner (the larger model) is getting used also for the blanched and frozen waxed beans too. Its nice to fill a gallon bag, freeze, and then one 'whack' they are all loose inside gain. Sometimes my spinner gets 'out of track', and will sieze up while I push, but its ony if its heavy with stuff, like lots of blanched broccoli. I cut about 6 inches back from the head bases of the stems below the heads and slice these into 1/2 inch disks. They get an extra 30 second blanch and are all seperated flowerettes get bagged together. Right now, I picked a few tiny flowerettes and added them to my leaf lettuce along with some pickling cukes and a few radishes. All was enjoyed with my fat free, calorie free salad dressing. I had to tone the dressing down a little as the vinegar was a bit much. I jus added some more dried tomato powder and a dash of Splenda and that brought it up to a decent French type dressing. Have enough lettuce greens for about 6 whole meals of just salads alone. Where's those tomatoes??

Just bought the Kitchen Aid pump-style salad spinner at Costco and I love it. I find the segments useful for cleaning just enough fresh veggies for a salad for two in one operation. It does a great job spinning the lettuce dry and I've had no difficulty with the spinning process. I guess it helps to be sure the inner bowl is set properly on the protrusion at the bottom of the outer bowl. I like the fact that I can store leftover salad in the outer bowl. It came with a cover for the pump hole so the top is well closed for refrigeration. I've been looking for a good salad spinner for long time and previously purchased an OXO collapsible salad spinner for its compactness but it did a terrible job drying the lettuce so I returned it. At long last, I have a salad spinner that does the job and then some.

I have and make frequent use of my large OXO spinner. For a big batch of greens too big for the OXO I use a pillowcase... in the washing machine! Set the dial on final spin, then give the bag two or three 10-12 second bursts by closing and opening the door. If you just let it run for 20-30 seconds it spins too fast and mashes the lettuce. Claudia likes salads all year round, so I make sure she gets plenty. For the good garden stuff in season which I'm happy to eat every day, I give it a better wash. Fill a large bowl with cold water, put in loose lettuce leaves, swirl about, then lift lettuce out of bowl to put in OXO basket. Check bottom of bowl for bugs, slugs, bits of dirt and grit. If present, dump water and repeat. Dress lightly. For tender garden lettuce we like Ken's Raspberry and Walnut Lite dressing. Lord, I have to start some lettuce seeds indoors, and fast! Robert

lars, a big hug in your direction. Does that Mueller one get going real fast? Is the lettuce close to dry when you're done? I seem to recall our pull device had a ring on the end of it to hold but that might have been after something else broke off. We were living in Europe and bought it there so what we had was as likely to have been an Austrian product as from another European country. It was at a time when kitchen and consumer goods from Asia were rare.