A really a-peeling product, honest! (Oxo Good Grips Y Peeler)

Member Name: azana

Product:	Oxo Good Grips Y Peeler
Date:	05/03/09 (104 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Peels really well

Disadvantages: Doesn't make peeling things interesting - could anything?

I'm a keen cook so anything so I love anything that makes the actual preparation of food easier. I have used this peeler every single day for about the last 8 years, and though it won't win any awards for being the most exciting thing I have ever reviewed, it is an award winning product (from the arthritis foundation amongst others), that is a redesign of one of the most basic kitchen tools.

A bit of background:

The company that makes this is called "good grips", you may have come across the products as they are quite widely available, this particular peeler being a very reasonable £2.79 in my local Tesco store recently. Good grips was set up in 1989, the aim of the founder being to develop comfortable and easy to use utensils. Sam Farber who set up the brand was inspired by his wife who suffered from arthritis and this is where his desire to improve the everyday tool through design came from, there are now 500 products, according to their website everything being designed with "universal design" at its heart; that is useable by everyone.

The peeler itself:

OK, so it is a vegetable peeler, not very interesting I hear you cry. Well yes, it is a peeler but the way it has been designed makes it different in my opinion. Firstly it does sit comfortably in your hand - non sharp metal edges as you might get on (even) cheaper kitchen tools. It has little ridges on the side that compress on use and also make sure the blade doesn't slip even if you have wet hands. Having ended up at Casualty once after a rather nasty incident involving a butternut squash, another peeler and my desire to wean my daughter with home cooked mush, the non slip feature is a good thing. There is is a built in potato eye remover on the end of the tool.
The peeler is very sharp, even after eight years of use, and the peeler goes in the dishwasher, always a good thing. Basically it has been very well designed and it peels well. The blade swivels on use, it has been designed to help people who have problems with their hands, like arthritis, but make the task easier for everyone, which it does.

Random facts:

It is an "OXO good grips" peeler as the brand name was apparently chosen as it is the same which every way you spell it and upside down.
Random fact number 2, just as it struck me as a little bizarre according to the company's website "As a reminder of who we are designing products for, OXO employees collect lost gloves around New York City and around the world. These gloves are prominently displayed at our office as a reminder of the different hands our products need to comfortably fit - large, small, male, female, young, old and in between." Seems a bit strange to me, but hey I have a few odd gloves and socks they can have if they want.

Would I recommend:

I would thoroughly recommend this peeler, just because it makes a mundane task easier. It is a cheap, well designed and sturdy item that I think is a must for every kitchen.

Summary: One of my kitchen essentials