Back to Basics Peel Away Apple Peeler (Clamp Base) - A501

THIS PRODUCT DUG THRU THE APPLE IT NEVER PEELED AND NEVER CUT THE APPLE NOT WORTH THE BOTHER

This is a handy tool to use if you have a lot of apples to peel and core. If you're peeling apples for one pie, it's probably easier just to use a knife. However, I had a giant pile of apples and this tool made the job go quickly. You have to be careful to get the slicer set correctly before you begin spinning the apple or it will just slide off or gouge your fruit. It can be a little touchy.

I purchased this product on a recommendation from my sister who had this exact brand of peeler for 20 years. I got it right before apple picking season so I was able to use it right away and see that it really is a time saving tool. I was able to peel, core, and slice about 2 dozen apples with no pain in my hands from holding my knife and no pain in my back from standing at the sink. The slices were all uniform in thickness which made cooking them so easy. I found that if I lined up the flower end of the apple with the corer, then cranked the handle until the pointy things just touched the stem end, then pushed the apple onto the pointy things so that the flower end stayed lined up with the corer, I was consistently able to get perfectly cored and sliced apples. If the core is not lined up straight, it will cause the pointy things to twist inside the apple. Great time saving, hand saving and back saving tool that I wish I had purchased about 25 years sooner!

It is hard to adjust from large to small items(apples)

I bought this to help me deal with a bounty of apples given to me this fall. However, in practice it simply did not work. If I set it to the minimum, it did not peel at all. It would only peel if set to take a good 1/4 inch off the apple. About 1/3 of the time, the apple snapped and came off the prongs before the slicing/peeling was finished. I tried everything, read the instruction book cover to cover, adjusted everything that could be adjusted - with 5 bushels of apples to process I was desperate! In the end, I used my cheap little Starfrit plastic peeler, a knife and a hand-corer, which worked just fine, if a little slow. The apples I had were not a very crisp type, so I thought that might be it. But the same thing happened when I tried it with some very crisp granny smiths. In addition, the clamp didn't hold very well: after about 10 minutes it would need re-tightening. This is just quite simply junk. Looks good on the shelf, though.

I had really high hopes for this, and find myself quite dissatisfied. It works great in every way, except the ever so important one of holding on tightly. First off, the clamp doesn't open wide enough to fit on any of my counters, chop blocks, or dining table. So I have to attach it to a chair. Once attached, it just doesn't hold. It slips all over the place, and I have to hold it with two hands while one of my children cranks it.

Every fall I go through boxes of fresh local apples --hundreds of pounds-- and a sturdy peeler/corer/slicer is the essential tool for making dried apple rings, apple sauce, apple butter, you name it. I wore out my old one after many years and bought another, but a different brand; I was very disappointed. Poorly constructed and flimsy to use, I tossed it out after one day's work. It took some searching, but I eventually found another "Peel Away" and I haven't looked back since. It's an excellent product.