Four Kitchen Gadgets Put to the Test: What Worked and What Didn't

Introduction

Kitchen gadgets tend to fall into two camps: the ones that solve a single problem brilliantly, and the ones that try to solve two problems and end up doing neither well. We put four popular gadgets through a proper hands-on session, from a Swiss-style cheese curler to a glass chopping board that doubles as a scale, and the results were about as split as it gets.

How We Tested

Each gadget was used for its intended task in a real kitchen setting, with honest opinions on build quality, ease of use, and whether it earns a permanent place in a drawer. For context on pricing, the testers guessed each price blind before it was revealed, which turned out to be surprisingly revealing.

Boska Cheese Curler Amigo

The Boska cheese curler Amigo is a specialist tool with one job: shaving paper-thin curls from a wheel of Tête de Moine, a semi-hard artisanal cheese from the Swiss Jura region. You mount the cheese on the central pin, rotate the curler blade clockwise over the top, and it produces delicate rosettes. For best results, the cheese should be used straight from the fridge.

The results were genuinely satisfying. The blade glides down with ease, producing thin, even curls that spread flavour across the palate far more quickly than a chunk of the same cheese ever could. The testers noted a truffle-like funkiness and agreed this is one of the finest ways to eat this style of cheese. A microplane would simply break the cheese into tiny fragments, and a peeler gets close but not quite there.

It is a one-task gadget, and it does that task well. It suits people who love entertaining, enjoy a bit of ceremony around food, and adore cheese enough to buy a dedicated tool for it. At £24.99 it is not cheap, especially given the cheese itself cost around £30, but the build quality and the unique eating experience justify it for the right buyer.

Duramitt

The Duramitt is a scouring pad permanently bonded to a rubber glove, promising to protect your hands while you clean and to free you from grasping a separate sponge. The marketing language leans heavily on the word “ergonomic”, which the testers found generous at best.

In a timed washing-up challenge against a plain scouring pad, the Duramitt lost decisively. The bonded pad torn away from the glove mid-task, the sponge backing could not be used effectively, and the single-glove design left the wearer’s free hand wet, making it impossible to grip anything without removing the mitt. It only really works on completely flat surfaces where you can sweep in straight strokes; corners and curved items defeat it entirely.

At £4.45 it is not an expensive failure, but it is a failure nonetheless. The testers scored it one star.

Kitchen Safe Time Locking Container

The Kitchen Safe is a time-lock container designed to help you fight temptation. Place sweets, treats, or even a phone inside, set the timer in days, hours, minutes, and seconds, and the lid stays locked until time runs out. Removing the batteries does not help; the timer resets and punishes you for trying.

The testers found genuine use cases here. One described the endless negotiation of limiting a child to one more biscuit, where a preset timer simply ends the argument. It was also suggested as a way to lock away phones at meal times, or a TV remote. One tester immediately claimed it as a personal cheese box. Reviewers have praised it for helping carers of people with Alzheimer’s, though some note there are tricks to getting in if you are determined.

The main sticking point is price. At £49.92 for this size, the testers called it a horrific amount of money for a lockable plastic tub. Still, if willpower is genuinely the problem, four stars were awarded and the concept won real respect.

Salter Max Electronic Kitchen Scale and Chopping Board

The Salter Max combines a kitchen scale and a chopping board into one extra-large tempered glass platform with a 15kg maximum capacity. On paper that sounds efficient. In practice, it falls short on both counts.

Tempered glass is harder than metal, meaning it dulls knives with every cut, and the glass surface is disconcertingly slippy under food. Chopping directly on the scale is impractical because you have to remove and zero the contents to get an accurate reading, which defeats the point of the combination. Because the unit contains batteries, it cannot be scrubbed or submerged, so raw meat is off the menu and cleaning is limited to a spray and wipe.

The one genuine use case the testers identified: the large platform keeps the display visible when weighing ingredients into a big pan that would otherwise cover a smaller scale’s readout. Salter has been making scales for over a century, but this hybrid does neither job as well as a simpler dedicated item. One star.

Buying Advice

The pattern here is clear. Gadgets with a single focused purpose, like the Boska cheese curler, tend to justify themselves when the task matters to you. Gadgets that combine functions, or that add friction to an everyday job, generally disappoint. Before buying any kitchen accessory, ask whether it replaces something you already own with a better version, or whether it merely adds another object to the drawer.

Conclusion

The cheese curler earned five stars for doing one thing exceptionally well, the Kitchen Safe earned four for solving a real behavioural problem at a steep price, and the Duramitt and Salter Max both earned one star for overpromising. Choose the specialist tool that matches your habits, and skip the hybrids.