Four Kitchen Gadgets Put to the Test: FryAway, Skinzit, Mach Four and SipVault

Introduction

Most kitchen gadgets promise to solve a problem you already have. The four products in this roundup all try exactly that: an oil disposal powder, an electric fish skinner, a four-blade handheld slicer, and a bottle-top liquid dispenser. We put each one through real kitchen tasks to see which ones earn a place in the drawer and which ones should stay in the shop.

FryAway: Solidifying Used Cooking Oil

Pouring cooking oil down the drain is one of the most common kitchen mistakes, and it is a bigger problem than most of us imagine. It clogs your own pipes, contributes to sewer blockages known as fatbergs, and forces home cooks to make awkward trips to the dump with dribbly containers.

FryAway is a 100% plant-based, non-toxic powder that solidifies used cooking oil so it can be discarded safely in household waste. You sprinkle one scoop per cup of oil into the hot oil, stir, and let it cool completely. The hardened oil can then be scooped directly into the bin.

In testing, it worked exactly as described. Once the oil reached room temperature, it had properly set into a solid mass that could be lifted out whole. It would not fall through holes in a bin liner, which is precisely the point. The result genuinely changes how you can dispose of frying oil at home.

There is one important caveat: once FryAway has been added, the oil is no longer suitable for cooking or consumption. And large volumes should ideally still go to a used cooking oil recycling point rather than organic waste, with small amounts like leftover bacon fat being fine for the food waste bin.

FryAway Pricing and Verdict

The concept is a clear success. Whether the price works is another question. A bag covering around 20 cups of oil was guessed at between 10 and 14 pounds before the actual figure came out at 21.99. That works out at roughly an extra pound per cup of oil, or around four pounds for a litre, which is more than the oil itself cost.

It is very clever, and most of us currently dispose of oil incorrectly, so the status quo is not a solution either. But at this price it remains an added cost on top of an already messy task, and some testers felt the fairer answer might simply be frying less at home and leaving bulk frying to establishments with proper oil collection.

Skinzit: The Electric Fish Skinner

The Skinzit looks like a cordless power tool, and that is clearly intentional. It is designed to reach a market of anglers who want fish cleaning to feel mechanical rather than fiddly. A lever grips the fish skin at the front, a button pulls it through, and a roller separates skin from flesh.

The pitch is appealing: after a day on the water, let Skinzit do the work so you can enjoy more of your catch, without wrestling with bones and skin or losing chunks of meat.

How It Performed in Testing

In practice, results were mixed. The first attempts left the skin chewed up with flesh torn rather than cleanly separated. Watching demonstration videos revealed the technique: keep the fish level, feed it in from the head side, and lift up so the skin passes underneath the roller.

Following that method improved things noticeably. The skin did come off, and the process was quick and arguably idiot-proof. But the flesh was still more chewed than a knife would leave, and the skin repeatedly caught in the roller. One telling comparison: the same fish filleted by hand with a knife produced a beautifully smooth result.

A plausible explanation emerged from watching more demonstrations: the people showing it off tend to be processing freshly caught fish, where scales make the skin leathery and less likely to wrap around the mechanism. With shop-bought fish, that advantage may not apply.

Skinzit Pricing and Verdict

Priced at 140.90, the Skinzit sits firmly in premium territory for a single-task tool. The honest advice from testing: buy a bendy filleting knife and learn the skill by hand. By the time you had worked through that many fish with the Skinzit, you would have learned to fillet properly anyway, and most testers came down against it despite really wanting to like it.

Mach Four Multi Slicer: Four Blades, Plenty of Wobble

The Mach Four is a handheld four-in-one vegetable, fruit and cheese multi slicer with four ultra sharp bidirectional blades, plus grater, julienne, and waffle and wave inserts. The marketing claims eight ultra sharp precision stainless steel blades and calls it the fastest, most accurate slicer in the world, with peeling made eight times faster.

The core design issue is easy to describe. The blades are bevelled so they flex around contours like a razor, which sounds clever but means every slice wobbles. Contact several wobbles in a row and the cut wanders further. The handle gets in the way at one end and the body gets in the way at the other, which is why corners of the produce get missed.

Everyday Use and Handling

Swapping the blade inserts is genuinely easy; they clip in and out without fuss, and the four cutting modes do cover grating, julienne, and wave cuts. But attachment felt insecure in the hand, the cutting angle was awkward, and the whole thing earned a description as one of the most dangerous gadgets tested. Beetroot juice on the worktop was noted as blood only because the tester was careful.

The results that did come out were acceptable on the one insert that stops short of the handle, but even then it was not particularly ergonomic. At 13 pounds it is cheap, yet one tester put it bluntly: whatever it cost, they would pay double to not use it. A good knife and some practice replace everything this does, more safely.

SipVault: Precise Pouring from the Bottle

The SipVault is a bottle-top dispenser that measures and pours liquids from 1 to 999 millilitres in quantity mode. It is marketed as a smart wine dispenser, though the branding suggests a broader message about treating alcohol like a vault: measure it, sip it, be careful a bit at a time.

Accuracy testing was encouraging. A 100ml setting delivered 98ml plus a small dribble, which is far more accurate than any human free pour. Later pours of tequila and whiskey consistently landed two or three millilitres short, largely because air in the pipe takes a run to flush out. Once primed, it is consistent.

Where SipVault Makes Sense

Legally required measures in bars and pubs make accuracy valuable, and it could work for cocktail building where you want 25ml of one thing and 45ml of another. One caveat: if you switch between liquids, you need to flush the pipe out between bottles, which adds cleaning.

The most compelling use case raised was a home wine tasting setup, like the self-serve wine bars where you sample a small measure before committing to a full glass. Line up six bottles with six SipVaults and guests can try and compare freely. The catch is cost: at 57 pounds each, that setup runs to 342 pounds. Measuring cups and kitchen scales achieve similar accuracy for pennies.

SipVault Verdict

This is one of those gadgets that does everything it claims and does it well. The question is simply whether you need it. Both testers concluded the same way: it is smart, accurate, and still not worth the outlay for most home kitchens.

Overall Buying Advice

Of the four, only FryAway solves a problem with no existing cheap solution, and it does so convincingly, though its price per cup of oil gives pause. The Skinzit, Mach Four and SipVault all work to some degree, but in each case a cheaper, established alternative does the job better: a filleting knife, a basic knife, and a measuring cup or scale.

Conclusion

The standout of this roundup is FryAway, a genuinely clever answer to the messy, universal problem of used cooking oil, held back mainly by its price. The Skinzit is a likeable idea that falls short of a knife in practiced hands, the Mach Four is best avoided on safety grounds, and the SipVault is accurate and well made but hard to justify at home. Spend where the problem is real and unsolved; skip where a skill or a basic tool already covers it.