OXO Good Grips Little Salad & Herb Spinner, Plastic

Product Information

For each test, we noted how operating the pump or knob felt and how much strength was required to start and continue spinning. After recording the responsiveness of each spinner and the level of stability the base provided, we saw how many pumps or spins it took to completely clean and dry the produce, noting any difficulty in stopping the spinner once it got going.

If you need something that won't break but can handle washing and drying smaller batches of lettuce, this 3-quart Progressive Collapsible Salad Spinner with a silicone construction and collapsible design is a wonderful option. It's ideal for traveling and use in smaller kitchens or dorm rooms. In testing, we found it actually reduces to just 3 inches when fully collapsed, so storage could not be more convenient. In the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen Appliances Lab, we put 18 salad spinners to the test. We drenched 26 pounds of lettuce and put them through the wringer, noting the percent of water removed from each batch. Then we repeated it all two more times. These are the best salad spinners you can buy, according to testing; plus, several additions that caught our eye: Certain units performed poorly in this category, specifically the Brieftons BR-SS-02, which only removed 67% of the dirt water, and the Mueller 5-Liter Vegetable Washer, which only removed 70% of the dirt water. Ease of Spinning The bowl of OXO's Steel Salad Spinner is just beautiful: Crafted of brushed stainless steel, it has a beautifully rounded shape and a grippy underside. We'd buy it on its own as a serving bowl…vthe fact that it comes as part of a salad spinner is just a bonus. Sometimes you only need a petite spinner that stores compactly but has the oomph of larger models. The Oxo Good Grips Little Salad and Herb Spinner is just right for small portions of lettuce, berries, and especially bunches of fresh herbswith its 2.5-quart basket. We found that it easily accommodated two heads of radicchio for one test, two bunches of cilantro for another, and one pint of blueberries for a third.We'll forever have a soft spot for how OXO designs products that are easy and comfortable to operate. The company's Good Grips salad spinner uses a similar design as its Steel spinner, but the bowl is clear plastic and can double as an attractive serving bowl. Salad spinners will get lettuce almost completely dry–about 90% of the way with a good quality model. Freshly-cleaned lettuce will last longer and experience less wilting if they're rolled up in towels after spinning since the towels will absorb the remaining moisture while keeping the leaves from drying out. The lever takes some force to push it down, but once the bowl gets spinning the lever is easier and easier to push, and it can be done with one hand. The brake stops the spinning immediately, which the company says will help "fluff" the greens. We did feel like the rapid momentum that the lever motion was able to achieve, coupled with the sudden braking, helped shake every bit of water off the leaves, making this a very effective salad spinner. And the flat design of the lid makes it ideal for storing the greens right in the spinner. Meal prep for weekly lunches is made easy with the Farberware Professional Salad Spinner. With 5.5 quarts of capacity in the basket and an almost 7-quart bowl, you can easily wash and dry multiple heads of lettuce. During our tests, we washed and spun two large heads of romaine lettuce and observed there was still space in the bowl for more. It can also be used as a colander for other kitchen tasks, such as draining pasta or washing bulky vegetables.

Westmark's take on the salad spinner uses a rotating crank to spin the colander inside. The crank is easier to turn than some of the other models on our list, but if you don't turn it just right, it tends to skid over the basket. Salad spinners are a game changer when it comes to meal prep. Fill them with greens and water to wash your lettuce, and then spin to drain and remove excess water. You can also use your salad spinner to drain veggies after washing. Salad spinners are essential since clean, dry leaves are better-prepped for dressing on salad (and they stay fresh longer). You can even store your greens in the colander – the vents help with air circulation, which slows down the rate of spoilage. Handle-style spinners: Easier on the hand than the knob variety, a handle-style salad spinner is also difficult to store because of the awkward shape. The extended handle is attached to the gears, and as you manually spin the handle, the basket spins.The OXO Steel Salad Spinner, however, underperformed in this category. Despite having a very similar design theme to the OXO Good Grips Salad Spinner, which worked fine here, the OXO Steel's brake button consistently failed to "bite." Even after pressing the button with considerable pressure, the colander would still struggle to come to a complete stop. Ease of Cleaning Small kitchen owners, this one's for you. The Prepworks Collapsible salad spinner is designed to flatten down to half its size (only three inches) while not compromising capacity or performance. A wide band of flexible, silicone-like plastic spans the middle of the bowl as well as the colander insert, folding on itself for storage. This updated version of Zyliss' classic salad spinner has a redesigned spin basket that's designed differently from other spinners. Instead of being perfectly round, it has wide ribs, and is designed to "fluff" the salad when you hit the brakes on the spinner. We're not sure if this design is any more effective than a traditional round bowl, but overall the spinner performed well, yielding greens that were fairly dry. A salad spinner is not a necessity, but it does make meal prep a lot easier—and not just for greens. You can wash and dry a multitude of lettuces and other greens, like kale or collards, but you can also efficiently wash and dry fresh herbs, berries, and bulky vegetables, like broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, potatoes. You can even wash and dry your hand-wash-only laundry. It's an efficient way to complete the task, but you may want a separate spinner.

Standout features include the patented plunger, which is incredibly easy to operate—even one-handed. During testing, we lauded the minimal strength it took to depress the plunger while still feeling sturdy and comfortable in hand. It only took 10 pumps to completely clean and dry a large head of romaine lettuce, and no berries were bruised after five efficient plunges and fast-action braking. The wide, flat base has a rubber ring that we noted held the spinner completely secure on the counter while processing across all three tests.Sometimes, you can find an outer bowl with a flow-through design with holes in the bottom to drain the water as you spin. The advantage is that the lettuce dries faster, but this has to be done over a sink to avoid messy spillage. Many types of salad spinners have an outer bowl that doesn't feature holes in the bottom, though. The upside is that you can do your spinning on the counter, but you must dump your bowl periodically to drain the water. There are some models, like the Westmark, that have pour spouts that allow for a more convenient draining experience. If you're a big fan of leafy greens and eat salads regularly, it may make more sense to opt for a salad spinner that's dishwasher safe and requires less effort to clean. If you don't have a dishwasher or don't plan on using your salad spinner often, the perk of hand washing means your salad spinner will probably resist warping and last longer.

At 6.2 quarts, the Brieftons BR-SS-02 had the most capacity for greens. This is extremely handy when entertaining for a larger dinner party. Our tester found you could fit 6-8 large servings of salad in this spinner. The braking button worked exceptionally well, despite having the largest capacity. This is where this model shined, but on other functions and features, it failed to impress our reviewer. Pull Cord Spinners: These work just like they sound — simply pull the string to activate the spinning (kind of like a lawnmower). This style of salad spinner requires the least amount of effort, making it a great option for folks with limited mobility or reduced grip. However, the string can be susceptible to discoloration or even breakage with time. Like its sister product, the spinning is initiated by pushing the pump, and in this model, the brake works even better, immediately freezing the basket's motion. We liked that the pump handle is comfortable and grippy, that it can be used with the right or left hand, and that the whole thing is relatively lightweight. We tested each salad spinner using salad greens and herbs with varying water content levels, including romaine lettuce, green leaf lettuce, radicchio, and cilantro. We also used them on bulkier vegetables, strawberries, and blueberries to asses how they perform with delicate and firm produce. To test the strength of the baskets, we used each to drain freshly-cooked pasta.This spinner uses a rotating knob mechanism and has to be operated with both hands — the other hand holds the lid down or it'll tip. It's a little arduous to crank, but the operation is quiet, and although it's not the most effective spinner in our bunch, the greens are dry enough to use. The bowl can be used for serving, but it's got a fairly basic design and is made of filmy clear plastic that makes it look like the base of a food storage container. This spinner has to be hand washed. If you're looking for a salad spinner that's efficient but also modern and attractive, the Oxo Steel model is a great choice. It has the elements expected from Oxo's trusted brand, plus a sleek design that looks as good on the table serving your freshly spun salad as it does on the counter as a tool. Anyone who has grown their own vegetables knows that sometimes things can get a little dirty during the harvesting process. Though greens from the store or your local farmers' market would most likely never be this dirty, our lead reviewer saw it necessary to put the spinners through a more extreme test. The spin basket had an unusual pattern of cutouts; some are horizontal while others are angled upwards and downwards, which might account for how thoroughly the water was able to pull away from the greens.The spinning action works with a pump mechanism, and the pump handle has a comfortably rounded shape made of grippy plastic. It feels great in the hand and doesn't require much effort to operate, for lefties and righties alike.