In contrast to the Breville BFP800XL’s 26 pounds, this Black & Decker weighs a mere 8. It sports a no-nonsense appearance with a black plastic housing, reflective of this brand’s association with power tools.
The manufacturer’s tagline for their range of food processors is “Life made simple”, and this could hardly be more apt. As long as you don’t have any special requirements, it does very well at slicing, chopping, pureeing and shredding. As far as mixing dough, making nut butter and grinding meat goes, well, you will probably have to pay more if getting perfect results is important to you.
As a something of a bare-bones design, it is also fairly loud depending on how you use it. Also in accordance with this price, the plastic parts are not dishwasher safe and will easily be damaged by rough handling.
Works Well as Long as You Work with It
In a sense, you could say that this is a very nice first food processor, but will disappoint someone who has owned a more capable one before. Once you get a glimpse of what a machine like this can do, you may end up regretting not spending a few bucks extra to begin with. While the machinery itself seems durable, the working bowl most definitely isn’t and you may want to get a spare at the same time as this food processor.
Suction cups on the base help to keep the appliance in place, though these obviously work better on plastic or granite surfaces than wood.
Putting it together before use takes a little bit of practice and care: you may think that you’ve put it together in the right way, but the safety latch might not agree and refuse to turn the motor on. It can be frustrating wondering whether the electronics have burned out when you’re just having finger trouble, one reason why we also recommend the Hamilton Beach 70820 for its “Snap & Stack” assembly concept.
Apart from that, this Black & Decker shares a flaw with many similar machines including the Hamilton Beach 70730: power is delivered to the blade or disc via a central shaft that sticks up through a hollow tube. This means that putting too much liquid into the bowl will result in some splashing and dripping out onto the motor.
In addition, this drive shaft can’t be removed from the motor assembly. This can quickly become a food hygiene problem if you don’t make a special effort to clean it after every use. Other parts, too, have a couple of grooves and crannies for which you might have to use a washing-up brush.
Somewhat Limited, But also Very Affordable
This food processor’s controls consist of soft buttons that are easy to press. When assembled, the handle as well as the feed chute are located directly to the front, restricting your view of what’s going on inside – an annoying but not critical flaw.
In short, the Black & Decker FP2500B PowerPro offers good performance and capacity at a very affordable price. These virtues have to be weighed against what would be serious drawbacks in some eyes.
- Very economical
- Compact and lightweight
- Simple to use
- Kind of difficult to keep clean
- Plastic parts feel cheap
- Limited range of functions
