SK thinks Cuisinart has a serious manufacturing defect and a big liability issue

SK thinks Cuisinart has a serious manufacturing defect and a big liability issue

This is my Cuisinart Sucks story:: We just finished pureeing a sauce in my 14-cup Cuisinart Food Processor. We poured it in a serving dish, and there was a little bit left in the processing bowl, so I dipped in a spoon and took a big taste. This was a smooth sauce so the hard bit in my mouth surprised me. Gingerly I spit the unknown hard piece back into the spoon. I wiped it off and found it was a part of my processing blade!! I was scared and relieved that I had not swallowed it…that it had not found it’s way into the serving dish for my guests. I inspected the blade. It looked perfect. Then I turned it over. The blade had fractured at the rivet hole under the blade.

Given the location of the break, manufacturing defect appears to be the most plausible conclusion. The professional staff at the Cuisinart center informed me that blades are warranted 3 years. My neighbor happened though my door, about this time. As I repeated Cuisinart’s three year warranty, she gasped and mouthed three years!! After my phone conversation, we both nodded in agreement expensive appliances, but most particularly, something like a blade should be warranted longer than three years. I own a set of Cutco knives that are warranted for life. And Cutco has been awesome servicing that warranty.

After insisting upon speaking with a supervisor, I was offered a reduced price ($25, instead of $35!) on a new blade and free shipping. That’s nice, but I think Cuisinart has a serious manufacturing defect and likely a big liability issue. I tremble at the thought, that I might have gulped down the sauce and caused myself serious internal injury from the tiny, sharp, pointy object. I was surfing the web trying to find Cuisinart's corporate headquaters, to address my complaint, when I found this blog. I'm posting just in case other folks have had the same problem with their processors. Good luck.

I'm not mad enough to say I'd never buy Cuisinart, but I am going to be careful to inspect blades before serving, or licking the bowl!!

S.K.
August 31, 2010 @ 1:41 PM

4 comments (Add your own)

1. Dixie wrote:
This just happened to me this evening! I had processed some quiche filling, left it sit a few minutes, came back and gave it another couple of quick pulses to remix it and heard a clanking noise. When I investigated it I found a small piece of the blade. And exactly like SK, I looked at my blade and it looked fine but I turned it over and found a piece missing right where the two rivets are. There is no corrosion or rust, it just failed at the two rivet holes. There must be some flaw in the manufacture that's adding to metal fatigue because it just should never fail that way.

Thu, April 7, 2011 @ 7:09 PM

2. Misty wrote:
SAME here!!!

Sat, April 9, 2011 @ 1:29 AM

3. kclimis wrote:
Same experience here, too. Then, when I ordered a new one from Cuisinart, it arrived with stress fractures around the rivets.

Sun, June 19, 2011 @ 5:29 PM

4. dschultz wrote:
Last year while cleaning the metal blade I noticed that the lower blade was cracked. There were two cracks at the rivets. At one rivet where there wasn't much metal the crack went from one edge to the other. At the other rivet the crack hadn't propagated all the way. But it was well on its way.

This was a gift and out of warranty anyway, so I ordered a replacement FP-100TX blade in December. Because of this problem I have made a point of examining the blade every time I clean it. Last week the replacement had a crack at one rivet from edge to edge (the thin area). So it didn't last five months.

I suppose this wouldn't be a problem if I used it once a year but I use it about once a week. (Mostly to make salsa and the occasional crumb crust.)

While I am no materials scientist and it has been a long time since I took engineering materials science, this is pretty obviously a materials or manufacturing defect. Possible causes are: blade not thick enough to handle normal stress, defect in blade at rivet holes, or rivet installation adds excess stress.

The first two seem unlikely as it is only the bottom blade that fails and the two blades appear identical. Or at least I haven't found anyone complaining about a top blade failure.

The problem should have been corrected a long time ago. Or it would have been if they cared and had a competent engineer on staff.

I complained to both the seller of the replacement and Cuisinart. As the title of this web site suggests, Cuisinart was useless. My only recourse seems to be to complain as loudly and publicly as I can.

Wed, April 4, 2012 @ 6:58 PM

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