Baby Chef Ultimate Baby Food Maker

Basicly, this device does an excellent job at making baby food and every new parent should seriously consider getting it. It does however, have a few minor flaws. If you skip to the end of this review, I'll detail a list of pros and cons. Otherwise, read on for a detailed description of how it works and where some minor issues lie.

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My wife and I use this device all the time. To cook the food, you place what you want steamed in to a slotted cup, pour in a "guestimated" amount of water, put the vented dome on it and press start. This thing cooks by heating a little hot plate in the water resevoir and just continuing to boil away until there's no more water. There's a clever little catch pan to keep all of the water from just falling back in to the hot plate compartment. This catch pan can and does overflow, especially if you're cooking "wet" foods such as yellow summer squash. So the water resevoir really needs a wipe down after every use. Not a big deal, the plastic and the metal hot plate are both easily cleaned and debris doesn't really stick to them. So the steam function requires a little playing with to decide what water amounts work best for different foods, but it works quite well. The box and manual both claim that the steamer compartment can also function as a bottle warmer. They lie! Technicaly, this works. It just works very poorly. It tends to take far far too long and the water resevoir needs emptied when you're done. This requires unplugging the device and hauling it to the sink. Just skip this feature all together and you'll be much happier.

---The blender. This side is essentially just a Magic Bullet that's been repackaged. You have to be carefull about adding liquid to the stuff you've steamed. This little blender, much like a full sized blender, is going to struggle on thick substances like steamed sweet potatoes. Just add water or milk if it's struggling and try not to expect too much out of the little rubber clutch that spins the blades. A lot of reviews on this sight make a complaint about the gasket or the clutch not holding up. I'm not sure what these parents are blending, but I'd be willing to bet that they are simply overburdening the blender. Take it easy and this thing's going to last.

---As a side note: USE ICE CUBE TRAYS!!! So the wife and I tried some cheap, disposable 2oz plastic containers to store our food in the freezer. They'd shatter very easily. We started looking at various baby-specific food storage and were rather aghast at the prices. Well, my wife read a review which suggested dishing the food in to some ice cube trays and just emptying those in to labeled ziploc bags. This little tid-bit of information has saved us countless dollars and headaches. Now we just load a few cubes in to a bowl, maybe even mixing and matching, and zap that in the microwave. Yes, we check the temp and have found that about 1min 15sec is perfect for 5-7 cubes. Now for the review breakdown:

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PROS:

---Steams quickly with a "set it and forget it" feature that lets you walk away.

---Has a catch pan in the steamer that lets you add the nutrient-rich drips back in to the baby food. Yay!

---Beeper lets you know when steam resevoir is empty and automatically turns off heating element. You'll want to wait another minute or two, letting it cool.

---Entire device is rather stain resistant and foods wipe off with little to no scrubbing.

---Blender is fairly sturdy and, providing it has enough liquid, blends food to a smooth consistency quickly.

---Blender cleans easily and is dishwasher safe.

CONS:

---The amount of water needed for each food is a bit of an art. There's plenty of room for error. Under-steamed? add water and go again. Over-steamed? lesson learned, baby will still eat it. You learn quickly, so this is a very minor complaint.

---There should be warnings about not making food too thick. If you try to run the blender with thick foods, you will break it!

lastly...

---THIS IS NOT A BOTTLE WARMER!!! regardless what packaging and manual may say, this is a terrible feature and is only added to the labels to make the machine appear more impressive. I'm providing a 5-star review anyway, because I love this thing and pretend that this feature doesn't exist. If you do the same, you should be quite pleased with this product.

I was making my 6 month old food the old fashioned way, steaming it on the stove and then running it through the blender. Problem with this is you cannot get rid of the chunks on some food, you have to babysit the food while its steaming and washing out the blender was a pain. This is an amazing machine! I can steam my fruits and veggies, meats, pastas, blend them til they are smooth(no chunks), warm breastmilk for daddy to feed him and thaw and reheat the baby food I made...all in one machine! The clean up is a breeze-wash with soap and water! It takes up little space on the counter and it is a nice looking machine too. With the price of baby food these days and not knowing even how to pronounce some of the additives, this is a great investment. You know exactly what your baby is eating. No preservatives needed...just make and freeze(or make as needed-its fast). I have ziplocks full of cubes of food in the freezer. I am having so much fun making the food my husband asked where we are supposed to put our food since 2 full shelves in the freezer are full of food and bottles...lol! But we have a happy, healthy baby boy and you cant replace that feeling of making and feeding your baby wholemade food.

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The first time I used this machine, I was making a banana and formula puree, it busted. The rubber seal wrapped around the blades.

The product sounds very promising. I would love to have a working one. However, I called Kidsline and they told me they would need to talk about it and get back to me. What?! They never called back. So, I called Amazon who had me send the machine right back for a new one or a refund. Thank you Amazon! I will take my refund!

The product may not be a zero or a 1, but Kidsline is definitely a zero in my book. I will never purchase another Kidsline product for fear I will have to deal with costumer service!

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First off, for those that had the rubber band problem... it's a really easy fix. Just inspect your product before using it. If the band is not fully snapped in, run your finger over it and it snaps back into place.

Now for the product review: pretty good stuff. I like that it's one system for multiple uses. Previously, I was steaming veggies on the stove in a steamer basket, then processing the food in the big food processor. It seemed like a lot more work with all that stuff. With the Baby Food Maker, I can do all the same things without the hassle of wrestling with the big processor and big stock pot. Still the same amount to parts to clean up but the mess (because let's face it, making baby food gets messy!) is much smaller.

The only complaint I have is that I'd like to make a large batch of food all at once and freeze the excess and with the Baby Chef Ultimate Baby Food Maker, you can only make about 3 servings at once. But that's really a minor detail.

Overall, I'm really happy with it and happy to use it regularly.

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We've had it for several days now and I have to say I was skeptical. No more. It works, and it works well. Compact, simple to use and clear instructions included. Tested it out right off the bat with a batch of carrots, about ten minutes later popped them in the blender portion and bingo! Good blend, great consistency. I've used it to warm up bottles as well and it works well at that.

Pros:

Well designed*

Easy to use

Good low/no water safety feature in the steamer portion

Compact

Great idea for the small ring as a handle on the steamer section, saves you from the hot plastic when removing the cover

Cons(suggestions really):

*maybe a better way to drain any excess water from the steamer portion

A way to add liquid without disassembling the entire blender container, minor minor issue

Doesn't make my youngest like carrots. BAH!

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