Cuisinart DFP-3 Handy Prep 3-Cup Food Processor

Comment: I'm quite satisfied with this product because it has performed according to the advertising and to my expectations. It does what I need it to do. Cuisinart has a good reputation, and that's why I was confident that I would get a well-performing product.

Comment: The processor is handy and right sized.
The build quality looks good, isn't as loud as some of my previous ones.
The dough kneading feature was my main concerns, after couple of tries I can get it to do what I want.
Overall it is worth the money I spent.

Comment: I got this item mainly to knead the dough and it works well for that. But the attachments given for grating and cutting veggies are not as great as I thought.

Comment: The unit is super-solid. Very powerful motor... you can tell by the weight of the base and the sound of the motor during operation. Very quiet and very smooth. Spins more slowly and runs a lot quieter than I was expecting. It's tank-like, in a small form factor.

But it comes with several unfortunate drawbacks. First, you cannot use it with liquids AT ALL. Last night I tried making "Frozen Banana Fluff" and ended up with rice milk and cinnamon all over my counter and appliances (it required serious clean-up, as the milk and cinnamon were thrown over a wide area). I put in one frozen banana in chunks, 1/2 cup rice milk (well below the liquid "Max Fill" line), 1 tbsp flax meal, several dashes cinnamon, 1/4 tsp vanilla extract, and about 1/3 cup coconut milk. I was using the S-blade. The instant I turned it on milk and cinnamon sprayed out from the seam between the bowl and the cover.

I cleaned up everything, then carefully reassembled the unit to try again (I'm a mechanical engineer by trade, and can assure you the problem wasn't caused by improper assembly). I wrapped my hands around the seam, hit the pulse switch once, and the same thing happened again (this time my hands caught most of the liquid).

Here's the deal: When you turn it on, the liquid gets whirled around and forced up the side of the unit and comes shooting out the seam between the bowl and lid. Part of the problem is the diameter of the "skirt" on the lid that's supposed to help create a seal between the two (think of it as an insert that extends an inch down inside the perimeter of the bowl). It's undersized by about 3/16" compared to the diameter of the bowl (that's a lot). Another factor is the lid has two tiny nubs on the sealing surface to help ensure the lid stays fastened tight (plastic parts are often designed this way - it provides some tolerance to the design if the part warps slightly). The problem is that these nubs (about 1/16" tall) keep most of the lid's sealing surface from contacting the bowl. So if you combine the smaller lid diameter with the sealing surfaces that don't touch you've basically got a completely open path for the liquid to escape. And does it ever!

Another drawback to this unit is amount of scraping you have to do to get solid food evenly chopped. I think this is because the blade RPM is so much slower than most processors. It doesn't throw the food around the way a higher RPM machine would do. So if you turn it on and leave it, the bottom part of the ingredients gets chopped/minced but not much of the top. To do it evenly you have to turn it off, open the unit, and scrape / mix the top ingredients into the ones at the bottom (the presence of the S-blade can make this a tricky operation). And each time you take off the lid you've got a mess to deal with upon reassembly because some of the food gets thrown into the sealing area similar to the problem with liquids mentioned above.

When a unit has design flaws like this it introduces another major inconvenience. To finish what I was making last night I had to transfer everything to my Vit-Mix blender. So now I've got two appliances to clean. That's the problem, you reach for this little processor wondering, "Am I going to have problems with it leaking? Can it chop the way I need it to chop without making a mess, and without prematurely pureeing the bottom part of the ingredients before I get everything scraped down and mixed together?" So you roll the dice, find out it can't do what it easily should be able to handle, and now you've doubled your clean-up time (even more if it created a big mess along the way).

Overall I give it an "A" for construction / durability / form factor, a "C-" for chopping and processing performance, and a "D" for unit design. 2-1/2 stars.

Comment: I had a similar model of Cuisinart food processor, and the blade recently broke off while in use, broke through the plastic container, and flew across the room. As a result of luck only, no one was in its path. Customer service had no real response; they suggested that I pay $20 to replace the broken parts.

An examination of the broken blade shows that this is likely to be a recurring problem with this model and any other Cuisinarts using a similar blade. It is clear that this structural failure is due to a lack of reinforcement of the blades at the point of riveting. The removal of material for the placement of the rivets, the thinness of the material, and the large amount of leverage placed upon the rivets by the longer blades led to the structural failure of the part. This failure could have happened at any time, and could have caused severe injury to the user. The tempering necessary to create blades that stay sharp is the same tempering that makes it impossible to have such thin, un-reinforced parts. The blades should either be made of thicker material, or have a wider section in the area of rivet contact to avoid failure.