Johnny Apple Peeler

Firstly, I've used only once... so far... to peel about 20lbs of apples. What a time-saver! And finger and knuckle saver! (Regular peelers take their toll... don't they?) And I don't usually offer reviews unless the item impresses on a number of levels. Secondly, bought this for my 84 year old mum to make her canning go a bit more smoothly and easily. Two simple parts are added onto the peeler out of the box (handle and the prongs that hold they apples.) Easy to do... have a screwdriver handy. The item seems of good quality and was easy to clean. Suction worked well on the kitchen counter. As far as operation, take it slow/steady. It works wonderfully! Cores the apples and slices them up in a circular cut as they spiral from the peeler blade. It's best to remember the price of this unit... it does a big job - but it won't stand up long (I believe), to "fast, let's get this done NOW" action. Go easy on it as you crank the apples after centering them onto the prongs. I was helping my mum make apple sauce. She mentioned that it looked like fun since it appeared to be "so easy." And it is fun... and very easy. Especially if you've ever had to do this WITHOUT one of these gadgets! (Saved us hours of effort!) Now... I have not used this as a potato peeler... and I have no intention to. I believe it works best for apples. Apples are more uniform than a potato and the apples can more easily be pushed onto the prongs for peeling.... IMO. Mum loves it... of course, I'm doing the peeling. But I don't really mind. It is easy and you find yourself done with the job in a short time. Now... mum wants another 20lbs of apples peeled!

The suction cup does not move until you release it! The peel is perfection-thin enough to remove the peel, but does not sacrifice the flesh of the apple. The spiral slicer and corer is efficient and makes preparing apples for my granddaughter fun and simple! In fact, I am FaceTimed often to peel an apple for her viewing pleasure! She loves the peeled apples you can purchase and this does the trick, quickly, easily and safely! I used home grown apples that were small, bumpy and ugly! Johnny Apple’s removal of the skin made these ugly ducklings into beautiful swans! User error resulted in a misaligned core and I accidentally bumped corer once which stopped my process until I figured it out! I peeled, cored and sliced enough small (plum sized) apples in 30 minutes which made almost a gallon of apple butter. (It was a lot of apples!) I plan to try potatoes next. I have an electric peeler which had very little success with anything. I did not buy the unbranded intentionally because of the big job ahead of me. I’m glad I spent more money on the real thing. The Johnny Apple Peeler is a sturdy, easy to use kitchen tool that I did not realize how much I needed! I plan to buy another one as a gift for a very special granddaughter and her family!

The title summarizes it all! Background: my old cast iron P'Chef clamp-base peeler/corer/slicer (PCS) finally bit after probably 15 years of good service, including several group camping trips where it got abused unintentionally. It had a broken tine, and the knives had gotten dull - it no longer peeled even the firmest apples. I wanted to replace it with one which had a suction cup base, and started reading reviews. A reviewer of a different PCS made of aluminum returned hers because it was too lightweight to get the job done right and suggested other buyers seek a cast iron one. After visiting a brick & mortar store where I could pick up and hold an aluminum one and feeling how flimsy it was, I followed the reviewer's tip and found this Victorio cast iron PCS here at Amazon. I'm extremely happy with it! Good pictoral of the various parts in the instructions. Some assembly required with the fork, handle. No problem - I didn't need the instructions for that, but they are included for anyone who's never owned a PCS before. Adjustments for the various knives (peeling blade, coring/slicing blade) were very clear and gave me more knowledge about the product than I ever had with my old PCS. I had to align the coring/slicing blade and did so without any issues. I initially had the peeling blade set too wide, and it took off more peel than I'd anticipated, but a minor adjustment got it to where it needed to be. Though the peeling arm clearance was factory set, I adjusted it after measuring the distance between the peeling blade and the fork, thinking it was too wide. Turns out, I should have left it as it came! Again, minor adjustment got it back to where it needed to be. The suction cup works as advertised, and I'm very pleased with it. I never had used my old clamp-based PCS where there were compatible counters - I ALWAYS needed the base, and it ALWAYS moved around while operating it. With the Victorio, the sucker stays put when putting the PCS through its paces. No problem on smooth counters - I'm using mine on a laminated counter, so you should be good to go even if you don't have granite or Corianne. In fact, the sucker sticks to the tempered glass (ie. slightly textured) cutting board I often use on the kitchen island, as well as my polyethylene cutting board I use at other times. Won't stick to my wood board, but neither will suction darts from a dart toy! My main use for this gadget is apples. Granny smith and ambrosia have been successful. Looking forward to trying Fujis, a variety which I was once able to use on my old PCS before it started wearing out. I've not tried potatoes (then again, I never used my old one for potatoes either), but given the quality, this is probably something I'll do. Got a recipe I've been wanting to try. I believe the slices are thicker that what I've grown accustomed to with my old one, but I consider that a difference rather than a drawback. Other positives: 5 year warranty, and replacements for the fork (in case overzealous campers manage to break a tine again), peeler blade, corer/slicer blade, handle, spring, and wing nuts. They're available from the manufacturer's website. I'd definitely recommend the Victorio suction base peeler corer slicer!

This is a most clever and useful kitchen gadget and saves me hours when I make applesauce and dried apples from our backyard orchard. I can load, core, peel and slice an apple in 30 seconds. It's important to understand that there are many brands of this same device. If you read the reviews, it becomes apparent that most are cheap knock-offs with lots of performance and durability issues. This one is rock solid and very well made, has a 5 year warranty, and provides good domestic customer service. The only reason I did not give a 5-star review is that the device cannot handle apples with a diameter of much over 4 inches, requiring me to process my larger Honeycrisp apples the slow laborious way.

This thing works very well, it's solidly made. It takes some getting used to, but once you get some practice, you can peel and slice apples ridiculously quickly. There's no way that an electric version of this would be any better, by the way. I know you can get coring/peeling/slicing attachments for stand mixers, but the actual turning-the-crank part of the process is over in a jiffy. Most of the time spent using this tool is preparing the apple, and then preparing the device for the next apple. And because the hand-powered tool is small and doesn't require a bulky motor, you can mount it next to a sink using the suction cup mechanism (which actually works!) so the peels are very easy to clean up. To use these properly, you have to use fairly firm apples. You have to cut enough off both ends so that the surfaces are flat and parallel to each other. The peeler is made to be pushed outward by the apple as you get toward the thicker part in the middle (that's the whole trick of the thing), but you want to minimize the travel of the cutter arm. That means cutting enough off the ends of the apple that the thickness of the remaining part doesn't vary too much, and adjusting the cutter arm so it doesn't start any further inward than necessary. After cutting the ends of the apples, you stick each apple onto the scary looking three pin pointy thing, trying to get it straight, and start turning the crank. You may have to nudge the cutter a little bit when it first starts out. When the apple is done, I find that it helps to use a small kitchen towel or a clean rag to pull the cores off the shaft. They'll come off more easily and your hands don't get as sticky. A lot of single-purpose kitchen gadgets aren't worth it. They may make one particular task slightly easier than it would be just using a decent, sharp knife, but they're a pain to clean and take up space and just generally don't help enough to be worth buying, let alone keeping around. But there's a reason these things have stood the test of time. Between this thing and a good stand mixer, making apple tart (appeltaart, a Dutch recipe) becomes a minor chore rather than a big project. I don't know how long the various blades are going to stay sharp, and I think it would be tricky to sharpen them; they do sell replacements, though. The thing as a whole is easy enough to clean: you basically just rinse it off. I haven't seen it rust.

Excellent piece of old-school technology. Simply does what it does. Makes apple-coring and slicing (and peeling, if you want) go much faster. The peeler on this model takes off more apple flesh along with the skin than ideal. But I usually leave the skin on, anyway.

I work for an apple and pear grower/processor and wanted a tool that is reliable and sturdy as I use it a lot. I have previously used another well known brand, and hoped this would be at least as good. It is better. It has handled some fruit that I thought would be too ripe based on my experience with the other brand. The paint is solid too, which is essential for clean up and continued clean use. I have only had one minor problem, which is the screw on the handle comes loose after I do 40-50 apples. That is not a big deal. I just had to learn to keep the screw driver nearby and a with a quick tightening, I am off and running again. I am glad I made the choice. If you think you might get a better value by buying something for a little less money, I suggest you forget that because this unit is pretty solid for home use. Some simple tips for use are: Make sure you align the stem and bottom of that apple so that it travels the correct path as you turn it through. If the apple is an odd shape, it still processes it nicely as long as you make sure to align it properly. Do keep a nice paring knife nearby for the occasional trim that you will need to do before or after you run it through. Make sure you have a good non-porous surface to mount it on, and a little water on cup assists in make the bond strong. If it is secured properly you can crank on it pretty good and it will not move. Do wash it off as soon as you finish the last apple. I use a dish brush and it gets into the nooks and crannies without scraping my knuckles up. Apples have sugar content and it makes a little bit harder to clean once it has dried. Still not a big deal, but it is harder to get all of it off can keep it sanitary for the next use. The is a direct correlation between an apples firmness and the sugar content. The meat in an apple starts out as a starch and turns to sugar as it ripens. The firmer the apple is, the higher the starch content. Apples can be stored for long periods of time in cold storage. However, apples have 30 taste characteristics and after a few months in cold storage they loose 20 of those characteristics. If you get an apple that has no taste, it is probably due to the length of time it has been in cold storage. This is a good time to tell your grocer that you do not want to buy old fruit. Also, in many cases the people who are stocking produce will have the packing information, including when it was packed. Size can also be a tell tale sign. Smaller apples are often not as ripe as larger apples as the are picked earlier in their growth cycle. Because smaller apples are less ripe, they store longer and may get to market after longer storage times and be less tasty.

I had an apple peeler before. I knocked it off the counter and broke the metal. I really, really like this one. The suction to the table is very strong--even though my table was slightly damp. I like that the slices are slightly thicker than my old one. I also like that the prong that holds the apple in place is removeable. I think it let's me clean it better. My granddaughter helps me with my apple peeling and she really liked it, too. It feels very sturdy.