Review: The Black+Decker Kitchen Wand Is an Impressive 6-in-1 Device
Owning the right kitchen gadgets and cookware can make preparing food easier, simpler and more enjoyable. However, like any product category, there’s a lot of unnecessary fluff out there trying to convince you that the automated version is better, you DO need six different sizes of the same tool, and the latest technology will finally land you that neighborhood Michelin star. We’re here to tell you that’s not true and answer the pivotal question, yet again: Do you actually need this?
Today’s subject? The Black+Decker Kitchen Wand, a 6-in-1 multi-tool that promises to replace some of the most commonly used gadgets in your kitchen, simplifying them into one device with interchangeable parts. It has one motorized base that powers a can opener, salt and pepper grinder, milk frother, whisk, immersion blender and wine opener. It debuted at CES earlier this year and has just been officially released on Black+Decker’s website. SPY was lucky enough to get to test this gadget before its release date; keep reading to find our full review.
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Does it replace all of these gadgets in a worthwhile fashion? Do they each work as well as you want and expect them to? Is it easy to change between modes? Keep reading to find my thoughts on all of this.
Don’t feel like reading the full deep dive? Fair enough. This gadget falls under the “nice to have” kitchen tools category. Is it totally necessary? No. Is it easy to use, powerful and convenient if you don’t already own satisfactory versions of at least a few of its interchangeable heads? Yes.
Finally, is it unlike any other kitchen gadget we’ve ever tested? Absolutely.
We recently included this unique product in the SPY Smart Home Awards 2022, and it’s finally available for sale online. Read on for our full Black+Decker Kitchen Wand review and find out if this multipurpose kitchen gadget is worth it.
Black+Decker 6-in-1 Kitchen Wand
Black+Decker Kitchen Wand: The Specs
Black+Decker’s Kitchen Wand comes with six different heads that replace the following kitchen tools:
Immersion Blender
Whisk
Frother
Can Opener
Wine Opener
2-in-1 Salt + Pepper Grinder
The tool also comes with two large storage cases for housing the various attachments, a charger console plugs into the wall, and a portable smoothie pitcher for serving drinks, sauces, etc.
The Wand is about a foot long when hooked up to each attachment and is about the width of a flashlight. It has an intuitive grip with two power buttons, one for on/off and the other for pulsing the motor. There’s a speed dial up top and a battery level indicator on the top that shows you, via 1-3 LEDs, how much battery life you have left.
The speed can be adjusted for the immersion blender and the whisk; all other attachments have a set speed that can’t be changed.
Black+Decker Kitchen Wand Review: 6 Attachments
In this section, I will go more in-depth about each of the six Kitchen Wand attachments before discussing the gadget as a whole.
Can Opener
The can opener is deceptively brilliant. It attaches top-down, rather than from the side like most can openers. It fastens onto the can via an easy lever and then electronically cuts the entire top of the can off in one clean swoop. This makes removing the top of the can easier since instead of fishing it out of the can by its jagged, freshly-cut edge, it’s completely cut off. This was the most impressive, innovative feature of the device.
Immersion Blender
The immersion blender also works incredibly well. I’d never used one before, so I’m not sure how it compares, but it blended a small number of ingredients smoothly and was super easy to use. It didn’t splatter the ingredients everywhere or slow down in the face of tough, fibrous ingredients.
One note I will make about the device as a whole is that the length of it distances you from whatever you’re mixing, frothing or blending. This kept my clothes cleaner and made less of a mess in my kitchen overall.
2-in-1 Salt + Pepper Grinder
This feature has some definite pros and cons. The con is it’s difficult to load salt and pepper into the device. You have to do it through these small doors in the sides; they aren’t big enough to avoid spilling without a small funnel. This attachment also feels the least necessary since by the time you hook up the attachment and turn it on, you could’ve easily shaken a salt and pepper shaker into your dish.
The grinder works well, and switching between salt and pepper is easy. You can use any spice you want in them, and the cap that attaches to the bottom keeps the spices from leaking out of the bottom between uses and causing a mess.
Wine Opener
This attachment functions exactly like other electric wine openers you’ve seen online or in person. I don’t already own one of these, so I’m excited to use this feature. I think this attachment will stay connected to my Kitchen Wand the most, as I already have versions of the other ones in my kitchen I enjoy using.
Whisk
This electric whisk attachment is great if you need to mix something thick, incorporate ingredients quickly, or have a lot of baking and want to save your forearms the effort. It works perfectly well, and the variable speed is an excellent feature. You can easily change the speed while you’re using it with one hand, and the attachment stays firmly in place once attached.
Frother
Lastly, the frother. This one also functions like the whisk and works very well. The top speed will be too fast for most jobs, but the speed dial is easy to change mid-mix, and the frother didn’t become detached or separated during use.
Black+Decker 6-in-1 Kitchen Wand
Black + Decker Kitchen Wand Review
Overall, this device is well-designed and functions a lot like a kitchen Swiss Army knife, as SPY’s Tech Editor eloquently put it in his piece about the gadget a few months back. The attachments attach and detach smoothly; it’s not too heavy or too light and easy to charge.
My biggest hurdle with using it has been that there are some jobs that it’s great for and others for which it’s unnecessary. There are some attachments, like the whisk, that I don’t think I’ll use as much simply because I already have a faster manual method for whisking.
There are other attachments, like the wine opener, that I will use a lot because they work way better than the manual method I currently use. This gadget also takes up a lot of space in a kitchen when you add in the charger, all the attachments and the storage cases. I haven’t been using the cases and don’t plan to, but if someone did, they would eat up a lot of room in a cabinet or drawer.
Pros:
Well-designed, powerful and easy to use
Clear battery level indicator
Comfortable to use
Multi-purpose and intuitive to change between attachments
Cons:
Large, bulky size and difficult to store
Charges slowly
My Overall Verdict? If you don’t already own an electric wine opener, can opener you love, or an electric mixer, it’s worth a purchase. It satisfyingly replaces all of these gadgets. This might not be your gadget if you prefer to manually prep things in the kitchen.
Black+Decker 6-in-1 Kitchen Wand
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