Reviews you can trust.
See why.Salad Spinners
Which salad spinner model can wash and dry your greens without wearing you out?
Top Picks
See Everything We TestedWhat You Need To Know
If you're trying to eat plenty of greens, there's no better tool than a salad spinner to make short work of cleaning and drying them. But a well-designed model is a must. It should be roomy enough to let you prep large quantities in the fewest possible batches. It must remove water thoroughly so salad dressings can cling and sautés won't splatter. Working the spinner should be reasonably easy and comfortable. And cleanup should be straightforward, with simple parts that don't trap dishwater.
We tested seven salad spinners, priced from $15.94 to $48.99, including the newest version of our former favorite, the OXO Good Grips Salad Spinner ($29.99), which was recently redesigned. All the models in our lineup operate similarly: A perforated plastic basket sits inside a larger, lidded bowl. You use a mechanism—whether it's a crank, plunger, lever, or pull cord—to spin the basket, creating centrifugal force to expel liquid, which collects in the outer bowl, leaving the basket contents dry.
We used each model to wash baby spinach, sturdy kale, spring greens, and heavy, sandy chopped leeks and to extract excess juice from quartered cherry tomatoes for a salad recipe. We measured the capacities of the salad spinners' baskets, evaluated their mechanisms, and checked how much liquid they were able to remove from a measured amount of greens and water. As we used and washed them multiple times, we observed how well they held up and how easy they were to clean and dry. One note: Two spinners, by Cuisinart and Gourmia, turned out to be identical except for color; we tested them individually but grouped them together in our rankings.
Big Capacity Lets You Spin in Fewer Batches
The first problem we spotted was capacity. Many models had designs that severely cut into the available space. One was built like a tube pan with a tall central stem, making us fuss to arrange lettuce or leeks around the narrow, doughnut-shaped basket. Another had a wide cylindrical protrusion beneath its lid that hung down 2 inches, slightly crushing baby spinach we'd confidently piled in. A third's basket had a rippled shape supposedly to help liquid escape, but this limited its capacity. The twin models had the smallest, narrowest baskets in the lineup; they were also thin, drooping when we lifted them filled with heavy, wet leeks. Only a couple of models had large, unobstructed, sturdy baskets that let us load in plenty of greens and handle them confidently.
Drain Holes in Lids Are Unnecessary
To get greens and vegetables really clean, we like to keep the basket of food inside the outer bowl while filling it with water to thoroughly soak the contents. Then we lift o...
Everything We Tested
Recommended
- Cleanup: 3 stars out of 3.
- Capacity: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 3 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
The newly updated model of our former favorite now has a much-improved brake and a rounder bowl shape. It worked easily—with just one hand—and was the most effective of our lineup at removing water from a variety of greens, with good clearance under the basket to collect runoff. Its lid is simple to pull apart (and click back together) for easy cleaning and drying, and it's dishwasher-safe. Our only quibble: A central stem protrudes from the lid into the middle of the basket by 2 inches, which slightly bruised baby spinach we'd heaped in, although the greens pressed against the outer walls as soon as we started spinning.
- Cleanup: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Capacity: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 3 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 2.5 stars out of 3.
We're not sure why this oversize spinner is called a “space saver,” but we loved its supersmooth crank mechanism; its easy, effective brake; and its generous, unobstructed capacity. It was a little less effective at removing water than our top choice but was still well ahead of the rest of the pack. The lid mechanism trapped a little water unless we carefully shook it out.
- Cleanup: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Capacity: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 3 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 2 stars out of 3.
While its pull cord is smooth, this model's black plastic top and stainless-steel bowl mean you can't see what is happening inside, and the spinning is virtually silent, making it hard to know how well it's working. But it spun cherry tomatoes so effectively that the extracted juices were whipped to a froth, and it did a fair job of drying greens. It had very good clearance under the basket for runoff water, and its basket held a lot since it was unobstructed. Some testers voiced concern over keeping the woven-fabric pull cord clean, though the rest of the device was simple to disassemble for washing.
Recommended with reservations
- Cleanup: 2 stars out of 3.
- Capacity: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 2 stars out of 3.
Rippled interior ribs all around the perimeter of the basket and a deep lid cut this spinner's capacity down to about 84 percent of those of our top-rated models. The rippled shape was touted as making the spinner more efficient, but we did not notice a significant difference. The lever mechanism snapped up like a catapult when it was unlocked from the flat top and was hard to push for the first few pumps. The sluggish brake was ineffective. The lid had a liner plate that constantly fell off unless perfectly oriented and firmly pressed.
Not Recommended
- Cleanup: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Capacity: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 2 stars out of 3.
This tube pan–shaped spinner's central stem ate up a lot of space; this model held about 63 percent of the capacity of our top-rated spinners. Some testers were stumped by the mechanism that unlocked the bowl and raised it on its stem. While it was easy to spin empty, once loaded with heavy wet leeks or greens, it took a full-body press with both arms to pump the entire bowl down to dry the greens. Thirty seconds of this felt like 30 minutes. It is not dishwasher-safe and it had multiple parts that were hard to dry.
- Cleanup: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Capacity: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 1.5 stars out of 3.
These two models were identical, though the two companies said that they were unaware of this when we contacted them. Their small, narrow baskets held about 77 percent as many greens as our top-rated models and were thin and flimsy, buckling under the weight of three chopped leeks. The baskets were positioned low in the bowls, so spun greens sometimes sat in runoff water. After cleaning, water got trapped under the cranks and oozed out when we turned them days later. Difficult and wobbly to turn, with offset cranks on top, these models were a pain to use. The pair of large, clumsy lid latches wouldn't clip properly if either was aligned over any of 10 plastic nubs protruding around the perimeters of the bowls.
Reviews you can trust
Reviews you can trust
The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing. We stand behind our winners so much that we even put our seal of approval on them.
Lisa McManus
Lisa is an executive editor for ATK Reviews, cohost of Gear Heads on YouTube, and gadget expert on TV's America's Test Kitchen.