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 the spinners 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.
Leave a comment and join the conversation!