Kenwood FP570 with Liquidiser Food Processors

My mum is the main baker in the household. For years she had a black and white classic Kenwood Chef mixer since the year I was born but through the middle of the 1980’s reckoned that because of its impending size and numerous smaller attachments it made her bake and thus contributed to all of our increasing waists! Thus we have had a few food processors to replace the old Kenwood. We have had makes such as Morphy Richards which didn’t last long, an old Kenwood Gourmet which lasted three years before the main spindle on the motor cracked and after this a little Braun model that did everything she asked of it until one day after six years it stopped working. I could have then offered my mum, my Kenwood FP100/110 food processor, but it is on the small side and doesn’t have enough capacity for a large family or at the very least for a family that loves to bake.

Purchased from the now defunct Index catalogue store in 2005, the Kenwood FP570 now remains a second hand or supply stock bargain purchase on online sites such as EBay. There’s a reason to why it is worth seeking out – thanks to a recession buyers are now faced with buying the cheapest and then having to seek online advice later if they lose the user manual or a specific spare part when it goes wrong. The difference with a Kenwood is that it’s a major British brand and spares for most of their past machine including the FP570 are easy to obtain. From some sellers online, some parts are even cheaper than obtaining the part from Kenwood themselves!

One of the main advantages of buying the FP570 is simply because of its myriad of attachments that, for the most part the more experienced baker in the home may well appreciate. At the time of purchase we had several decisions on several different food processors not least Kenwood who had three other models on offer. The FP570 however seemed to have it all without being over-priced;

Nar2’s Quick Skip Product Spec

• 1.3 litre liquid capacity.
• 2.6 litre bowl feasibility with maxi-canopy liquid disc fitted.
• 1.36 kg (3lb) dry weight capacity.
• 1 litre Liquidiser jug.
• 450-watt with 2 set speeds and pulse.
• 2 Speeds and Additional Pulse button.
• 2 way feed tubes.
• Julienne fine steel chipper disc.
• 2 geared whisk attachment.
• Fine course slicing disc.
• Fine course shredding disc.
• Citrus Juicer.
• Cord Storage.
• Stainless Steel knife blade.
• Kenstore storage box.
• Dishwasher safe bowl and interlocking lid.
• Colour recipe book and optional cost accessories booklet.
• 1 Kenwood Flexible Spatula.
• BEAB approved.
• 3.4 kg weight, size 40cm height (with liquidiser added) by36cm by 18.5cm
• Price in 2005 £66-95, Price in 2012 £15 to £40-00.
• Original 3-year warranty.

Design & Quality

Generally the design of the FP570 is functional though not overly smart. Controls consist of only two controls and a push button for the pulse. But then there’s another control by the left hand side that shows a power slide bar with “1” and “2” and is essentially reserved for the liquidiser jug although it can be used for additional speed when the main acrylic food processor bowl is used. Above this slide bar is the push button Pulse function button and any time it is used, it must be held down manually – so like other makes and machines, the pulse button can be used for quick blitzes. If however you want a quicker speed, flick the left hand slide bar to “2” and you’ll get an additional burst of speed. This is all made simply with good and large decals to know exactly what you are doing rather than just pushing a switch and hoping for the best and you’re left at no doubt what the speeds are for thanks to the simplicity of the layout marked by the quality of flush fitting design – so handy when it came to wiping the machine down after use. Infact, where build quality is concerned the FP570 is built well and has 4 stubby suction feet underneath that bonds it to a flat non-tainted surface.

Attachments Performance

Let’s get the nitty gritty aspects out of the way. The Stainless steel knife blade is made up of two wings of knife blades and is very sharp. Kenwood do supply little acrylic ears that can be put on each blade after use but over time we have lost these and whenever the blade is used, we put it out of arm’s reach on the window sill in the kitchen. Now as this blade is considered to be extremely sharp, we use this blade to slice and chop up onions. It excels at this and it excels at being used as a multi-versatile whisk as well as coping with bread dough, pastry, chopping meat, vegetables and nuts. It will not grind down Parmesan cheese however.

The only disc that gets hardly used is the Julienne fine chipping disc. Since none of us eat that many chips the disc hardly gets used although we did try slicing potatoes with it and the result was finely professional looking potato chips that we ended up doing for a party. This is one disc that cannot be flipped over.

Next up the fine slicing and shredding discs; this machine actually comes with three discs for slicing and shredding. What is more apparent with the actual attachments on this machine is the simple fact that they are actual discs. A separate spindle comes with the machine that means that you attach the spindle to the machine, via the central neck of the bowl and drop the chosen disc in – it’s as simple as that! So, you have a fine slicing disc, swap this side over and you have a fine shredding disc; this produced excellent lettuce strips much finer than I could ever chop! That other disc with a normal shredding plate design has a similar slicer blade which can be swapped over if you want to normally slice. All vegetables get sliced evenly and quickly with this machine, regardless of what disc you decide to use. All of the discs are made of stainless steel and dishwasher safe.

So whilst you’ve chosen which disc to use, and dropped it onto the spindle into the main bowl (which by the way you just put on anti clockwise and twist to clockwise to lock into place) fit the lid on and ensure the safety lock has met the lid tooth. Once this is done, your machine can be ready to use.

Other Performance Aspects

What I love about this machine compared to my basic Kenwood food processor is the fact that there are two feeder tubes. One tube is the standard large tube and inside this is another tube – a smaller tube which enables thinner vegetables such as celery, thin carrots etc to be pushed down the feeder. This means there is less wastage on carrots for example that are about to be shredded let alone anything small that you want to use such as cheese which is often a food product which gets wasted on food processors. Shove a block of cheese in the larger tube without the smaller pusher fitted and there is some considerable waste that usually finds a way into my mouth!

One similarity between my Kenwood and the FP570 is the maxi-canopy disc. I can see Kenwood really thought about Magimix at the time when it comes to the general design; most Magimix jugs have larger capacities, so to double on the graduated measurement, Kenwood supply a plastic lid with a hole in the middle. This is called the Maxi-canopy disc and it actually allows liquids to double up in volume. It fits above the main stainless steel blade attachment before the top safety lid can be put on and cannot be used with any other disc. However, given that the main capacity of liquid is generally 1.3 litres, you can actually double the volume of liquid using this disc. We normally use this disc when for example; blending down soup mixture and it’s fascinating to watch how it keeps the volume of air back that so often blots the full capacity use of a bowl. No liquids escape either unless you take the push feeder tubes out.

The Twin Geared Whisk

The twin geared whisk is a motorised attachment that once again fits to the neck of the main motor spindle – you don’t have to fit the additional spindle as this is reserved purely for the slicer/shredder discs. This is an ideal attachment if for example you want to whisk light foods and products such as eggs, milk, cream and sugar. Heavier mixtures such as fat and flour will damage this mechanism so best to use the stainless steel blade instead.

Actual use has resulted in a noisy operation on the highest ratio of speed and as such my mum and I just prefer to use our electric whisk instead.

The Citrus Juicer

Like my Kenwood FP100/110/101 series this is the similar juicing bowl and spindle that comes with this machine. It’s made up of two parts. One is a bowl that is perforated and allows the juice to flow through into the main bowl whilst the other part is a reamer that allows you to get the juice in the first place. This reamer is suitably ridged and fits to the top of the spindle. Align the strainer into position to meet the safety lock and go. When you do this, you basically hold half cut lemons, limes, grapefruit etc onto the reamer that turns at speed and juices the desired citrus fruit. This has been a great way of getting basic juice but watch your hands – if you let go of the fruits at any time, the fruit will fly off. At least your hands get a massage though when you hold the citrus fruit down though!

The Liquidiser

The liquidiser has its own place sat at the left hand side of the machine and a plastic recess, reveals the motor spindle when you take this off the top of the machine – those who are familiar with the Kenwood Chef kitchen mixer will feel right at home, here.

Now the liquidiser, I would say is one of the most basic designs that Kenwood included on this machine. There’s nothing special about the jug other than the fact that it is a 1-litre jug with metric measurements located in the middle on the main plastic “glass” and a cap located in the middle of the lid you can twist off to drop things into when blending.

The blender is great at making soups, drinks, pates, mayonnaise (add the oil last through the filler cap) chopping nuts and chocolate whilst also making crumbs from biscuits and breads.

What this jug cannot do is crush ice; the blades simply aren’t up to the job and they were not designed to be used with the hard nature that ice employs. Infact I damaged the jug trying to crush ice and had to order a new jug which came in at £21-99 excluding P&P charges!

The liquidiser is easy to twist off the base but there is no interlocking action on the base, so if children must use this as well as the main unit itself, you should always accompany your child when they are using this machine in the kitchen.

Every attachment is dishwasher safe including the blender – what the manual doesn’t tell you is that the base of the blender jug isn’t really dishwasher safe. We noticed for example that the base actually comes off by unscrewing it and over time when it was used in the dishwasher the cheap plastic ring at the bottom discoloured somewhat.

Anything Else?

There is a cylindrical white and clear acrylic storage box known as the “Kenstore,” storage bin. Effectively this is flip down plastic covered box that allows the user to store ALL of the metal slicer/shredder discs safely and there is even a location for the spindle to store. Although this box is not wall mountable it does have a flat surface and everything can be seen clearly thanks to its acrylic see through flip down lid. It may be a gimmick but it works incredibly well and saves time going through drawers and cupboards looking for blades – although in the past we did have an old ice cream box that kept everything we needed for our last food processor.

The manual is an 11-page A4 size paper booklet that has everything you need to know including pictorial diagrams and key note information regarding the attachments that come with the machine. Additionally there is also a footnote regarding to the maximum capacities this machine can take, which is handy for the amounts of food you can do in one go with this machine.

Despite this model being the top of the range model, the manual isn’t so helpful to include everything that is supposed to come with the machine although an inlay card that has been stapled to the book shows what actual attachments you do get included in the price. Another booklet, the Accessories guide is an all colour affair that allows you to choose other discs and gadgets you can use on the machine but you have to optionally buy these at extra cost.

Similar to the main Kenwood Chef kitchen mixer other gadgets that are cost options range from a baby blender which doubles as a coffee mill, a centrifugal juicer, a potato peeler bowl and a myriad of optional whisk attachments. There is even an optional steel rod tool called “Metal Continental Dough Tool,” for dryer types of bread dough. 7 recipes can be found at the back of the manual that seems a little mean – but you do get an additional colour recipe book included that has been licensed by Kenwood!

Downsides

Yes. What is really annoying is the noise of the motor. The first speed for example has an average noise on the motor and whatever you are using the main food processor for. The blender in particular is noisy when you chop hard things such as chocolate or walnuts, so best to use the main stainless steel blade on the first speed. Once the second and therefore more powerful and faster speed is selected, just leave the room! It really is quite noisy and I do hope that future Kenwood models don’t have this much noise to contend with.

Whilst the capacity of the machine and its versatile uses excel, the overall size of this food processor is quite bulky. If you have minimal workspace you can’t really angle the food processor around any angle unless its face on with the bowl to the right hand side. Luckily on the rear side of the machine, there is a cord storage area where you can wrap excess cord around and the machine feels planted on four of its main feet underneath.

The main base bowl handle has managed to get dirt from the dishwasher trapped inside its handle and you don’t realise this until you look closely between the middle white plastic handle guard of the handle and the clear acrylic parts that bond to the bowl. Although there are known screws you can’t actually unscrew these parts because the screws are plastic bonds. This is annoying when you want everything on the machine to look clean.

The machine copes well with anything that we have thrown at it except crushing ice in the jug blender and trying to get the stainless steel knife blade to cope with Parmesan cheese. You can also use the blade for making dough but for full sized loaves, forget it - the motor just can't cope and in this respect it loses one star off it's general overview. Luckily because of the “optional accessory book” that came with the product we ordered a Rasping blade at £9-99. Because of the blade I broke and the jug, Kenwood actually sent us both of these FREE because we still had the 1 year guarantee left from Kenwood plus the additional guarantee from Index. For £66-95 which at that time we paid for this product brand new from Index, it was the next best thing to what we had in mind – a similar product from Braun or even stooping up to the next level of getting a far more double the cost priced Magimix!

Cleaning

As previously stated all the attachments that come with the machine with the exception of the twin geared whisk are dishwasher safe. I like the fact that the liquidiser jug can be put in the dishwasher but it’s a pity that the actual blade cannot be removed for optimum cleanliness. Any time the machine gets dirty it can be washed down with a minimally damp clean cloth and without cleaning agents to avoid decals being rubbed off.

Final Thoughts

The Kenwood FP570 is a super, well thought out food processor that will last if you maintain it properly and if you are homeowner who likes to cook all the time, the prep work alone that this machine excels at producing is justification enough to consider it. It is a pity that now 7 years later, it is long in the tooth, looks too bulky and can be underpowered when you become more of an experienced cook with it, that it is no longer on sale. However, this is a machine that I have continually recommended because of the performance and the bonus attachments it comes with as standard. If you find the model on EBay, Gumtree or even Friday-Ads, make sure that all the attachments and storage box come with it, to get the best out of it. Even as a machine that is lacking in original tools means you can find the tools on the internet and gives you the custom building option compared to supermarket brands that may look better but aren’t as capable or as robust.

Sadly in 2011, after 6 years of reliable service our Kenwood FP570 broke down. The motor just gave up even though the drive belt inside the machine was intact and sadly the cost of repairing the motor proved to be more expensive than buying a cheaper, far more modern and not as bulky food processor from another brand. Instead, I went onto Gumtree and bought a well-maintained second hand FP570 at a cost of £20. It pays to shop when supermarket brands are more expensive and don’t offer the same capacity as this old food processor. Alongside our Kenwood Chef table mixer, the FP570 is the perfect Chef's assistant. Thanks for reading! ©Nar2 2012