OXO Good Grips Salad Spinner Review: Long-Term Use

Counter space is the whole argument in my kitchen. I cook dinner most nights for my wife and our teenage son in a 1990s ranch house in Hammond, Louisiana, and the counter between the stove and the sink is about two feet of usable real estate. So when I bring a new gadget home, it has to earn that spot within a month or it goes to the back of the pantry. The OXO Good Grips salad spinner has been sitting on that counter for six months now, and it hasn't moved. That is the short version. The long version is about what happens when you use a tool like this three or four nights a week, not on a photo shoot.

I spent twenty years on the line in restaurants before I moved to a warehouse supervisor job, so I have opinions about kitchen tools that are probably more forceful than they need to be. A salad spinner is one of those things you think you can live without until you have one, and then you wonder how you did it. I bought this one because my wife was tired of me drying lettuce with a kitchen towel and flinging water across the counter. I told her we could use a colander and a towel, and she said we had been doing that for fifteen years and it was time to stop.

How I've Used It

I've used this OXO Good Grips spinner for six months, which means I've used it on every kind of salad you can make at home. In that time I've spun romaine, iceberg, arugula, kale, spinach, cabbage, and about a dozen bags of pre-washed greens that still needed another rinse. I've used it to wash and spin herbs like parsley and cilantro, and to give sliced cucumbers and cherry tomatoes a quick rinse before they go into a bowl. It's also become my go-to for washing strawberries and blueberries, because the basket is gentle enough not to bruise them and big enough to hold a full pint.

The routine is always the same. I pull the cord a few times, the basket spins, the water flies into the outer bowl, and I lift the basket out with the inner colander. The brake button stops the spinning in about two seconds, which is the difference between a tool you use and a tool you fight. I tested it one night with a full head of romaine that I had just washed, and after ten pulls the lettuce came out dry enough to dress immediately. It was a Wednesday in late September, and I remember because I had family coming over and I was trying to get dinner on the table in under an hour.

I've also used it for things it wasn't designed for, because that's what home cooks do. It's great for spinning cooked pasta after a quick rinse, or for drying fresh herbs before they go in a pan. I've even used the outer bowl as a large mixing bowl when I'm making a big batch of slaw, because it's the same size as my big metal bowl and the lid keeps things from splashing. The inner colander doubles as a strainer for washing rice or quinoa. I don't think OXO would list those uses on the box, but they work.

The Pull Cord and the Brake

The first thing you notice is the pull cord. It's not a crank, it's a cord that you pull straight up, and it's the system that feels most natural to me. I've used crank spinners in restaurants, and they work fine, but a crank takes up more counter room and you have to hold the bowl with one hand while you turn with the other. With this one, you hold the lid with one hand and pull the cord with the other. The cord retracts automatically, and it doesn't tangle the way I was afraid it would.

The brake is the detail that makes me trust it. When you press the button on top, the spinning stops almost immediately. I've had spinners where the basket keeps turning for another five seconds after you let go, and that's how you end up with salad on the ceiling. This one stops when you want it to stop. I've never had a single drop of water land outside the bowl, and I've used it at full speed with a full load of wet greens. That brake is the reason I don't hesitate to spin a whole head of lettuce instead of doing it in small batches.

The lid locks securely, and the bowl has a non-slip base that keeps it from skating across the counter. I've used it on a wet counter after washing dishes, and it stays put. The whole thing is sturdy, not flimsy. I've had cheap spinners that felt like they would crack after a month, and this one has been through six months of daily use without a single sign of wear. The plastic is thick and the parts fit together tightly, which is what you want in a tool that's going to live on your counter.

How Much Lettuce It Actually Holds

The box says 6.22 quarts, and I'll tell you what that means in real terms. I can fit a full head of romaine, washed and torn, in the basket. I can also fit two heads of leaf lettuce, or one large head of iceberg, or about eight cups of pre-washed greens. For a family of three, that's plenty for a main salad with leftovers. On Sundays when my mother-in-law comes over and we have twelve people, I can spin two batches back to back and have enough for a big bowl without feeling like I'm working in shifts.

The basket is the right size for the bowl, which sounds obvious but isn't. Some spinners have a basket that's so small you have to spin in tiny batches, and others have a basket so big it barely fits in the bowl. This one has a basket that sits in the bowl with about a half inch of clearance all around, so the water has room to fly out without the basket wobbling. The lid fits over the basket with a seal that doesn't leak, even when I'm spinning at full speed with a lot of water.

I measured the basket one afternoon just to be sure. The diameter is about nine inches, and the depth is about five inches. That gives you a useful capacity of roughly seven cups of shredded lettuce, which is enough for a salad for four people with some to spare. The outer bowl is a little bigger, and it holds about eight cups of water when you're washing greens in it. The whole thing, bowl, basket, and lid, stacks together neatly, and it fits in the bottom of my small pantry shelf without taking up a whole shelf.

Cleanup and Counter Space

The best part of this spinner, for me, is how easy it is to clean. After dinner, I lift the basket out, rinse it under the tap, and put it in the dishwasher. The outer bowl and the lid are also dishwasher safe, though I usually just rinse them because they don't get dirty. The whole thing takes apart in about ten seconds. There's no gasket to fight with, no weird corners where lettuce gets stuck. The cord mechanism is sealed, so you don't have to worry about water getting into the pull assembly.

Counter space is the real test, though. When I'm not using it, the spinner sits on the counter because it's too tall to fit in a drawer. It's about eleven inches tall when stacked, which is shorter than a standard cabinet shelf, so it fits under the upper cabinets without blocking the counter. I keep it next to the cutting board, and it doesn't get in the way. If I had a tiny galley kitchen, I might tuck it away, but for my mid-size ranch kitchen it earns its spot.

I've also left it out overnight more than once, and it doesn't look like an eyesore. The design is simple and functional. The clear bowl lets you see when the water is done spinning, which is a small thing but it matters. You don't have to open the lid to check if it's dry, you just look at the bottom of the bowl. That's the kind of detail that separates a good tool from a great one.

What I'd Change

Nothing is perfect, and I'd be lying if I said this spinner is. The pull cord works well, but it takes a few pulls to get up to full speed, and if you're in a hurry you might wish for a crank. It's not a dealbreaker, but it's worth knowing. Also, the lid is not completely airtight, so if you overfill the basket with very wet greens, a little water can leak out around the edge. It's never been a real problem, but I have to be careful not to fill it to the absolute top.

The other thing I'd mention is that the basket has small holes, which is great for washing greens but not ideal for rinsing rice or quinoa. The holes are fine for that, actually, but the basket is shallow enough that you might need to do it in two batches. I've used it for rinsing a cup of quinoa and it worked, but I had to be careful not to let the grains escape through the holes. For a dedicated rice rinser you'd want something with a tighter mesh, but that's a different tool.

The brake is the reason I don't hesitate to spin a whole head of lettuce instead of doing it in small batches.

Who This Is For

If you eat salad more than twice a week, this spinner will pay for itself in saved time and clean towels. It's for the person who is tired of drying lettuce with a kitchen towel and getting water all over the counter. It's for the family cook who needs a tool that can handle a big batch on Sunday and a quick side salad on a Tuesday. It's for anyone who has limited counter space but wants a gadget that actually earns its place. The OXO Good Grips spinner is that tool.

I'd also say it's for people who like to wash their own greens instead of buying pre-washed bags. The spinner makes that job fast enough that you don't feel like you're doing extra work. And if you grow your own vegetables, this is the tool you want for bringing them from the garden to the table. I've used it for everything from spinach to radishes, and it handles it all.

Who Should Skip It

If you never eat salad and you only buy pre-washed greens that you eat straight from the bag, you probably don't need a salad spinner at all. It's an extra thing on the counter, and if you're not going to use it, it's just taking up space. Also, if you have a very small kitchen with no counter space at all, you might want to consider a collapsible spinner that stores flat. This one is sturdy and lives on the counter, so it needs a permanent home.

If you're the kind of cook who does everything with a chef's knife and a cutting board and you consider a salad spinner a luxury, then maybe you're fine without it. But I'd say that's a self-imposed limitation. This is one of the few gadgets that actually does its job better than any alternative, and I've tested a lot of them over the years. The only people I'd tell to skip it are the ones who genuinely never make a salad.