Not So "Good" Good Grips - Oxo 9 inch Tongs With Nylon Heads
Written: Jul 02 '09 (Updated Sep 13 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: attractive design, nice closing feature
Cons: harder to use, hard to use w/ heat
The Bottom Line: The Bottom Line is these tongs work okay in some situations, but are not a favorite in this house.
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| KMINER's Full Review: Oxo Good Grips 9 inch Tongs With Nylon Heads 10546... |
Kitchenware is a huge market. A good pair of tongs seems like something almost everyone has in with their kitchen gadgets and utsensils these days. We have a perfectly good pair of tongs for kitchen use, but that doesn't stop us from receiving another pair. My Mom picked up the Oxo Good Grips 9 inch Tongs With Nylon Heads for us as part of an Oxo themed Christmas gift. We didn't think we needed them, but they matched the other Nylon items she purchased for us, and we were happy to test them out.
Unfortunately we've found that they spend most of the time in the utensil drawer.
This product, made by Oxo, is a nice enough looking product - silver (stainless steel) and black and sleek in its design and a smaller 9 inch size. They are coated where your hand grips with a black "soft grip". The same coating goes around a loop at the vertex of the tongs, which also serves as a pull tab designed locking mechanism. The tips of the tongs are coated in scalloped black nylon.
I must admit they are flashy to look at. I can see why she picked them out for us, and they match with other stainless steel items we have in our kitchen. And pulling in and out the tab to make a set of tongs "lock" is sort of fun to play around with. I like the coating and how they really are perfect to use with nonstick items as the Oxo Good Grips 9 inch Tongs With Nylon Heads don't scratch. These tongs are dishwasher safe (though we don't have one so we handwash them) and they are heat resistant to 400 degrees.
But all in all these don't make the best tongs beacuse we've found them not to work well when cooking food. These tongs work better when serving food than they do with things that involve the heat, for a few reasons. I think the size can be good at 9 inches, though other larger tongs (12 inches and etc) allow you to still pick up items and remain further away from them - which is helpful in a situation like frying bacon. We've found overall in most cooking situations or anything involving hot food these are not the tongs we reach for.
The Oxo Good Grips 9 inch Tongs With Nylon Heads feel a little heavier in my hand than other tongs we own. They open up and remain taut as they are held together with a very tight spring. When you go to push the tongs in together, say in order to pick up something, you can feel resistance. It's not like it's so tight or hard to do, but why should I have to apply more pressure just to get the tongs to close together? The tongs have a desire to remain in a particular open position, so I am always having to deal with this sense of resistance with them, which is one of the other main reasons why I don't like them.
I asked my husband why I rarely see him using them and he had similar concerns. The tongs are too short and not flexible enough to use on the grill. He has slotted spoons and the like already for making pasta. And we've both tried these with frying bacon and gotten grease splattered on our hands each time. They are too widely opened to be a favorite for serving salads and a little too bulky for something that delicate. These tongs don't destroy the salad or anything, but they just don't feel as smooth to use.
Oxo Good Grips 9 inch Tongs With Nylon Heads just aren't as nice to use, though they really are an attractive pair of tongs to look at. And I do love the locking feature that allows the tongs to stay closed when not in use. But we find ourselves reaching for them less and less, and they aren't the tongs we prefer.
A review of a set of tongs we prefer and use often:
Calphalon Tongs
Recommended:
No
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