Zyliss Easy Spin Salad Spinner with Pouring Spout, Gray

We use salad spinners all the time in our house for prepping lettuces and other greens for salads and cooked dishes. I had been looking for a spinner with a pull-string mechanism for a while after using my mother-in-law's spinner from the '80s. But everybody makes lever or push-down mechanisms, which are terrible in my opinion. They take too much force to operate and don't last very long. In comparison, this Zyliss spinner is so easy to use, and it is very simple to reach the speed you need to drive off the water. Every aspect of the spinner shows how much thought went into the design, from how the pull handle can sit flat for storage or at an angle for grabbing to the complex shape of the basket. Initially, I was annoyed by the clear plastic top shield. My wife and I were confused by the fact that it doesn't snap into place permanently, and we struggled a bit to figure out how all the pieces go together snugly. But then we realized that it shouldn't be permanently attached. It's job is just to protect the spinning mechanism from water infiltration. It is held in place by flexible clips so that it can be removed easily for cleaning. So once we got the hang of handling this piece, we find the spinner very easy to put together and use. I contacted Zyliss to ask about the black plastic construction, and they told me they don't use recycled plastic (the source of toxic components in normal black plastic utensils). Instead, they use a wheat-based filler and new plastic for their tools, so I'm confident they are safe for my family.

Lettuce comes out dry and stays in balance when spinning