Reviews for Avantco SL512 12" Manual Gravity Feed Meat Slicer - 1/2 hp

Writing to speed up the search comparisons for everyone. The boxes typically ship with some cardboard damage because the package is VERY heavy and it is easy to damage the box in shipping. You will understand when you pick the box up with a friend off your porch. The adjuster to my meat slicing depth operates off a plastic cam wheel under the unit and mine was broken when it arrived. I am betting the mfr. ships these set hard to stop vibration which makes them prone to break during shipping. If yours comes and the depth adjuster seems to not work check the cam. Webstaurant did great, I sent a picture of the broken part and a replacement cam was sent but you must figure out how to replace it. Some quick QA for the low end home/recreational user. Can Read More

We have owned an Avantco SL713MAN for some time, recently upgrading to an automatic slicer. Note that doesn't mean there is anything wrong with the Avantco. In fact, it's quite the opposite. We moved to an automatic slicer for efficiency, but the Avantco has served us well and will be moving to a lower capacity spot. What I can tell you about the Avantco is that A) it is durable and B) it is a joy to work with. In regard to point A, the Avantco has stood up to commercial abuse for 1000s of hours. It has needed maintenance, but one should expect as much. Blade replacement and machine lubrication are easy to handle yourself (directions clearly walk one through the process). Through the hours of work, the Avantco still looks new and, more importantly, functions as such. As to point B, having a unit function near flawlessly whenever Read More

I operate a BBQ restaurant we needed a slicer for Brisket. After searching the local restaurant supply business and needing a good quality product we chose the SL512 12". Price was within our budget and delivery was only 3 days. The package was damaged but slicer was in good shape. After using the slicer to slice 320 lb. of brisket, at one time, which took several hours of use, slicer held up well. Clean up was easy just requires a few tools, as mentioned in other reviews. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a medium use slicer. CM Smoke Artisan BBQ

I was a little nervous about buying this slicer because i didn't know much about this brand. But I'm glad i took a chance it is very good quality I thought it was going to be light but it has some good weight to it. Ive had it over a year now and still works great. I am definitely a fan of the Avantco slicer.

Product came damaged. The box looked great but when we removed the slicer from the box the depth indicator under the knob was shattered in the bottom of the box. Poorly constructed out of cheap thin plastic. I purchased the added warranty through Kitchen ready and filed a claim the day after it arrived and still have received NO contact. I cannot find online here where to file a report of the damage the product had when We opened the box. SO frustrating that you spend close to $1,000 on an item to have it come damaged and just sitting there unable to be used.

Having only used Hobart and Globe slicers during my 40 year culinary career, I was a bit hesitant to purchase something different for my new business. My experience is in large hotel and country club Garde Mangers. But given the size of my semi-retirement business and the potential use, I decided to take a shot on this lesser expensive Avantco 12" slicer. It's been two months and I do not regret the purchase at all. This slicer has been excellent. It slices meats and cheeses like a champ. The only time the blade slows down is when I try to force thick Chef Salad sized Swiss Cheese slices through. So, I take my time with that and it works as effectively as the Hobarts and Globes of the world. Cleaning any slicer is always a pain. This slicer takes a bit of time to clean but once I came up with a Read More

We purchased this slicer as an upgrade. We use this slicer primarily for slicing smoked beef brisket. We needed a slicer that could handle large amounts of meat. The first time using it was amazing, I sliced fifteen 15 lbs briskets (cold) in a very short time and I was very pleased with the performance. From the moment I unpacked it I knew I had purchased a quality piece of equipment. Ordering & receiving: The slicer arrived by freight truck on a pallet and packaged very well in a wooden box. I received excellent communications from the freight carrier and set up a time to receive. The driver called 15 minutes before delivery and arrived on time. Unpacking & set up: With the use of a hammer crowbar unpacking was quick and simple. We placed the slicer on a sturdy stainless steel table, washed the slicer down & sterilized ready for Read More

This slicer is disappointing. I was hoping for something with more power and speed. We have been using it for cheese and some meat, but the low power causes it to bog down and It had a hard time recovering it’s speed.

Why pay thousands for meat slicers, when you can purchase this Avantco slicer! I have owned very expensive slicers in the past and not a one compare to this one! I highly recommend!

Poorly constructed. Just a little over a year and it's falling apart already. Knob which holds the carriage slips and is double threaded, which makes it twist off (leaving only the screw in place) but doesn't allow the carriage to come off. Ridiculously hard to clean this thing because of its design. Despite the claims, it will stop when slicing a block of Swiss cheese. Would not recommend or buy again. But that seems to be the norm for Advantco products overall.

It saddens me to do this, because we had such high hopes for this slicer. I will try and summarize my experience as fast as possible. We did an exhaustive amount of research prior to deciding on the Advantco SL512. Our main consideration when choosing was product capacity (how big of a piece of meat it can handle). My wife makes her own bacon and the pork bellies are big. We needed a slicer that could do 11" minimum. This slicer met that criteria according to the website. We ordered Sunday, Wednesday Fedex drops off the wife's new slicer. So far, So good...... That's when the good stopped. I'll list the problems/defects/inadequacies below. 1) Arrived with multiple scratches/dings 2) Blade will not spin when turned on (yes its plugged in). Moves about 1mm then binds on something and doesn't move again. 3) Blade is actually in contact with the blade guard, assume this Read More

I'm having trouble adjusting the cutting edge height for my slicer. The knob goes 0-4, but then feels like it runs into a lock. What am I missing here? Is there a lock on the height control knob? I'm a beginner with a meat slicer and have tried to push, pull, twist on the knob but I'm feeling defeated. Can someone help me out by giving me some pointers, the manual is less than helpful on the matter and I can't find anything online. The videos just tell me how awesome it is, but I have yet to feel that excitement. Help, please. I just want to cut some ham and bacon.

We needed a heavy duty, commercial meat slicer but only for occasional use so we didn't want to spend a lot. For the price, this is exactly what we were hoping for! It does the job perfectly and is easy to clean too just as a commercial one should. The only issue we had was trying to clean around the blade guard. So we decided to take the entire blade off every time we clean it to be sure. Also we had to get a Berkel cover for it that is a little over-sized since I couldn't find one specific to this.

I wanted to wait atleast a year and post a review, I have sliced about 100,000 pounds of meat and still not a glitch.. I am on my third blade but besides that defintely got my moneys worth... Is there better slicers out there... of course. But for the money etc it hit the mark. If you are trying to run this more than 4 hours a day don't be cheap and get a bigger model. But most of these reviews that are negative come from cheap owners who buy the cheapest model and expect it to be the best piece of equipment ever...

I purchased this slicer for personal use, I have used it several times and it is doing everything as I expected.

Item was received scratched up missing screws and broken handle.

Fine for cheese and bread not the best deli meat. Hard to handle and small room for larger meat

Great slicer well built

It’s a good thing it comes with 2 sharpening stones! It took one stone to get [ so called] razor sharp blade sharp enough to cut butter. Other than that it seems to work alright.

What a big bang for your buck! I’ve been using this in my food truck for almost 3 years to slice my tomatoes, onions and shaves my prime rib and marinated meats perfect. It excels at most tasks but kind of sucks for cheese. It’s not a you get what you paid for, you get way more.

Good

Been using this slicer for about 6 months so far it works great it comes with the sharpener so you can always keep the blade super Sharp. We use it primarily for slicing Pastrami and cheese. This slicer does the cheese better than others I have used I think because the way the blade is shaped the cheese does not stick to it and go flying off of the slicer like some I have used.

I was so impressed with this meat slicer! It operates so smoothly and the way it comes apart to clean it makes cleaning so easy and fast. I would definitely recommend the slicer.

This is by far the best slicer I have ever used. It effortlessly slices through meat, on the thinnest setting it does not shred the meat or cheese. My customers are extremely happy now that we have actual slices instead of pieced together product.

We decided not to open our deli, so we don't use it nearly as much as we intended. However, we do use it periodically to slice turkey and tri-tip for sandwiches and it works great for that. It's a great unit for the price in a light to medium duty applicaiton.

We needed something to slice blocks of cheese for sandwiches. This is very efficient and works perfectly. We also use it to slice tomatoes and onions. Very happy with this and it has not let us down.

This slicer didn't match up to the reputable brands that I have come to know. It's much lighter and built for lighter use. It arrived damaged but the great Customer Service department had it picked up and returned, and then credited immediately. I would not recommend this for heavy duty or daily use. I ended up purchasing a more expensive brand. I believe you get what you pay for.

This slicer is great, It not only cuts every type of lunch meat you throw at it, it is also powerful enough to slice most block cheese that is 4x4, or 4x6 square inches or less. I have used this slicer for more than 8 meat loaves thus far and it still is as sharp as when I purchased it new. Have not even had a chance to use the included sharpener.

This machine is very useful because it cuts meats at different sizes. It is sturdy and easy to use. It is very good for deli meats and has a variety of sizes one could choose from.

I was nervous buying our first slicer but this thing is doing a great job for us. We slice all of our meats and cheese's for our toasted fresh and this thing works great.

wow, this avantco sl512 12' manual gravity feed meat slicer is very good, you can slice a lot of different things on this too, strongly recommend this product.

This truly is not for a food service business. This machine has way to many parts to clean, does not open very wide. It is a great machine to use occasionally, price is right. If you are looking to a machine to use on daily basis, invest a little bit more money will be worth it.

Fine piece of equipment here, we use it for a bunch of different items, never has failed us. Easy to clean and by far my favorite slicer made! Great buy!

This slicer was a replacement for a couple of really old Hobart machines that got too expensive to keep repairing. The Avantco arrived with some freight damage, but the folks at Webstaurantstore replaced the parts that were damaged. The slicer works great. It does take some getting used too as far as cleaning, but once you get used to removing the blade it's not too bad at all. A great value considering a Hobart is more than triple the price.

For the price, an excellent value. The motor runs strong, cool, and quiet. The blade as it comes is sharp and seems to maintain its edge. It is overall easy to clean. We run cheddar cheese through it for hours at a time and it has no trouble keeping up.

we LOVE this slicer! We use it literally everyday and have been for several years. Its accurate and heavy duty and just as good any any of the brand name ones we have used.

Meat slicer was so heavy as to be basically impossible to move. You have to almost completely disassemble it- remove screws, etc, to properly clean it. So basically it's nearly impossible to get really clean for food safety. Do not buy it- you will not be happy.

This meat slicer has become a feature of our deli. Once you figure out how, it isn't too hard to clean. Greasing up the sliding part with some nonstick spray is a pro-tip I'd like to share.

This Avantco meat slicer is a good quality slicer and the price is great! The meat slices perfectly and the machine is easy to use.

Great slicer for the price! Came damaged on the bottom, but is expected due to the light/thin material it is made out of. Over all it has sliced through raw, cooked, and frozen meats without effort. Only critique is the guard surrounding the blade makes it difficult to effectively clean without taking the blade off.