Want to try your hand at making tomato sauce, or maybe some salsa, from the tomatoes you’ve grown in your backyard or from that special variety you found at the farmers’ market?
If so, one thing you’ll want to have on hand in your kitchen is an electric tomato strainer. It’s simply a must-have if you’re going to separate the juicy pulp of your tomatoes from the skin and seeds you don’t want intruding on your sauce or salsa.
Read on to take a look at our choices for the best electric tomato strainer and to learn about selecting one for your kitchen.
Our Top Picks
Best Overall:
Ball freshTECH HarvestPro Sauce and Salsa Maker
Best Multi-Purpose:
Weston Deluxe Electric Tomato Strainer
Easiest to Use:
OMRA Spremy Electric Tomato Strainer
Best Overall
Ball freshTECH HarvestPro Sauce and Salsa Maker
Suppose you’re interested in an electric tomato strainer that is capable of handling the work of helping to make fresh tomato sauce while at the same time not taking up valuable kitchen counter space. In that case, the Ball freshTECH HarvestPro Sauce and Salsa Maker are exactly what you need.
This electric tomato strainer made our list of the best electric tomato strainers available today because its removable hopper nests into the unit for compact storage after use.
And if you’re worried about an electrical cord snaking around your kitchen cabinet, you don’t have to with the Ball fresh tech, which features a cord pocket for additional compactness.
Product Features
In addition to its ease of storage, the Ball freshTECH electric tomato strainer features a large auger that will effectively puree your tomatoes. It also features a wiper blade to ensure that waste is kept to a minimum. And it includes a splash guard to reduce the potential for splatter in your kitchen.
Pros
- Efficiently removes skin and seeds
- Quiet when running
- Easy clean-up
Cons
- It may have some leakage
- It may be susceptible to jamming
- Estimated times for straining may be optimistic
Best Multi-Purpose
Weston Deluxe Electric Tomato Strainer
With its 4-quart hopper, the Weston Deluxe Electric Tomato Strainer stands ready to quickly transform your tomatoes into the base for delectable pastes and sauces. But that’s not the only reason this piece of kitchen hardware made our list as the best electric tomato strainer.
In addition to handling tomatoes, the Weston Deluxe includes three screens. That means that in addition to making quick work of your tomatoes, this electric tomato strainer can also handle berries or even slices of pumpkin.
Product Features
The Weston Deluxe is designed for ease of operation and includes both forward and reverse gearing to move tomatoes and other products quickly through the process of mashing and straining.
As an added bonus, the Weston Deluxe includes some removable plastic parts that are dishwasher-safe, ensuring high-quality mashing and straining with each use.
Pros
- Features various sizes of processing screens
- Very little of processed tomatoes are wasted
- Saves lots of time over hand-cranked juicers
Cons
- May have issues with durability
- Screen holes don’t remove all seeds
- Plastic pieces may shear into processed tomatoes
Easiest to Use
OMRA Spremy Electric Tomato Strainer
If you like tomato sauce and paste, you need the OMRA Spremy Electric Tomato Strainer. With its food-grade nylon auger, stainless steel hopper, and, not least, its 0.25-horsepower motor, the OMRA Spremy will quickly and safely process your tomatoes.
Product Features
The OMRA Spremy electric tomato strainer weighs in at less than a dozen pounds. At the same time, it has a footprint of fewer than 8-by-8-by-8 inches. What that means is that it can either be left on your kitchen counter full-time or, if space is at a premium, easily stored away between uses.
If you’re looking for a first step up from manual straining gadgets, the OMRA Spremy is a great choice.
Pros
- Fast processing time
- Produces lots of tomato pulp
- Great start for thick tomato sauce
Cons
- Metal filters may break
- Cone on strainer screen subject to jamming
- It may not be as powerful as some users would like
- It sits somewhat low on the kitchen counter
VBENLEM Commercial Grade Tomato Strainer
With the VBENLEM Commercial Grade Tomato Strainer, you’ll be stepping into a world where you can easily handle lots of tomatoes for sauces, pastes, and other uses. That, in turn, means that you’ll be able to scan your pastes and sauces for enjoyment throughout the year, not just at harvest time.
Product Features
For your confidence, all of the parts of the VBENLEM electric tomato strainer that come into contact with food are made of stainless steel. As such, those parts are easy to clean, ensuring the ongoing sanitary use of this juicer.
Additionally, the VBENLEM strainer comes with a 9-inch-diameter funnel to ensure the efficient feeding of tomatoes into the machine. The strainer also includes a discharge trough with an angle-adjustment feature to keep your tomato puree flowing smoothly until your job is done.
Pros
- Sets up quickly for use
- Runs quietly
- Easy to clean
Cons
- Oil leakage may be a problem
- It may be difficult for some users to clean
- May not handle seeds well
Raw Rutes Electric Tomato Strainer
If you’re looking for an electric tomato strainer that can withstand lengthy use, you should seriously look at the Raw Rutes Electric Tomato Strainer. If you should ever need it, this tomato strainer can process up to 300 pounds of tomatoes each hour.
Product Features
This electric tomato strainer made our list of the best strainers available today because of its rugged stainless steel construction, all operated with a powerful 0.3 horsepower motor lubricated with food-grade oil.
Another safety-oriented food-grade material, epoxy, is used to coat the auger housing, keeping any problematic corrosion or rust away from food processed in the Raw Rutes Electric Tomato Strainer.
Pros
- It also handles small batches
- Well-constructed machine
Pros
- It also handles small batches
- Well-constructed machine
Buyer’s Guide for the Best Electric Tomato Strainer
Easy to use. Easy to clean. Those six words should be your guide as you choose the best electric tomato strainer for your household. But there are also a number of other things that you’ll need to consider as you consider adding a strainer to your kitchen equipment inventory.
Types of Electric Tomato Strainers
As you’re shopping for the best electric tomato strainer for your kitchen, you’ll learn that there are two types, each of which handles the work in a different way.
A “slow masticating” strainer is great for squeezing as much pulp as possible out of your tomatoes, but it’s not so great at wringing all the juice from them. What that means is that it’s great for making sauce. And it will add a bit of diversity to your kitchen appliances because it can handle other soft produce.
A centrifugal strainer, on the other hand, will get the juice out of your tomatoes very quickly. But once you’re done, you’re likely to find lots of pulp left behind with a centrifugal stainer.
Don’t Needlessly Complicate Your Decision
For instance, you’ll want to look long and hard at the features of various electric tomato strainers. Sure, it’s tempting to consider buying an electric strainer with all the bells and whistles. But even if you can get a great deal on a loaded-up tomato strainer, you might want to back away.
It’s simple: If you’re not going to use the complete array of features on a full-out electric tomato strainer, you’re just needlessly complicating your life in the kitchen.
And, of course, more features mean more that can go wrong, leaving you with the possibility that a malfunction in a feature you rarely, if ever, use can keep you from using your tomato strainer for the reasons you bought it in the first place.
Think About Where You’ll Use Your Electric Tomato Strainer
You also might want to consider where you’ll be using your electric tomato strainer as you make a purchase decision. One of the not-readily-apparent things to which you should pay attention is the noise that the strainer makes.
If you have pets in your house or live in an apartment surrounded by neighbors, you might want to choose a strainer on the basis of how quietly it operates.
Types of Electric Tomato Strainers
As you’re shopping for the best electric tomato strainer for your kitchen, you’ll learn that there are two types, each of which handles the work in a different way.
A “slow masticating” strainer is great for squeezing as much pulp as possible out of your tomatoes, but it’s not so great at wringing all the juice from them. What that means is that it’s great for making sauce. And it will add a bit of diversity to your kitchen appliances because it can handle other soft produce.
A centrifugal strainer, on the other hand, will get the juice out of your tomatoes very quickly. But once you’re done, you’re likely to find lots of pulp left behind with a centrifugal strainer.
Other Technical Considerations
There are a number of technical considerations when buying an electric tomato strainer. The most important of those, of course, is ensuring that you’re getting a piece of kitchen equipment with a motor that will be capable of doing what you want to be done.
Other technical considerations include the materials out of which your strainer is made. Inasmuch as you’ll be working to reduce your tomatoes to a liquid consistency, you’ll want to be sure your electric tomato strainer does not include parts that are susceptible to rust.
As a final note, you should know how many pounds per hour your strainer is designed to handle and make any purchase decision accordingly.
FAQs on the Best Electric Tomato Strainer
As you work to decide on the best electric tomato strainer for your household, you’ll want to ask several basic questions. Here are a couple of things you’ll want to consider.
What Size of Electric Tomato Strainer Is Best?
Obviously, the answer to this question depends on how you plan to use your electric strainer. If you are straining a few tomatoes at a time for a tomato paste or tomato sauce that you’ll use immediately, you won’t need anything like the strainers that can process 300 pounds of fruit an hour.
In that case, you’ll want to consider a strainer that won’t take up a lot of kitchen counter space or that can be easily moved from a kitchen cabinet to the counter.
Conversely, suppose your intent is to process and can the tomatoes growing in your backyard garden. In that case, you’ll want to get as close to a professional-grade strainer as you can comfortably afford. In that case, look for stainless steel construction and the use of food-grade oil on moving parts.
Whether you choose a high-capacity strainer, or something less than that, you’ll want to be sure that your strainer can handle other fruits and vegetables as well as tomatoes to ensure the value of your investment.
What About Cleaning an Electric Tomato Strainer?
In contemplating the purchase of a strainer, you should pay careful attention to how well you’ll be able to keep your strainer clean. Many strainers come equipped with detachable parts that can be placed in the dishwasher for easy cleaning.
Otherwise, you’ll want to be wary of any strainer that has small parts or nooks and crannies where food residue can collect, presenting the possibility of contamination with future usage.
Wrapping up the Best Electric Tomato Strainer
We hope this post has guided you in selecting the best electric tomato strainer for your needs. For more on the world of tomatoes, visit Minneopa Orchards.