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An electric carving knife can save you a lot of effort and time when slicing meat for a Sunday roast or Christmas dinner, as the blades automatically saw back and forth to cut clean slices of meat. However, if the power cable is too short or the handle is awkward to hold, it can be a real pain to use.
In September 2021 our researchers tested seven electric carving knives ranging in price from £12 up to £35, from Kenwood, Dunelm, Russell Hobbs, Judge and more.
Find out which is the most comfortable and easiest to use to ensure you can quickly carve up your hot joint of meat and serve it to your guests.
Pricing and availability last checked 7 March 2022.
Find out more about how to cook a turkey crown, leg of lamb and roast beef.
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Only logged-in Which? members can view the electric carving knives results below. If you're not yet a member, you'll see an alphabetised list of the electric carving knives we tested.
Join Which? now to get instant access to our test results and Best Buy recommendations below.
Cheapest price: £20.50 available from Argos
Number of different blades: Two
Weight: 628g
Cable length: 115cm
Blade length: 17cm
With one of the shorter cables and lighter builds, how did this Cookworks 2 Blade electric knife do in our tests?
To find out log into your account or join Which? today to get instant access to all our reviews and Best Buy recommendations.
Cheapest price: £15.50 available from Argos
Number of different blades: One
Weight: 635g
Cable length: 115cm
Blade length: 17cm
This Cookworks knife is half the price of the other Cookworks electric knife in our selection, but could we tell much difference between them?
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Cheapest price: £12 available from Dunelm
Number of different blades: One
Weight: 603g
Cable length: 111cm
Blade length: 17cm
The cheapest product in our selection, how did the Dunelm electric knife fare compared to the rest of the electric carving knives we selected?
Read our full review by logging into your account or joining Which? today.
Cheapest price: £27.89 available from Amazon. Also available from Wahl
Number of different blades: Two
Weight: 650g
Cable length: 142cm
Blade length: 16cm
James Martin is a celebrity chef best known for his appearances on BBC and ITV and he's put his name to this electric knife made by Wahl.
Read our full review by logging into your account or joining Which? today to see if it impressed us.
Cheapest price: £29.95 available from Amazon (out of stock).
Number of different blades: One
Weight: 716g
Cable length: 112cm
Blade length: 17cm
This electric carving knife from Judge was easily the heaviest electric knife we tested.
Find out how it was to use and how well it slices beef by logging in or joining Which? now.
Cheapest price: £24.50 available at Argos, Kenwood
Number of different blades: Two
Weight: 677g
Cable length: 127cm
Blade length: 17cm
Kenwood claims its electric knife can slice evenly and easily, and that it can be used to slice frozen loaves of bread without needing to wait for it to defrost.
See our full review of this knife by logging into your account or joining Which? today.
Cheapest price: £16 available from Argos, Amazon. Also available at Robert Dyas.
Number of different blades: Two
Weight: 683g
Cable length: 123cm
Blade length: 17cm
Russel Hobbs says this electric knife has a 'thumb-tip trigger switch' which makes it incredibly easy to use.
We put it to the test to see whether it's good enough for our recommendation. Read our review by logging into your account or join Which? now.
Only available at Vonhaus: £22.99.
Number of different blades: Two
Weight: 653g
Cable length: 152cm
Blade length: 16cm
This electric carving knife from VonShef has the highest price out of those in our test.
But does more expensive mean better? Log in or join Which? now to get instant access to all our reviews and Best Buy recommendations.
Most electric carving knives are remarkably simple and easy to use.
If your electric knife comes with more than one blade make sure you select the blade you want first.
It is also best practice to prep the workstation before you plug in the electric knife.
Once it's plugged in you hold down the trigger or button to activate the blade.
Instead of pushing the button directly down with the flat of your thumb, use the side of your thumb to avoid irritation and fatigue.
The motor inside the plastic handle will rapidly slide the pair of blades against one another to create the carving action.
To cut a slice of bread or meat, take the knife to the food like you normally would, but instead of doing the carving motion yourself you just slice directly downwards.
The short answer is yes.
If you are a prolific home baker or prefer to buy your loaves unsliced; consider getting an electric carving knife to make quick work of slicing your bread.
These kitchen utensils make quick and easy work of slicing bread and also make it easier to keep the slices straight and even. Some even claim to slice frozen bread.
To find out which of the seven electric carving knives in our selection was the best we put them all through the following series of tests.
Our researchers examined each electric carving knife.
They checked the products for any flaws and examined how well they're made.
They also checked how easy it was to safely attach and remove each set of blades that came with the knives.
The best had easy to press buttons, clearly labelled or identifiable parts and had no sharp edges or gaps.
We measured the cable length of each of the electric carving knives to see how much manoeuvrability each one gave us when plugged into the sockets.
Each of the electric carving knives was used to slice up half a 1.5kg joint of well-done beef.
These slices were compared to each other to see how even they were.
The more even the slices the better the knife was considered to have done.
The best knives slid right through the beef without issue, while the worst juddered or slipped.
After being used to slice through the beef, the blades of each set of knives were soaked in gravy for 30 minutes to make sure they presented a more challenging washing-up experience.
Despite this, we found no difference in how easy any of the blades were to clean.
Our team of researchers tried each of the electric knives and sliced through loaves of thick and stodgy rye bread.
They considered how comfortable each of the knives was to use while slicing through the bread.
In the group, we had men and women with larger and smaller hands, left and right-handers as well as a researcher with a weaker wrist.
The best knives had smooth slicing action. The worst knives, on the other hand, juddered, slipped and sent vibrations up our wrists and arms.
To test the durability of each of the electric carving knives they were each dropped five times from a kitchen counter (about 90cm off the ground) to a linoleum floor.
After they were dropped they were examined for any damage and checked to make sure they still worked.
To find the electric knives we tested we looked for electric carving knives which were sold at one or more leading UK retailers.
We purchased all the products we tested. No beef was wasted to bring you these results.