Best Kitchen Gadgets in South Africa: The Anti-Gimmick Ranking
Last checked: 2 July 2026 Price bands are indicative, not quotes. Listings change.
Quick answer
Four kitchen gadgets earn permanent drawer space in most South African kitchens: a digital scale, an instant-read thermometer, a fine rasp grater and a silicone spatula set. A salad spinner, grid-blade chopper and jar opener earn theirs in specific households. Herb scissors do not; the knife you already own does that job better. Budget roughly R30 to R250 per item imported, more at local retail.
The picks
Baking that works twice in a row, and portioning bulk hauls honestly
Digital kitchen scale (1g resolution, 5kg capacity)
Every pick, compared
| # | Product type | Best for | Verdict | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Digital kitchen scale (1g resolution, 5kg capacity) | Baking that works twice in a row, and portioning bulk hauls honestly | Godsend | 9.0 | Details |
| 02 | Instant-read digital meat thermometer | Knowing the chicken is done instead of believing it probably is | Godsend | 8.9 | Details |
| 03 | Fine rasp grater (microplane-style) | Garlic, ginger, parmesan, lemon zest and nutmeg, all off one strip of steel | Godsend | 8.5 | Details |
| 04 | Silicone spatula set (one-piece, heat-rated) | Scraping, folding, stirring and rescuing the last quarter of every jar | Godsend | 8.2 | Details |
| 05 | Jar opener grippers (pad and cone types) | Stubborn lids, wet hands, and anyone whose grip has opinions | Solid buy | 7.6 | Details |
| 06 | Grid-blade vegetable chopper (press type) | Households that cook onion-heavy food most nights of the week | Solid buy | 7.3 | Details |
| 07 | Salad spinner (pump or crank) | Loose-leaf buyers whose salads arrive at the table wet and leave uneaten | Solid buy | 7.0 | Details |
| 08 | Herb scissors (5-blade) | The demo video. In an actual kitchen, the knife you own does this better | Gimmick | 4.6 | Details |
Why each one made the list
Kitchen gadgets are the gimmick capital of e-commerce. No other category produces as many objects that demo brilliantly, cost pocket money and do one job worse than the knife you already own. Every South African kitchen has the drawer to prove it: the drawer of shame, where the avocado slicer and the pineapple corer lie together in the dark.
Best overall
Digital kitchen scale (1g resolution, 5kg capacity)
Best for: Baking that works twice in a row, and portioning bulk hauls honestly
The most useful object in this guide. A godsend for bakers, and quietly for budgeters: a scale is how a Sixty60 bulk pack becomes six honest portions instead of four optimistic ones.
Why it is useful
Cup and spoon measures lie: flour packs down, brown sugar clumps and everyone scoops differently, which is why the same recipe works for your aunt and fails for you. Grams do not negotiate. Beyond baking, the scale splits bulk packs into equal freezer portions, keeps pasta nights from becoming pasta events, and makes any recipe you repeat actually repeatable.
Small problem solved
Recipes that behave differently every time, and the 2kg value pack that becomes three unequal suppers and a mystery bag.
Check before buying
- 1g resolution and at least 5kg capacity, both stated rather than implied
- A tare button that zeroes fast, because you weigh into the bowl you mix in
- Accuracy at low weights; some cheap scales ignore the first few grams, which reviews mention around coffee and yeast
- Common batteries, AAA or a standard coin cell, not something exotic
- An auto-off delay long enough to survive you fetching the eggs
Skip it if
- You never bake and never buy bulk; an unused scale is just a very accurate paperweight
Worth it for
- Makes recipes repeatable, which is most of what being good at baking is
- Pays for itself in portioned bulk buys
- Flat and thin; stores in the gap beside the breadbin
- Grams and millilitres on one button for imported recipes
Not worth it for
- Cheap load cells drift after a few years or a flour flood
- Glass tops look good and chip
- Aggressive auto-off mid-recipe is a known rage source on budget models
SA note Sixty60 and month-end bulk-haul culture is exactly where a scale stops being a baking tool and becomes a budgeting one: equal portions, honest freezer labels, fewer defrost surprises.
digital kitchen scale 1g 5kgkitchen scale tare function Links may earn Godsend a commission. Availability and prices change; check the live listing.
Best crossover buy
Instant-read digital meat thermometer
Best for: Knowing the chicken is done instead of believing it probably is
A godsend here and in our air fryer accessories guide, and the only gadget on this page with standing permission to approach the braai.
Why it is useful
It replaces the least reliable instrument in the kitchen, the confident guess, with a number. Food-safety authorities publish safe internal temperatures, 74C for poultry being the widely cited figure, and a probe is the only honest way to know you are there without carving the bird open at the table. It earns its keep across the oven, the pot, the air fryer and the fire.
Small problem solved
Pink-at-the-bone chicken discovered mid-serving, and its cousin sacrificed to ten extra just-in-case minutes.
Check before buying
- Stated response time; 3 to 5 seconds is normal at the budget end
- A folding probe or a sheath, for drawer survival and finger survival
- Splash resistance, because it lives next to the sink
- A backlit screen, which earns its keep at the fire after sunset
Skip it if
- You cook nothing where doneness hides; toast does not need instrumentation
Worth it for
- One number settles doneness for the oven, the air fryer, the pot and the fire
- Budget models are accurate enough for home cooking; listings commonly claim about 1C either way
- Ends the annual undercooked-chicken scare
- Smaller than the wooden spoon it retires from guess duty
Not worth it for
- Cheap probes read slowly on cold-centre food
- Runs on coin cells that die without warning
- The tip is sharp and drawers are dark
SA note Braai purists claim they can feel doneness through the tongs. The thermometer does not argue with anyone; it just reads what the middle of the chop is doing. Air fryer duty is covered in our air fryer accessories guide.
instant read meat thermometer digitaldigital food thermometer kitchen Links may earn Godsend a commission. Availability and prices change; check the live listing.
Best flavour per rand
Fine rasp grater (microplane-style)
Best for: Garlic, ginger, parmesan, lemon zest and nutmeg, all off one strip of steel
A godsend and the cheapest flavour upgrade in the guide. One etched blade quietly replaces the garlic press, the zester and the sad fine side of the box grater.
Why it is useful
Photo-etched teeth shave instead of tearing, which is why garlic comes off as paste, hard cheese as snow and lemon zest without the bitter white pith. The knife objection that sinks most gadgets does not apply here: a knife cannot do what a rasp does, which is exactly why this one escapes the bucket the single-purpose tools live in.
Small problem solved
Garlic in chunks nobody wanted, cheese grated into gravel, and zest with a bitter white lining.
Check before buying
- Etched blades, not stamped; stamped teeth tear and clog
- A cover or sheath, for the drawer and for your fingertips
- Blade length around 20cm or more so each stroke does real work
- A handle that lets you hold it flat over a pot or bowl
- Reviews mentioning rust; cheap steel plus a wet drawer ends badly
Skip it if
- You already own a decent one; dried properly, they last a decade
- Everything you grate is soft cheese, which smears on a rasp
Worth it for
- Replaces three mediocre tools with one good one
- Restaurant-fine garlic and ginger in seconds
- Flat profile takes almost no drawer space
- No moving parts to break
Not worth it for
- Grates knuckles with the same enthusiasm as parmesan
- Clogs on soft cheeses and wet ingredients
- Stamped-blade fakes look identical in listing photos
fine rasp grater zesterzester grater long handle Links may earn Godsend a commission. Availability and prices change; check the live listing.
Boring but essential
Silicone spatula set (one-piece, heat-rated)
Best for: Scraping, folding, stirring and rescuing the last quarter of every jar
The most boring godsend on the page. Nothing to demonstrate, nothing to go viral, used every single day until it wears out, which is roughly never.
Why it is useful
A decent silicone spatula flexes into pot corners and jar shoulders that spoons cannot reach, tolerates a hot pan, and leaves non-stick coatings alone. One-piece construction is the detail that matters: two-piece heads pop off, and the hollow handle underneath becomes a private ecosystem you do not want catered.
Small problem solved
The abandoned last quarter of the peanut butter jar, scrambled egg welded to pan corners, and batter left behind in the bowl.
Check before buying
- One-piece moulded construction; if the head pulls off, mould moves in
- Food-grade silicone with a stated heat rating of 200C or better
- A core stiff enough for thick dough; all-floppy spatulas fold under pressure
- A mix of sizes; the small one ends up the most used
- Colours that will not shame you when turmeric wins, and it will
Skip it if
- You want to scrape fond hard in steel pans; that is a job for metal or wood
Worth it for
- Daily use across almost every meal
- Safe on non-stick everything
- Survives the dishwasher and the odd forgotten minute against a hot pan edge
- Cheap sets are genuinely fine if one-piece and heat-rated
Not worth it for
- Stains on first contact with turmeric or bolognese
- Can hold onto strong smells; a bicarb soak mostly fixes it
- Floppy bargain versions fold under real dough
silicone spatula set one pieceheat resistant silicone spatula Links may earn Godsend a commission. Availability and prices change; check the live listing.
Jar opener grippers (pad and cone types)
Best for: Stubborn lids, wet hands, and anyone whose grip has opinions
Solid for most people, close to a godsend for some. If your hands are strong this is a convenience; if arthritis, age or small hands are in the picture, it is independence in a drawer.
Why it is useful
A rubber gripper pad multiplies the torque your hand can apply; cone and ratchet types clamp the lid so the jar turns instead of your wrist. The atchar jar that defeated the whole household opens on the first try, and nobody has to do the hot-water-and-knife-tap ritual over the sink again.
Small problem solved
The jar that tours the household, gets tapped with a knife handle and run under hot water, and still wins.
Check before buying
- Pad type for versatility, cone or ratchet type for weaker grips; they solve different halves of the problem
- Genuinely grippy rubber or silicone, not smooth plastic pretending
- Cone types should state their lid size range; small bottle caps to wide jars
- Dishwasher-safe material, because it lives near food
Skip it if
- Lids never trouble you and drawer space does; though the pad type at least packs flat
Worth it for
- Cheap, flat and permanent; nothing to break
- Real accessibility gain for older or arthritic hands
- Pad types double as non-slip mats under mixing bowls
- Ends the counter-edge lid-tapping ritual
Not worth it for
- Strong-handed households will use it twice a year
- Cone types fit a range of lid sizes, not all of them
- Pad types vanish into the drawer clutter they were meant to survive
SA note Buy one for your parents' kitchen at the same time. The atchar and apricot jam jars there are not getting any looser.
jar opener gripper padjar opener arthritis cone Links may earn Godsend a commission. Availability and prices change; check the live listing.
Best for volume cooks
Grid-blade vegetable chopper (press type)
Best for: Households that cook onion-heavy food most nights of the week
A genuine split verdict. For weekly curry, stew and bolognese cooks it is a real time-and-tears saver; for everyone else the cleaning tax quietly eats the time it saved, and the box migrates to the drawer of shame.
Why it is useful
Press the lid and a grid of blades turns half an onion into even dice inside the catch container: no board, no tears, no onion hands. Even dice also cook evenly, which rushed knife work rarely manages. The honesty clause: picking onion out of the blade grid afterwards takes longer than the chopping did, every single time. Whether the trade works depends entirely on your volume.
Small problem solved
The nightly onion: tears, uneven dice and a whole cutting board to wash for one vegetable.
Check before buying
- A catch container base so nothing rolls off the counter
- Stated stainless blades and a food-safe body
- A cleaning brush or comb included, and genuinely dishwasher-safe parts
- Two grid sizes is plenty; six is packaging
- Reviews on the hinge, which is the part that fails first
Skip it if
- Onions feature once a week; the knife wins on total time
- Soft tomatoes and herbs are the plan; the grid turns both to pulp
- Counter and cupboard space are already at war; this is a bulky guest
Worth it for
- Fast, even dice with no tears and no board
- Container catches everything
- Consistent dice improves slow-cooked dishes
- Genuinely earns its keep at bulk-cook and freezer-prep scale
Not worth it for
- Cleaning the grid takes longer than the chopping
- Bulky storage footprint
- Blades dull and hinges crack on cheap versions
- Useless for soft produce
SA note Scores its keep in the dishes this country cooks weekly: curries, stews, chakalaka and the base for a Saturday potjie. The potjie itself still belongs to the fire; the chopper just handles the crying part indoors.
The grid blades are exactly as sharp as they need to be, which is very. Press with the lid, never your palm, and respect them at washing-up time.
vegetable chopper grid blades containeronion chopper dicer press Links may earn Godsend a commission. Availability and prices change; check the live listing.
Salad spinner (pump or crank)
Best for: Loose-leaf buyers whose salads arrive at the table wet and leave uneaten
Solid, with an asterisk the size of the thing itself. It does its one job perfectly; it just charges rent in cupboard space that a small kitchen may not have.
Why it is useful
Dressing slides off wet leaves and pools at the bottom of the bowl, and wet leaves stored in the fridge go slimy fast. Thirty seconds of spinning gets greens genuinely dry, which a towel-patting session never quite does. Choose one where the bowl and basket earn their own keep as a serving bowl and colander, and the footprint hurts less.
Small problem solved
Watery dressing at the bottom of the salad, and the half-bag of slimy spinach binned every week.
Check before buying
- Reviews on the crank or pump mechanism, which is the failure point
- A bowl you would happily use on its own, so the footprint does double duty
- A basket that works as a colander
- A flat lid that other things can stack on in the cupboard
- A non-slip base, or the spinner walks across the counter
Skip it if
- You buy triple-washed bagged leaves; you have already outsourced this job
- Cupboard space is the scarcest resource in your kitchen, which in most rentals it is
Worth it for
- Dry leaves in under a minute
- Doubles as colander, wash basin and serving bowl if chosen well
- Dry greens keep noticeably longer in the fridge, so less food in the bin
- No electricity and nothing sharp
Not worth it for
- Occupies the volume of a small pot set
- Cheap mechanisms strip within a year
- It dries lettuce; it will never do anything else
SA note In a small rental kitchen the question is not whether it works but what it displaces. If the cupboard is already a Tetris board, the colander-plus-clean-dishcloth method remains free.
salad spinner largesalad spinner colander bowl Links may earn Godsend a commission. Availability and prices change; check the live listing.
The gimmick
Herb scissors (5-blade)
Best for: The demo video. In an actual kitchen, the knife you own does this better
Gimmick, and our resident example of one. Five blades cut herbs five times faster in the advert and take five times longer to clean at your sink, with bruised basil as the bonus.
Why it is useful
The fair hearing: snipping spring onion directly over the pot is mildly satisfying, and a child can cut herbs with less risk than with a knife. That is the entire case for the defence, and neither point survives the first wash, when you discover why a cleaning comb is included in the box.
Small problem solved
In theory, slow herb chopping. In practice, herb chopping was never slow; a rocked knife does a handful of parsley in ten seconds.
Check before buying
- Start with the scissors you already own; ordinary kitchen scissors do the over-the-pot trick with one blade to wash
- Stated stainless steel if you proceed anyway; mystery metal rusts between the blades where you cannot dry it
- That the cleaning comb is included, which tells you what you need to know about the washing-up
- Blade gap; tight gaps clog instantly with anything softer than chives
Skip it if
- You own a knife
- You cook wet or soft herbs like basil and coriander, which bruise and clump between the blades
- You value drawer space at all
Worth it for
- Snipping chives straight over the pot is genuinely pleasant
- Safer than a knife for a small helper
- Fine on dry, sturdy herbs and spring onion
Not worth it for
- Bruises and clumps soft herbs instead of cutting them
- Five blades and four gaps to clean, hence the comb, which you will lose
- A knife is faster once you count the cleanup
- The exact object the drawer of shame was invented for
herb scissors 5 bladeherb cutting scissors kitchen Links may earn Godsend a commission. Availability and prices change; check the live listing.
Buying guide
The drawer test: decide before you buy
Small South African kitchens, and rentals especially, give you one utensil drawer and maybe a shelf. That is the budget, and every gadget is bidding for space in it. The test is one question asked at checkout: which weekly job does this replace? Weekly earns a spot. Monthly does not; monthly is what knives, spoons and bowls are for.
The corollary is the one-in rule. If the chopper comes in, something leaves. If nothing can leave, the answer was no, however good the Checkers or PnP special looked in the middle aisle.
How to spot a gimmick before it ships
Gimmicks share a fingerprint. The demo uses perfect, dry, firm produce cut by someone paid to practise. The tool works on one ingredient shape and no other. The cleaning is never shown, and a cleaning comb or brush in the box is a signed confession. The name contains 10-in-1. Any two of those and you are looking at drawer-of-shame stock.
The reverse fingerprint also holds: the best tools on this page are boring. A scale, a spatula, a probe. Nothing demos worse than a digital scale, and nothing gets used more.
Materials worth trusting
Anything silicone that touches heat should say food-grade and carry a temperature rating, 200C or better; the buyer has to check, because plenty of listings skip both and hope. Blades should state stainless steel, and recent reviews should not mention rust. Everything gets a hot soapy wash before first use, whatever it cost.
A pinch test sorts silicone after arrival: twist a corner, and if the stressed fold turns white it is heavily bulked with filler. Demote it to non-food duty. None of this is a health claim; it is just the difference between materials that last and materials that do not.
Gadgets in a braai country
The honest cultural note: no gadget on this page goes anywhere near the fire, and any ranking that pretends otherwise misreads the country. The braai has its own tools, its own politics and its own quality control. The single exception is the thermometer, admitted by special dispensation because it ends arguments instead of starting them.
Everything else here is for the weekday shift: the Tuesday curry, the school-night pasta, the month-end bulk cook. That is the job these eight were scored against, and the load-shedding years added one lasting lesson to it: hand tools that need no plug keep working when the schedule does not.
Frequently asked questions
Which kitchen gadgets are actually worth buying?
Four earn a place in almost any kitchen: a digital scale, an instant-read thermometer, a fine rasp grater and a silicone spatula set. Three more depend on your cooking: a grid chopper for onion-heavy weeks, a salad spinner if you buy loose greens, a jar opener if lids fight you. Herb scissors are the one to skip.
Are cheap Temu kitchen gadgets safe to use with food?
Check the listing for the words food-grade and a temperature rating on anything silicone, and for stated stainless steel on anything bladed. Wash everything in hot soapy water before first use, and retire any tool that rusts, flakes or keeps its factory smell. For anything with a plug or a motor, buy locally from a retailer with a returns desk.
Do I really need a kitchen scale?
If you bake, yes, without apology: cup measures vary with how hard you scoop, and grams do not. If you never bake, it still earns its space the first time you split a Sixty60 bulk pack of mince into honest 500g freezer portions instead of four guesses. It is the cheapest accuracy upgrade in the kitchen.
Are vegetable choppers worth it?
Split verdict. If you cook onion-heavy food most nights, the press-type grid chopper genuinely saves time and tears, and the dice is more even than rushed knife work. The tax is cleaning the grid afterwards, which takes longer than the chopping did. If onions feature once a week, keep the knife and the drawer space.
What is a rasp grater used for?
One strip of etched steel replaces a garlic press, a nutmeg grinder and the sad fine side of a box grater. It turns garlic and ginger to paste, hard cheese to snow, and takes zest off a lemon without the bitter white pith underneath. It is the cheap tool that makes home food taste more like restaurant food.
Should I buy electric versions of these gadgets?
Mostly no. The load-shedding years made the case for hand tools and it still stands: a manual chopper, whisk or grater handles household quantities in about the same time once you count setup and washing, costs less, and never needs the inverter. Electric earns its plug at volume, like mincing for a serious batch cook.
Why do herb scissors get such a low score?
They solve a problem a knife already solves, slower and with more washing-up. Five blades bruise soft herbs, trap them in four gaps and need a special comb to clean. The demo video cuts dry spring onion; your wet basil will clump. We score on month-two usefulness, and scored honestly, that is a 4.6.
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