The Best Potato Mashers

With a head made from thick, rigid metal, this model was incredibly durable and did a very good job of mashing potatoes. The perforated disk was capable of producing even a very fine mash. It sat tall in most pots and pans, keeping our hands a safe distance from hot food. And its thick plastic handle was for the most part comfortable to grip.

This inexpensive, lightweight potato masher was easy to use and got the job done fairly quickly. It mashed potatoes thoroughly, thanks to its small square-shaped perforations. We liked its medium-size round head, which nimbly moved along the walls of the pots and pans to process every piece of potato. However, the tool itself was small and the handle was short, so it put our hands a bit too close to the hot potatoes, especially when we worked in a Dutch oven.

This sturdy, well-made model mashed potatoes and beans well, though it took a few extra passes to get food smooth since its head was a little smaller than we prefer. Over 10 inches long, it also kept our hands at a safe distance from the heat as we mashed. A few minor issues Because the handle is made from smooth stainless steel, it occasionally felt a bit slippery as we worked over steamy food. The handle is on the short side, and a hilt-like hand guard made it feel even shorter, limiting the ways we could hold it.

This innovative masher’s convex plate promoted a gentle rocking motion, allowing us to build momentum as we mashed. Its 73 holes produced supersmooth potatoes, and its curved plastic handle was comfortable for all except the largest hands to hold. One qualm: While this masher folds flat for storage, the folding mechanism trapped food and triggered once during mashing.

Resembling a bent spatula, this potato masher had a large, flat head that covered lots of territory easily. It was sturdy and durable, and despite the small number of perforated slots, it did a good job of mashing different foods. We didn’t find the vertical backsplash portion of the head to be particularly useful—it didn’t scrape or mash anything we couldn’t otherwise process with a more conventional perforated-disk model and required a little extra cleaning. Sitting especially tall in pots, this model kept our hands cool, and its long handle was easy for even the largest-handed testers to grip, though because it was made from smooth stainless steel it was occasionally a bit slippery.

This masher’s horizontal handle was comfortable to hold and easy to maneuver. While it made relatively smooth potatoes, its shorter stature brought our hands closer to the heat and meant we were constantly banging our arms against the hot lip of the pot as we mashed, especially in taller Dutch ovens. Still, this masher was sturdy and worked quickly.

While we liked that this plastic masher can be used on nonstick surfaces, it slipped and slid as we tried to mash in traditional stainless-steel saucepans. Though its thick metal handle was comfortable to hold, its wavy mashing plate had trouble maneuvering in smaller saucepans and produced slightly lumpy potatoes.

This heavy model struggled to effectively mash potatoes. Instead of the round holes that are typical on mashers with perforated disks, its perforations were thin and long, so less potato went through the disk with each pass; we had to work extra-hard to achieve a fine, smooth consistency. Its heft made our work harder, and we even had to take a few breaks while mashing. The stainless-steel handle was bulky and uncomfortable to hold, as well as too slippery to grip securely.

This plastic masher’s thick, flat base was clunky to lift and struggled to push through a thick mash. Its deep tines trapped potatoes and were a pain to clean by hand (the dishwasher fared much better). While its long, grippy handle was ultracomfortable, it once detached from the base while we mashed.

This model made us feel like we were spackling walls instead of mashing potatoes since food could not adequately fit through the holes, causing the potatoes to form a layer on the plate. While this masher was initially comfortable to hold because it’s covered in soft silicone, a slight ridge on the underside of the handle eventually pressed into our fingers and made them sore. We had some trouble mashing in smaller vessels because of the masher’s huge footprint and in taller pots because it was too short. This model also suffered a few nicks after being run through the dishwasher ten times, and some food remained stuck in the holes even after we’d washed it.

World’s greatest? Not unless you like cramped hands and lumpy potatoes. This masher’s flimsy wires, which are meant to double as whisk tines, slipped around as we pressed it into potatoes and made a smooth mash impossible to achieve. Though its long handle was comfortable enough, our hands were still aching by the end of testing from the extra effort required to control its unwieldy tines.

This product’s coil shape and inept mashing left us wondering if we had accidentally mistaken a whisk for a potato masher (we hadn’t). Its handle moved around like an unwieldy joystick on its unstable base, forcing us to tighten our grip to keep the handle steady. After just one use, this masher had a prominent lean from warped and stretched coils.

This model made great mashed potatoes quickly thanks to its well-designed head, which was moderately large with lots of relatively small perforations. It was tall enough to keep our hands at a comfortable distance from the hot potatoes and had a long, well-cushioned silicone-covered handle that testers of all hand sizes found easy to grip. One small quibble The head and arms are made from stainless steel that’s just a touch thinner and more flexible than we’d prefer, though we didn’t encounter any durability issues such as warping or bending during testing.

This spring-loaded perforated disk barely made a dent in boiled potatoes, leaving a compacted layer of unmashed potato pressed into the bottom of the pan. We struggled to find a comfortable grip around its paltry keyhole-shaped handle, and the exposed spring under the handle occasionally gunked up with potato, rendering the masher useless.