Kamenstein 4536 Perfect Tear Paper Towel Holder, Stainless Steel Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)When this product first arrived, I really loved it. It did everything it claimed to do. I could tear off towels with one hand, and I loved the sound of the racheting mechanism as the spring rod in the center rotated.
After about 3 months, however, the racheting mechanism simply stopped working. The towel rod spun freely, and I could no longer tear off towels with one hand; I'd get 15 towels instead of one. A few days later, and the mechanism had seized completely. Now, what used to be a one-hand operation is difficult even with two hands, because the towel dispenser does not rotate, or rotates only 1/4 turn, and then seizes.
There is no warranty on this product, so if you get a lemon, you'll be making lemonade with your tears as you weep over your paper towel roll dispenser that no longer works.
Edit: I disassembled the paper towel dispenser to determine whether it could be repaired, and this is what I found. The racheting mechanism is made from two plastic parts. The first is a star-shaped center piece with "arms" that extend from the points, and the second is the outer bezel that rotates around the center arm. The outer bezel is visible on the assembled product as the black "knob" at the base of the paper towel rod. In essence, the racheting mechanism is like putting a card into the spokes of your bicycle wheel -- it makes a clicking noise. What I found was that all of the plastic "arms" from the inner star piece had broken off and were lying inside the bezel. So the rod would free-spin until one of the broken pieces happened to jam the bezel, and then it wouldn't spin at all.
I called Kamenstein's customer support number to try to order a replacement star-shaped piece, but so far they have not returned my call.
The internal components of this product are plastic, and function by passing the ridges on the inside of the bezel over the plastic arms of the inner star as you unravel your roll of paper towels. That's the clicking sound you hear. But this presents two unavoidable problems. First, the brittle plastic arms can break, as happened to mine. Second, the ridges on the inside of the bezel will eventually wear out, and the rod will spin freely -- no more clicking sound or racheting motion. This is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of time. The parts will wear out, probably sooner than you'd like to think. I bet there are a lot of 5-star reviews here that will come back and change their minds in six months or so.
Edit: Two weeks later, I finally received a call from Kamenstein. They are not able to supply replacement parts. However, they sent me a completely new unit, and did not ask for the original one back. The new version they sent, though, is very shoddy compared to my original. What used to be a lovely compliment to my kitchen has been transformed into a cheaply made knock-off. The center post is not straight, and the knob on top is crooked to the degree that the towels still cannot spin freely. Extremely disappointing.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Kamenstein 4536 Perfect Tear Paper Towel Holder, Stainless Steel

.

Buy cheap Kamenstein 4536 Perfect Tear Paper Towel Holder, Stainless Steel now.