The Best Potato Mashers

• Comfort
• Mashing
• Durability
• Compatibility

This tall tool has a sturdy metal mashing plate supported by a long, curved handle made of slip-free plastic. The plethora of small holes on its mashing plate made an ultracreamy, smooth mash, and its handle felt comfortable in hands of all sizes. Its round mashing plate eased effortlessly along the edges of every pan and made quick work of mashing all types of potatoes.

• Comfort
• Mashing
• Durability
• Compatibility

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.

• Comfort
• Mashing
• Durability
• Compatibility

Our old favorite, this perforated oval masher made relatively smooth potatoes and easily navigated around the edges of pans. A few testers lamented its shorter handle and smaller footprint, but most found this masher comfortable to hold and easy to maneuver. Its handle had a very slight bend after extensive mashing, but testers didn’t notice a performance difference.

• Comfort
• Mashing
• Durability
• Compatibility

This masher’s horizontal handle was comfortable to hold and easy to maneuver. While it made relatively smooth potatoes, its shorter stature 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.

• Comfort
• Mashing
• Durability
• Compatibility

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.

• Comfort
• Mashing
• Durability
• Compatibility

“Seems like it was made for a smaller person with a smaller pot and smaller potatoes,” said one tester about this masher’s teensy footprint and stubbier handle. Though it felt sturdy in smaller hands, this product took almost double the number of passes to achieve the same results as larger mashers, especially in bigger pots. Larger testers also struggled to find a comfortable grip.

• Comfort
• Mashing
• Durability
• Compatibility

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.

• Comfort
• Mashing
• Durability
• Compatibility

This lightweight plastic masher felt cheap and flimsy, forcing us to mash gingerly. Its larger holes required us to make more passes, and its diagonal mashing plate had trouble getting into the edges of smaller saucepans. After a few trips through the dishwasher, this masher emerged scratched and nicked.

• Comfort
• Mashing
• Durability

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.

• Comfort
• Mashing
• Durability
• Compatibility

The combination of this product’s curved plate and its horizontal handle made for unsteady, painful mashing. It took a tight, clenched grip to maneuver this masher through the potatoes, and its irregular shape struggled to reach into the edges of the pot. Its plastic handle emerged from the dishwasher scratched.

• Comfort
• Mashing
• Durability
• Compatibility

This masher, which already looked like a bent spatula, was too easy to warp and deform—just a little bit of pressure in the wrong direction sent the handle collapsing toward the slotted mashing plate. Though its long handle felt comfortable in testers’ hands and kept our arms elevated from the hot pot, its small plate took extra effort to get the job done.

• Comfort
• Mashing
• Durability
• Compatibility

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.

• Comfort
• Mashing
• Durability
• Compatibility

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.

• Comfort
• Mashing
• Durability
• Compatibility

This wavy masher had thin tines that easily warped as we mashed. After just one use, its very thin wires were bent and stretched, as if it had been used for years. The threat of warping caused testers to loosen their grip, leading to lackluster, fairly lumpy potatoes. A few also found the thin metal handle uncomfortable to hold.

• Comfort
• Mashing
• Durability
• Compatibility

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.

• Comfort
• Mashing
• Durability
• Compatibility

While this wave-style masher maneuvered easily in larger vessels, its long footprint clunked around in smaller saucepans, banging into sides and sloshing potatoes over the edge. Its plastic handle was comfortable and sturdy but a smidge too small for larger hands. Still, most potatoes made with this masher were deemed perfectly acceptable.