I hate plastic wrap. This dispenser on Amazon made me hate it less.

If there is a foodstuff to be wrapped, you’d better believe I am using aluminum foil. Meat marinading in a bowl? Aluminum foil. Leftover pizza? Foil, baby. Half an onion? You already know. (Foil.)

Why? Because I hate plastic wrap. I don’t understand how people use it. I make it, at best, through one task — usually not even that — before the damn stuff splits or I lose my spot. Then I’m left doing the familiar game of surgery, picking away at the roll, trying to find the end or suture the split in a desperate attempt to get a simple, clean pull of plastic wrap.

I’m certain I’m not alone in this struggle. There are kind of clumsy, impatient people all over this world. So, I set out to see if this popular plastic wrap dispenser from leQuiven on Amazon would solve my issues. It seemed promising, like it might keep the wrap orderly, and cut it neatly with a slide cutter. There are also many other products just like this one, which I assume perform similarly. The leQuiven model we tested seems to be low on stock and has dropped in price,.

The leQuiven dispenser seemed promising.
Credit: Screenshot: amazon

I tested this sucker out over the course of a few weeks, forcing myself out of my aluminum foil ways. And you know what? It wasn’t bad.

The dispenser came pre-filled with a roll of wrap — as well it should, since it cost $28 for a dang dispenser. (The dispenser is now listed at $22.99)

Using it was pretty basic. You pull the wrap, and it stays in line because it’s only coming out through the thin gap in the enclosure. Once you cover your item, you simply slide the little doohickey — this is a technical term — and cut the plastic wrap neatly.

On the bottom of the dispenser, there were rubber feet (to keep it from scratching surfaces, I assume) and suction cups. The suction cups actually proved incredibly useful. Here are photos of me covering a bowl of steaks in a marinade. Notice that all I had to do was stick the dispenser on my kitchen island, pull and cut. Simple. The suction cups helped keep the whole process orderly.

Fun fact: the steaks (that you cannot see in this bowl of marinade) will appear in a later Mashable article. Synergy.
Credit: mashable

The cutting doohickey hard at work.
Credit: mashable

Or look at this, covering a whole tray of homemade pizza dough set to go in the fridge.

This pizza dough will appear in a later Mashable article too! It’s like Marvel Easter eggs except food content and, you know, not exciting.
Credit: mashable

I was surprised how easily this dispenser worked. Now, here come the caveats.

If you buy in bulk, it’s not for you.

First, it’s kind of big, so I’d say only plan on buying this if you’re really ready to ditch plastic wrap containers. I live in NYC, with limited space, and it’s kind of a bear to store. Second, lots of reviews note that many rolls of plastic wrap would not fit in this dispenser. If you buy in bulk, it’s not for you. The listing on Amazon says it can hold a 250-foot roll of 12-inch wide wrap. I did not burn through the wrap that came in the dispenser, so I did not have to replace it, but that’s a potential issue to keep in mind.

I also struggled sometimes to pull the wrap out. It seemed to get stuck or jammed, until I switched up the angle and pulled harder. But it would, eventually, dislodge and dispense the plastic wrap.

Overall, the dispenser worked fine, was pretty helpful, and didn’t have any major issues. I’m not sure I’d spend 28 bucks on something so inessential, but if you definitely want a plastic wrap dispenser, then it’s a pretty solid option.