Buy at AmazonWhen you need to transfer a lot of food or liquid from one container to another, you reach for a funnel—or else you’re likely to slosh oil or spill peppercorns all over your counter. You pour food or liquid into the funnel’s wider opening, which then narrows into a spout, directing the goods into the intended receptacle. This small tool has a major payoff: It eliminates spills and minimizes waste—but only if you have a good funnel.
Since we last tested, our winner, the Progressive Collapsible Funnel, has been discontinued, and new models are now on the market. We selected seven funnels priced from $4.41 to $14.19, using each one to transfer foods and liquids with different textures into containers of varying sizes, including peppercorns into a pepper mill, herbs and spices from bulk containers to spice jars, thick barbecue sauce from a saucepan to a squeeze bottle, and olive oil from a gallon-size jug to a smaller bottle. We also tested how easy the funnels were to store, how durable they were, and how well they suited a range of testers. Three models came in sets, so we tested any funnel in each set that was 1 cup or larger; we’ve found in previous testings that funnels with a smaller capacity are less versatile, as thicker liquids and peppercorns easily overwhelm them.
Our testing proved that two characteristics are essential to a great funnel: stability (the degree to which a funnel wobbles during use) and flow (how easily liquids and foods move through the funnel).
