West Bend Stir Crazy Popcorn Machine Electric Hot Oil Popper Includes Large Lid for Serving Bowl and Convenient Nesting Storage,

Does what it’s supposed to doI had thought about a larger popper but decided on this. It pops the corn quickly and, so far, with few unpopped kernelsThe manual says the popping cycle is 4-5 minutes, which I think is too long. I only popped 1/2 cup at the most and it popped quickly. I manually turned the machine off.I’d recommend watching how long it takes to pop larger volumes of corn before depending on its popping cycle to prevent scorching the kernels.Overall, I’m impressed!

Works better than most I’ve researched. Largest size for this kind.I’ve researched a bunch of these, and this one offers the largest capacity. It seems to have more/wider holes to let the steam out as well so that the popcorn doesn’t get as soggy/chewy. It says do not add butter to the base oil, but i found that if you put it on the top it doesn’t all melt, and certainly not until the end.I use Irish butter which has less water content, and doesn’t “burn” as much as regular stick butter. I tried it the 2nd time with it in the base, and it seemed to work just fine with this kind of butter. (best deal for this kind is at Costco or I would imagine Sam’s Club.The surface to metal stick part that stirs the popcorn seems to be better than most i’ve researched as well. Even though when spinning there appears to be kernels stuck towards the outside, most of them still seem to pop properly by the time it is finished.I’ve only used it twice so far so I can’t say to it’s lasting durability, but so far it seems to be the best one of these kinds you can get that I’ve looked at. I’m not a fan of the type of hard plastic of the bowl part as it can crack easily, and the cap part doesn’t fit on super securely. You also can not flip just the plate wit hit, and must flip the whole device to invert the bowl, which is usually too hot to touch after the popcorn is done popping.

Not what it used to be, for sure.My dad had a Stir Crazy popper WAY back when; I was quite a young kid. The running joke among my friend was that he would just toss a whole stick of butter in there instead of oil and he popped almost every evening. Very good stuff.The build quality of this is NOWHERE NEAR what that one was. That one was a lot more sturdy overall. Also, the handles on this get hot underneath, so you need to use mittens to flip it, but dad’s didn’t get anywhere near as hot on the handles because of the construction; thus flipping was easy to do.The other issue is that the butter drip deal – which the older ones had but Dad never bothered (and now I know why): the butter will NEVER get hot enough to fully melt. Even if it does melt partially, some gets left in the grooves. A better design here would have involved a separate heating element thing-a-ma-bobber that fully melts like a microwave can easily do in 30 seconds. You’re better off just separately melting the butter and pouring it over or just get “butter flavored”.If you want something slightly healthier, I’d recommend just using the oil as recommended, then get Snappy brand butter flavored Theater Salt (find on Amazon). Trust me, it’ll sound straight out of the movie theater even if you don’t use actual butter.Didn’t have an issue with uniform popping. Did have a minor issue with residue – and cleaning is a slight pain. Everything else I’m good with but it’s not the best; for the price it’s good enough.

Popcorn popper problems.Overall seems to be working just fine, so far. I’m a bit concerned about the durability. Who knows how long the teflon coating will last as it seems that the popcorn kernels are a bit abrasive and often times get caught under the stirring arm and make a loud scraping noise. The plastic lid is pretty flimsy so I’m very careful about handling that part. I wonder how well the stirrer motor will hold up since there is nothing you can do to prolong it’s life. So far it’s been OK, but for $40 I would like to see a bit more sturdiness.

You will not go wrong with this!This is the third popper I’ve bought that is this brand. The other two died of natural causes after many years of use. So why do I like it? Well it makes great corn, the base simply wipes clean and the top can be placed in the top rack of your dishwasher. Caution: do keep track of the stirring rod and screw-on cap; they are easy to loose. You can use the popper without the rod but you’re better off using it because it rotates and spreads the popcorn over the oil.