Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Let me preface this with I bought this popper as a replacement to my West Bend Stir Crazy popper that I had used with great frequency for 16 years (got it as a wedding gift) until the heat element decided it had popped it's last popcorn. This remarkable durability set the bar high for its replacement. I was unable to find a West Bend replacement at the time locally but I had found this Presto model. This popper had no realistic hope of reaching the bar set by the previous popper, but even with reduced expectations I'm disappointed. This popper comes in two parts and I have different feelings for each;
I'll start with the positive first:
The base is solid and the motor is quiet. The non-stick coating is great, clean up is fantastic as you only need take a paper towel to wipe it out and done! I've not had any problem with popping issues outside of having purchased a brand of substandard popcorn that I will never buy again. That's not the poppers fault, that's me trying to save a buck. The base by itself deserves 4 stars.
Now for the negative and the main reason behind my two star rating:
The clear bowl is complete rubbish. After the third use, I could see a hair line crack that was forming from one of the drip holes in the "butter tray" going towards the center. I never put butter in there anyway so I didn't give it much consideration given its location. The next use, while washing I noticed additional cracks had formed both in the butter tray as well as around the side handle area and one in the middle of the bowl's side. With each use, they've gotten worse.
To be clear, I've always hand washed the bowl and not in the dishwasher per the instructions and given the duration of my previous popper I don't think it's something I'm doing to cause this to occur as I'm not doing anything different. I can only guess its heat related as for the life of me I can't figure out how else these could be forming.
My wife has made fun of me as I've been duct taping the outside of the bowl where cracks have come together to try to maintain some sort of structural integrity of the bowl so I can keep on popping and get as many uses out of it as possible, but as a whole the bowl is deteriorating rapidly. This last batch I just made may be the last one as yet another crack that was not there prior to use has spawned from the side handle down the bowl and almost to the butter tray.
It's a shame as the base appears to be solidly made and usable for a long time.
As fortune would have it, I got a new West Bend Stir Crazy as a Christmas gift. I wonder if it will last 16 years like its predecessor? Not likely, as with everything it seems these days, they don't make them like they used to. But I would expect it to last at least one year, not 3 months.
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Presto Orville Redenbacher's Stirring Popper
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