This 16 cup Popcorn Popper still Works great despite the distractors noted in my review. Moreover, this item would be perfect for the purpose intended but for the less than satisfactory strength of the materials used in construction. Knowing what we know now and consider the function and price we WOULD still buy this item again, being more carefully and gentle in use.
Significant cracks have splintered along a few stress lines while a couple of somewhat large (pieces of plastic LARGER than quarters) were easily broken off during normal use -- to include in use, cleaning and putting into and out of storage.
We are fans and owners of numerous Cuisine Arts products. Those products are plentiful throughout the kitchens of our many homes. We choose Cuisine Arts brand when selecting items to give as gifts. This single less than optimum item is NOT representative of what we have received year after year from our wonderfully designed, crafted and produced Cuisine Arts goods.
This popcorn popper makes good popcorn but I have yet to have it make 16 cups. I have used cheaper popcorn and highly rated popcorn and both pop about the same. Followed directions for 16 cups of popcorn but, still not a full 16 cups though.
Being old fashioned and throwing some oil in a 3-qt pot and popping it on the stove, we always ended up with quite a bit of unpopped kernels and had a few times with some burned popcorn. Although we have only used it a few times, we have been very impressed.
I am not saying it was the machine, but we were pleasantly surprised that using some popcorn that was more than 6 months old every single kernel popped. I had never experienced that.
So easy to use and easy to clean.
The only problem we experienced was eating too much.
Very pleased with this popper. I love theater popcorn and this uses the same popping method as the pros use….there are other stirring poppers out there that cost less, but there’s a big difference here as the cooking plate and stirring rod come off in one piece and are very easy to clean in the sink. Many other cheaper units have less capacity, aren’t as well made, and much harder to clean. This popper is very well made. I use pre measured packs that have an amount of corn, the correct seasoned coconut oil, and seasoned salt and in about 12 minutes I’ve got popcorn that is pretty much a match for what I get at the theater….if you’re serious about popcorn, this is the unit you’ll want.
We've owned a few West Bend poppers, but I finally got tired of having to replace them every few years. The last one died because of shoddy plastic parts in a place on the popper that gets very hot and should have had only metal parts. The new Cuisinart popper appears to be much better built with more high quality metal parts. I'm looking forward to having it for many, many years.
This is the best popcorn popper. I have had other and somehow the heating element would get oil on it from top. The heating element in this is covered. It is worth the money.