List Price: $59.95
Sale Price: $27.07
Today's Bonus: 55% Off
We got this popcorn popper and were so excited to try it out. My son was shaking it and when I turned my head he dropped it or something and a bunch of the popcorn landed in the fire. I figured he just messed up and emptied what little was left in the pan and the lid fell off. He had dumped most of the popcorn so I did the next batch myself. I was gently shaking it and it just didn't feel right. When I went to put the popped corn into the bowl, the lid fell off again. I'm not sure if this is something I did, a defect in this one popper, but I suggest you be extremely careful with this popper.
The popped corn was great and I will send this one back and get a replacement. I'm really hoping it's a defect in this one popper and the next one will be fine.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
This product has much potential to be a 5 star product. The quality of the product material, at this price point, is very good far better than others that I compared it to. E.g. I bought a unit at Walmart for about the same price, which was a piece of junk (1 star at best).Out of the box, this unit is problematic for the following reasons:
1) The connecting point between the handle and the lid is way too loose. In fact, this caused my first batch of popcorn to fall into the fire due to the connecting point coming free and the pan falling out. Yes, I had it connected properly. My recommendation to the manufacturer would be to connect the handle to the pan rather than the lid of the pan. But even with it attached to the lid, it could still use a more precise attachment. There is just way too much slop in the fitting and the little spring steel release actually acts as a ramp for the end of the handle to slip up on and come loose. I had to modify that little spring steel part to get my handle to stay on without falling off while gently shaking it in the fire while popping corn.
2) The lid is a nice idea but it does not secure tight enough onto the pan to hold the weight under it while shaking (not too hard of course) over a flame. Mine came off while popping a batch, and I was being very careful. I had to modify all the spring clips to get them to hold, but even then, they are still not nearly as tight as they should be. The fix, of course, would be what I suggested above to have the handle attach to the pan and not the lid. It doesn't really make sense to have the lid support the weight of the pan, oil, and popping corn below it when the pan itself could be used to attach a handle.
Besides these frustrating things, I really love this concept. The extending handle, the flip lid, the quality of material, etc. are all great and if these problems were corrected by the manufacturer, I think they would have a 5-star product.
I gave it 3 stars because I still think it's a good value for this price. If you are up for a little modification, you will likely have the best open fire popper anywhere close to this price.
Just don't be too surprised if you loose your first couple batches of popcorn due to poor fit. My family got quite the laugh when they watched me attempt to make them the perfect first batch of popcorn with this thing, only to end with that perfect batch end up on fire, literally, in the coals of our campfire. Fortunately, the pan only received a small ding from hitting a rock.
