We ordered this waffle maker for my 10 year old son who enjoys having belgian waffles when we go on vacation at the hotels. I wasn't sure if I should get this waffle maker or not because it's not your traditional waffle maker design, but we have 3 boys, 10, 12, and 14 and while they are getting a little older my wife and I thought it would be fun to make Mickey waffles and could always invest in something else later on if we really tired of it. The waffle maker is very easy to clean due to the non stick surface. Everything peals off easily with a wooden spatula or fork. The outside gets very hot during cooking, but the handle stays very cool so make sure to only touch it by the handle when cooking. We just started using this and for startes purchased generic pancake/waffle mix from the super market, using a very popular common brand of mix. When you plug it in, you will see a blue light that turns red when hot and alternates between red and blue as it works to maintain an even temparature. With the store bought mix the pancakes take only 1 minute to cook and are light golden brown. Leaving the mix in even 10 more seconds will darken the outside considerably, but not burn and the waffles come out delicious in either case. Very quick to cook and super easy to use. The waffle maker feels very durable. The waffles are fluffy. I'm not sure if it's the particular mix we are using which is really more for pancakes, but ours came out tasting like pancakes and not crunchy on the outside. I'm sure this will vary depending on the particular mix you use. We love this waffle maker and would recommend to others, although seems hard to find at a reasonable price nowadays. I'd seen it advertised for half the price we purchased at, but it was sold out at that price and all places I looked for charged about the same as Amazon did. I purchased for less elsewhere however. I could not find a single review on line anywhere so i'm adding this one. Hopefully it helps others. This will make fluffy waffles, I can't say if it will make crunchy ones or not as I have not yet tried enough mixes to know for sure.