Customer Reviews

Hamilton Beach 25325 MealMaker Express Contact Grill

5 star:		(89)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I am very pleased with this product. I have the smaller Foreman Grill but needed something larger and this was it. With removable grills, the clean up was much easier than the Foreman grill. Another advantage of this grill over the Foreman grills is the oil drainage trays are built inside and do not just sit on the counter waiting to be knocked over. Make sure to spray the trays with cooking oil prior to using.I have cooked 2-3 lb London Broils, semi boneless steaks, chicken breast and ground beef with this grill and love it. I used it twice just this weekend and am really pleased.It is not 100% the same as outdoor BBQ grilling but for indoors year round cooking, it is fine.

I am a countertop appliance freak, and I love this grill! Unlike most of the other grills I've used, the plates come off in a snap for easy cleaning. You can soak them in hot sudsy water, or you can put them in the dishwasher. They never need to be scrubbed, because they have a nonstick surface, which is much more durable than most of the nonstick surfaces I've encountered. However, you should never use abrasives, you don't need to because most stuff just rinses right off. When you use the grill, you preheat it with the timer, which is also the on/off control for five minutes, so it's nice and hot when you put the meat, veggies, or chicken on it. It's great for stir frying, just chop the veggies and spray them with cooking spray and put the lid down for a couple of minutes. If you're doing meat, fish or chicken with the veggies, put the meat, sprayed with cooking spray, on first, wait a couple minutes and then put the veggies in. The grill is large enough for a lot of food. It does great grilled veggies. And because it's covered when it cooks on both sides, there is no grease spatter! Nothing messy to clean up afterwards. And, if you pour a small amount of water over the hot grill after removing the food, and use the little grooved paddle supplied with the machine to sweep the drippings into the removable drip tray, (which is part of the appliance and not detached from it unless you want it to be), you have makings for a gravy if you so desire. Since we are calorie concious, we usually pour the drippings into our dog's dry food and does he ever love that! He's smart enough to know when we are cooking on the grill, and so he gets all excited! Once in a while we splurge and put it over our rice, and then the poor doggie has none! I can cook two large whole trouts, seasoned and stuffed with lemon slices in just a few minutes. The timer is a real safety feature, if you get distracted from cooking, instead of burning, your meal automatically turns off at the time you set and the residual heat keeps it warm until you are ready to eat it. The variety of foods you can cook on this machine is amazing! I have cooked hamburgers, eggplant, whole chicken pieces, fish, roasted/grilled vegetables, cut up meats, and seafood for fahitas and stir fry, and bacon and sausage with no spatter, liver and bacon and onions, the list goes on and on and no burning! This is one of those appliances I just couldn't live without after using it. If it died tomorrow I would have to replace it right away, but since it has a 2 year guarantee, no problem. I don't understand the reviewer who said she couldn't take it apart for cleaning. Maybe she didn't read the instructions. I have also cooked plenty of steaks, pork chops, etc with bones with no problems, so I don't understand her review at all.

I purchased my first of this grill three years ago by accident. Wanted to replace my sixth (6th) Foreman Grill because the Foreman kept burning out the elements. I saw this Hamilton Beach grill, studied it in the store, and decided to switch. This grill has outlasted all my Foremen Grills in spades. I use my contact grill at least four out of a seven day week. Often twice on the weekends. Let's examine the pros: First, the removable plates are worth the price of admission all by themselves. Second, the drip tray is so much more intelligently designed than the Foreman. Three, when the grill opens up, it has a tang that allows the gravity fed drippings to go into the channel also. Fourth, the timer is marvelous and gives adequate time for most contact grilling (I suggest a five minute pre-heat before actual cooking). Five, the design is sensible and youll never have to wash the heating plates in the grill, which was a huge hassle with George.

The negatives: one; After three years, the timer knob split at the spine. two; The teflon began to erode by the end of the second year making it somewhat difficult to clean. three; the spring loaded clip on the lower plate lost it's coil spring. The good news is that all the parts can be easily replaced by Hamilton Beach.

Finally, when I saw this on Amazon, I almost couldnt believe the price so I ordered one. It was delivered so fast that Im ordering a spare, which Ill store in my pantry just in case Hamilton Beach loses the grill war to George Foreman. Believe you me; this is one grill that you wont want to be without. It is absolutely the best grill for the money anywhere. Oh, and one last thing. If you want the drippings to flow faster, just prop the left side on a thin cutting board. Personally, I like it the way it is because the channels are deep enough where the juices do not touch the food but doesnt run away so fast as to inhibit the wonderful moistures that make your food tastier, juicer, and more tender. And no, I dont work for Hamilton Beach; I just know a great product when I use one.

Mike Way

We're on our second Hamilton Beach grill and we love its simplicity and versatility. As a dad who does most of the weekday dinners, this grill has helped me go from Good to Great, at least in the eyes of my wife and 3 picky kids.

The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars, is that in our experience, the nonstick coating wears off rather quickly, and it then becomes a slight pain to clean. I'm willing to concede that could happen because we might use it three times a day (breakfast sausage, lunch hot dogs*, dinner salmon) and four or five days a week. In any case, you can order replacement grills by mail -- no web orders :-( -- from the company for about $13 each.

Do yourself and your family a favor: get THIS grill AND a good book (like "Grill Power") on how to marinate and grill steaks, chops, chicken, lamb, fish, shrimp, scallops, etc.
You'll wonder why you didn't do so a long time ago.

*Even if you're not a hot-dog lover, once you've had them or kielbasa grilled, not boiled, you'll never want to go back.

When i first got the grill, i was very disappointed. Whilst it's larger and has the removable grids, it was not as hot as my old George Foreman and it seemed as if my foods were steaming. However, after several months, i've discovered a few secrets to cooking on it and am much happier.
1. preheat it for a minimum of 5 minutes, maybe 8.
2. don't overload it all at once
3. if your food is very lean (or skinless) it won't sear well right away. Marinading will help. Also, if you spray your meat with Pam or drizzle alittle olive oil on it (sounds gross but what the heck) it'll help sear it.
Bottom line is: Even though my old George cooked hotter and faster, my new Hamilton Beach remains champ due to ease of cleaning. I love the convenience of popping out those grids!

After trying my mother's small sized George Foreman Champ grill with great success, I was very excited about getting this Hamilton Beach grill because it promised easier cleanup a larger cooking surface. Unfortunately, I was grossly disappointed with the cooking results on this Meal Maker Express
.

1. Even after a very long warmup period,the grill wasn't hot enough to brown the foods I was cooking so it "steamed" my burgers, chops and fish. Believe me when I tell you that the visual and taste appeal of these items was zero to none!

2. The grill does not accomodate foods that are over 5/8" thick because of the fixed hinge design.

3. The grill is too level for fat to run off the way it does on the Foreman grill.

4. The timer was inaccurate.

5. Customer service was not very informative. I had read a few reviews mentioning similar experiences so I called Hamilton Beach to see if my "steaming" experience was normal. The rep could offer no information about how to improve the grill's performance or whether steaming was normal. She simply told me to send this brand new appliance in for repair. Yeah,right!

Thus, I returned the grill to Amazon. Thank goodness Amazon is so good about returns or I would have been stuck with a lemon.

PS. I rated the grill 2 stars instead of 1 or 0 solely on the basis of its removable grilling surfaces, its built in drippings reservoir, and the fact that it can be used in an open position which doubles the grilling surface. Nice design! Too bad it didn't cook well.

My husband has turned from biggest skeptic to biggest fan of this indoor grill. He no longer faces any smoke in the face and inclement weather after a hard day's work. I grill everything to perfection with ease. Dinner has turned into an easy chore even with two kids at my feet. There is nothing I won't try on this grill--if a recipe calls for grilling, pan frying, broiling, sauteing, etc., I'll just pop it on this grill and it's done in half the time because I don't have to turn it. It turns off when it's done so there's no fear of burning anything. Clean up is easy too.

Does this grill beat my old Farberware indoor grill? YES! Does it beat my Weber charcoal or natural gas grill? Price and convenience wise...yes. Cooking results...no. Much of my review is repeating what people have already said but, here we go...

Pros

The cost of this thing is unbelievable. I purchased this from Amazon and thought I got the most awesome deal in the world. They now have it for $10 cheaper! Wow!

The Teflon coated removable plates are awesome. Cleaning is so easy. I have this stainless steel indoor grill from Farberware that I purchased about 10 years ago. That thing was a nightmare to clean! This thing couldn't be simpler.

Cooking speed! This unit cooks very quickly. It does an especially good job on food that is flat a makes good contact with the grill.

Cons

I wish the hinge opened up a little higher. When I cook bratwursts, the end closest to the hinge cooks more than the other. Yea...I rotate em' but it would still be nice to have a better hinge design.

The grill doesn't cook evenly. I find food on the right side of the grill cooks slower than food on the left. The reason is obvious: The channels for the grease to flow down are deeper on the right than the left. So, the food makes better contact with the grill on the left side than the right side. Simple solution...rotate the food.

I also think the machine is too level and doesn't allow the grease to flow fast enough. I know, I know... put a book under one end. I do and it works better.

Here's something I haven't seen anyone else mention. The tabs on the removable grill plates stick out from the sides of the unit. This is to make them easy to take out. However, they get extremely hot! If you attempt to reposition the unit on your kitchen counter while cooking, be careful! The tabs are labeled "HOT" but it is almost impossible to notice since they are black and covered with Teflon just like the rest of the grill. Attention Hamilton Beach: Solution 1 - Make the tabs red with black lettering that says "HOT". Solution 2 - Just get rid of the tabs. It's easy to remove and replace the grilling surfaces without using the tabs.

So with all these cons, you probably think I hate this grill, right? Wrong... This thing will cook chicken breasts and hamburgers like no tomorrow. Very, very convenient. After comparing the features to other indoor grills, I still think this is your best bet. When you enter the price into the equation, you can't go wrong! I'm giving this grill 4 out of 5 stars because I think there's still room for improvement. By the way, I purchased another one right now as a Christmas gift!

We bought the Hamilton Beach to replace our aging George Foreman grill which was starting to have the nonstick coating peel off. So far we've been pleased with the Hamilton Beach.

The best feature of the HB is that the cooking grids are removed for cleaning and better yet, are dishwasher safe. This feature alone was enough to draw us to the HB instead of buying another GF.

I have seen some comments about the HB not getting hot enough and I have to agree-- to a point. It does get hot enough to put sear marks on the food but does not seem to get as hot as my old GF got, judging from cooking times. I preheat mine for 10 minutes (instead of the recommmended 5 min.) and seem to get better results this way.

The cooking area is adequate but not as large as the biggest GF grills. If you frequent cook for more than 3 people or so you might need something bigger. But, the HB has a unique design which allows you to open the top of the grill completely back and lay it flat, which effectively doubles cooking area, but when doing this you are only cooking the food on one side at a time. This would work in a pinch.

The cooking grids snap out easily for cleaning along with a drip cup that snaps into one end. The HB has some nice design features including channels on the grids to funnel drippings into the drip cup even if the top of the grill is laid open to grill flat. The hinge for the top, however, does not expand enough to allow easy cooking of thick steaks and chops. This causes the food to cook unevenly. I also found that if you cook very thin items, such as prepackaged frozen burgers, there is too much space between the grids when the lid is closed and the top will not contact the food very well. The HB does have a rotating dial timer which is a nice feature and one that the GF grills don't have.

The HB is a fine choice and in my opinion preferable to the GF grills due to the removable grids alone. I always dreaded cleaning my GF after using it but those days are gone.

Any indoor grill will not replace good old fashioned outdoor grilling but comes in handy during colder months or bad weather. That's what we use ours for, as a substitute for the gas grill outdoors, and the HB will serve you well!

My brother and I purchased this grill for our parents and Christmas time, The grill is awesome. My dad opened it up and said Hey, this is not a George Foreman, so I had to explain that 4 people in the store said that it was better then the GEORGE FOREMAN, and here is why...1. First of All you can cook anything on here from T-Bones to French Fries!!!2. You can open up the Grill until it lays flat and cook on both sides, 3. Clean up is a Breeze, you can take the grates out. 4. YOU CAN PUT THE GRATES IN THE DISHWASHER!! 5. It is a lot cheaper..and you get more ammenities...after my parents tried this grill one time, they were hooked they use it 4 times a week...I even cooked french fries on there instead of turning on the big oven, or without having to hook up the fryer. I put them on the Hamilton beach and they came out really good. I highly recommend this grill!!