Customer Reviews

Krups FDD912 Expert Waffle Maker with Rotary System

5 star:		(66)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I recently stayed in a Seattle hotel whose brunch buffet featured a do it yourself waffle bar. The professional waffle maker featured a rotary system that intrigued me--you poured in your batter, rotated the cooking plates, and when the light came on, rotated it back and removed your waffle. This rotary gizmo seemed to make the waffles cook very evenly and crisply.

I set off on a quest to find my OWN rotary waffle maker. I purchased this Krups waffle maker and have been very happy with it. While not quite as heavy duty as the restaurant version I used in Seattle, this is a FINE waffle maker. Here are some of its features:

1) Very well made. Very solid. All parts fit precisely. It has a heavy, durable quality that makes me think it will last me the rest of my life.

2) Easy to clean. The cooking plates remove for easy cleaning. The drip pan snaps in and out very easily and keeps batter from oozing onto your counter.

3) Fun and easy to use. Your brunch guests will be wowed as they watch you rotate your waffle maker! It really does a superior job at making waffles. All the recipes I've tried so far have come out great (even the recipes in the owner's manual--more on that later).

Note that the editor's comments concerning the lights are not quite correct. There are two lights on the top of the unit. One glows red while it is heating, and the other light glows green when the unit is ready to use. The light does NOT come on when the waffle is finished cooking, which makes sense because while the waffle is cooking, the lights are ON THE BOTTOM OF THE UNIT WHERE YOU CAN'T SEE THEM! However, it doesn't take long to figure out how long to cook the waffles after a test one turns out too brown or too light.

4) Easy to store. The handle folds up so you can pop this into a cabinet.

The only reason I didn't give this 5 stars is the owner's manual. Maybe it's a translation problem (I assume the original was in German), but the recipes are bizarre.

First of all, American cooks will be disconcerted by the fact that amounts of flour, sugar, butter, etc., are given by weight, not volume (grams, not cups). But anyone with a kitchen scale can adjust to that. But there are other problems.

One of the recipes doesn't give a quantity for salt, it just says "add salt."

Another recipe doesn't give a quantity for sugar, butter, or flour, just says "add same weight as eggs." I weighed the five eggs (255 grams) and added that much sugar, butter, and flour. The recipe thus contained about two cups flour, two cups sugar, and two cups butter with no other liquid than the five eggs. Made kind of a thick, gritty batter that looked more like cake batter than waffle batter. The waffles cooked perfectly, but boy were they strange!! Kind of gritty from all that sugar. I hate to think how many calories they contained!

I looked for a long time before I decided on this one, and I am very happy with my choice. Things I like are as follows:

1)Makes great waffles...fast (I've used it on 6 separate occassions so far, average time per waffle has been less than 3 minutes)Waffles have come out of non-stick surface perfectly every time

2)Easy clean up (non-stick is just that in this case, and stainless drip tray also cleans up very easily)

3)Compact... for a rotary waffle maker, handle folds down to further compress its footprint on your countertop

4)Solid construction, this thing is solidly built without being unweildy, seems like it will last a long time

I recently purchased this item, and made a batch of waffles this morning. They came out perfectly. The machine heated fast, and indicated it was ready with a green light. This is to me much preferable to a just thermostat light going off.

I poured in the batter, pressed down 10 seconds, then flipped it. I was timing the doneness by the browness of the extra batter which came over the edge and the amount of steam coming out.

The waffles come out easily. The waffles have high ridges, and are perfectly evenly browned. The machine doesn't smoke much so I don't have to keep it near the jenn aire. The machine feels solid, has a heavy cord and looks great next to my Kitchenaid pro items. It doesn't take up much space and I can leave it on the counter.

Here's my recipie for a small batch, it will make enough batter for 2 waffles (which is more then enough for 2 people IMO).

My recipie for 2 full sized waffles:

1 cup flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbs sugar
2 eggs separated
scant 1 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil

1. Sift dry ingredients into a bowl.
2. Beat egg whites until stiff.
3. Add egg yolks, milk and oil to dry ingredients using a hand rotary or electric mixer, mix thoroughly.
4. Gently fold egg whites into batter.

Enjoy!

I've used the Krups about once a week for several years. I own a number of waffle irons, mostly antiques from the 20's and 30's. The Krups remains the most often used iron of the bunch. This is mainly because it does such a great job with my whole wheat pastry flour recipie, it will make ww waffles so light and airy you'd be amazed they are made with ww flour.

It seems that this is mainly because it has very deep pockets. My favorate recipie just works much better with a deep pocket Belgium-style iron. Why? I dunno - it just does.

So on the plus side, this model does bake waffles very well. It can make a great waffle with a crispy crust and tender middle, significantly better than you can make with most irons. It's overall design and the removable plates make it very easy to keep clean. It has high quality calrod heating elements.

It does suffer from a few problems common to appliances in the way of cheap materials and questionable design.

The handle is plastic and rather flimsy. Mine broke into pieces after about two years when I took it out of it's cabinet and I wasn't even conscious of bumping or stressing it at all. Krups will sell you a new one for $20 or so - I was able to glue mine back together.

The cooking plates are attached to two thin SS shells, which are in turn attached to the heavy cast frame by some cast brackets riveted to the shells. Apparently, it's a dicey business to rivet the brackets to the shell in such a way that the cooking plates will mate properly. Mine fit together fine at the hinge end, but there was a huge gap at the handle end of almost 1/4 inch. The waffles were much thicker at one end than at the other.

The plates are a little too thin to be optimal for waffle baking. There is a "hotspot" in the center of the waffle plate. By itself, this is not too big a problem, but if it's combined with the "gap" issue, the result can be some very noticeable unevenness.

Check the gap between the plates at each end when you get it. Small difference - no problem. If they are a lot farther apart on the handle end than on the hinge end, beware. If there is a problem be prepared to pay exchange fees, live with some uneven baking, or disassemble it and bend it into position yourself, which is what I did.

Great waffles, though. This waffle maker is like a restaurant with fantastic food but occasional crummy service. Do you recommend it? Sure, but...

I normally would not spend this much money on a waffle maker but I don't regret it at all. After reading the reviews of all the waffle makers, I decided to go with the Krups. The one factor that made me go with this one instead of the Waring was the handle. The handle looks to be study enough to last - cast metal and it folds down and out of the way. I'm not worried about it breaking.

Its easy to use, a snap to clean and makes beautiful, thick waffles. No sticking - the waffles come right off. The waffle recipes in the booklet are in metric but there are a hundreds of recipes to be found on the internet and cookbooks, so no big deal.

The first time out I fixed a big batch of waffles for my teenagers and a house full of their friends. It was easy, fast and delicious. Can't beat that!

I did extensive research on waffle makers. Wanted to get the biggest bang for my buck. I have 4 boys and they all love waffles. So it was important that this item was sturdy, easy to use and easy to clean. It has everything that I was looking for (except the audio timer). I used the microwave timer instead.
EASY: Even though it comes with an extensive recipe book, I used the waffle recipe on the bisquick box.
QUICK: We used the 3.5 setting for a total of 4-4 1/2 minutes. (1 min after pouring 1/2c batter in each section, then flip for 2 min. and back for 1 minute)** a little longer if you want crispy waffles.
HINT: For even cooking, always pour batter in waffle section away from yourself first, then the front section. Beware, don't flip too soon or you'll have a mess and with that said, don't flip too late or you will have a waffle that is divided top to bottom.
EASY: The non-stick surfaces really work nicely and pop right out for cleaning. So simple that my teenagers can clean up after themselves (YEA!)
STURDY: No flimsy parts nor light weight. Stands up to everyday use and did I mention I have TEENAGE BOYS?! Folds easily and stands upright in my pantry.
I am so glad we purchased the Krups. I am sure we'll use it for years and years.
**Watch out when cleaning the overflow plate--Edges are sharp.

This Krups appliance is made in China, not Europe. However, it is solidly built and well thought out. For the money, it is a much better value than the KitchenAid or Cuisineart devices. I especially appreciate the folding handle that saves a lot of space, and the included aluminum drip tray.
It makes a pair of Belgian waffles neatly, releases cleanly. Easy to clean. We've used it on three separate occasions for a number of guests since taking receipt of it, and have had no regrets on our choice.
Problem areas: could use an on/off switch, instead of just relying on the power plug. The red/green thermostat control lights are useful, and the thermostat works as one expects, but a built in timer device would be helpful.
There is a slight bit of unevenness in the cooking at one end of the waffle vs. the other. It has been consistent, so it is likely to be the result of the design/location of the heating elements. The variance is not too much, though, and on the higher heat settings it is not really noticeable.
The recipe book is calibrated in grams, not by unit volumes as we would expect in the states. If that is an issue, invest in a good waffle recipe book.

This is a wonderful appliance and at what a savings! Mine arrived promptly and in "shipped from the manufacturer" condition. This is such an improvement over my old waffle maker (no matter how much I greased it the waffles always stuck).

The first time I tried it was on my new son-in-law and I was eager to make a good impression. A red light indicates the appliance is on and a green light tells you when it's ready to cook. My first waffle came out beautifully and you-know-who ate it with great satisfaction and requested another. Then I screwed up. You see, if you don't follow directions and forget to rotate the waffle maker your waffle splits in half and can't be put back together again! Third time I did it right.

Waffle grids slide out easily for cleaning in the dishwasher. Outside of stainless steel appliance my be cleaned with soap and water or glass cleaner if you prefer. Handle folds down and therefore the appliance stores easily.

I was too busy to follow the gram instructions in the recipe booklet accompanying the waffle maker and too busy to beat egg whites separately. So I used my tried and true pancake recipe which turned out great. In the future I'll be more creative!

Highly recommended for waffle lovers!

I looked at most of the waffle makers before I decided on this one, and I am very happy with the Krups. The waffles come out nice and crisp on the outside and moist on the inside. The non-stick coating has not failed me yet. Waffles come out in one piece and cooked perfect. Cleanup is a snap with the removable plates and removable drip tray. I cook my waffles on heat setting 4 1/2 for 4 and 1/2 minutes. I use packaged waffle mix and they come out perfect. I highly recommend this to any one looking for a new waffle maker. Read the owners manual before using the waffle maker for the first time.

I have had mine now for a couple of months and it has gotten a great deal of use. I find that it cooks evenly every time (if I could only master getting the exact right amount of batter in it that would be a coup!) and it heats up by the time I have my batter made. It is a nice heavy stainless steel construction and very well made.

The plates came off easily for cleaning (love that feature!) and were easy to clean. I also appreciate that the tray on the bottom is easily removed for cleaning. I think it was ingenious to not have it connected to the unit. It has slots which allow it to sit well and stay put on the base until you want to slide it out for cleaning.

I chose this particular unit not only for its great reviews but because I like the rectangular waffle shape more than the round shape of other units. All in all I absolutely could not be more pleased with this Krups Waffle Maker!