Customer Reviews

Nostalgia CCP509 Full-Size Popper

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I have been looking for a popcorn machine for quite a while. The lowest price (without a cart) that I could find was over $600. With a cart it can be more than $1100. Then add the shipping $65 - $100. That's why I was amazed to see this item for $349.99 - WITH FREE SHIPPING. This item was delivered in two Huge boxes. Assembly was simple... about 20 minutes. I did not expect to be a top of the line model and was surprised at the quality. The red top is metal, not plastic. The three side walls are glass, not plastic. I has a kernal catcher, some don't. I was also concerned about the wattage of this machine. It has about half the wattage of other machines I was looking at. But after cooking a batch of popcorn I found that this unit cooked the popcorn as fast as units I had rented in the past. I am extremely happy with this machine.

I bought the CCP509 for my office, believe it or not. I wonder how many people have a popcorn machine that stands about five feet tall in their office? I've used it a handful of times, and so far, the machine is just outstanding. Even the very first batch came out perfect, which I was very pleasantly surprised about.

Assembly took me about 40 minutes and was fairly easy, even for me, a mechanically declined assembler of just about anything! The machine is beautiful; it actually looks elegant, and has a genuine antique appearance. Three panels of the popper assembly are made of glass, and the door is made of plexiglass.

After pre-heating the kettle for about five minutes, you pour the popcorn goodies in, and in about two minutes, the popcorn comes spilling out of it. It is genuinely exiting, and I imagine that kids would love to see it in action.

I think a big part of it might be finding where to buy supplies for the machine. I haven't been able to find Country Harvest Pre-Packs in the four ounce size here on Amazon (six ounce size is available), but I went to a website called Home Theatre Express and found two different kinds of pre-packs especially for four-ounce machines like the CCP509 (I hope Amazon carries them soon if they really don't at present). The popcorn, oil, and salt are all in one package to pour into the kettle, and it works wonderfully. Each batch makes enough for three people easily.

I have visited a website for home theatre afficianados, and they swear by the machine (they also recommend not using more than a four-ounce pre-pack so that the stirrer doesn't jam, and I've had no problems with that at all). One co-worker calls it the best popcorn she's ever had. I, personally, love making popcorn on the stovetop, but having this machine at work is delightful, and makes my office smell like the snack stand at the movies.

For the price, this is one of the best deals you can get. You may want to look at one of the six-ounce models if you want to pop in grande volumes, but all in all, I am really thrilled with this model, at a very reasonable price. It's a treat.

*** UPDATE *** UPDATE *** UPDATE *** UPDATE *** UPDATE *** UPDATE

One little problem I have had with the machine (after about twenty or so batches now) is that the gear that comes up from the top of the kettle often pops loose from the gear at the top of the inside of the machine. This gear assembly turns the stirrer inside of the kettle. If it pops free so that it is not at a 90-degree angle, the stirrer won't stir the popcorn inside the kettle. I've made a couple of adjustments with the power cord that leads to the kettle so that there is more weight applied to that side of the kettle, and this keeps the kettle straight and therefore the two gears together, but it is a little bit of a pain having to watch the kettle and make sure the gears are still together. I would still rate the machine closer to five stars that four, but it is a little bit of a hastle. Not a big one.

I searched all over for a large Popcorn Popper. This was the lowest price. It took a little over 30 minutes to unpack it and assemble it. I moved it into the house and started making popcorn shortly after. It looks nice sitting in our living room. That's the location of where we watch movies. If you want to make as much popcorn as the show in the pictures you would need to make 3-4 batches. Like some of the other reviews I notice if you put to much oil or to many popcorn seeds then it will jam up and burn your popcorn. Yes, the little pre-measured packets are good and the taste is excellent but..... They are expensive and I am cheap. I bought a big 50 pound bag of popcorn seeds for 18 dollars and our favorite so far is a product called POP-ALL this is the best popping oil. It's around 22 dollars and I think 2.5 gallons. It turns the popcorn a nice yellow color like movie theater popcorn. The kids love watching it pop and I like the smell that it fills the house with. Any popcorn that we don't eat we put outside for our chickens that love it also. Cleaning takes a few minuets. I wipe it down with a dishcloth with warm soapy water to break up the oil on the plastic windows. Then a few more times with just warm water. The pot unplugs and you can rinse it out. The inside of my pot is now dark brown from the oil and I can't get it cleaned. It does not affect anything I guess it's like having an iron skillet gives it flavor? The manual tells you to fill it with 2 cups of water and run it for 15 minutes doing that will steam the inside of the unit and you can wipe it down. It also made the very top of the front door that is made of plastic warp from the heat. I don't recommend closing the door while doing that to clean it. The holes in the bottom make it even better. After you cook the popcorn you stir it around and the kernels fall thru the holes into a tray so when you fill your bowl up you don't break your teeth on the hard kernels. Bottom line is I love this machine and would buy it again if I had to.

First of all this popper is smaller than you would expect. I do see the measurements, but It still appears a bit small...
I have to agree, this popper is only okay and here's why.

The popper smokes quite a bit. I thought it was a "new" thing - but it continues to smoke. The stirer DOES bind up so you really have to keep an eye on it. It's also a bit awkward when adding popcorn and oil - the accessibility to the pan is off to the side making it a bit strange.

This popper does make great popcorn - but you can make great movie popcorn on your stove too with the right ingredients.

This machine is okay if you want the "this is cool" factor - but that's about it. I'm still trying to decide if I should return it - it just looks cool in our game room.

Overall I would not recomment this machine. Maybe another brand would be better.

And Yes, the doors and sides ARE plastic not glass and the metal is VERY thin. The scoop that comes with it is rather cheap and has some sharp edges, as does the cart door.

One other thing - the "warming light" is a simple light bulb - and it does not keep the popcorn warm at all.

Had this popper a month now and use it several times a week. Great tasting popcorn and easy to make. I recommend purchasing premeasured packages from Mega-Pop. Only issue that I have with the popper is that when the kernels are popping and the topside doors are open to expel the popped kernels, you get a lot of unpopped kernels flying out of the pot. We rented a similar popper, but with the 8oz pot and virtually every kernel popped. This popper has a 4oz pot and you lose about 20% of the kernels.

BTW, the only time the stir arm inside the pot jams is when you put more than 4 oz of popcorn in the pot. When I place 6oz of pre-measured popcorn in the pot, I have had to unjam the stir arm a couple times (not had to do it at all with 4oz). I recommend using the premeasured packages.

I purchased this popper for my husband, who is a popcorn freak.
I have been looking for a good full size popper for a long time and you can't buy them for under $600 (for both the popper and the stand. We've had it for about a month and we use it almost everynight. This is the best purchase I have ever made.

Through the past few years, we've been slowly building our game room, piece by piece. Pool table, check, poker table, check, Packinko machine, got 2, check, Pakhislo slot machine, check. Our final piece of the puzzle would be this popcorn machine. It's a great little machine. I read others talking about how cheap it seemed, but that wasn't the case for us. Sure, it's not going to withstand someone standing on top of it jumping up and down; if that's what you're looking for, continue your search! But, if you're looking for an inexpensive, easy to operate home theater/game room popcorn machine, this is probably what you're wanting.

The package arrived in 2 separate cartons. Setup and installation was quick and easy - they even provide you with the necessary tools. After about 15 minutes, we plugged the machine in, turned on the light, turned on the kettle, and after a few minutes, the stirring arm started to move (We initially thought something was wrong - but after the machine warms up, THEN the sirtting arm begins to work). We dumped in a premeasured 4 oz. popcorn pack, and in a few minutes, the aroma of freshly popped popcorn filled the room.

All in all, with free shipping, and $25 off special, this machine was purchased for under $300, a bargain compared to other machines. Easy to recommend this quality, inexpensive machine.

I received this product as a gift over a year ago, and have used it very often ever since. It is a wonderful product except for the defects in the design of the kettle, which make the unit prone to jamming (motor disconnection) and spitting (unpopped kernels flying out of the kettle). With a little modification, however, you can overcome these issues.

Overall I love this product. The set-up was quick and painless, the instructions clear enough. (I seem to remember having to force one of the pieces to mate.) Popping requires you to turn on the unit for a few minutes to warm up the kettle, and then pour in the contents. Popping is very quick once the unit is warmed up; popping starts around 2 minutes, and finishes around 3-4 minutes. I use the Country Harvest 4 oz Portion Packs (you can find them here at Amazon, and other places online) which produces outstanding popcorn. Cleaning the unit is somewhat of a hassle, as I assume it would be with all these types of poppers. Every now and then I take a bowl of dish-soap water and a dish sponge to the unit.

I give it only three stars because of the following issues which other reviewers have touched upon, all concerning the design of the kettle. You can correct these problems easy enough, but perhaps with other more expensive pop-corn makers you won't run into these problems.

1) The kettle is too light, and it often disconnects from the motor drive shaft. It requires its own weight to rotate the drive shaft into the motor embedded in the top of the unit. If the kettle disconnects, the popcorn stirrer stops stirring, the unit jams, and the popcorn burns. This is the biggest problem I ran into, which started a few weeks after I started using the product.

2) The doors on the kettle are too light, and when popping, the doors fly open too easily, letting too many unpopped kernels out of the kettle.

To solve (1), every time I make popcorn, I use a bent coat hanger as a spring to force the drive shaft to stay in contact with the motor. I wrap it around one of the protruding parts, and jam it against the side of the popcorn maker.

To solve (2), I added weights to each lid. I attached large paper/binder clips to keep the lids closed.

With these modifications, the pop-corn maker works perfectly, and I am very pleased with it. Just be aware when you buy this product that you could run into these problems.

WE RESEARCHED AND FOUND THE NOSTALGIA POPCORN MAKER TO BE THE BEST VALUE FOR THE MONEY. WE RECEIVED IT EARLIER THAN EXPECTED AND WAS THRILLED WITH THE QUALITY OF THE PRODUCT. WE MADE THE FIRST BATCH AND OUR KIDS COMMENTED HOW IT TASTED BETTER THAN THE MOVIE POPCORN!!

I bought this corn popper to put in the waiting room of my barber shop, and make free popcorn available to my waiting customers. It does a very good job of popping the corn. The only two complaints I have with it are:
1. The stirring mechanism stops sometimes, and I have to dump some of the popping corn out of the pan, then it starts again. It doesn't do this very often, but I still have to watch it pretty close when the corn is popping.
2. And this is my biggest complaint, the lids that lift up when the corn is coming out, will stay up and not come down quite often, letting some of the unpopped kernals come out. When this happens, I have to open the door and push the lids back down.
I wouldn't let these two problems keep me from buying the popper, because it still does a good job.