Customer Reviews

Presto Orville Redenbacher's Stirring Popper

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Let me preface this with I bought this popper as a replacement to my West Bend Stir Crazy popper that I had used with great frequency for 16 years (got it as a wedding gift) until the heat element decided it had popped it's last popcorn. This remarkable durability set the bar high for its replacement. I was unable to find a West Bend replacement at the time locally but I had found this Presto model. This popper had no realistic hope of reaching the bar set by the previous popper, but even with reduced expectations I'm disappointed. This popper comes in two parts and I have different feelings for each;
I'll start with the positive first:
The base is solid and the motor is quiet. The non-stick coating is great, clean up is fantastic as you only need take a paper towel to wipe it out and done! I've not had any problem with popping issues outside of having purchased a brand of substandard popcorn that I will never buy again. That's not the poppers fault, that's me trying to save a buck. The base by itself deserves 4 stars.

Now for the negative and the main reason behind my two star rating:
The clear bowl is complete rubbish. After the third use, I could see a hair line crack that was forming from one of the drip holes in the "butter tray" going towards the center. I never put butter in there anyway so I didn't give it much consideration given its location. The next use, while washing I noticed additional cracks had formed both in the butter tray as well as around the side handle area and one in the middle of the bowl's side. With each use, they've gotten worse.

To be clear, I've always hand washed the bowl and not in the dishwasher per the instructions and given the duration of my previous popper I don't think it's something I'm doing to cause this to occur as I'm not doing anything different. I can only guess its heat related as for the life of me I can't figure out how else these could be forming.

My wife has made fun of me as I've been duct taping the outside of the bowl where cracks have come together to try to maintain some sort of structural integrity of the bowl so I can keep on popping and get as many uses out of it as possible, but as a whole the bowl is deteriorating rapidly. This last batch I just made may be the last one as yet another crack that was not there prior to use has spawned from the side handle down the bowl and almost to the butter tray.

It's a shame as the base appears to be solidly made and usable for a long time.

As fortune would have it, I got a new West Bend Stir Crazy as a Christmas gift. I wonder if it will last 16 years like its predecessor? Not likely, as with everything it seems these days, they don't make them like they used to. But I would expect it to last at least one year, not 3 months.

Pros: Great popper, first time we used it, popped every single kernel with none of that burnt microwave 'flavor'. It is very easy to use, and is easy to clean.
Cons: Even though it has vents in the lid to allow steam to escape, the popcorn still always seems a little chewy. I'm hoping its just my inexperience with using it.

We saw this unit in a store at our local mall for over $50.00. We bought it through Amazon for much less. The unit makes great popcorn and is easy to use and clean. My only suggestion would be to add an on/off switch. I am buying another one as a birthday gift.

I am a different Janet than the one above!!

1+
Call Presto and ask for a new bowl/lid......it is thicker, better engineered, and they sent it free
Our original bowl/lid came with a small crack in the top of it that got bigger after 3 uses.

2+
Plug in the popper and let it heat FIRST....then add popcorn and oil. We lost batches by starting
it in a cold popper, but when we preheated it, the popcorn turned out wonderful.

3+
Transfer the popped popcorn to another bowl....the bowl/lid, being hot, will cause some of the popcorn
to go soggy if kept in bowl/lid for eating. AND forget the butter melting thing.....we tried the thing
and had burned butter/popcorn

The first month of use it had 3 cracks, now it has been about 6 months and I believe the clear bowl is more glue than plastic bowl. What a cheap piece of junk!

Bought this popper at Kohl's after looking at all the poppers on Amazon and was thrilled with the way the popcorn popped. We eat quite a bit of popcorn so used it a number of times in the first couple weeks. I kept the box just in case I needed to return it. Finally decided that it was a great product worth keeping and put the box in the recycle bin. That was Thursday and that next Sunday the thing went kapoot. It popped a few kernals and then stopped heating. Just turned and turned and stopped popping. I unplugged and plugged back in and it popped a few more and then stopped. The kernals just got browner and browner and would not pop. I tried another batch and the same thing happened. VERY disappointing. I don't recommend this popper!

While this machine makes great popcorn the cover/bowl cracked after the first use. By the third use it was so cracked that pieces began to break off and rendered the entire unit useless. I was never rough with the cover/bowl and only hand washed it. Definitely stay away from this one.

I bought this as a replacement for out 30 year old aluminum popper. The popper works great, except the clear bowl developed cracks after a few uses. The cracks are now so bad after a few months that is is unusable. You used to be able to purchase replacement bowls online. as of Oct 11, 2011 their website doesn't offer them anymore.

I won this popper as a White Elephant gift over the Holidays, and had some hope for a better experience than the air popper I regularly use.

On the way home, my dim memories of the wet kernel trouble percolated through my mind, and I thought "It's been decades, surely they fixed that!"

And they haven't. The bowl-like top cannot be used as a bowl unless you like the occasional cold/soggy piece of popcorn.

I'm a smart guy, and I overcame that. I immediately transfer the popcorn to a second, dry, bowl.

And then the real problem starts. The popper really doesn't pop. The kernels are chewy, significant number are old maids, and overall the popcorn experience is pathetic.

While I don't expect the popper to pop as well as the air pop (which unfortunately, requires a post-popping treatment of PAM and salt to make it edible), I do expect as good as stove-top. The 1/4 cup of popcorn that normally fills my popcorn bowl pops up to about 1/4 it's usual volume.

The popcorn tastes about 1/4 as good.

Terrible product. Don't buy.

I'd been trying to find a really GOOD popcorn popper for several months. I tried two hot air poppers....HORRIBLE! All they did was "spit out" burning hot unpopped kernels all over the place. FINALLY, I found the Presto Orville Redenbacher stirring popper and, VOILA, it's FABULOUS! A cinch to use and clean up is a breeze! It's just the BEST! You gotta get one!