My kitchen is littered with the remains of victims of my search for the perfect waffle maker (7 at last count). While on vacation last summer we stayed at several motels that offered free continental breakfasts. Three of them offered do-it-yourself waffles using wonderful commercial waffle makers by Heartland and Carbon. These make perfect waffles, crisp on the outside and steamy tender on the inside, and they all use that method whereby your pour the batter on the hot grid and then close the top and flip/rotate it over. This simple act separates the home waffles from the commercial restaurant-style waffles (try putting on oven mits and turning over your countertop waffler!).
Problem is these commercial flipover wafflers aren't available to the home consumer, only to restaurants and motels through some kind of franchise deal. Occasionally you can find used ones on eBay for pretty princely sums and they use 220 volt electrical outlets, not something the average kitchen has! I was surfing on the web and voila! I came across the Waring WMK300, which is a consumer version of these commercial wafflers. It hasn't sacrificed quality or build but the price is a lot less. It works exactly like the retaurant models and has non-stick grids, the flipover handles, and signal lights and beeps to tell you when the waffle is ready. It doesn't even take up that much space. And best of all, the waffles come out superbly, golden crispy on the outside and fluffy inside. The consistency is amazing (there is a browness control) and it takes common 120 volt electricity with 1200 watts of heating power (most home units are 650-1000 watts).
The only problem is they are in short supply, either out of stock or due shortly. Buy yours now, you couldn't make a wiser purchase.