West Bend Popcorn Machine, Stir Crazy Black

Amazon reminds me I bought this unit in 2006. It still works perfectly, but here are some points to consider. First of all I never leave the black butter tray on the top when the popping is in progress. The steam needs to get out to get the crispest possible result. It's still not quite as crisp as microwave popcorn, but does a good job of popping all the kernels into big fluffy pieces. I use organic popping corn which I store in a big mason jar to keep it fresh--if that matters with popcorn--don't know, but it's easier to pour from a jar than a plastic bag, and I never have a problem with the quality diminishing over time.I don't serve the popped corn in the cover (you'd need to replace the black cap if you do) because the inside is damp from the steam and would dampen the corn. I prefer emptying it out into a wooden bowl. That makes a nicer presentation, but in a dorm room, that doesn't matter and the cover serves fine in a pinch.The stirring arm will reverse by itself if it becomes snagged on heaped kernels or popped pieces and keeps things moving well during the popping. Cleanup is usually just wiping it out with a paper towel after it's cooled. When it's plugged in it begins heating immediately and the arm starts going around. It doesn't go fast, just enough to stir the corn as it pops. If you fill it too full of kernels the popped corn will raise the lid and escape so best to keep to the suggested maximum amount of kernels. I never bother to measure, just look for a single layer of kernels spreading out on the cooking surface. More than that means overflow. When you hear the popping stop, you unplug the unit and turn the whole thing over via the side handles, then lift the base off the bowl, returning it to the counter. It's easy, but the inside surface of the base is hot so it's good to be careful.If you want buttered popcorn, use butter to begin with as the fat instead of oil. It pops into the corn and flavors it nicely. If drizzling butter on afterward is still important to you, I heat the butter in the microwave and pore it on separately. The butter holder in the top isn't as effective in my opinion. I'd rather keep it free for letting the steam escape.I've tried several different poppers over time, but was never really satisfied and kept going back to the microwave version, but worried about it being unhealthy. Popcorn can be a good snack if you hold the oil down and don't add too much salt, so I kept searching for a popper where I could control those things and use my own non-GMO corn. This one really fits the bill. It's consistent, reliable and simple--and still working perfectly after six years. Although the popped corn could be a bit crisper, it's good enough that I will stick with this popper and am very satisfied with it. Highly recommended.

For the record, I've only used this popcorn popper once. That said, I spent a lot of time reading reviews before spending the $28 that I did to buy it from Amazon. I also researched the other ingredients I needed to make the Movie Theater popcorn experience I was after, and found using the right ingredients. First of all, what almost no one mentions, or perhaps they don't think about is this has a 1000 watt rated heater, which means it pops the corn quick and efficiently. I looked at the professional models of popcorn poppers and the best (IMO) made in the U.S. uses a 1200 watt heating element, in all of their commercial poppers, so for this consumer model to have 1000 watts, that's saying a lotAnyways, I doubt once the corn kernels started popping, it didn't take but a minute to pop all of the 1/2 cup of white popcorn kernels I added. When I bought this popper, I also bought these ingredients in the same order:Flavacol Seasoning http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004W8LT10/ref=oh_details_o00_s01_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=14 lbs. Snappy White Popcorn Kernels http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00382UXU4/ref=oh_details_o00_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=11 gallon of White Coconut oil (Snappy's) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A2A88ZW/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1And a Gallon of O'Dell's Super Kist Two Topping http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002YLNUL4/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1the O'Dell's product is a butter topping you add after the popcorn is popped. I bought a plastic mustard squeeze bottle to pour the O'Dell's topping into then I ran it in my microwave oven for about 45 seconds to heat the oil up. This oil is soybean oil with flavor enhancers added. As I read others say and I agree with them, you use this topping for the texture it gives the popped corn, and you squirt it on like you would add melted butter to your popcorn, but this has no water content like butter has so your popcorn wont get soggyI also followed the advice of others when I made this first batch of popped corn. What I did was to add 3 tablespoons of coconut oil directly to the popper before plugging it in. I then added 1 teaspoon of Flavacol Seasoning on top of the coconut oil, then I plugged the machine in which turns it on as there isn't an on and off switch. When you plug this machine into a wall socket, it's running and wont stop until you unplug it. That said, I did a short dry run with my popper by plugging it in and observing how the wand rotated in relation to the bottom of the popper. Some have had the turning wand arms touch the base of the popper and remove the non stick coating after so many uses. Mine did not touch but if they did, the gage of the metal wand is light enough you can bend the metal to eliminate a rubbing possibility. On that note, on these newer Stir Crazy corn poppers, the center nut which holds the wand in place is a threaded cap, is spring loaded, and enables the metal wand to not touch the popping surface, so the new models like this one have been improvedOkay so the dry test run was completed, making sure the popper got hot and the wand wasn't rubbing...I added the 3 tablespoons of coconut oil, 1 teaspoon of Flavacol and only 4 kernels of popcorn. I then plugged it in. I didn't add the entire 1/2 cup of popcorn as I read it's best to get the machine up to operating temperature before adding the popcorn, and by adding only 4 kernels of corn while it warmed up, once the 4 kernels popped, I knew it was hot enough to add the rest, which I did and that 1/2 cup of pop corn popped in under a minute. Yeah!, it went that quick. Pre-heating your popper eliminates the possibility of over cooking your popcornI want to mention. You don't want to leave the center removable lid on the clear inverted bowl/cover on while the corn pops. The top of the bowl with the holes drilled in it acts as a vent so steam from the corn kernel can vent. If you keep the cover on the vent, that moisture wont escape and you will have soggy popcorn, so leave that lid off while you pop your cornSo how did the popcorn taste? IMO?....it tasted better than what you buy at the movie theater. I was concerned that 1 teaspoon of the Flavacol seasoning might be too much, giving it way too much of a salty taste, yet my biggest critic (Mrs. Jake) told me (when asked) how my popcorn rated on a scale of 1 through 10 with 10 being the highest score. She told me she rated my popcorn a 20. It doesn't get any better than that, and she's hard to pleaseAnother point worth mentioning...you want to add the Flavacol to you oil and not shake it on the popcorn after it's popped. It's flavoring salt (giving the popcorn a buttery salty taste) but this salt is flaked salt and not granular. It's designed as a cooking salt and meant to be added to the oil while the corn popsSeriously, if you research how to make Theater Popcorn at home, you can do it with this Stir Crazy popper and it only costs $28 and not $300 like the better home theater popcorn machines start at. Plus, the Stir Crazy has a smaller foot print, and is much easier to store in a cupboard than a professional popcorn popper for the home, which most leave out in their home theater. I thought about all of this before deciding to buy the Stir Crazy instead of a home theater popcorn machine. I like quality cooking gadgets, but I also like simplicity in my life and I doubt you can get any simpler than a Stir Crazy corn popper, if you want a plug and play corn popper and not the type of machine you have to attend to every second while it's running like you do with the hand crank poppers you use on top of your stoveI also researched what type of oil to use and my research led me to use coconut oil. I also bought the white instead of the yellow coconut oil as I didn't want the beta carotene food coloring that comes with yellow coconut oil, the type that is used for popcorn popping. I'm sure the yellow colored coconut oil is fine for popcorn but I will also use this coconut oil for other cooking tasks, hence the desire to not have yellow enhanced coconut oil for other types of cookingIn closing, it might seem on the surface that buying a gallon of coconut oil and a gallon of O'Dell's Super Kist Two topping is a bit over board, and you can buy smaller containers, but the smaller sizes end up costing a lot more per ounce and if you like to make popcorn, you will be using all of these oils up before they go bad. Same with the Flavacol Seasoning, but I have not seen a smaller container of it for sale. Coconut oil will store for two plus years if stored correctly. Even if I don't use up the entire gallon of topping within the year pull date it comes with, it's still cheaper buying it by the gallon than buying the 16 ounce container of it. I'm totally happy with all of these Amazon purchases