Nostalgia CCP509 Full-Size Popper
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Nostalgia CCP509 Full-Size Popper
Customer Review: After One Year Review- Jamming and Spitting Issues
Summary: 2 Stars
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.
Customer Review: Excellent Popper for the price.
Summary: 5 Stars
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.Customer Review: Makes great popcorn
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this machine about 9 months ago. We probably have cooked about 100 batches of popcorn and the machine has performed great - no problems.
It took us a little less than 1 hour to put together and we were ready to make popcorn. Here are a few tips.
- One batch makes a fairly good portion for 3 adults.
- Pre-heat for at least 5 minutes, then put the oil in for about 20 seconds, next put in the popcorn, and then some salt (right into the kettle). If you put the oil and popcorn in too soon you will get a lot of uncooked kernels.
- The pre-packaged popcorn/oil/salt kits are expensive. If you want to save a lot of money go to store and buy the supplies. We went to GFS and bought a big bag of popcorn, popping oil, popping oil (which was Canola oil with artificial color), and popcorn salt (Grand Rapids - Flavacol). The salt and oil will probably last us for years. We actually thought the popcorn tasted better than the pre-packaged kits.
- If you do buy popcorn in the big bag, I recommend pre-dividing it into 4 oz servings in those small zip-lock snack bags. Popcorn can become stale fairly quickly if you don't do this. If the popcorn starts to become stale a lot of kernels won't pop.
- We also purchased a bunch of those plastic white and red popcorn buckets/holders at the dollar store. These are great for serving the popcorn in.
- For the popping oil we just put some in a smaller squeeze bottle that can easily fit in the storage area. When making a batch we just skirt some into the kettle.
- The machine is pretty easy to clean. We usually only clean it after several batches.
Note if you are looking for a commercial grade popper - this is not it. The sides are clear plastic, the metal is fairly thin, the light bulb is not a warming light bulb. None the less this has been a reliable machine for us and we definitely recommend it for home use - especially for the price.
Customer Review: Ideal for Home Theater
Summary: 4 Stars
When I set up my home theather in my basement I had to have an old fashioned popcorn machine. This one filled the bill perfectly. It is a little pricey, but it sets the atmosphere and I consider it decorative and functional. That's worth some extra.
I was worried that it would be a gimic, but it pops some serious popcorn. After the first batch heats up the griddle, the next batch pops in no time. This baby keeps the popcorn hot for hours. The grid at the bottom heats up and keeps the popcorn hot for as long as you leave the light on. That's a nice feature.
It has some downside and lost a rating star as a result. After about 25 poping cycle the button on the side of the pot broke off. My brother was able to repair it, but he is mechanically inclined. I would have sent it back for warranty work. Additionally, because of the shallow pot and the lid design, about 5 to 10% of the kernels never pop. They fly out when the popping starts.
Clean up is pretty easy. There are holes in the bottom that catch the kernels that don't pop. They fall into a tray below that can be pulled out and dumped. Woe be unto you; however, if you forget to put it back. I found out the hard way that it is almost impossible to get all the kernels out when they fall down inside the base.
Overall, though, this item will take you on a nice trip down memory lane. It looks the part and it works as well.
Customer Review: Perfect addition to the game room!
Summary: 5 Stars
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.