Presto 04820 PopLite hot air popper
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List Price: Our Price: $18.89 You Save: $11.10 (37%) Availability: Usually ships in 2-3 business days Buy Used: from $13.76 (click here) Category: Kitchen See more product details |
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Presto 04820 PopLite hot air popper
Customer Review: Good 'ol popper
Summary: 4 Stars
I've had one of these for more than 10 years and am ordering a new one because the yellow plastic air guide has just disintegrated from age and heating. The motor and element are still working.
Yes: if you leave it alone it does throw out a few blistering-hot kernels. But if during the first 30 seconds of running you hold it and tilt it back about 30 degrees, it doesn't. As soon as any kernels have popped you can set it down again.
Lowest-calorie popcorn? At the supermarket, buy an aerosol can of cooking oil spray. Face the popcorn bowl, spray in right hand and salt-shaker in left. As the popcorn tumbles out, alternately spritz with cooking oil and sprinkle with salt. The oil spray has basically zero calories (a teaspoon per batch?) but it makes the salt stick to the popcorn!
Fun with your popper, impress the kids. There are always a few kernels that don't pop left in the bottom. And every time, one or 2 will go off a couple seconds AFTER you pull the plug. So: pull out the plug, slowly raise your index finger and point, magically, at the popper. Bang! Blow smoke off imaginery gun barrel.
Customer Review: Better than microwave popcorn.
Summary: 4 Stars
We love our air popper! After using it for a few weeks we ran out of popcorn for it and went back to our normal bag of microwave popcorn for one night. Talk about a big difference, we no longer liked the taste of the microwave popcorn.
One issue with the air popper is that the popcorn cools off very quickly. To solve this problem, after the popcorn is popped I use an oil mister to lightly spray the popcorn with canola oil and then add some salt. I'll turn the popcorn in the bowl a couple of times repeating the oil and salt. This allows me to control how much oil/salt is added.
After I'm done with that I put the bowl in the microwave for 90 seconds. The popcorn is hot and salted to our taste without being oily. Before, with the microwave popcorn, I had to wash the oil off my hands when we were done. Not any more!
The only other problem is that hot kernels will come out of the popper into the bowl and will pop in the bowl sending a piece or two of popcorn out of the bowl. A little clean up but other than a few pieces of popcorn ending up out of the bowl not a big deal.
Customer Review: Excellent Machine
Summary: 4 Stars
There are two downsides to this machine. The first being that it doesn't have a power switch, so yes when you plug it in and unplug it, there is a spark at the outlet. Not a big deal. The second is that I have never been able to get butter to melt in the cup on top like they claim. Again, not a big deal. I simply melt the butter in the microwave in the cup, then place it back on the machine and start my popcorn.
I live in a dorm, so the nice thing about this machine is unlike microwave popcorn, its very hard to set off fire alarms. (I know it sounds hard to do, but it happens at least once a week.) Once the kernels are done popping, the fly out of the machine away from the heat. No way to start smoking. The great thing about having an air popper is that it doesn't add anything to the popcorn you don't want there. You have to add the butter and salt at the end to your tasting. Experiment with what you add, its always fun to just throw something random on a batch and see how it tastes. (I love the garlic butter popcorn myself.) Also, try some of the multicolored popcorn too, it changes everything.
Customer Review: A chewy disappointment
Summary: 2 Stars
I've guess I've never had hot air popcorn, mostly microwave, some stove top and of course the popcorn they sell in movie theaters, but based on the the majority of positive ratings here, I thought it was worth a shot. Big mistake.
Like a few reviews have said, the popcorn came out tasting like chewy cardboard-- not that I've eaten that much cardboard in my life, but that's exactly what it reminded me of. I was less worried about the taste, I figured some butter, oil or spices could take care of that, but the chewiness, or lack of crispness, was a definite problem for me.
So figuring that maybe it was just me, we had a 'popcorn cook-off' when friends were over: Microwave v.s. Stove-top v.s. Hot Air. Stove-top won (great taste & crispness), Microwave 2nd (some burnt kernels & good crispness) and Hot Air was a distant 3rd (poor taste & crispness).
Possibly with some practice we might have done better. We're at a mile-high altitude, maybe that effects things. Nonetheless, we added it to our donation pile. The search for better & easier popcorn continues.
Customer Review: Great Popcorn Popper
Summary: 5 Stars
I LOVE my new popcorn popper. I don't have any complaints. I turned the popcorn popper on and let it warm up about 3 minutes without the top on before placing the top and and putting in the popcorn as I read in another review. It works perfectly. When I hear the first pop I hold the pan close to the chute to avoid any wild kernels until the popper is full (takes about 30 seconds) then I put the pan down and let it pop. When your blowing hot air into popcorn a few wild kernels is to be expected but definitely was not any kind of problem. My sister and I used the popper to make several batches of popcorn for popcorn balls. We had the best time. One of the little measuring cups makes a lot of popcorn and I only had about 2-3 kernels left unpopped in the popper using Jolly Organic Popcorn. I would definitely buy again and plan to buy them for Christmas gifts. The grandchildren LOVE watching the corn pop and fall into the pan from the chute. Popping popcorn use to be a big deal but not any more. I really like the fact that we're not eating microwave popped corn anymore. GREAT PURCHASE!