04820 Poplite Hot Air Popcorn Popper - Built-In Measuring Cup + Melts Butter, Easy to Clean, Built-In Cord Wrap, 18 Cups, Yellow

I looked at many popcorn poppers and this one had the best reviews on popping and functionality. It pops the popcorn quickly, fits under our counter cabinet, not to heavy, and looks Great alongside our other countertop items. The popcorn taste is Excellent. We do not use the onboard butter melting popcorn measuring scoop. We melt our own and that way the unit always just needs to be wiped out with a damp cloth and dried and it is ready for another pop. Excellent value and works like a champ. Yes a few Kernels may come out when it first starts popping but no more than 3-4 that we had the first time. If you tilt it slightly back you will only get 1 or 2 and that is all. We Lub it..

I love it! I use it often and enjoy watching the kernels pop, it’s so much fun. It only takes about 3–4 minutes for the popcorn to be ready, and the house doesn’t end up smelling like butter and popcorn all day. It’s great, tastes fresh, and as long as you follow the instructions on the popcorn popper, it works perfectly.

Basic and functional. Doesn't take up a lot of space and pops a large bowl of popcorn (see photo). Pops almost all of the corn kernels, is easy to clean, sleek design, pops corn in a few minutes. I haven't used the butter melt cup on top and probably won't. It doesn't have an on/off switch so you have to plug it in and unplug each time, which I found odd, but maybe that's typical for corn poppers? The top DOES get hot, so let it cool before removing.

Popping Popcorn is easy and Presto has made it Perfect. Has 1-2 kernels that doesn't get popped per 1/2 cup, never burns popcorn and doesn't require oils to pop. Be prepared to be amazed how much popcorn will be made with only a 1/2 cup of kernels, use at least a 3.7 liter bowl to 4 liter bowl that is about 16.9 cups or about a gallon container. I used real butter melted in the microwave and salt to flavor the popcorn in the bowl, never put the butter in the air popper. I would paid extra money for a Stainless Steel model if Presto made them. Quality is first rate and much better tasting than the microwave popcorn. Doesn't have a switch to turn it on and off, which I would prefer, no chemical smells come from the unit at all, very happy with this purchase.

This popper is amazingly reliable. My 1st unit lasted 15 years (and was going strong when I gave it to a friend) and my 2nd unit just died tonight after 20+ years and it probably would've kept going except I accidentally over-loaded it. :( Note that this popper works just as well at 20 years old as it did when brand new. Now THAT is a good design. This popper is fast, extremely fast. Even my 20-yr old unit finished a batch in less than 3 minutes. Seriously, I suggest getting your flavorings ready before turning the unit on. If you fill the popcorn exactly to the line inside the popper, you get a perfect batch every time. You can use less kernels, but you get a few unpopped ones flying into your bowl. Tilting the machine back just a tad will also eliminate unpopped "flyers" if you use less than a full batch. You can even put in a little extra, barely covering the inside measuring line from side, but you'll have to jiggle the popper (e.g. tap it briskly a couple times) to get the kernels swirling. You see, the hot-air blower inside the unit swirls the popcorn, heating them evenly and quickly. If the kernels don't move, the bottom ones will start to burn and the machine will auto-shutoff. (And it stinks to the high heavens!) The popper works so well, don't bother using expensive popcorn. My favorite is Jolly Time which is cheap in the large bags (approx. 2 lbs). The Kroger store-brand of popcorn even works well, and it's dirt-cheap...a real blessing if you eat as much popcorn as I do. :D If you have a Trader Joe's nearby, their popcorn actually cooks with the fewest flopcorn* of them all, even if comparing to the hideously over-priced Orville Redenbocker popcorn. The machine never needs cleaning, either. When done, just tip it so any flopcorn (if any) pours into the waste basket. That's it. It's now ready for another batch. Now, if you try heating butter in the little cup that rests in the top of the unit's cover, THEN you'll have a bit of cleanup...but only that cup. (It's fine in the dishwasher, by the way.) I never use the cup because the unit finishes a batch of popcorn so fast, the butter never has enough time to melt! (And that's true even if you have your butter at room temperature.) Basically, if you want hot butter to pour onto your cooked popcorn, heat it in the microwave while your popcorn's popping. (You'll be much happier.) Tips. 1. Use cheap popcorn as it cooks just as well as over-priced "gourmet" popcorn like the Orville Redenbocker brand. 2. If you like salt, use powdered salt. Morton makes popcorn salt which works well, but you can also powderize your own with a good blender, food processor, or a good spice mill. 3. To get salt or other sprinkled flavorings to stick to your popcorn, give short bursts of cooking spray onto your popcorn and quickly sprinkle a bit of flavoring onto it before it soaks into the popcorn. If you like a LOT of flavoring, spray a bit more and sprinkle faster and longer. :D 4. Johnny's makes a great popcorn salt and a little goes a long ways. Regular powdered salt is cheaper and is just as good in my opinion (but my wife swears by it, hehe). 5. For best results (i.e. the least amount of flopcorn), fill the unit just enough with popcorn so the fine line internal measuring line inside the heating chamber is covered. Tilt the machine back just a little (e.g. place a pencil, butter knife, or other .5" item) underneath the front of the popper's base until enough popped corn has filled the popping chamber; this keeps uncooked popcorn from flying out. 6. If you put in just a little more popcorn so the internal measuring line is covered by 1 or 2 layers of kernels (AND jiggle the unit to make sure it starts swirling), you'll not only get a slightly larger batch of popcorn, but you won't have any unpopped popcorn flying out, even without tilting the unit. Note: The machine is a tad noisy when running. It's not really loud, just a little annoying. It's not a big deal, but I thought I'd mention it. For comparison, it's about as loud as a hairdryer on its lowest setting. It's maybe as loud as the fan on a microwave. Also note: Hot-air popped popcorn is dry. I mean dry. Really dry. Popcorn, in general, is dry, but popping it without oil/butter/etc. makes it as dry as dry can be, maybe drier. ;) If you put flavorings on it, you'll never never notice it, though. I thought hot-air neophytes might find this curious, though, maybe even a bit surprising. (I actually like it better.) * Flopcorn: The unpopped kernels remaining after popping a batch of popcorn.

Great little popcorn machine! Works exactly as you'd hope. Remember though - it turns on immediately right when you plug it into the wall. Overall it looks nice, pops the popcorn perfectly without burning anything, and fits nicely on your counter or wherever you put it away. Can't complain at all.

We are a family who loves popcorn, and we use this probably 3-4 a week. I really love that this doesn't require oil, and it is so easy to clean and put away. It makes popcorn in about two minutes, and its pretty simple to use. You dont add any flavoring inside the popper itself, you add it all to the popcorn after its popped. We get a couple kernels that end up getting shot out with the popcorn, but this will give you a lot less than a microwave bag. Overall this maker is super easy to use, its about as fast as a microwave bag and the popcorn is way better.

The good: -- This thing pops my kernels to their full potential. Some others pop them smaller, so you end up with half a bowl of disappointing popcorn. -- It works pretty fast -- While all of these air poppers will spit out unpopped kernels, it's pretty minimal with this one -- There's no weird "preheat" requirement: you just plug it in and it makes popcorn. The bad: -- No switch: you plug it in to turn it on, unplug to turn it off. This isn't a huge deal, but it does cause some annoyances. One is that if your outlet isn't conveniently located you will find it annoying. Two, if it pops an extra few kernels after unplugging, you have to plug it back in to shoot them out. Again, not a huge deal, but it's just awkward and I don't understand why they wouldn't add a switch. The ugly: -- Every air popper I tried had a weird, chemical type smell at first. Smelled like some kind of adhesive or lubricant or plastic off-gassing from the factory. With most of them, after running the popper for several minutes a couple times, the smell stopped happening. But this one still smells! Especially right at the end of popping when you unplug it. I'm past the return date on this but am wondering if I should stop using it, because the smell seems like something that could be getting into the popcorn and it definitely smells like something you should not ingest. This bothers me quite a bit and is the main reason I'm only giving 4 stars. Normally I'd give it even less (because no appliance should make you worry about food safety), but I seriously went through three other poppers before finding one that actually popped correctly and didn't spit huge amounts of kernels everywhere, so this one is still better by comparison.