Stir Crazy 6-Quart Electric Popcorn Popper Review

A decade ago, I purchased one of these poppers. The combination of the machine, Orville popcorn & oil made for the best popcorn I have ever tasted. People came over for surround movies and raved. People at work raved. Everybody raved. A great product, right?

Two years ago, we bought a second unit. We discovered that in the interim of the two purchases, the bean-counters had gnawed away like termites at this formerly-fabulous product, cost-cutting it into something that might actually be dangerous. Let's step thru the changes:

It used to come in a sturdy box; now it comes in a flimsy card board shell. Not a big deal.

It originally came with a three-foot electrical cord, but that has been reduced to a 12" one. This is annoying, because (as a custom cabinet maker friend of mine pointed out) you don't want the oil-laden steam emanating from the top of the popper to coat the varnish on your overhead kitchen cabinet doors. It will eat the varnish and ruin your cabinet doors. Not good.

However, here is the real show-stopper: Within a year of purchasing the new unit, the Teflon coating on the cooking surface of the popper began to FLAKE OFF.

Oil & popcorn go into popper, Teflon flakes off, flakes stick to oil and popcorn, which you then consume. I don't know about you, but digesting Teflon particles ain't on my agenda.

The 10-year old popper? No flaking. Which means that whatever Chinese manufacturing plant churning these out either started coating the cooking surface with less Teflon, started using an inferior grade of Teflon, or substituted something cheaper than real Teflon. All, of course, to squeeze a few extra pennies profit per popper.

Needless to say, new popper went into the trash. The old one is still working like a charm. I have owned my Stir Crazy for 10 years. I owned air poppers before and I was distinctly less than impressed. The Stir Crazy makes the tastiest, best popcorn EVER.

To those complaining about the stir rod scraping the surface -- don't screw the rod on so tight! Mine has never scraped so much as a molecule off the surface.

Other advice -- don't use the butter well -- it really isn't the best feature. But do REMOVE THE PLASTIC LID while popping -- this allows the steam to escape and prevents soggy popcorn.

I don't have the automatic switch off feature -- I watch and wait (drooling in anticipation) as the popcorn pops (really cool to watch BTW) and count 5 seconds after the last audible pop before unplugging. Never had a scorched kernel.

Replace the plastic lid and turn the unit over. Carefully (as it is hot) remove the base and transfer the popcorn into a hefty ceramic or glass bowl. The plastic dome can be used as a bowl -- but I prefer to use a heavier bowl.

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