Appliance Reviews

I purchased the 5 Star grill as a Christmas present for my husband. He had admired the "other" grills, but once I discovered this one at Amazon, I knew I had to try it. We have used it on numerous occasions since Christmas and have been more than satisfied. We thought at his first attempt at chicken he was preparing too much. It was so delicious we didn't even have leftovers! Only one problem. Wish more recipes came with it. That would give a better indication as to time to allow to cook something.

I used to grill outside on a portable gas grill and a large gas grill. Both were just too hot to grill fatty chicken like leg quarters, unless the heat was put on very low. That is OK unless there is any kind of breeze to blow out the fire. This grill solved that problem. I can now grill fatty meats without the burn off bonfire I used to get after grilling pork and chicken. I also don't have to worry about the fire getting blown out. I also get to leave this grill under the covered porch. The gas grills would smoke up the covered porch very badly.

My family has enjoyed all kinds of meat grilled on this grill. I have never even used the recipes that came with it. The variable temp makes it so I can grill ANYTHING; I just have to proceed with caution and figure out the temp that works best with the type of meat I am cooking.

Clean up is a pain, but it is worth it to have such great grilling. I used to have to boil any chicken with the skin on it, but now I just use this grill and let the fat drain off. It is worth the price. I would recommend it for someone who has some grilling/cooking experience, though, as few recipes leave a lot of experimentation in order. I've not burned anything yet; on the contrary, my family has enjoyed everything I have cooked on this appliance.

Having enjoyed the classic "lean mean grilling machines" to prepare burgers and chops for a few years,I was curious to see if the new 5 Star grill would help in my new (and very small) kitchen environment. The verdict? It's fabulous! Having very good temp control (to 450 degrees), 4 distinct direct grilling surfaces, steaming, woking, and roasting capability, this gem will get lots of use in an active kitchen. Cook burgers and steak for 6 without touching the grease pan. Clean up is quick and easy. It is not for a couch bound chef, as you do have to turn your burgers, steaks, etc., as with any true grill, and the results are great. It really is one of the few products that will work with your imagination. The only minor negative is that the manual is short and to the point. It tells how and why, offers a few good suggestions, and you are on your own. Lastly, I think that the person who wrote that the grill had a hard time cooking a steak misunderstood, and tried to grill the steak on the steaming rack included in the package. My first steak was well striped, and grilled to perfection.

I sent this item as a wedding gift. I was horribly embarrassed when I found out the bamboo spoon and chopsticks were covered in mold. I wasn't pleased with the way it was handled.

The teflon/non-stick surface is generously thick and didn't burn when the wok heated up to 400 degrees. The removable base makes cleanup extremely easy. The bamboo spoon and chopsticks were not moldy (see somebody else's review), but they are not really needed anyway. Use silicone tongs; metal will scratch the teflon and plastic/rubber will melt at higher temperatures.

I received this wok as a wedding present and we've used it more than any of our other appliances. It's easy to assemble, it cooks evenly and quick, and it's easy to clean up. Not only do we cook stirfry in it, but we use it with the bamboo steamers for vegetables and it's great for fried chicken and homemade french fries. It's so easy to use that my husband is actually motivated to cook in it, and then he can immediately clean it up when he's finished! The recipes that come with it are great, too.

I purchased my Electric Pressure cooker a year and a half ago. I was elated at the features and its working. And told everyone about it. It has broken and no longer releases the steam, and the overlow leaks everywhere. I have to use a fork to release the pressure and the food no longer cooks, and when the pressure is released it spurts out all over the pressure cooker. We treated it like a baby, cleaning it every time after using. And we are heartbrokem as we paid over ... and after the warrenty expired it broke. I had a old fashioned cooker for 20 years and other than changing the gaskets it always worked, but I am afraid of them, and was very happy to get a electric one. But now in a delima as we just lost [money] and want a good one, but will have to look elsewhere. I called the repair people and the cost is more than we can pay and could use to buy another.Very sad....Eunice Mellinkoff

This is a great machine - my husband bought it for me for Christmas and I was intimidated by it's enormous stature, but I decided to try it out. It cooked the most tender, tastey roast in no time at all! My major beef with it is that the small leaflet cookbook/directions that come with it has a cherry cheesecake recipe that calls for an 8 inch pan - well I prepared the cheesecake and found that my 8 inch pan did not fit in the cooker. I went and bought 3 more pans all 8 inch and none of them fit! Needless to say - don't make any of there recipes without checking to see if your pans fit inside! Other than that - great item!

After I suffered serious burns from a range-top pressure cooker opened too early, my husband urged me to stop using a pressure cooker. Unwilling to do that, I looked for a new model. This one is great. It is easy to program, use, and clean, with a heavy, nonstick (really nonstick) pot. It doubles as a rice cooker with a timer. (Note, however, that the timer function works with the rice cooker, but not with the pressure cooker! Wish it worked for both!) I have a 9 month old baby and this appliance is very handy for steaming foods (like baby carrots) soft enough for a little one with few teeth to eat. The main drawback of this item is that it is really quite enormous. Takes up a ton of space on the counter top, though the pot's capacity isn't all that big.

My son is almost 5 and just loves this in the morning. Fast, fun, & safe. Keep some mix in the frig. & presto. A breakfast that also travels well in the mad morning dash to the car!

I gave the Sylvester Waffle Iron to my son's kindergarten teacher so she could use it every year on "W" week to make waffles. The kids just love it! They loved watching his nose light up. And they get so excited when Tweetie comes out! I couldn't believe how easy it was to use and how much the kids love it. So I bought one for my family too! I'm concerned about the other reviews saying the waffle iron only works for a year. I hope that's not my future!

My two year old can be quite wishy-washy when it comes to eating. However, with the sylvester/tweety maker...she not only has waffles and pancakes, but I make her customized melted cheese sandwiches, potato pancakes, hamburgers (thin) and if I'm really good chicken cutlets shaped like tweety.

So I got the Cooper Cooler for my office. It seemed so cool and slick. And the description said it brings soda cans down to 34 degrees in a minute. Doesn't get much better than that right? WRONG!
The little detail the editorial forgot to mention was that you have to put ice-cubes (YES, ICE CUBES) in the device in order for it to cool down your soda. Well, I've got a news flash for you - if I had ice cubes handy I could put them in my soda and be done with it. And ice cubes are much cheaper than this device.

So bear in mind this cooler is only useful if you have a real fridge near by and want to cool things fast. That's the only valid use-case. There you go.

I received my Cooper Cooler yesterday with much anticipation.After unpacking the unit I took three of my favorite wines to test fit. I found that the Chardonay I drink does not fit in the machine and neither did the Champagne, the slender bottles did fit. Since it seemed like the machine was about a half inch too narrow I called the company and explained my problem. I was told that they were aware that most Champagne will not fit and some of the new special format bottles will also not fit and the company is looking into a solution(make it a half or three quarters inch wider would seem a no brainer).Since I did not test its cooling capabilities I can only tell you that since I could not fit the wine bottles that I normally drink in the machine it did not work at all. Also I am still trying to figure out why anyone would buy this thing to cool a can of soda?

I have been looking for a product to chill my wine and beer fast for a long time. We just don't have the room in our refrig. to keep all our beer and wine. I have bought a Peliter chiller before, but they did not work. They never chilled my beverage cold enough. I bought this item because their website was specific about what temperature it can chill beverages to. When I received it and tried it on my beer and wine, I was shocked to see that it really chilled it ice cold based on the setting. If you want a cold beer or glass of wine and you do not have anything chilled, your options are to wait a long time in the refrig. or freezer (because you don't want to add ice to your beer or wine) or add some ice and water to the Cooper Cooler and have a drink within minutes. The Cooper Cooler is easy to use because all you have to do is press the button for what you are drinking and the machine does the rest and shuts off when your drink is cold. This machine solved our problem.

I bought this juicer for home use on the basis of good Amazon reviews--but only to juice lemons and limes and this review only addresses these fruits. If I didn't use a Waring twist juicer at work, I wouldn't have recognized the difference. It turns out the twist juicer definitely extracts more juice from a lemon--it breaks all the membrane and just leaves the shell--virtually dry. The press method squashes the lemon--there is still quite a bit of juice left, which I end up squezzing by hand. Also the head on the orange x is larger than the twist juicer, which may be fine for an orange, but is too large to apply equal pressure for a lemon--much less for a lime. I always end up having to reposition the lemon and press again. I e-mailed orange x before buying the juicer to ask them specifically about this--they never replied but I went ahead and bought it anyway. It looks great on the counter, and is easy to clean (but then, so is the twist juicer at work). So, think again if your main juicing needs are for lemons/limes. My three stars are only because of its disappointing performance for these fruits. It is called ORANGE x afterall!

I have owned a large Orange-X juicer for two winters, and I recently bought a mid-size juicer as a gift. I am the author of the "Best juicer, April 8, 2001" review for the large Orange-X. My Orange-X has withstood the test of time as a daily habit during orange season. Think how many kitchen appliances gather dust next to the rowing machine; daily use is the ultimate testimonial. The habit I've settled on is to rotate a bowl of several varieties of citrus into the fridge for the next glass, and squeeze one glass at a time. Cleanup is easy enough, and "just-squeezed" (as opposed to yesterday's juice in a bottle) tastes good enough, that this habit sticks.

Setting the two units next to each other, I can make some comparisons.

First, every unit has a unique personality, and some units can only fairly be classified as defective. I looked at four mid-sized units before accepting one, rejecting two as defective, and the one I accepted has definite quirks. (Hey, so do I!) This is a brilliant design, but we're not talking BMW quality control at the factory. For now, this is hands down the best lever juicer on the market, but the principle of applying leverage during a stroke can't be patentable, someone will get around the Orange-X patents with better manufacturing quality, and Orange-X will be history.

What to look for, examining a unit for defects? The base should sit squarely on the counter, not warped so only three feet touch as a time. The various assembly parts should line up vertically on the pole, so the squeezing action is "on center". The lever arm should reach a bit past vertical, so it won't come down by surprise onto your fingers. Watch the lever action very carefully. It should impress you with its beauty, not look "all twisty", and maximum leverage should occur near the very end of the stroke; too soon is a quirk.

It is obvious, mail-ordering from Amazon, that you will be studying your unit more carefully than anyone before you. You have to admire Amazon for not deleting this post. In my extensive experience with Amazon, they are dedicated to keeping satisfied customers.

Now, the differences between the sizes: Price. Weight, 16 lbs -vs- 19 lbs. Height in rest position, 16" -vs- 18 1/2". Height of handle at top of stroke, 28 3/4" -vs- 31 1/2". Maximum glass height, 4 13/16" -vs- 6 1/8". Same stroke length, 3 7/8". Same strainer basket.

In other words, the two sizes should be virtually identical in function, with the mid-size a bit less unwieldly, and an easier reach if you don't play basketball. A "jam jar" tumbler will only fit directly under the large, but most pint measuring cups fit fine under the mid-size, as do many glasses.

On the other hand, if you can put up with the price, height, and weight of the large, and you're tall enough, it may be the way to go. In some intangible way the design feels more fully expressed in the large, but the mid-size works just fine.

I found my large handles grapefruit easily, but needs a rubber shim for thin-skinned citrus. Not mashing bitter oils from the peel is an intentional design feature of the Orange-X, but the spacing is fixed, and can only be adjusted by shimming with rubber Mason jar gaskets under the strainer basket, which I sometimes do. The particular mid-size I tested requires more effort to squeeze a grapefruit, but handles thin-skinned oranges better. I believe this to be the individual personalities of the units, not a generalization that applies to mid-size -vs- large, but, heh, who knows?

I love my new OrangeX juicer. It is so easy that we have been juicing away ever since it arrived. My 5 year old daughter has really enjoyed helping me. It is currently residing on the counter since it is quite heavy to move around. We haven't had any problem with the handle staying up as long as you put it all the way up. I did have some enamel "dust" being created from where the joints were rubbing. A few well placed squirts of lubricant seems to have solved it. All in all we really like using it. I previously had one of the cheap manaul juicers (similar to the metrokane) and really had to bear down to get the juice out. The OrangeX is so easy and doesn't require much pressure at all. The lever action really does the work for you. It is in a different league all together. The juice has plenty of pulp for my taste and of course it tastes great with no bitterness.

My father got this for Christmas last year. Let me start out by saying that it's an extremely sturdy piece of equipment. The digits are large, so you can see the temperature and the time from a good distance away. Also, it's amazingly accurate! However, all it does is give you the current temperature, the min/max temperature, and a (usually WRONG) forecast icon. It doesn't show you barometric pressure trends or the humidity. Barometric pressure is only important if your trying to predict the weather, but humidity is very useful. Conclusion: it's great for what it does, but a []cheaper model could do everything it does, except for recieving the signal from Atomic Clock in CO! Personally, I'm going with a []model from La Crosse Technology that gives you barometric pressure trends, storm warnings, snow alerts, humidity readings, memory for all of it, and a more accurate forecast. If you're interested, it's model WS-9018U.

This is an excellent product. I have had a thermometer before and it was not reliable. This product has been wonderful.

I bought the BAR888 for myself at first. The convenience of being able to see the outside temperature from anywhere inside and without wiring is a huge plus, and it beats a conventional outdoor-only thermometer when you live in a townhouse or apartment where you might not have a window placement out of the sun. Plus, a conventional thermometer does not tell you the temperature in two places simultaneously, the minimum and maximum temps, nor does it predict the weather like the BAR888. I check it at least twice daily to see the min and max temps, but usually check it multiple times to see the current temperature and see what it thinks the forecast is.

I decided to get another BAR888 for my mother as a birthday gift. She has everything already anyway and I'm always at a loss what to get her, but I figured she'd enjoy this. Well, not only did she enjoy it, but after seeing my brother and his wife and then my sister and her boyfriend react to it, she got both couples their own for Christmas! Now what am I going to get them this year?

The only minor complaints I have about the unit is that the interface was clearly designed by engineers. But once it's set up the only button you need to know and use daily is the "Min/Max/Reset" button, which should be labeled as such but is instead called "Mode" or something else not very intuitive. Other than that you likely won't touch any other buttons again until you need to replace the batteries (unless you plan on using the alarm clock feature or adding add'l transceivers to monitor the temperature in up to three remote locations--but I'd wager 95% of users are like me and just want the outdoor temperature, thank you very much!) and re-do the setup.

I highly recommend this unit for yourself, and if you're looking for a good gift idea you can't go wrong with this. I guarantee you the recipient will look at it at least once every day--and when's the last time someone gave you something you used every day?

I purchased two of the 20 quart Rival cookers, one for myself and one for other family members in the Fall of 2002. It appears both units suffered a failure when cooking- they simply stoppped heating in less than 12 months after the purchase.

Upon contacting Rival they offered to repair the units at $20.00 plus any shipping costs we would incur to get it there. This was hardly worth the time or money. The reason I write this review is to alert other consumers that this unit appears to be junk, though it worked well prior to the failure. Each product failed within a year of purchase... ironically within the same family. Sure, that's less than a scientific sampling- but its plenty of data for me.

I totally agree with the concept of using such a device but would highly recommend consumers look for better quality. I regret my price driven purchase.

I bought this to use for Thanksgiving this year - it cooked my 20 lb turkey to juicy perfection in about 3 hours at 350. It also allowed me to use my oven to bake other dishes, a first for me! This appliance really made my day easier and produced a perfect bird. Clean up is a snap as well. Love it!

This has to be the best thing Rival has come up with in a long time. I have been a user of Rival Electronics appliances as long as I can remember and this roaster oven is the best of the bunch. It is very versatile and heats up in a flash. It is very useful when cooking for a crowd and can accomodate the largest of holiday turkeys and hams. The best thing is the variable temperature controls. This allows the roaster oven to be used as either a slow cooker or a roaster. It also frees up your oven for shorter length jobs.

I like this item alot and this is the second one I've owned. Don't put the lid in the dishwasher because it takes the finish off. It happened on both of mine, thanks to my roomate. The screws that hold the handles come loose frequently and the aluminum threads on the base strip VERY easily.

Only problem with this skillet is that the lid does not properly fit. I also wish it had a steam vent on the lid.

Bought this from Amazon.com and am so glad I did. Unit is very light. Heating element heats very very fast. Cleaning is very quick and easy. The oblong shape is really great for smaller spaces. I use this practically every day. With smaller amounts of larger amounts of food, it is great. Pancakes, stirfrys, steaks, bacon, chicken, omlets - this great little unit does it all. Very happy with this product.

Works OK, but doesn't last - and costs a bit much.

I own the Hamilton Beach humidifier and have to purchase these from time to time. They last about two or three weeks, and I have the humidifier going constantly. They are very easy to replace - just lift the unit up and drop it in (after taking out the old soggy one first). Not only do these filter the air, they draw the water up out of the pan in the bottom of the unit so can be transferred to the air moving through. If you leave it in too long it will begin to smell, like anything you leave in water too long. I buy four or five at once, so I always have one on hand.

A very good filter - easy to install - and lasts for a few weeks with constant use.

Be careful though - make sure you turn it over at least once a day and if you can, leave it to air dry for 2 hrs - it really extends the life of these filters.

Order a couple at once ( save yourself the shipping!!) as amazon can run out in the winter - a definite buy for the HB humidifier