Presto 04869 Poplite Hot Air Popcorn Popper - Built-In Measuring Cup + Melts Butter, Easy to Clean, Built-In Cord Wrap, 18 Cups, Aqua/White

Such a good product. Hot air popper works great and fast. Highly recommend. Simple to use. Easy to clean. If you love popcorn, get it.

Just bought the Presto Poplite Plus (solid Aqua with the power button) and have used it twice so far. Works great. Pour in the butter/scoop full as instructed then turn the machine on. Pops popcorn and there are maybe a dozen un-popped kernels at most. I’ve only had 2 un-popped kernels come out of the machine and into the bowl in the 2 full batches I’ve made. No burnt popcorn, pops popcorn in a few minutes, doesn't require oil, easy to clean, compact size, is loads of fun to watch! I highly recommend. So much better than the microwave popcorn bags The plastic cover and butter melter do get quite warm so I can see how people would be melting the cover and butter dish if they preheat the machine or run it consecutively and don’t give the machine time to cool down between batches.

I was using a cast iron frying pan with a little oil in it but this is way better. Also better than microwave popcorn. Makes super fluffy popcorn, no burnt kernels, more kernels fully pop, and of those few that don't pop, some stay in the machine so they're a little easier to separate. Seems to be just as fast as popping them on a stove top or in a microwave. I find that it can help to tilt the popper back a little so that unpopped kernels are less likely to get blown out, especially so with some smaller kernels such as white popcorn. Once the chamber fills with popped kernels, they tend to hold the unpopped ones in the chamber. The measuring dish is sort of effective in melting butter but some remains unmelted. I put the yellow dish in the microwave to finish the job but the hot butter melted the plastic. Bad idea.

Works great! I tried a different brand last month and sent it back. With this one there's very few kernels that didn't pop. The kernels didn't fly all over the place and they popped larger. Definitely the one to buy!

A group of us (about a dozen) purchase GREEN COFFEE beans on a regular basis (about 20lbs a month) and most (about 10) use the Presto 04820 PopLite Hot Air Corn Popper as the Roaster. Eddy, one of the home roasters, was nice enough to transcribe his method and wanted to share. Process for "Roasting the World's Best Coffee." Equipment: 1ea. 15 ft heavy electrical extension chord 1ea. 6" diameter metal screen strainer with about 8" handle 1ea. Metal Stirring Wand (skewer, end of hanger, etc.) 1ea. 1/2 cup measuring cup (full to top = 1/2 cup) 1ea. Presto PopLite Popcorn Popper (loose the yellow plastic top cover thing) 1ea. Small table (2' x 2' x 3') 1ea. Ceramic Salad Bowl (small) Eddy's Ten Easy Step Roasting Process (so easy you can do it in the dark): 1) Set the table outside your house ( you can do it inside if you don't have fire alarms and don't care if the house fills with stout smelling blue smoke). 2) Plug the PopLite into the extension chord and then the extension chord into a 110V wall outlet (Safety first, men). (Running the PopLite for a minute or two while you're preparing the bean charge allows the system to become isothermal.) 3) Measure exactly, precisely, absolutely to the bean, 1/2 cup of green coffee beans (give or take 5 beans.) 4) Place the Metal Stirring Wand in your fastest stirring hand. 5) With your spare hand pour the precisely 1/2 cup of green coffee frijoles into the running, isothermal PopLite. 6) Stir the beans all the way to the bottom at about 120 RPM with a stainless steel stirrer with a bent tip and a wooden or plastic handle. 7) While constantly stirring, observe the following over the next 5-8 minutes (depending on ambient temperature and humidity) *beans begin to turn golden yellow *chaff releases from the bean and blows up and out of the PopLite *first crack occurs (sounds like popcorn for several seconds) *short dwell time of no (or low frequency) cracking occurs between first and second crack *second crack occurs (sounds like rice crispies for several seconds) *blue smoke begins *heavy blue smoke (beans are burned beyond drinkability unless you're Italian from Venice) 8) Depending on your intended roast level - somewhere between the first crack and the heavy blue smoke, put down the VanValkenburgMCSW and pick up the 6" diameter sifter in one hand and the still running PopLite in the other hand, pour the hot (very hot) beans out of the PopLite into the sifter. 9) Hold the sifter over the running PopLite about 6-9" above the top and shake the beans in the sifter to cool them in the air flow for about 10 seconds. 10) Pour the hot beans out of the sifter into the Salad bowl. Repeat 1-10 till you have enough coffee for 3-5 days. This process works well and consistently for me. It gives flexibility in finishing with the roast level I want to drink, e.g. City, City+, Full City, Full City+, French, Vienna, etc. I don't go by bean color, rather primarily by sound. I've roasted in pitch black of the night many times and ended up with the roast level I intended. I say "primarily by sound" because there are also distinct aromas that occur during the roast process. If you are shooting for a roast between first and second crack you might also key on the aromas to guide you when to stop the process. After the first crack the beans have nearly doubled in size and have lost water weight. Most bean types will 'stir' themselves at this point. However, I typically continue to stir them for the whole process and believe this gives a more consistent roast. If you have too many beans being blasted out of the roaster, then add a few more to the 1/2 cup or stir a little faster! If the beans don't fully stir by themselves after the first crack finishes, then take a few beans out of the 1/2 cup initial measure. Different origin beans have different density and you can adjust that out from the 1/2 cup starting point. It is typical for me to lose 5-10 beans on any given roast, even with steady stirring. The metal sifter and the PopLite are now tainted with coffee oils and your significant other will be rather unhappy with the flavors it gives to their use of it. So, they are now yours and dedicated to the fine art and science of coffee roasting. Do not close and cap the hot beans. 'They' claim that CO2 outgases from the bean for several hours. Whatever it is that outgases I like to let it happen for 3 - 24 hours before I store the roasted beans in a glass jar. Distinct taste differences occur for different 'outgassing' times. Never-the-less, I usually grind a few beans while they're still hot off the roast and have a truly fresh cup of coffee. Enjoy. I look forward to hearing about your tweaks or modifications to the process. Cheers, Eddy (ORIGINAL AUTHOR)

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.

It pops popcorn. However, it has no obvious on or off button/switch/gesture. If there were one, it is so terribly designed that it is nearly impossible to identify (maybe there is an app in the box that I overlooked). To operate it, one must plug it into an electrical socket to get it to start and pull the plug out to get it to stop. While this was not a surprise to me because it is represented in photographs, it is incredible ugly and it looks even worse in person. Its presences is akin to a giant, fat duck landing on your kitchen counter. Its shape exaggerates the appearance of its overall size. It is a monument to pigmented plastic. Even when you are alone, you will be embarrassed by this machine. You will wonder why you bought it. You will notice that it takes up almost too much cupboard space to hide. You will hide from it and stop using your kitchen. You will rethink your life choices and values after you purchase this product. People who see it in your home will delete you from their contact list. Like many other reviewers, I do not use the butter-melting plastic lid feature, but my impression is that if I did, its design could cause it to be easily mishandled and create a mess. Because it is stacked on two other separate elements, it is an accident waiting to happen. Butter could spill and ruin the interior of the machine and splatter to create a lasting mess in a kitchen. You could slip on melted butter and never get up. When one empties the overall device of any unpopped kernels, it looks clean and seems easy to wipe away any remaining particles. However, the beak-like feature (the top of it) is not very easy to put back in place (the fit is not intuitive). It is not difficult. It simply seems like it should be easier. In other words, the design of the top section looks the same way it behaves when handled: awkward. All of these machines look terrible and pollute your living space with particles and the smell of popcorn and worse. It seems like it was designed in the 1970s (no improvements for air quality or scent containment). The microwave popcorn versions seem even more poisonous to me. So, iterations of this kind of product seem to be about all that is out there, unless you buy popcorn popped and bagged, which I sometimes do. Long ago, I like air-popped popcorn so I bought it to try it. Now my space smells like a county fair or a movie theater. I might relegate it to a rarely used powder room that has a strong exhaust feature to keep the contraption contained. Lastly, the reflected light from the yellow makes my light-colored countertop and backsplash tile look stained and dirty.

It works well enough. The top can be used to melt butter, but I've never used it for that. The two big issues I have with this popper are that there's no on/off switch. Plug it in to start and unplug to stop. It also gets very hot. I generally hold a dish towel in front of the popper to catch any kernels that spit out while popping, and to ensure all the popped corn goes into the bowl. The heat from the popper is really intense. There are no holes in the side of the clear plastic cover, so all the heat comes out of the opening and even standing back and using a dish towel it's extremely hot on my hands.