Popping good fun (Prima Hot Air Popcorn Maker)

Member Name: MaryanneH

Product:	Prima Hot Air Popcorn Maker
Date:	23/06/04 (726 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Its shaped like a duck, Quack!

Disadvantages: Never quite pops the lot

Last year for christmas my eldest daughter really wanted one of the toy ready, steady, cook popcorn machine that sell at around £30. Being the mean mum that I am, I refused and bought this one instead for 2 main reasons:

a) I refuse to pay £30 for a toy one when I can pay £14.50 for a real one (and judging by some of the reviews for the toy one my judgement is right)

b) My prima popcorn maker is shaped like a duck - I like ducks!


The machine is as previously mentioned shaped like a duck, so naturally stands up on the ducks feet big and red so it doesn't wobble. It separates across the beak to make it easy for cleaning and it has a red hat, this is a vital part of the duck as it is used to measure the popping curnals and you have to put it on while it is popping or you end up with unpopped corn all over the kitchen. The popping section is oval shaped and the only visible metal the rest is plastic.

So you fill up the hat with corn and pour it into the unit, then turn it on. This sounds a bit like a vacuum cleaner but the inner unit heats up and starts popping the corn. You must put a bowl under his beak as this is where the corn spews out from and once it starts there is no stopping it, it comes thick and fast. The first couple of curnels that come out are usually unpopped, I did try and pop them back in the first time but that didn't work as it is very hot and when you take the lid off you end up with more coming out than you had to start with. So I usually wait for them to cool down and then ditch them.

After a couple of minutes the popping noise really slows down and there are usually a few unpopped ones in the bottom - I throw these away. In all out of a whole large bowl of popcorn I usually end up with about 10 unpopped, which you can't really complain about.

To serve I usually put a couple of
desert spoons of icing sugar on it and mix it in. It does come with a couple of recipes to make the toffee type one, but this involves making the coating which I don't mind but you then have to lay the corn out on a baking sheet and pop it in the oven which when you have however many kids in the kitchen saying 'is it ready yet?' is far to much hassle and I really can't be bothered and they seem to like the icing sugar just fine!

The popcorn maker does not have any oil in it at all so it is completely fat free for the kids, it does taste a bit bland without anything on but quite nice with icing sugar and of course you could salt it but I never really saw the point of savory popcorn!

To clean simply take the top of the head off and wipe around with a cloth - it doesn't need anything more than that, but don't try adding flavouring directly to the machine or it will clog and then I wouldn't fancy cleaning it.

You can buy the curnels from health food shops at around £2 for a really big bag, and we have been popping all year and I think I am going to hit the best before date before I get an empty bag.

The other huge advantage of this is when you have friends round 'to play' you always end up feeding them, which over the holidays can work out expensive. By doing up a bowl of popcorn it costs in the region of 5p a bowl (no mathematical formulae for that just my estimation!) and they are happy and don't want anything else.

For storage it is 31cm high but you can reduce this to 24cm if you take the top off (beak and hat) so it does fit nicely into a cupboard. The flex is not retractable but does slip into the main body (once it has cooled down of course) and there is a handle on it.

I have no regrets about not buying the ready steady cook one. The only downside is it has to live in the kitchen but the kids can
do everything to make the corn themselves and it does cool down really quickly and the outside is perfectly cool so safe. But I wouldn't risk them having it on their own yet, because it is a 'real' appliance, not a toy and the corn does get hot. My kids are 5 and 7 and from a common sense point of view I would probably let the youngest use it unsupervised in a couple of years time and the oldest when she's married and left home!

This is made by prima and I got mine from Argos, As you can see from the picture they do non duck shaped models but who wouldn't want a duck.

This is an excellent buy and far better quality than the twice as expensive toy. So its June, nearly time for Christmas shopping and it makes a great present and so happy popping.

Thanks for reading.

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