Cook N Home 6.5 Quart Stainless Steel Popcorn Popper Stovetop

Update on popcorn maker
Update: The seller read my original review and sent me a replacement pop-corn maker on their own initiative. The replacement work beautifully! Now I am completely satisfied with the product. I commend the seller for their excellent customer service and replacing the defective product without me having to ask them to.

I wanted to supplement an existing stovetop corm popper--an aluminum one with plastic gears that I have used quite often for the past 12 years. I purchased this product because it is made out of stainless steel and has cast metal gears. Although I was very impressed with the quality and thickness of the stainless steel and the tight-fitting lid, I was extremely disappointed with the poorly designed cast aluminum gears that keep jamming and sticking the very first time I used it. I can tell that within a very short time of use the gears will end up getting stripped and will no longer function. I looked closely at the gears and the teeth just don't match...

same-o
Basically, they're all the same, Cook N Home, Back to Basics, Whirly Pop - probably all made in the same factory in China. And they're all crap, cheap manufactured devices that barely function but kinda get the job done. This one and Back to Basics have metal gears, Whirly Pop has plastic, so an edge to Back to Basics, but the gears mesh poorly - after first use you'll see little particles of steel under them.
This one, the Cook N Home, is the most recent one I've tried. After two uses, the screws that hold the wooden handle in place fell out. Also, as the pot expanded with heat, the gears eventually wouldn't mesh at all unless I pushed the handle in as I turned the crank. I solved that by bending the inner side of the crank's retaining bracket closer to the gears, allowing for less play. And I'll replace the 1/2" screws that fell out with longer ones - the wooden handle doesn't come off without the screws, it just rotates freely, making it impossible to turn the popper over to...

Don't buy this item if you are going to pop popcorn a lot.
I received my popper on May the 5th and was very excited to have a good one. I had been using one of the $20.00 aluminum poppers from Whirley Pop for 2 years and it was beginning to wear out so I decided to get a better popper that would last longer. I was so wrong. This Stainless steel popper first of all is very heavy and hard for me to empty the pop corn out after being popped. But the biggest problem is the gear mechanism. It very quickly wore down and the gears now don't line up thus the popcorn is not stirred and will burn. Some times it will catch and and not move at all. I can no longer use it. I was much better off with the cheap popper. This has happened in only 2 months of popping a couple of times a week a couple of batches each time. It was a total waste of time and money. I have not recourse because it can no longer be returned. I would asvise you get the whirley Pop Popper made of aluminum it lasts longer and works well.

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