Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Words can't say how much I love this waffle maker. Why on earth aren't they all made with removable plates?? I've always insisted on waffle makers that make 4 standard square waffles at a time, so that I can quickly cook for the whole family. But after years of battling the cleanup process on 2 previous waffle makers, I begged my hubby for this one for my birthday. Here's what I love the most: 1. The plates are very nonstick. I still brush a little melted butter on them, because you have to have a little fat for every nonstick surface on the market (either seasoning them after washing or right before cooking), and the waffles have yet to stick. Granted we've only had it for 3 months, but we've used it a LOT in those 3 months. 2. The plates are pretty easily removed, come very clean in the dishwasher, and have held up thus far for the last 3 months. 3. The bottom of the waffle maker is angled inward!! I had no idea how cool this was until I accidentally made it overflow with batter (my fault, not the waffle maker's). The batter dripped onto my counter top instead of baking onto the outside of the waffle maker like it did with my previous waffle makers. The counter top is exponentially easier to clean than the side of the waffle maker, so this is more helpful than I could have ever dreamed. 4. I never thought I'd use the pancake plates, but my 2 year old loves pancakes, so I've actually used them a lot. 5. At first, I didn't think it made crispy waffles, either, but then I realized that the dial went higher than setting 4, and that made them crisper (I was in a hurry, and I didn't read the directions or look closely enough). The waffles turn out beautifully every time. 6. Yes, the beep is a bit loud, but I love it. No matter how crazy things get in the house, I can always hear it, and I never over-bake my waffles now. Here's what I might change if I was in charge of product development: 1. The outside of the waffle maker does get hotter than I was hoping, which means you have to be more vigilant with yourself and kids. 2. I think that the little wells in the pancake plate might be helpful if making eggs for breakfast sandwiches (which I've not tried), but for pancakes, they don't seem to help too much. They don't let you control the size of your pancakes, and they make it a bit more difficult to get the spatula underneath the pancakes to flip/remove them. In addition, I'd love to see the waffle maker open up flat so that you could make pancakes on both plates at the same time like a griddle (as one previous reviewer mentioned). All in all though, those little things aren't a big deal, and I would buy this again in a heartbeat, because it's the best I've ever owned. UPDATE!! We've now had this waffle maker for almost a year, and it's still going strong! We've had no issues whatsoever (knock on wood), and we use the waffle maker at least once every 3 weeks. I also wanted everyone to know that I tried the pancake plates to make eggs for breakfast sandwiches, and it worked out great (way better than making pancakes on them)! We made, from start to finish, 12 breakfast sandwiches in 11 minutes. Not bad, huh? By the time the biscuits were done baking in the oven, all the eggs were done, too. I probably should have read the directions for this, but we were in a hurry, so I randomly chose setting #3, and it worked well. Still loving this machine!