Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Added Feb 24 08: Finally I was contacted by a Breville rep that seemed interested in what I had to say and we covered this review point by point. BUT: at no time did he express any concern that he had a VERY dissatisfied customer on his hands. Two "Goods" that I should have mentioned are the "Briefcase Storage" and the finger hole in the plug (both most clever and useful ideas). And after a few days the "Boa Constrictor" cord relaxed noticeably, a good thing. Note: this review edited Feb 04/08 Breville800GRXL: The Good, The Bad, . . . First: am I the only person in the cosmos that notices shortcomings in design and execution? The Good: 1. Solid, seems well-made. 2. Seems to heat more evenly than most. 3. Does a good job of cooking (caveat: see 2 & 3 below) 4. Fantastic for cooking several full slices of bacon at one time (five large strips). 5. Would you believe? It does frozen fries quite well. 6. Grease recovery design is very good, quite clever even. BUT: if you have to empty the drip pan in the middle of a long cooking session, be sure to put paper towels under the drip area. A spout (a la teakettle) on the rear would be most helpful. The Bad: 1. Not nearly so non-stick as the hype claims (rather poor compared to some other non-stick cookware that I use). Can be quite difficult to clean. If the top surface is allowed to touch an egg, the egg will stick to it (when you lift the top surface, the egg will go with it ("hang from the ceiling"). I have even had bacon stick and lift in this manner. "Incredibly easy to clean" is a stratospheric flight of fancy. Well, I guess there's hype and then there's "hype." 2. Cooking surfaces won't stay parallel (unless you manually hold it for the duration - and if you let go you may screw up the food). 3. "Thickness" adjustments are balky/klunky/iffy. And the adjustment control can get too hot to touch. 4. "Thickness" adjustments are too coarse (ie, you can't make fine adjustments for food thickness). It's a case of (usually) too much or too little. 5. The leveling handle (top right) and height slider can get too hot to touch. 6. You just about have to get on your knees to read the control panel. 7. The top surface, if allowed full weight against a burger, doesn't put "stripes," it puts ditches. Here's an instance where parallel surfaces and fine adjustment are really needed. And note: a 1-1/2" thick sandwich will be squished to 1/2" at the top, 3/4" at the bottom. And have ditches, not stripes. DO NOTE: it's advertised that the height control gives "precise" control for paninis and delicate fish. There's nothing precise or delicate about height (thickness) adjustment increments of 1/2" and crushing weight. The Ugly: 1. Drips grease on the counter behind the unit (a BIG mess, the more you cook the bigger the mess). 2. Messy to clean because it is so difficult. 3. To clean it at all, it must be hot enough that it will BURN you. 4. Overall, it is NOT user-friendly; too many things that it should do but doesn't. One example: having to manually hold settings is not acceptable, especially when the leveling handle gets too hot to touch. 5. The cord is packaged (as all usually are) so that it has a "set" like a Boa Constrictor. Python? It would be SO easy to do better. I always wonder: do the people that design things such as this ever take them for a test drive before putting them on the market? If the manufacturer would correct the deficiencies, this would be a fantastic product. - - - Added Feb 4 08: Two weeks prior to writing this review, I talked to Breville CS. The lady was very personable and her overall response to all the above complaints was "Gee, that's too bad." I was promised a follow-up call which I never did get, so I wrote this review and sent a copy (email) to Breville. I got what I perceive to be a sarcastic one- sentence brush-off from Jomal Bush ("Is there anything I can do to assist you at this time?"). Note: IT HAD ALREADY BEEN MADE CLEAR to me that Breville had NO INTEREST in any corrective action of any kind. And, it seems, customer comments or suggestions are of no interest or value.