This hot dog maker is obviously waay cute. It's also a good price. Compared to other cutesy hot dog makers, 8 dogs is a good number. I love the carnival themed umbrella sneeze guard over the dogs, and having that double as a bun warmer was an inspired idea. The poles that hold up the umbrella are nice and sturdy, and it assembles in only 1 minute. This thing has many bonus features:
*Rollers look just like the industrial unit at your local convenience store. They really roll!
*It can also handle 4 foot long dogs and even foot long buns! That's really great because my wife loves those. However, 4 is an anemic number.
*Nostalgia went to the extra expense to include an on/off switch and even a temp control. Temp control should prove useful vs. devices that do not include that.
*This unit includes a griddle attachment for hamburgers/bacon/sausage, etc. I think the unit is too small to be useful for frying hamburgers; you could only do two at a time. The griddle drops in where the rollers would otherwise go, so switching functions is not going to be convenient and will require tools or heat proof gloves if you don't want to wait for a cool-down period.
*The heating element is a beefy rectangular coil that gives good coverage of the cooking area and is directly exposed to the dogs, yielding fast, strong heat.
*The drip tray, griddle, and rollers are all removable for easy cleanup. Love that.
*The rollers are beefy all metal construction - nice.
So that adds up to one very nice unit, of which Nostalgia should be proud. The only real shortcoming I see is that eight dogs, while a good number for a toy device like this, can't stand up to much crowd control. Figure at least two dogs for each child, and three for each man and you're feeding only three to four people per batch. Assume the thing is lightning fast at ten minutes per batch and you see that you're going to need ten of these toys to feed your super bowl party, hahahaha.
Then you have to ask yourself, is this gizmo worth the space? It's pretty big, about the size of a toaster oven. Will you keep it out on the counter and use this special purpose device often (doubtful)? How far back in the closet will it be stored and will you go to the trouble to drag it out to cook up dogs for three people, pack it back up, and re-store it (doubtful)? So is it worth the space? I think it's probably best suited for its intended audience: a party of four kiddos.
I love this machine for one simple reason: it's easy enough to use that my 5 year old daughter is now able to make dinner for us. This was a great purchase. The hot dogs cook evenly and the buns get nice and warm. You can turn the heat down after the dogs are done cooking and let them spin on low heat until you are ready for another. I was nervous when I got it that I'd bring it home and it would be made cheaply and break easily, but no... this is a quality product. I am very happy with it. My daughter and her friends love this machine and it makes making lunch a breeze. I haven't used the gridle feature, but I don't really care about that. This is a great hot dog maker. End of story.
I bought this to use for my grandson's fifth birthday next week after reading the glowing reviews. We (actually, he) wanted to test it out so we did. Now we have used it about 4 times. As others have said, it makes the best hot dogs ever - must be the slow dripping of the juices as it rotates the dogs. It's easy to use and my grandson loves cooking his own (with supervision, of course).
I usually find that "gimmicky" things don't work well but this really does. Morevover, cleanup is a breeze - the rollers and the drip tray both remove easily. The heated buns are great also.
We just need to remember to buy "shorter" hot dogs for his party so we can cook eight at a time.
Thanks to all the folks who took the time to review this! I probably wouldn't have bought it if it wasn't for the great reviews
Addendum: 7/12/08:
We have had this for several months now and use it several times per week. My grandson still loves hot dogs made on this and several of our neighbors have decided to buy one. A must have if you like hot dogs!
I bought this for my dad for his birthday after consulting with my mom. They both loved it. It's cute, works well and was a hit at his birthday party. It does take a little while for the hotdogs to cook, so plan for that and start early enough. But no complaints here.
Got a replacement, and new unit works GREAT! - Amazon won't let me change Stars, but I'd change to 4.5 if I could.!
I purchased this after reading the reviews. I had no desire to use this for a party or large gathering, just one serving at a time ( 4-8 dogs). I tried it the day after it arrived and once since. The heating coils turn warm, but they don't warm up enough to prevent touching them after an hour on MAX heat. We tried two batches, after 1 hour the dogs were warm, more than room temp, but thats it. Called the company, they said to return to Amazon, we probably have a defective unit. - Christmas Gift Ideas - Christmas Gift - Food Processor - Gift Idea - Hot Dog - Nostalgia Electrics'
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