Stovetop Popcorn Maker - 6.5-Quart Stainless-Steel Popcorn Popper with a Hand Crank, Vented Lid, and Stir Paddle by Great Northern Popcorn (Silver)

This review is for the stainless steel version, not aluminum.We make popcorn a lot, sometimes daily. We make it in the microwave in a pinch, but I believe in making popcorn on the stove. This popcorn popper makes better popcorn than our heavy-bottom pot and is a lot easier to handle. It's lightweight and the hinged top makes using it a breeze. For large batches, you can keep one side unhooked, give the pot a shake and dump popped popcorn into the bowl then continue popping the rest. If you're even slightly into cooking, using this popcorn popper is as easy as the microwave and the result is 1000 times better. Worth the money and will last -- we bought ours almost 4 years ago and have given it plenty of use. It's still shiny and pumping out perfect popcorn. Highly recommend.

I finally wore a hole in the bottom my old aluminum popcorn maker like this one. It was light and conducted heat very well so I was skeptical about this one being made of stainless steel. It took two or three uses of this new one to get used to it, it was heavier and just a little slower heating up, but these minor negatives are easily offset by the features it has: 1: the stainless steel handles the high heat I like to use much better than the aluminum. The popped corn is less likely to burn and there is no more scrubbing burned on carbon like I always had to do with the aluminum pot. 2. This pot is extremely well made. The pot is a little heavier but the lid is very well secured and is almost impossible to detach while shaking during popping unlike the old one where I had to be careful the pot didn't fall off when handling it. 3. It is very well constructed,; set screws on the bevel gears, easy to clean stainless steel, and has a very solid handle/spinner. 4.. I'm not sure if the lid is stainless but it is heavy duty, and finally, the pot holds maybe 20% more popped corn so when I make my normal amount it dumps out easily and not all packed in like the old popper. 5.Much easier to clean.This popper is much heavier than the aluminum ones and I'm up in years and not very strong so it takes more effort to hold & dump it with one hand, so keep this in mindI make popcorn 4 - 5 times a week and I wish I bought this years ago. Get the stainless steel one. This popper is well worth the money!

I'm enjoying my new popper! I make popcorn almost every day. It's pretty much identical to the well-known 'Whirley' brand and (at least the model I got) came with metal gears instead of nylon ones which on brand W are considered an upgrade. I know the metal gears will last forever. Making popcorn in oil on the stove is really the way to do it as gosh only knows what all chemicals are used in microwave popcorn oils and the plastics may also have some hazards. Hot air poppers just cannot pop as well since they cannot heat all the kernels evenly at the same time as this can. I like this popper very much.

This thing makes great popcorn. I'm not going to count the number of unpopped kernels it leaves, there aren't a lot, far fewer than with traditional pan-popping, but seriously. It works well, allows you to use the minimum necessary amount of oil (I like coconut but any will work), and doesn't make popcorn so dry the salt won't stick to it like air-popping does.The downside is that it's built like a brick, if the brick were made of sand. The pot itself is sturdy and washes well, but the lack of handles on the body can make it fiddly to clean due to the size of the pot itself. The lid is where the genius is, as far as the process goes, but it's also where stuff falls apart. The "wings" that open on either side were falling off within days of purchase, as the metal dowels holding them in place aren't secured by anything, so they just slide out while washing and are a pain to get back in. Also, the nut retaining the bolt that holds the stirring mechanism loosens and can fall into your popcorn. Think biting on a random unpopped kernel sucks? Wait until you bite into a metal retainer nut.That said, with a little bit of Loctite and some minor crimping of lid where the metal dowels slide though with a pair of pliers, and all is good.I strongly recommend this style of popper for great, theater-style popcorn, but prepare to be creative to keep the thing working, or look for a more resilient version if you're worried.

Great! Big, practical. It's a better pan than my old aluminum one (similar model, but the lid was not firmly secure to the pan). Few dollars more for a better product, stainless steel pan.