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

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!

Makes great popcorn! Now I don't have to go to the movie theater to get movie theater popcorn 🍿

My sister and brother in law love this. Makes great popcorn. Super easy to use

Perfect popcorn! My only issue is the fit of the lid. There are gaps that are big enough for a kernel or 2 to pop out. Other than that, very easy and fantastic popcorn. Would 100% buy it again. Also of note, the pit itself is nice and heavy so I have every expectation it will last a very long time.

Doesnt clean up easy :-( I will try it on lower heat and see if it will work as well, it did pop all my kernels tho.

I'm totally rewriting this review & CAUTIONING ANYONE WISHING TO PURCHASE THIS PRODUCT. It's dangerous. My husband almost made a trip to the ER last night because of this contraption.Initially, my review was based on how the product looked visually. I said:"I would give this 5 stars-- but just took it out of the box as it was just delivered this morning. It took me a while to settle on this model since there were others that were cheaper, but there was a lot of dissent about which models were better. Some were described as being stainless, when the gears, crank & stir paddle were either aluminum or plastic or a combo thereof.This model is 95% stainless steel. The handle & some accents are wood. The moving gears on the outside of the pot where the crank meets inner stir paddle are aluminum. The paddle itself, along with the pot, lid, crank & all the lid fasteners are stainless steel. So it's a nice looking pot & seems very sturdy. While the lid is thin, the fasteners hold it down pretty well-- but you also have the option of completely removing it when you dump out your popped corn-- just have a good pair of oven mitts to hold the pot since the handle & crank are one & the same and is attached to the lid.It's also a nice large, deep capacity & I can't wait to try it out."I tried it out for the first time about 15 minutes after writing my review. It worked wonderfully. The gears moved fine-- but I noticed, being a lefty-- if you move the crank in the wrong direction, the gears actually unscrew & the crank stops working. I made the mistake once, but it wasn't serious enough to cause damage-- to myself, the popper, or my batch of popcorn.Last night my husband read the instructions & attempted his first batch of popcorn. Immediately the gears stopped cranking. BUT HE DID NOT TURN THE CRANK THE WRONG WAY. So we can't figure out what happened. We removed it from the heat, removed the lid & I dumped the popcorn using some heavy duty oven mitts. The stir paddle & handle had become unscrewed from their gears. With pliers we rescrewed them in & tried again for a second batch. This time it stopped working mid batch. Even though I turned off the heat, the popcorn burned. My husband tried dumping the popcorn carefully out of the pot using the handle & securing the lid with pot-holders, but the stir paddle fell off causing the handle to turn and if he didn't have quick enough reflexes, he could've been hit with a very hot stainless steel pot-- and a mess of smoldering burnt unpopped kernels.I'm contacting the seller now. Since I used the device, I can't exactly return it. But I'm pissed that I spent the money to get a better product & am stuck with an over $50 pile of scrap metal.Buyer beware. If the zombie apocalypse comes, I don't think you'll be worried about popping corn. Stick with a dutch oven over a heat source.