Olde Midway Bar Style Popcorn Machine Maker Popper with 8-Ounce Kettle - Black

Got this for my wife for Xmas. We opened it early. She loves it. She doesn’t like many things. She has everything she wants. When I told her about it she thought I was crazy. Then it grew on her a bit. I ordered it and the whole family has used it daily for the past 2 weeks. She absolutely loves it. We got the flavacol and coconut oil. Then we got a variety pack of seasonings. We’ve got bags and it comes with all the accessories. This unit is easy to assemble and comes well packaged. The enclosure is glass, not plastic, and everything arrived securely packed and undamaged. And it was delivered by fedex so that should tell you something. The only thing that was a little wonky was the thin stainless door that opens in the front to access the popcorn. It was a little bent, but it’s thin so you can easily bend it into shape. It has the olde midway logo embossed in it. Also, assembly is very easy, there isn’t much to do. Hang the kettle on the metal tabs, (which are thinner than I expected), plug it in the ceiling of the unit. Insert the crumb tray, and hang the front glass panel on the hinges. This took some doing as it didn’t line up quite right and one of the holes was less than perfect, but it did go in. Plug it in the wall and you’re done. It really looks great. Aesthetically pleasing. Everyone has good memories related to a popcorn machine and the smell. This brings that into your home. Good vibes. Good feng shui. Nice to look at with the light on from a distance. You can pop up to 1 cup of kernels at a time, which makes a pretty big load of popcorn. And yes, with the forementioned ingredients, it IS movie popcorn. And I STRONGLY recommend hulless popcorn. Orville redenbacher is not optimal. Tastes great, but lots of husks. Cleaning thoroughly will take some time. Plan on spending a half hour wiping down surfaces, and detaching the kettle and cleaning that. Do not submerge in water! The heater is attached to the side! Great machine. You’ll forget about the cost in the first 5 minutes. Kids love it. Teens love it. Fairly healthy snack. Strongly recommend. But Made in China, not USA

I spent some time looking over reviews and this was was rated well, however, it was considered expensive if purchased with the cart. Since we had a table the cart was not needed, which put the price right in our wheelhouse. It is boxed well, with nothing loose inside. It's well constructed, and glass all around. it's easy to put together as well, with the minor exception of putting on the glass door. That was a little difficult to get in the hinges, but it may have been me more than the how it was made, so I won't ding the machine in this review for that. It makes great popcorn, and works as advertised. One thing: when making popcorn, it references one tablespoon per half cup, but that didn't work the best for us. For the best/ maximum pop, we use 1/4 cup of popping oil, with one full cup of popcorn. That gave us maximum pop, with no residual oil left over in the kettle. It may also depend on the oil used, and we use Snappy Popcorn Butter Burst Oil in case you care to attempt to duplicate our results. Overall we're very satisfied.

I initially compared this popcorn machine with others based on customer reviews and what we as a family were looking for. I am SO GLAD I chose this unit! Myself and my 16 year old daughter did the assembly (and I am not mechanically inclined :-) it only took us less than 30 minutes from start to finish. Our initial for family movie night was nothing short of AMAZING! I read that some customers reviews voiced difficulty in cleaning, I have no problems and cleaning is a breeze. One helpful tip is that we also purchased the pre-packaged/pre-measured popcorn Tri-pack by Great Northern which includes the exact amount of oil, kernels and salt, which takes the guesswork out of how much to use for a perfect batch every time! We also discovered that for best popping results, dump the entire tri-pack ingredients at the same time vs. pre-heating the unit first and placing each item in separately. Each batch produced approximately 3-5 gallons of popcorn with very little wasted kernels. This popcorn machine is a perfect size, not too big, heavy or bulky and the stainless steel accessories are a wonderful plus as well!! You just cannot go wrong with this purchase if you are seeking a great popcorn machine! I rarely give product reviews but this purchase was worth the extra time, perhaps my feedback will assist someone else.

This machine works great but the door and closing magnet is off enough to make keeping the door closed a bit finicky. It has not come open by itself yet but it must be closed with care or it will bounce open with even the lightest of closings. This seems to be a chronic problem on this maching judging from the reviews. The glass is designed to be open along the top to allow steam to escape but the gap makes it a "reach" for the magnet on the door frame and the metal button on the glass so it only contacts a portion of the button when closed. This situation does not allow full use of the magnets strength to hold the door closed. It is not a huge problem as long as the door does stay shut but it would seem a simple design change would fix the problem and they would quit getting these reviews mentioning the door fitment. Over all so far so good. It makes plenty of pop corn for a bunch of people and probably is a good size for a small concession stand or fund raiser situation. Despite the annoying door problem I would buy it again as it works just could be better in design. The pop corn it does make is noticeably better than the last smaller machine we had...

You will want to practice making popcorn with this thing to get the balance of oil and flavor and popcorn right. Well it says it could do 8 oz I found sticking to the half cup measure that comes with it to be best. There is one thing you do have to keep a very sharp eye on if that is occasionally the popcorn will jab the mixing rod inside the kettle. As soon as it jams the popcorn starts to burn fast. So if you're popping lots of popcorn or even just one round of it, just watch the little gear that engages the mixer and if it stops immediately popped it or open it started dumping the popcorn out of the kettle. The other thing that I'd countered a few times was that sometimes that gear will not let go and you have to bag on it pretty good to get it to disengage so you can dump the kettle. Still needs a few design tweaks but if you're paying attention then you're ready for it does quite a decent job for the price. I gave out about a hundred little bags of popcorn for Halloween this year and it was really popular with the kids at the adults. Use buttered flavor coconut oil and Flavacol salt and it tastes and smells just like theater popcorn. By the end of a few hours the thing was an absolute mess with lots of splattered oil. Honestly I have not yet pleaded but it's going to be a bit of a chore. Under normal use of your only doing a few rounds it's not so bad but when you're doing enough popcorn to fill a hundred bags it does add up. That would definitely buy another one of these if this thing dies.

First off, a lot of thought went into the packing of this unit to make sure it doesn't come damaged. It's not done in a way to be aggravating unpacking it either. You get the idea this isn't their first rodeo in shipping these. Assembly is really quite easy. It is easier to tilt the popcorn kettle when sliding it onto the frame that holds it up. Once you slide it into place it just conveniently rests properly in position when you let it tilt back. When putting on the glass front door you need to make sure to slide into the grooves on the hinges. I find that I like to use 2 measuring spoons of coconut oil and 2 scoops of popcorn seed. If your coconut oil is in a solid form let it melt in the kettle first before adding the popcorn. Nothing could be more fun then when you start to hear that popping sound and popcorn starts to come out of the kettle. Of course, it's delicious popcorn. This is an excellent machine and now my office tends to smell like the local movie theater. I can't say enough of how happy I am with this choice.

If you want perfect popcorn every time?? This is the machine for everyone....... Easy to clean - Every popcorn machine takes a little patience to clean correctly. Nothing new here folks. Easy to use - Follow the instructions or a YT video and you'll be a pro in two or three batches. Flavor - Excellent, Outstanding, Perfect !!! Easy on the salt, no butter required. Makes sure you do two or three batches before serving your family and friends to 'season' the unit, and you'll be on your way to "Popcorn" perfection.

I've owned this machine now for about 7 yrs and it worked great at the beginning. Its' been sitting at our office breakroom now (unused) for over a year. I religiously cleaned it after each use. It was left clean after the last use. Just recently went to try to use it again and it had rust all over the top interior panel. There was no way to get it off. Called customer service to see if there is a replacement part and unfortunately, there is no way to replace that part. So, to avoid eating rusty popcorn, looks like the machine is going to the dump :( I would not recommend this machine if you don't use it on a regular basis or if you are looking for something more durable. 3 stars for the years it gave us.