Presto 04868 HOT AIR Popper, MEDIUM, red

Nice, well thought out product, gives good results. I have been a longtime muncher of popcorn when watching movies. Years ago, I got tired of the mess and cleanup required when popping kernels in a pan over the stove, or using a ‘stir crazy’ type hot oil popper, and switched to microwave popcorn. But that product is rather pricey if you eat a lot of it, the boxes take up considerable space in the pantry, and worst of all the calorie count is quite high due to the oils and flavorings used in the microwave bag.My doctor recommended a commercial product that was simply air-popped corn packaged in small bags, at a considerable cost. I did this for a little while, and thought that I had weaned myself from the oily kinds of popped corn, and might want to give air popping at home another look. The last time I had tried ‘hot air’ popping, back in the late 70s as I recall, the results tended to be less than satisfactory with lots of kernel chaff and debris, and un-popped kernals, mixed in with the popped corn.Many good reviews convinced me to try this Presto brand model 04868 hot air “fountain” popper, cross-branded with Orville Redenbacher.The popper consists of two parts: The hot air base, which includes a blower, a heating element, and what is actually a cover for an upside down popcorn bowl, and the other part is the popcorn bowl itself. The hot air base has a short power cord, since it is intended to be placed and used on a kitchen counter near an outlet.As I see it, the advantages of this model are:- integral popcorn bowl- clever hinged lids for the hot air base that open progressively during popping to prevent unpopped kernels from escaping into the popcorn bowl area- the popcorn bowl incorporates a screen/sieve at the bottom, with a snap-off lid….the lid is off during popping to allow hot air, steam and chaff to escape, and to allow kernel chaff and unpopped kernels to escape into the trash after popping, and then the lid snaps back on so that you can use the bowl for serving the popcornThe popper requires a warm-up period of about two minutes before pouring the raw kernels into the hot air base. Then you lift one of the hinged screen plates to pour in 1/2 cup (or less) of popcorn kernels. Presto does not endorse one brand or type of popcorn, but suggests that yellow corn will yield better than white corn. I use the Orville Redenbacher ‘original’ kernels.Inside the hot air stream from the blower, the kernels constantly circulate in the popping chamber. Once they start to pop, the hinged screens deflect them back into the popping chamber. Once a ‘head’ of popped kernels has formed at the top of the popping chamber, they force open two of the three hinged screens (the third screen remains down and helps dampen the surges of popcorn trying to escape out of the popping chamber) and the popcorn falls into the upside down bowl. After pops occur less frequently than one every two seconds, you unplug the popper and place the lid over the screen at the bottom of the bowl (which is currently at the top of the popper assembly), and flip the whole thing upside down, then lift the hot air base away. You are then left with the bowl full of popcorn. You lift the bowl and shake it a bit to encourage any chaff and debris and unpopped kernels to migrate to the bottom of the bowl, where they fall through the sieve screen and onto the lid, effectively removed from the part of the bowl that you would eat from. When you are done eating, you pop the lid off (over a trash container) to dump the chaff/debris/unpopped kernels into the trash.No oils or flavorings can be used in this popper. Trying to do so would cause smoke, possibly fire, and would certainly mess up the popper. You have to add any oils or flavorings to the popcorn after the base has been separated from the bowl after popping. I don’t use anything except fine ground salt powder, and the popper itself remains dry and clean, and only a quick wipe with a damp paper towel once in a while is required to keep it all nice and clean. I rinse the bowl out under the sink and let it dry for the next use….there is rarely any need to use soapy water.No part of this popper is dishwasher safe, so if you do want to wash it, it needs to be done by hand.

First use with 1/2 cup as instructed yielded 5 unpopped kernels left. 3 fell out into the cover when you flip it over, the other 2 were mixed in the batch. Not bad…..cant really complain about that! The kernels were partly opened as well, so maybe if I would have left it for a few seconds longer they would have popped. I guess this has a lot to do with the quality of kernels you are using no doubt. I bought the variety pack of Amish Country which was used in this first go around.The popper was easy to use. I plugged it in and let in run for a minute or two with no popcorn or the bowl on to let the element burn in a bit. Then I added some kernels and put the cover on. Make sure you have the red cover OFF so it can vent the hot air out the top.After the popping stops you have a full bowl of fluffy popcorn! Now you put the red cover on and flip it over. Pretty easy.I didn’t find the machine got hot at all, but I only made 1 bowl. The sides were slightly warm.The one thing I wish it had was a switch. I’m not understanding the reason to omit this. Maybe they don’t want it flipped it over while its plugged in?Unplugging it from the wall while in use you could easily knock the unit over because it has a pretty short cord. Residential receptacles really aren’t designed to handle arcing either. I didn’t see any big flash or anything but I know its happening.Other than that the machine worked great! Enjoy your popcorn! 🙂

Wow! This actually works really well. The media could not be loaded.  I’d like to give this one star because I I’ve had nothing but problems with the last two Presto popcorn makers I bought and I just threw them both in the trash today because I just gave up. They were spitting out so many unpopped kernels and one time the lid actually exploded off the top of one and popcorn and butter went everywhere and it was a disaster. I was even on the phone with customer support and they were useless.So I was looking for a different hot air popper. They all looked pretty awful. I think there are two or three models all made by the same company in China and very little difference between them.But this is actually very clever in the way it works.You must read the instructions, you just must. But it popped the corn as expected and I thought the little screens on the popper would filter out all the unpopped kernels, but it doesn’t really work that way.First you have to take the vent cover off the clear popping bowl. Pour in your popcorn and plug it in. Depending on how it pops you may have to shake it once or twice according to the instructions. That’s no big deal. After it’s done popping you put the cover back on to the popping bowl. After it finishes popping, you put the cover back on top, you flip it over then you shake it up and down and then side to side and then you remove the top cover which is now at the bottom the bowl and filled with all the unpopped kernel But they’re all contained within the top cover because the unpopped kernels get filtered through the vent on top of the bowl. So you can either just eat the popcorn out of the popping bowl because the kernels fall into the cover which is beneath the popcorn or take the cover off and dump the kernels, a lot of them into the trash and poured the popcorn into another bowl orr probably better yet just leave it on. I had one or two unpopped kernels. That’s a miracle. If I would have let it pop just a little bit longer I probably would have had less. But that’s not an issue because they all go into the bowl cover which you simply remove and toss the kernels into the trash. Or if you’re not going to add butter or any other toppings you’d probably could just leave it on because it wouldn’t affect the popcorn in the bowl and actually as you eat the popcorn more kernels if any are left would fall into the bottom cover. It’s quite an ingenious design.I’m rambling on a bit and it’s really hard to leave a review on a cell phone but this does work really well. It’s extremely ingenious the way it’s designed.And I would definitely recommend using Oroville Redenbacher popcorn however, because of this design you could probably use any brand. On the other Presto machines which just did not work you had to use Orville Redenbacher just to come close to get it half decent which it never really was.Read the instructions, by high quality popcorn and I think you’ll be happy with this. I’m just excited I have a working hot air popper.What a confusing review.Well this is an update it was a confusing review but this is the best hot air pop I’ve ever had and I don’t even get one unpopped kernel now. That’s it.

Wow! This actually works really well. The media could not be loaded. I’d like to give this one star because I I’ve had nothing but problems with the last two Presto popcorn makers I bought and I just threw them both in the trash today because I just gave up. They were spitting out so many unpopped kernels and one time the lid actually exploded off the top of one and popcorn and butter went everywhere and it was a disaster. I was even on the phone with customer support and they were useless.So I was looking for a different hot air popper. They all looked pretty awful. I think there are two or three models all made by the same company in China and very little difference between them.But this is actually very clever in the way it works.You must read the instructions, you just must. But it popped the corn as expected and I thought the little screens on the popper would filter out all the unpopped kernels, but it doesn’t really work that way.First you have to take the vent cover off the clear popping bowl. Pour in your popcorn and plug it in. Depending on how it pops you may have to shake it once or twice according to the instructions. That’s no big deal. After it’s done popping you put the cover back on to the popping bowl. After it finishes popping, you put the cover back on top, you flip it over then you shake it up and down and then side to side and then you remove the top cover which is now at the bottom the bowl and filled with all the unpopped kernel But they’re all contained within the top cover because the unpopped kernels get filtered through the vent on top of the bowl. So you can either just eat the popcorn out of the popping bowl because the kernels fall into the cover which is beneath the popcorn or take the cover off and dump the kernels, a lot of them into the trash and poured the popcorn into another bowl orr probably better yet just leave it on. I had one or two unpopped kernels. That’s a miracle. If I would have let it pop just a little bit longer I probably would have had less. But that’s not an issue because they all go into the bowl cover which you simply remove and toss the kernels into the trash. Or if you’re not going to add butter or any other toppings you’d probably could just leave it on because it wouldn’t affect the popcorn in the bowl and actually as you eat the popcorn more kernels if any are left would fall into the bottom cover. It’s quite an ingenious design.I’m rambling on a bit and it’s really hard to leave a review on a cell phone but this does work really well. It’s extremely ingenious the way it’s designed.And I would definitely recommend using Oroville Redenbacher popcorn however, because of this design you could probably use any brand. On the other Presto machines which just did not work you had to use Orville Redenbacher just to come close to get it half decent which it never really was.Read the instructions, by high quality popcorn and I think you’ll be happy with this. I’m just excited I have a working hot air popper.What a confusing review.Well this is an update it was a confusing review but this is the best hot air pop I’ve ever had and I don’t even get one unpopped kernel now. That’s it.

Wow! Great Pocorn, Great Machine. This machine ticks a lot of boxes! It’s fast, easy to use, and delivers fluffy popcorn with few if any unpopped kernels. The design is straightforward. Once the kernels have popped (you may need to tilt the machine while popping to prevent a back-up of popcorn in the center tower), unplug, put the base cover over the vented opening, turn it over and give it a few gentle shakes back and forth to send any unpopped kernels into the bottom. My only suggestion for improvement would be a self-contained unit for the cord when not in use, however the cord does easily wrap around the base column. I would buy this again.

Get Rid of That Oily Stench and Taste. I bought this one for my daughter to use; I have the same one and it’s still going strong after some 16 years of use. My son has had his for 11 years and still going strong as well.Just be sure when you unpack it that the three covers over the hopper operate freely and can drop open by themselves into their receiver clear bowl. These three covers keep unpeopled kernels from being ejected before they can pop when the popping process starts.None of that oily taste and stench you pay for at the theater either!

Great Product: Easy to use and clean. This is really easy to use and easy to clean up. The popcorn tastes very good. Two very minor complaints: 1) it is a bit bulky and 2) when popping smaller particles of popcorn can spit out (like snowflakes — nothing bad just noticeable).

Tops *chef’s kiss*. We used to buy the Nostalgia brand poppers (and to be fair we have the fun mini cart one still) but this one by far better. We’ve only had it a couple months, but the way it pops makes the popcorn crisper and the old maid catcher is great! The Nostalgia brand we’ve burned out two both after about a year or two, so we’ll see how this the goes. We have the other popper still so the kids can use it on their own. The bowl is pretty large/bully for their little hands/skills and gets hot and we didn’t need the kids (8 and under) trying to do it on their own.

Orville Redenbacher’s Presto Hot Air Fountain Popper. The media could not be loaded. 𝗙𝗔𝗡𝗧𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗖 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗘𝘅𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜 𝗡𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗱!It pops really quickly (the video was sped up but the actual video is 4:48 from start to finish. I plugged it in at 1:23 and it started popping at the 3:00 minute mark and finished by 3:58). So, less than 2 minutes to reach the heat level necessary to start popping. It had very few hulls and only 6 unpopped kernels. I used Orville Redenbacher’s popcorn and then drizzled Orville Redenbacher’s Butter Flavored Oil and Topping on it along with a little salt. DELICIOUS 😋There is no odor, smoke, it’s not really loud and my popcorn was not wet/damp but really fluffy (make sure you read the instructions and remove the red lid before popping. Put it back on when it done popping, if you want to use the cover as a bowl). It’s also easy to clean. 𝘐𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘰𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘣𝘰𝘸𝘭, 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵.So far I think it was a great purchase and value for the money. Time will tell about durability

Excellent choice for air popping popcorn. One of the better air-popper popcorn machines. Easy to use, clean, and functions well. The size is a tad larger than most air-popper machines, but it OK if you have the space. If you plan to add butter, use a separate bowl so that the popping bowl lasts longer over time.