Nice LARGE griddle!

I love making pancakes. In the past I would use two large cast-iron skillets for the task. I found myself constantly adjusting my burner temperature and I would always get a few very dark (or burnt) or a few undercooked pancakes out of each batch. Plus I could only cook two pancakes at a time; one in the center of each skillet (I like making large perfectly round 5-6" diameter pancakes.)



After much research I finally broke down and bought the Presto Tilt'nDrain BigGriddle because I liked the enormous cooking area it offered. And I liked the fact that is was made of heavy cast aluminum and that it sat perfectly level (some griddles have sloped cooking decks to allow grease and juices to run away from the foods... NOT desirable when making pancakes or scrambled eggs.) And I liked how the griddle can be quickly adjusted so that it WILL tilt forward which *does* allow grease to run away when you want it to! (it has a grease channel and catch-tray along the front edge of the unit.)



My first impressions with this unit:



- It's huge! 18.5" x 15" cooking area.

- It heats evenly. My infrared (IR) non-contact thermometer gun showed very little temperature variation across the cooking surface once it was fully heated (I let the thermostat cycle several times -- about 10 minutes -- before I took my readings.) My pancakes verified this finding with each one being equally browned.

- The thermostat is accurate. I set the unit to 350-degrees F. and it heated to 350-degrees F. as verified by my IR thermometer gun.

- The raised lip around the sides and back of the unit is high enough to contain pancake batter and keep it from spilling over and is low enough to be completely unobtrusive.



After un-boxing the unit I cleaned plugged and turned on the unit (set for 350-degrees F.) After a 10 minute warm up I applied my pancake batter. As noted earlier in the past I was only able to make two pancakes at a time using two separate skillets. The Presto griddle allowed me to cook 6 (yes SIX!!) of my large pancakes at the same time. All six pancakes browned evenly with no hot or cold spots seen. Flipping the pancakes was a breeze and I used no oil on the non-stick surface.



I made two batches of pancakes one batch after the other and both turned out exactly the same... and that was "perfectly." I made a two batches of pancakes (12 pancakes total) in the same amount of time it took to make 4 in the past. For the first time my whole family ate pancakes together at the same time!!



So in summary the Presto Tilt'nDrain BigGriddle is well designed easy to use heats accurately and evenly and has a very large cooking surface. Clean-up was quick and easy. I highly recommend this unit to anyone who needs a large griddle that cooks accurately and evenly.



NOTE: Regarding a few other reviews here I don't see how anyone can rate this product 2 or 3 stars faulting the unit because it's too large to store. I mean come on!! It's a big griddle by DESIGN!! If it's too large for you then you should have bought a smaller griddle! ;-)More detail ...

Great electric kettle design!

I spent hours researching every electric kettle available (and looking at them in person in stores) before settling on this one. I've owned it for about 6 months now and it's been great. The concealed heating element and the simple one-piece plastic jug design make it very easy to clean (not that I've needed to) and leak resistant (I assume from a design perspective since mine has no leaks yet). The only way it could leak is if the grommet sealing the metal bottom piece to the plastic jug developed a leak whereas most of the stainless steel kettles being sold have several parts many seams and thus many places a leak could develop. There is some mild browning of the plastic inside the jug I suppose a reaction to the high heat. This same thing happened with my roommate's older plastic electric kettle so it's to be expected. People complain about plastic vs. stainless steel I settled on plastic for one primary reason: it is a better insulator so not only will it keep the water hotter for longer it will be safer to handle in general (ie. it won't burn you or a child if it is accidentally picked up by its sides while it contains hot water). People complain about plastic "leeching chemicals" into the water I haven't noticed any difference in taste personally and I doubt stainless steel would be much "safer" than plastic in this respect. The switch works great and mine has never spilled water or over-boiled it (as long as it contains the minimum recommended amount of water). The spout and handle shapes make it easy to pour and the locking top makes it pretty tough to spill. Definitely recommended I'm buying another one for my parents right now.



PS - While researching electric kettles I frequently saw complaints of how kettles designed for use in the USA don't heat water as fast as those in the UK. This is for a very simple reason: UK uses 240 volt power USA uses 120 volts. Most electrical receptacles are rated for 15 amps (though the kitchen are often has at least two 20-amp circuits per NEC recommendations). Watts = volts * amps which means that UK kettles can get up to 240 volts * 15 amps = 3600 watts while USA kettles can get up to 120 volts * 15 amps = 1800 watts. Manufacturers might sometimes avoid approaching this limit perhaps due to safety or liability issues? Just note that this 1750 watt Tfal kettle is very close to the typical USA receptacle wattage rating. It's just about as high as you'll be able to get in the USA...most other USA electric kettles only go up to 1500 watts.More detail ...

Great kettle but broke too easily

We bought one of these for our home and liked it so much I got another for my office. It is a quick safe way to boil water. It works much better than our teapot on our conventional stove and you can leave the room without worry about all the water boiling out and a possible fire.

It is so efficient that we often use it to heat up water before putting it in a pan on the stove. The pot is light even when full and has no aftertaste like I have read some of the plastic ones do.

HOWEVER we have owned our home pot for less than six months and the 'on' switch broke off. The pot is still usable but you have to reach in and acitivate it with a fingernail. It is under limited warranty but that involves mailing it to San Diego at our own cost and sending them a check for $8 to have it returned. Including the time and materials to package it up and then drive to the post office and have it gone for 2-4 weeks doesn't seem worth the effort.

Hopefully we just got a lemon. If this hadn't happened or if the warranty policy wasn't so cumbersome I would have given this 5 stars. But our other one is working fine and I don't like it when people who give one star for personal reasons so I feel 3 stars is a fair rating one star off for breaking and one star off for the poor warranty.More detail ...