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 love this popcorn popper!!! I've been using it a couple of times a week for over a month now, and no problems whatsoever, other than "user error." The first week I used it, I followed the instructions and started out on medium heat on my electric range. I popped corn twice that week, and it turned out absolutely delicious and crunchy, with not even one unpopped kernel. The next weekend, I forgot to start out on medium heat, and used my "over-easy egg" temperature of medium-high instead. Big mistake! I had a small volume of totally black popcorn, and a house full of smoke. I scrubbed forever, and never did get all the burnt popcorn off the bottom of the pan. Nevertheless, the pan still works great and I have popped perfect popcorn every week since then with no trouble whatsoever, and not a single old maid yet. I didn't experience any problems with a loose lid. In fact, it was quite difficult to snap on when I first received the popper, and I resolved never to remove it. However, I had to remove it after the burnt corn incident, and have removed it to wash it thoroughly several times since then, and have had no problems reattaching the lid. No problem with both sides popping open when pouring the popcorn out either. I love the solid, sturdy stainless steel construction, not to mention the fact that I don't have to worry about leached aluminum. I listened to another reviewer and only turn the crank clockwise, and have had no problems with the cranking mechanism either. I don't understand the methods of those who claim it takes 15 minutes to pop their corn either. I use just barely a tablespoon of oil to 1/3 to 1/2 cup of kernels, set it on the burner, cranking occasionally until I hear the oil start to sizzle. As soon as I hear a kernel pop, I turn the crank continually, and have a pot full of perfect popcorn within less than 2 minutes of that time. In the old days, we popped corn in a kettle by shaking it over the burner. Very tiring and noisy! With mixed results. Also, hard on those electric ranges! Mine now wouldn't stand up to that friction without the burner becoming detached. The crank makes popping corn a breeze! Later on, I received an air popper as a gift, and decided very shortly that air-popped popcorn wasn't even worth eating. I tried microwave popcorn quite a few times, and found it fairly tasty, but have issues with the health concerns of both the chemical coatings of the bag and the effects of microwaving. Haven't owned a microwave in over two decades. At that point, we switched to Jiffy Pop, which I actually liked quite a bit. However, the results were very uneven. We always had tons of old maids, and frequent burned popcorn or low volumes. Finally, I switched to pre-popped organic popcorn in the bag. This stuff, I actually like quite a bit, especially the cheddar variety. And nothing is easier than just opening a bag and pouring melted butter over it. However, I wanted to be more sure that I was getting organic corn and to be able to buy my own organic toppings. I was actually shocked at how much better popcorn from this popper is than the organic pre-popped. Or anything else I've tried. It rivals and beats out the theatre popcorn, which now has so many additives that it tastes artificial and makes my mouth burn. This popcorn is so much crunchier and tastier! I tried it with organic coconut oil the first two times, but didn't like the flavor. Also tried it with the Amish popcorn, which was OK, but I prefer yellow popcorn. Since then, I have been popping the Eden Organic popcorn, also available on Amazon, and using corn oil. I top it with plenty of fresh butter from pasture-grazed cows, Frontier organic cheddar cheese powder, which I also bought from Amazon, and Himalayan sea salt. Absolute popcorn heaven! Now all I have to do is find some organic corn oil. I must say I treasure this popper so much that I have ordered another one, so that I can have a pristine one without all the black burnt spots on the bottom. After being spoiled by the ease of pre-popped popcorn, I thought it would be too much of a chore for me to ever pop my own on a regular basis, and continued to have my doubts after I ordered this popper. But this is so incredibly easy and so quick, and so incredibly tasty, that I am sure I will never eat any other popcorn again! I've doubled my popcorn consumption since I received it, but feel great about eating a healthy snack popped to perfection!

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. UPDATE: Another year has gone by and we're still making great popcorn with this almost fail-proof popper. We actually found that some popped kernals would get stuck under the stirrer so we removed it and just shake the pot as we go. Still really loving this piece of equipment. One of the most-used items in our kitchen.

Yup, The Great Northern stove-top popcorn popper is a well made popper. The pot has relatively thick walls, and might be slightly thicker at the bottom. The top is of equally good construction and latches on in such a way that it's quite unlikely to fall off unintentionally. The gears that connect the horizontal crank handle to the vertical stirring rod are pretty beefy, and they're beveled so they ought to last. I would also like to mention how the gears are attached to the shaft, which is not only with a grub-screw/set-screw (hex head), but both the shaft and center of the gears are threaded. I found this out when the stirrer was just a smidge higher than I liked, so noticing the set-screw, I decided to see if it was adjustable. I'm happy to report it's easily adjustable, just simply loosen the set-screw and turn the shaft in either direction. I noticed it's easier to turn if you use the legs of the stirrer to gently get leverage. The only thing I can add is that before I grabbed this popper, I was using my wife's pasta pot, with a strainer in the lid as it was perfect for letting out steam, plus the lid locked in place. I was used to having to let it sit on the bigger electric burner of my hot plate (my gas was shut off because I couldn't afford it) for a full minute and a half before it would start popping. After it started popping, I would have to lift it and shake it every 5 seconds or so before placing it back on the burner. With this new popper, it takes (maybe) 30 seconds to start popping, and it'll even pop using the small burner just fine. The latter wasn't possible with the other pot! It's worth every cent if you make popcorn, even once-in-a-while! Just get it if you're on the fence.

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.

I started looking for a popper when we decided to move away from microwave popcorn. The popper is very nice. Does a great job. Easy to use. Easy to clean. I'm very pleased with it. I was a little leery to spend this much, but it's well worth the cost!

***Update*** March 27, 2020...still working fantastic with nearly TEN years of consistent usage! Cheers! Just made Coronavirus-popcorn last night...may God have mercy on our world. Praying for all of us! We bought this because we were tired of trying to make popcorn using a hot air popper, and we'll never go back. We always found it exceptionally difficult to get the butter mixed in afterwards, and we had a mess combined with our poorly buttered popcorn. Now my wife consistently says this popper makes perfect popcorn every time. Enter the Great Northern SS stovetop popper...we wanted Stainless Steel to avoid issues with aluminum (which is at least theoretically tied into Alzheimer's/dementia issues) so we paid more to get the stainless version. This works really awesome....we just put two tablespoons of coconut oil in, then we place 2-3 kernels of corn in to use as an indicator of when the pot is good and hot. Once they pop, we know the pan is hot, so I add 1 tablespoon of butter, 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and then 1/2 cup of kernels. Stir for 2-3 minutes, and you've got a beautifully toasted popcorn with the oil/butter/salt mixture beautifully congealed and evenly distributed, and nothing is burnt. Repeat if desired! Excellent product for the price...steer clear of some other companies...several others have plastic gears, which sounds just plain cheap to me. The gears on this unit are metal, and work outstandingly well. In addition, this unit is almost 1/2 the price of other similar stainless steel units, and gave me no issues, whereas if you read the reviews on the other units, you'll see that some of them have major issues. I highly recommend getting your popping corn from Amazon, and buying organic. See http://smile.amazon.com/Arrowhead-Mills-Organic-28-Ounce-Packages/dp/B0036Z3ULM -----This price buys you SIX 1.75 pound bags of corn....this is LESS than you'll pay most places for "standard" corn. If you don't know, nearly 90% of corn in the US has been genetically modified (GMO), and there is research indicating that this is less than ideal to say the least. Organic foods CANNOT be GMO by federal law. So you get to buy corn that is free of persistent pesticides, is GMO free AND it's less than you'd pay to get the tainted stuff anyways! I might also suggest that you get the book "101 Things to do with Popcorn" at http://smile.amazon.com/101-Things-Popcorn-Christina-Dymock/dp/1423606892 and please note that there is a Kindle version for less money, which is what I bought. Happy popping, and cheers!

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.

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 mind I 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!

Das ist der beste Popcornmaker überhaupt, ich hab mehrere probiert aber bei diesem wird das popcorn so wie es sein soll, es verbrennt nicht und es bleiben nur 2-3 Körnchen übrig TOP wer Popcorn liebt soll sich dieses Gerät holen, funktioniert bei mir auf dem Gasherd, sollte aber auch auf einem E-Herd genausogut funktionieren.

WOW, Just, WOW!!! I've brought a few popper, microwave ones, air ones... This is just WOW!!! I caught out when buying this though, as I didn't notice the import charges, BUT it was worth it!!! My kernels all popped, the popped kernels were all coated with the sweet flavouring I added direct to the oil and kernels!! This is by far the best product I've EVER brought, it will help feed my popcorn addiction, for along time!!!

Wonderful orginal stove top corn popper. Mad3 of stainless steel it heats up fast. Excellent product. Perfect for gift giving. Easy to clean. Cool retro item.

We could finally source organic popping corn locally so bought this for my husband’s birthday. My 3 year old son loves cooking with dad and they make they popcorn together, my son cranking the handle.

Easy to use and makes a big pot of popcorn