Fun, useful, practical, and easy to use.

We acquired our COSTWAY electric popcorn maker as a health play. While we LOVE traditional microwave popcorn, they come with those additives we occasionally vow to avoid. The COSTWAY couldn’t be easier to use! Add your oil, add your popcorn, fasten the lid, turn it on. That’s it. A normal batch has been taking about 5 – 6 minutes to prepare.
After using it for several batches, I have these recommendations: Even though the instructions say to use two tablespoons of oil per cup of raw kernels, I find it better to use less than a full cup of kernels so the popped kernels have room to expand – something like 7/8 of a cup will do nicely. Also, don’t skimp on the oil. We tried one batch using less oil and it burned. The other recommendation is to turn the unit off when the popping starts to taper off. Don’t wait until there is zero popping or you’ll burn the batch.
If you are adding some yummy flavors to your batch (butter, spices, etc.), you’ll do that in whatever bucket/bowl you dump your completed batch into – not during the popping. There is a little art to making a good batch of popcorn. We are better at this in batch six than the first batch. This was a really good purchase that is fun, useful, practical and easy to use.

Popcorn is LIFE! Would recommend!

Popcorn is a routine staple in our house. We often make it as part of our Sunday evening routine. We had been going the healthy route and making it with a microwave bowl to avoid using oil. We decided that we missed popcorn made with oil and tried out the Costway popper. We followed the directions exactly as stated in the user manual. The popper was very easy to use. The popcorn came out perfect, with only 2 or 3 unpopped kernels. The only reason I rated it a 4 is because the plastic lid, used to cover the air wholes after you are done popping, didn’t stay on very well. The lid is needed so you can flip the cover over and use it as a bowl. However, this is not not a big deal and won’t take away from making delicious popcorn.

Works great, easy to clean.

Do we all remember using the Stir-Crazy popcorn popper from years ago? I don't... I didn't have one, but I do remember all of the fuss when it came out originally. This particular popper is an upgraded version of the original, compete with a non-stick heating plate.
I have an air popper that I simply love. It has a container that all of the popped corn goes into instead of flying all over the counter. However, I find I have to run it several times to produce enough popcorn for my family, and the system regularly overheats. In addition, I always have to add butter after popping but I think I end up using more butter that way. Also, I find the more and more un-popped kernels end up in the container, which is frustrating but common to every air popper I've tried.
This device is easy to use. I add the suggested 130 grams of popcorn to the cooking plate, evenly distributed. I then add about 1 tablespoon of oil and 2 tablespoons of butter, install the cover and turn it on. Within about 5 minutes the popcorn is ready. The result is perfectly popped corn with a great butter flavor and virtually no un-popped kernels. Flip the entire unit over (after installing the lid onto the cover,) and you have a perfectly sized serving bowl.
To clean, simply remove the stirrer from the cooking plate. The non-stick design of the plate makes it easy to wipe out with just a towel. The base cannot be submersed or subjected to water else the electrical connections within would be damaged.
The only "negative" item I can find with this product is its price. It appears to be more expensive that most all of the others in its class. However, I think the quality of the cooking plate and its non-stick properties may be part of that, plus the evenly distributed heat. Whatever the case, I'm glad I have this one and wouldn't trade it for another.
Would I order this again? YES. Do I recommend it to others? YES. This is a great way to pop popcorn that's tasty and fully popped. I really like my air popper, but I think it's going into storage.

Great popcorn maker!

Our daughter is obsessed with popcorn. We had been doing the microwave popcorn bags and thought we would try this popcorn maker. She loves helping to make the popcorn! She climbs up on her stool to watch the kernels spin around and start popping. She gets so excited watching the kernels pop. This popcorn maker does a good job of popping almost all of the kernels and doesn’t take too long to make a batch of popcorn either. It makes more than a microwave bag so there is more for the family to share. The black cap that covers the vent holes on the lid after the popcorn is popped so that that lid can double as a bowl does not like to stay on though, so we just put the popcorn in separate bowls. Everyone has more than enough!

popcorn enthusiast

I am a lifelong popcorn enthusiast, and this is the best way to make popcorn in my opinion. Our family's original Stir Crazy popcorn maker was this same style, with the heating plate and stir rod, with a dome shaped bowl. It tastes better than stove cooked in a pot, air popped, or microwave popcorn in my opinion, and it is probably the healthiest choice. My last stirring popper was a Hamilton Beach, which was made well, but broke after a few years of frequent use. That one had the disadvantage of a taller, cylinder shaped bowl, instead of this dome. The popcorn is less likely to get stuck when spinning and almost full on this one, and the heat of the popper is more likely to pop all the kernels and have less waste. I did notice right away though, that this popper heats a lot faster and hotter than the Hamilton Beach one. The advantage of the HB was that it almost never burned any popcorn, even if you walked away and forgot a few minutes. This one though, gets hotter and pops faster, but can burn a few popped corns on the bottom if you wait too long to take it off. Also, you should unplug to let it cool down. But it's super simple with just an on/off switch. The popping bowl can double as a serving bowl with the black lid put on.
Our favorite oil to use is coconut oil. Unless you use a LOT, it doesn't add a strong taste, but a reasonable amount of coconut oil to pop and then just salt it, and you don't even need to add butter, and it tastes delicious! Of course, extra butter for the most savory experience. Very pleased with this new popper and glad to be able to save money on popping kernels and not using microwave popcorn with unnecessary extra ingredients.

Its amazing!

I love this popper! Its easy to use and it pops all the kernels!
I put 2 tablespoons of oil in with 1/3 cup kernels for a regular batch, or 2/3 cup kernels for a family batch, and it pops all the kernels!
Cool system, lid is the bowl, you can flip over whole thing after it pops, lid is now your bowl! Easy to use!
It pops the bowl completely full if you use 2/3 cup of kernels! Its a family portion! We use 1/3 cup the most for snacking.
Popper works amazingly well, uts easy to clean, and we really love it!
I've used peanut oil, butter, bacon fat drippings, canola oil, all have worked perfectly for popping!

I don't like microwave popcorn

It's not really healthy or tasty. But many popcorn poppers are inconvenient or too small. This one is great for 2-3 people (or 1 who really likes popcorn). The popcorn pops fully leaving few duds in the bowl and it has great texture and flavor. Doesn't come out with that sort of rubbery texture. It heats up fast, and cleans up quick. Really, in a popper, what more could you want?

Not Dishwasher Safe, Overpriced, Good For Making Popcorn

While this popcorn maker does the trick, it's definitely not worth $53.99. To start with, while it's described as dishwasher safe, the instructions explicitly say that it's not. Additionally, the instructions don't include any information on popcorn ratios for this machine- I ended up using a recipe from another person's rating on Amazon. This would have been good information for the manufacturer to include.
As for making popcorn, this works well without any bells or whistles. There is a single on/off switch that allows you to control the cook time. It's very straightforward- add oil and popcorn, turn on, and turn off when it sounds like it's done.
The reason that I'm rating this as three stars is due to the price. This would be a four star popcorn maker for me at $25-35, but this is priced far too high to be as simple as it is, not dishwasher safe, and not have better instructions.
Overall, I will only recommend this popcorn maker if you can get it on sale. It works very well, just not $53.99 worth.

Good popcorn popper and I've owned many

We love popcorn here! We make popcorn at least twice a week. We've owned many poppers from, air, to microwave to mostly oil poppers.
This popper by Costway is very comparable to West Bend's Stir Crazy. It's comparable in price, capacity, and shape. The results are comparable as well, honestly, I cannot tell the difference in taste/texture of the popped corn.
Pictured is what Costway recommended in the included manual of 2 Tblspns oil with 130 g of popping corn and that was the result.
What West Bend has on Costway is a cord keeper on the bottom. Costway doesn't have one. West Bend stores away a little easier, stacks better. Also, this is slightly annoying to me, I cannot turn off the Costway popper without the popper sliding backwards. This forces me to have to use 2 hands to turn this off, 1 to hold the handle of popper in place while the other hand turns off the machine.
Hopefully this information helps with your purchasing decision.

Overall great oil popper.

Overall this is a great oil popper. It does what it’s supposed to do and is easy to use. It seems to pop throughly. The one complaint I have is about the little black lid you use to convert the plastic top into a popcorn bowl. It seems to be forever slightly warped out of shape after the first use. Now it doesn’t want to stay on. Besides that I think this is a good product.

Fun for the kids

This is a really fun popcorn popper. My kids and I love using it to make popcorn for movie nights. There was a slight learning curve as I had to find the right amount of oil to use, but now it's super easy and we love it! The instructions are clear and it's easy to use. Note that as the instructions say, the first two batches won't be great (they burned and smelled horrible). But after that it's been awesome. Our perfect ratio is 3 tablespoons of your oil of choice, some salt, and 1/2 cup of popcorn.

Great Product

This popcorn maker is wonderful. I opened a microwave popcorn that already has the butter and everything on it, poured it in the popcorn maker turned it on and leave it to pop. I had great popcorn, this is easy to use, easy to set up, easy to clean, the cover can also be used as a bowl, which makes it very accessible, and the inside is so easy to clean, just a clean wipe and your through and the cover can be washed.

Fun and popcorn tastes great.

Kids and cats loved watching this. It stinks horribly when you first turn it on and even the instructions say to throw out the first two batches because of the smell and taste. Perhaps because of manufacturing oils burring off? Either way expect to throw out first two batch and then the smell goes away. Overall pleased with this and the results taste very good as opposed to air popper. Cleaning is a bit of a pain but not too bad.

Works as advertised

I wish the bottom fit into the upside down cover for storage

My kids love popcorn!

My kids love popcorn and this the best machine to make it in! It’s easy to use and so easy to clean. Love it!

Highly recommend

Popped corn last night and it worked great. Maybe had 2 kernels unpopped, nothing burnt. Unit gets very hot and pops corn quickly. I am quite surprised and am pleased.

nice product

I was a bit hesitant to purchase this at first since I am unfamiliar with the brand name. However, this turned out to be a winner all around! It heated up super fast and popped really well. Make sure that you turn it off immediately when the popping slows down, not stopped. Otherwise it'll burn. Flip it upside down and it's ready to serve!