A while ago I bought a popcorn popper similar to one we had when I was a kid. It’s a rather simple appliance, and I have many fond memories of making a mess by trying to use a bowl that was too small and putting way too much butter on it. I still like popcorn, and the stuff from a popper is leaps & bounds more awesome than the microwavable kind (but not as cool as the little foil pan that puffs up when you hold it over an oven burner).
- Presto® PopLite® hot air corn popper
I have a popcorn popper that looks a lot like the one in the photo, I think it’s a Presto® PopLite® hot air corn popper.
The one we had when I was a kid was a little fancier… it had a cup that you filled with a trap door where the butter cup here is… and a butter tray made of metal about the size of a stick of butter in front of that. The one pictured here is like the one currently at home, and it sure doesn’t melt butter… even if you leave it long after all the popcorn has popped. Did anyone test this at the factory before they boxed & shipped it? No one that works there has ever tried to use this thing?
One similar feature to the one I remember form my childhood is a distinct lack of a power switch. Don’t believe me? Check out the video from their site:
One of the first things you learn as a child after the word “no”, not sticking things up your nose, and not eating stuff you find on the floor is to not stick your fingers (or anything else) into an electrical outlet. Everything else comes with a warning label. directly on the electrical cord.. like your hair dryer, a toaster, or even a lamp. This thing just plugs right into the outlet with a crazy little spark and a jarring whir of sound.
Perhaps one has to be a chef to operate the thing? Maybe the guy in the video is just in a costume, I don’t know. Maybe he’s an electrician. Do they have professional popcorn chefs? Was he trained to properly plug a live cord into a receptacle? I like how they don’t show you that part.
I can’t think of anything else that’s on as soon as you plug it in. You can buy a rocker switch rather cheaply. Are they that hard to install? Are they that much more expensive? Should I write to Presto and ask them why they let his dangerous chaos continue? I just might.
What kind of popcorn popper do you have (if you have one)? I’ve never tried one that uses oil… or on of the ones that looks like a tiny cart. Do you have a tricky death-tempting popcorn popper at home, or any other appliance that dares you to dance with 110v?
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World (and Lunar) Domination 
Heh. The following submitted to: http://www.gopresto.com/information/feedback.php
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Things are made so cheaply these days. Blasphemy. Our old popper was da shizzle growing up! (So was everything else made during or prior to the 90s)
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Ha ha, from my vantage point this is funny… I’d say things were made better in the 80’s, but we had the pocorn popper o’ death back then too!
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Pingback: Love Letter to Popcorn « Arza Winters
TOASTMASTER has manufactured a popcorn popper that is very dangerous also. Something has to be done about these types of popcorn poppers as they are very dangerous. My fire alarm went off and I burnt my hand as the popcorn flies every where out the sides and top.
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Yes! Our whole lives, we’re taught to fear/respect the electrical outlet, and this just pees in the proverbial face of that logic.
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