Perfect Waffles Every Time

This is my third VillaWare waffle maker and by far the best I've tried. The last one I owned was the Classic Waffler Four Square which did not cook the waffles evenly.

Before heating up the waffler for the day, be sure to brush or spray the grids with oil (this is not clear in the instructions.)If you skip this step, the waffle will split when you open the lid and you'll have a big mess to clean up. You don't need to grease it before each waffle, just before the first waffle of the day. Greasing before heating is also easier because the heat makes oils run fast and the grids on the top start to drip quickly. I ladle 3/4 cup of batter into the bottom grid, this works for my recipe but may be different for others. Each waffle measures 7.5" across, 1.25" thick and has four sections that are easily divided. Also, Alton Brown's "Good Eats" show featured this model as the waffler of choice.

The following is a list of pros and cons:

Pros-
I like how quickly the waffle maker heats up. I plug it in before starting the batter and it is ready well before I am, in fact next time I'll plug in about 4 minutes before I'm ready so the beeper doesn't keep going off. But what is really great is how quickly it recovers to ready mode after the first waffle. When I close the lid after the first waffle, the ready tone rings in less than 30 seconds, then it takes less than 2 minutes to cook the next waffle. This means I can crank out waffles quickly and a family of four can have warm waffles to eat together. The ready tone beeps and the light changes from red to green to let me know when each waffle is ready - a great benefit if I'm multitasking. There are 7 settings to control browning, I found #5 to work best for us, but we don't like them crisp. This waffler cooks very evenly, I don't even have to spread out the batter before closing the lid. It has nice deep pockets to prevent overflow during baking and then fill with your favorite flavoring. Clean up is quick and easy - once it's cool, just wipe down with a paper towel. It has a cord wrap too. I store it on end but I also wrap the cord around the whole unit in addition to using the cord wrap so that it doesn't flop open when standing on end. It can fit into a very small space when stored this way. Included is a small pamphlet with directions and recipes. I just use my old Betty Crocker recipe, my family loves it. This waffler has ridges on the top which gives it a cool retro look.

Cons-
My son said the ready beep sounds like a fire alarm. I think that's an exaggeration but it is too loud, especially first thing in the morning.