Quick in cooking; long time in cleaning

I have used this for two years as it was the only one I could find that makes six waffles. The first year it made 6 perfect waffles (albeit, I agree with the previous reviewer that it does leak down the front and sometimes one side no matter how much batter you use) but as the years went on, the cleaning got much more laborious and the size of the waffles were irregular.This morning I noticed that the waffles were splitting apart and after the signal went off
and the top raised, the waffles were in half and I had to peel off the cooked waffle from the top. :-( I then noticed the red AND green light were on at the same time! The warranty was still good as it gives you 3 years from the manufacturer, but the weight of the machine alone will cost a small fortune to ship back to manufacturer plus the $20 you have to mail them to resend the repaired or new machine back. I think I will try and find a new 6 waffle iron with removable grates!