You guys are making me want a popcorn machine really bad. We make popcorn at least twice a week, but I've been doing it on the stovetop all this time.

I see a bunch of places selling the Paragon Cineplex 4oz for $300. Is that about right?

Can you also recommend a place to get supplies and what to get? I like the idea of pre-portioned bags.

They have some Great Northern 8oz starter kits for less than $200 on amazon, and it says it has a warmer tray too. Is Great Northern decent?

http://www.amazon.com/Great-Northern-Popcorn-Black-Foundation/dp/B002YOVGR6

Thanks everyone. Especially for the links.

I'll be taking vid's approach to cleaning it.

Nice!

I'm waiting to order mine until November when I have some of the last renovations to the game room done.

Keep posting your experience with it, including your "recipes" if you don't mind. I see you got popcorn bags. I cant decide between bags or boxes. Thoughts?

Is that a vote for the cardboard boxes?

Just ordered a great northern 8oz machine. Can't wait!

I think Great Northern and Paragon should donate some money to Pinside for all the sales this thread generated, lol.

It's here and set up. Just waiting on the kids to get home from school for the first batch.

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I took your earlier advice about not cleaning it and I think I'm enjoying mine much more because of it. I just take a paper towel and wipe anything visibly caked outside of the kettle and wipe the glass down.

Not a pain to keep clean at all.

Yes, you can just make 4 ounces with it.

On their FAQ page: http://www.greatnorthernpopcorn.com/t-faqs.aspx

"If I have any 8 ounce kettle, do I have to make 8 ounces?

Absolutely not! One of the reasons the Great Northern Popcorn Company designed their model with an 8 ounce kettle is so 1 machine could meet the demands of a concession business and still work for the home theater. We speak from experience when we tell you that an 8 ounce kettle is a must have. Please check our ebay store for our complete line of popcorn portion packs. We stock 3 sizes for all your popcorn needs."

Microwave popcorn bags are typically around 3 ounces.

BTW, I couldn't be happier with our Great Northern machine. I also got the 8oz, and we love it. We are popping 8oz at a time right now. We do always have some left over that I toss the next day, but it's not really that expensive to begin with.

The cleaning is as hard as you make it. If you are obsessive about the kettle being perfectly clean every time, don't buy one. If you are cool with wiping it down with a paper towel, and cleaning the glass every so often, it's awesome.

That's the exact one I got, you'll enjoy the hell out of it!

Maybe I'm the nasty one here, but I took Vid's advice to heart. I literally run a dry paper towel around the outside of the kettle and just inside, every couple of days of use.

Go with the great Northern, you won't be disappointed. I also ordered directly from great northern. At the time, the unit with the cart was cheaper through great northern directly.

If amazon has a better price on the same item, go with amazon.

You won't be disappointed. I had the same concerns as you, that the Great Northern machine would be lower quality, but I honestly think it's great quality. It's a popcorn machine, not a sherman tank.

I think the longevity of them has more to do with how you take care of them. Mine still looks brand new, and we've done over 100 batches of popcorn already. We do at least 2-3 a week, and did 4-5 a day during the holidays when we had family in town.

I use the great northern brand ones, it comes with everything including the Flavacol.

http://www.amazon.com/Great-Northern-Popcorn-Portion-Counts/dp/B000PDY3HI/ref=sr_1_4

You can't really compare it to what you are used to as far as unpopped kernels (old maids). I was surprised by it too. You get what seems like a ton of them. I got in the habit of tossing the popped corn around with the scoop to help the old maids fall in the drawer.

The way I do it is to turn the kettle and stirrer on, squeeze in the oil, wait a few minutes then pour in the kernels and salt.

kingfishtr, you should ask your boss if we can get some special Pinside, direct from the factory, pricing on popcorn supplies.

I'm betting you'd get some orders.

Thanks for making the effort to look up the dealer closest to me, I really appreciate it when someone takes an extra step.

I'll switch my supplies to Gold Medal next time I stock up.

My door is a little low as well, so I was going to print little plastic washers to lift the door up a little to stop the hole, but it looks then it wouldn't hold the little silver angle thing up either.

I was going to take a closer look at it at some point.

I'll grab a pic of mine before I modify it, it's hung so low the door barely touches the magnet that holds it closed. I just want to make it a little smaller of a gap and get the door handle thingy aligned with the magnet better.

Just made a fresh batch for some afternoon conference calls.

I cringe when I think about cleaning a cotton candy machine. How bad are they?

I sound like a weirdo with the cleaning comments, lol, but what's involved in cleaning the hot dog roller? My wife saw it over my shoulder and thinks it's cool.

Thanks for the info, that doesn't sound too bad. The popcorn machine doesn't bother me to clean, so I guess we will pick up a hot dog roller in the future.

I 3D printed a little doohickey that sits on top of the little aluminum collar on the stirrer rod on top of the kettle and turns around while it turns. It has just enough of an arm to push the lids back down if they get stuck up.

I'll post some pics this weekend. I'd be willing to print them for the people with great northern machines, it clips right on.

That's not true. The heated deck ones actually have a heating element under the deck.

EDIT: gweem beat me to it.

I won't use those flavorings because vid and others said not to.

PM me your addresses and I'll drop some in the mail.

I've been printing them in PLA and it's been fine. I haven't noticed anything major. The PLA I've been using does extrude around 205 C, so I am still worried about it being effected by the heat. It would have to get over 450 F above the kettle to really do anything scary like make the part mushy.

I was going to send these guys an ABS one as well just in case.

If you want the files, just drop me a PM with your email and I'll send them over. You can play with it and see if you want to make any tweaks.

Got all the little popcorn widget thingies mailed out.

Two in each package, the red one is printed in PLA which has a lower working temperature and the white one is ABS that is more flexible and has a higher working temperature.

Both should work fine for the application, but I figured why not print both. To put them on, I just put it up against the metal shaft and wiggle it back and forth like wrenching it around the shaft, it pops on no problem.

Got a couple of reports that the little widgets are working well, but I'm not too keen on taking money from pinsiders for something as simple as this.

I've got a couple of options for anyone who wants one:

#1 - If you have access to a 3D printer, I've uploaded the model to Thingiverse. You can download it and print your own. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:831659

#2 - If you want to order it from Shapeways, I've uploaded it there as well. There is no upcharge on the price, you are paying their cost, I make no profit. Shapeways will hit you for about $10 for one of them. http://shpws.me/HLwQ

#3 - Because I can print them cheaper than Shapeways, I'm also willing to offer to do 2 of the little popcorn widgets, you can pick the color from what I have available, shipped anywhere in the US for $10. I'll donate $5 from every order to Give Kids the World in Orlando, FL. I'll post proof of the donations. You can learn more about them at http://www.gktw.org/about/

If anyone wants to take me up on option 3, just PM me and we'll get it taken care of.

I ordered this exact one, at this exact link direct from Great Northern.

I'm very happy with it, and I know my popcorn widget thing fits it.

Mine will stay fresh as long as I keep the light/heater on, even for a day or two. As soon as I turn the light off though, in about 2 hours it's stale.

Here in Charleston the humidity is high, even though it's in an air conditioned room, so things tend to go stale really quickly.

FWIW, I never do the pre-kernel.

I just let it warm up for 5 minutes or so then pour the kernels/salt mix in. You should expect there to be more un-popped kernels than you are used to seeing with microwave or stovetop popcorn. I was surprised at how many there are.

I do a "popcorn toss" right after I dump the bucket. I use the scoop and push the pop corn around and toss it up a little to push the old maids into the holes.

Based on someone's earlier advice in this thread, I also do the popping like an hour before we want to eat it if I can. I agree with them that it gets better sitting on the warming tray for an hour.

What do you mean stale?

Like you bought already popped popcorn and it was stale, or all of your kernels turn out gross and stale?

Can you overheat the oil? What happens if you leave it heating for 20 minutes?

Not asking for any particular reason other than curiosity. I've wondered what would happen if I turned on the kettle with oil in it and forgot for 30 minutes. Never done it to test because I didn't want to risk ruining my kettle. I assumed it was like a fryer, it would get to temp and stay at it with no damage, but I'm too chicken to test.

So is it safe to say that if the thermostat is operating normally, you could let your kettle warm for 10-15 minutes before you pop and you could be sure it was heated enough? (With oil in of course)

I always do, but as stated, I was just curious. Haven't you ever been curious?

Ah.

I only use the kits. They come out great.

I emailed Great Northern to suggest that they perforate the packaging between the oil pack and the salt/corn side. Then you could tear it off and use a toothpaste tube squeezer or something to do it.

Never heard back.

Wow, that's a great price.

What's the shelf life on these packs? Trying to gauge how much I should stock up.

We like to shake on kernel seasonings powder sometimes, in our individual buckets.

The white cheddar is my favorite.

You are gonna love it.

We did three 8oz packages on the 4th of July, the popcorn was a huge hit.

I've never done a 2oz in my 8oz, but I've done the 4oz packs in it just fine.

Whoa! That's like 4 billion dollars at a movie theater.

I checked and I also have a small amount of rust on the screws and gear. I'll treat them this weekend and try to take pics/notes.

If nobody does it before I get to it on Saturday night then I will for sure.

Mine has had no reaction on the top or the hanging brackets for the kettle. My rust is just on the screw hardware they used and the e-clip they used I believe.

It's definitely aggravating that they effed up something as easy as the right type of fasteners. I'm gonna have to make time Saturday to go to Fastenal and pick up the appropriate stuff. I've also got to pack up the project that's on my workbench so I can have somewhere to do the repairs to the popcorn machine. *grrrrrrr*

It's not harmful in the amounts we would eat.

I just don't want to have screws I can't remove in another 6 months.

Like others are saying, I don't know why you would be sad. This thread has been pretty cool.

We are adults that made the choice to buy the cheaper model, and now we get to do some repairs. It's frustrating, but not the end of the world.

I'm still going to make popcorn this afternoon before I remove the rust, it's really nothing that would hurt you. Like I mentioned above, I just don't want to have screws that can't be removed in 6-12 months because the heads rusted out.

Glad it's working for you. I just did a batch myself!

The only negative side-effect of my little popcorn widget is that you have to shut off the stirrer at the right spots if you want the lid to actually stay up while you pour in the corn.

This. It bumps it back down if they get stuck open, a common thing on these great northern poppers.

That's sad to hear. best thoughts for his family.

I just made a batch. Haven't fixed the rust yet.