A huge number of kitchen toys either don't work or are a pain to use. You use them once and then that hide in the cupboard until the buyers guilt has faded and you give them away or sell them at the boot fair! This waffle machine however is not in that category - in fact it is brilliant. I feel the need to balance the negative reviews so here is my personal experience.
I received mine at Christmas 2011 and it has been used each week since. For a non essential electrical kitchen device this is rare. Only the toaster and coffee machine get more use than this. I pretty much use mine on auto pilot these days but I do remember breaking it out of the box on Christmas day and getting started.
Opening the box reveals a silver and black device that is about a foot long and 8 inches in height and about the same again in width. It is simple to use, open the lid, spray some spray olive oil on, close the lid and switch it on. While it is warming up make the batter. The spray oil is not only very low calorie but works wonderfully. The pan is non stick but a tiny mist of oil makes it really non stick.
The instruction book has about a dozen recipes for batter but essentially any batter made with self raising flour rather than plain flour will work. I use the basic batter mix without butter and halve the quantities to make a 1 egg batter. This is good for two rounds (8 waffles) plus an extra one from the remainder. There are recipes for all sorts of sweet waffles and if you go online you will find plenty of US and Belgian waffle recipes.
When the light goes out on the top the toaster is warm enough. Pour in the mixture with the included batter jug and close the lid. Turn the waffle maker over and then wait. Steam filters out the back and the light may stay on or go out. This is where you need to use common sense. For a minute or two the light will go on and off as the mixture heats up. About 4 minutes after the mixture goes in the light will come back on and it is all done. If it doesn't come on it is no trouble to spin the waffle iron over and take a look. I do that anyway because - well I am cooking and I want to check progress. Sometimes I leave it to cook a bit longer, sometimes not. The amount of oil, mixture and if this is the first round all make a difference.
What flops out though are perfect inch deep waffles. Proper American style waffles, not the floppy Toaster things but fluffy crispy gorgeous waffles. Add a bit of Maple syrup and off you go.
My young kids love them and I know what goes into them so I am happy too. A plain mixture with no sugar or salt is slightly less than 100 calories per quarter.
I can only attribute the bad reviews to either user error or the manufacturer has fixed some of the issues in earlier made models. The handle on mine is rock solid and it works great. If it breaks I will update the review but 10 weeks in it is fab!