Cuisinart WAF-100 4-Slice Belgian Waffle Maker

We love waffles and used a Black and Decker "American" waffle maker (smaller pockets than a Belgian waffle-maker) for years, but the plates got too hard to clean and the waffles started to stick. We decided to switch to a Belgian waffle maker and this is the model we decided on.

First the good. This waffle maker holds a lot of batter nearly two cups. In one batch, I can make a pretty filling waffle for each member of my family. No more arguing over who gets the first batch. It is also very well built and has a great non-stick coating on the irons. I also like the audible alert telling you when it's done and the fact that the cord wraps around the base and the unit can be stored vertically.

Now for the bad. I have yet to get this to make evenly cooked waffles. It always produces a waffle with a dark over-cooked circle on the bottom with the corners and entire top side completely under-cooked. I resorted to cooking it half way, opening it, flipping the half cooked waffle over and closing the lid again. This helped, but resulted in a few burned fingertips. I would be very hesitant to recommend this model.

Finally, a tip: If you've never tried a true Belgian waffle made with yeast, do yourself a favor, search for a yeast-based waffle recipe and make some. They're not much harder to make and you'll never go back to baking powder ones again!

I was skeptical about purchasing this waffle maker from other reviews online but I am glad I did. This is the best waffle maker!! I used a box of Krusteaz waffle mix and followed the directions on the box, set the waffle maker on 3, sprayed some PAM on the waffle maker, pour 1/2 cup of waffle batter in each slot and when it beeped I opened to find a big Belgian waffle slices cooked to perfection! There was no issue with spill overs, the color was a nice golden brown and it was fluffy, had a nice crisp but still soft, topped with fresh strawberries, syrup and whipped cream and we've got the best Belgian waffles right at home! It came right off the machine with no sticking or mess and the clean up was nothing as I only had to wipe it down with a paper towel after it cooled down. I absolutely love this waffle maker and would recommend to anyone. The unit did not get too hot to handle and the handle stayed nice and cool. It was so fun cooking up the waffles that before I knew it I went through a whole box! The great thing is you can make these ahead, freeze them and when you want a waffle just heat up in a toaster. No more frozen Eggo Waffles for me as I now have fresh homemade waffles right at my fingers anytime I feel like it. And the money I am saving because Eggo Waffles can get pretty expensive!

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I love this waffle iron! I have had no problems with run-overs when following the recipe. I do spray it with Pam the first waffle each time I use it. It is nice that it has the beeper to let you know when they are done. I found it accurate -we use it on 3 and it works great. Although it will store on end, it is much too tall for my cupboard. It locks closed for cooking and storage and opens easily. It takes too long to cook up a batch to feed my crew to use daily but we really broke it in over the holidays and had no problems or complaints. The recipes that come with it are great but are not "light & fluffy" recipes. I used it for my regular Belgian waffle recipe that comes out "light & fluffy" and it worked great with none of the usual spill overs. I highly recommend it!

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I hate this waffle iron. And, yes, I've tried several recipes in it. First, it's true that the waffles cook unevely. The bottoms brown nicely, but the tops are pale in places and nearly burnt in others, even if the batter spills out the sides. A setting of 3 is too pale, and 3.5 burns the edges. Second, it's almost impossible to fill the iron evenly. The batter may spill out in spots, while the waffles have "holes" in others. Third, the waffles are much too dense to classify as Belgian waffles. They also lack outer crispiness. They are simply thicker regular waffles. Belgian waffles should be light and airy, yet crisp on the outside. Fourth, these waffles don't have the loft (thick pockets) of a Belgian waffle. They are thicker than a regular waffle, but not nearly as thick as a Belgian waffle. I am sooo disappointed and wish I had kept the packaging and my receipt. I've only had it four months and can't justify buying a new one yet, but I will buy a new one before the year is out and donate this one. I can't wait to enjoy waffles again.

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11/8/10 My husband has been nostalgic about when his mother used to make him waffles as a boy. So after searching and reading reviews for days, I decided to buy him this waffle maker for his birthday. The options that I like (some options I like in theory....if they worked) that it can stand upright when being stored to take up less space, cool-touch handle, the ready light/audible beep, and the ability to make 4 waffles at once.

We used it twice and are sending it back for a replacement....I'm hoping this first one was defective and the next one we get will work fine. Even after reading the instruction booklet first, here're the problems we had:

The plates are supposed to be non-stick, but they aren't.

The ready light/audible beep was not accurate.

There was spill-over even when using the recommended amount of batter.

We made two batches, trying one with cooking spray and one without. We poured the recommended amount of batter in and it spilled over probably a third cup while it was baking. We put the browning gauge on level 3 (right in the middle) for starters, but it took about 8 minutes for the ready light/beep to signal (when the booklet says up to 6 minutes on level 5). When it signaled it was ready, we went to open the lid and we could not get it to open. It was shut solid. When we were finally able to get it open, the batter had hardened on both the top and bottom plates that it wasn't even edible, in fact we didn't have the ability to remove it from the plates because it stuck so badly. We spent 2 hours trying to remove the hardened, stuck batter. This was also made difficult because the plates aren't removable and you don't want to use anything but cloths or paper towels so to not damage it. Once it was cleaned out, we tried a second batch on level 2 and still got a similar result. Although we used less batter and did not have the overflow again, we still could not remove the hardened batter from the plates.

We'll try it again once we receive the replacement, and I'll update the review.

12/17/10 Update

Tried out the replacement and still very disappointed. Returned the item and we will not buy a Cuisinart waffle maker again.

To try to eliminate the sticking issue, we "seasoned" the griddle plates first. To season we very generously greased (with canola oil) every nook of the heating plates, let sit for 10 or so minutes, greased again, and then shut the lid and turned the maker on (level 1) until it heated up and beeped (acted as though it was cooking a waffle even though we were just seasoning). After the plates had cooled, we wiped out the browned oil, and re-greased with fresh oil. After the maker was heated and beeped when ready, we used less batter (made from scratch) than what the booklet suggested so to not get spill-over and set it on level 1. We did not have spill over or sticking. But the waffles were not fully cooked when the beep went off. We left them in a little longer to cook, but they were not cooking evenly and came out very soft. We tried a second batch on level 2 and got the same result. Level 3 made the waffles too brown, but still soft. This maker does not produce an evenly cooked waffle that is crisp on outside, chewy/soft on inside. Was a waste of time for us with way too much effort involved.