Factory-Reconditioned Cuisinart GR-4 Griddler

I bought the Griddler in February of 2005 and have taken care to ensure it lasts. The Griddler is heavy and sturdily constructed. It heats up quickly, and cleans up even faster. We have used it for panini, grilling meat, and toasting burger buns. The unit can be used either as a panini/grill press with the floating top or opened up to use as a griddle.

The base of the unit heats up and maintains temperature better than the top. This creates uneven toasting of the Panini or other items. It's not so much of a problem using as a griddle, since one side will simply cook faster than the other.

After a year the nonstick surface has started pealing off of the grill plates. I have never used metal on the nonstick surface and have taken great care to preserve the finish. Perhaps it is in the design or a fate of nonstick coated products in general, but the now I will have to take care not to get pieces of the nonstick surface in my food.

The Griddler comes with interchangeable dishwasher safe griddle and grill plates with a lock and release system that is intuitive to use. The plates easily release with the press of a button for cleaning. To place the plates back on the Griddler, one simply rests the plates in the groves located towards the rear or bottom and snaps the front or top into place. The plates don't consistently stay attached in the top section like they once did. It's very annoying trying to reposition a hot plate back into place.

On the surface, the Griddler has the looks and design to be a great product. Cuisinart has some bugs to work out to attain even heating and plates that last. If I were to buy a new panini press, I would not look to Cuisinart again. As a matter of fact, I now enjoy using a Breville 800GRXL Indoor Barbeque and Grill instead.

PROS:

Heavy and sturdily construction

Heats up and cleans quickly

CONS:

Non-stick surface does not last

Uneven heating

This is the fourth countertop grill I've purchasedwhich says something about the quality of most consumer grillsand I was hoping it woul;d be the best, given the price. It does look substantial, and it is in some waysbut not all.

On the plus side, the grill and griddle plates are indeed substantial. They take a while to heat upmuch longer than the grills I've had in the pastand they hold their heat well. You can put a piece of frozen meat on the grill and it won't cool down. That's a big plus when you're cooking preformed hamburgers, as many like to do. And the grill plates remove from the unit for cleaninga very big plus, in my book.

It's large enough to cook two large sandwiches, or four (or more) small burgers, at once. You can do enough chicken breasts or thighs for a family of four. High points there.

What troubles me are some of the details. The switches look substantial, but they're really quite flimsy, and I think a possible failure point. The power cord is really minimal, and you have to be carefull not to let it near the cook top, as it could melt and short in an instant. I think this is a rather serious flaw. And like most table-top griddles, the provision for collecting excess grease and water is nothing more than a pair of plastic cups.

As for the dual-purpose designyes, you can open the grill up and use it as a griddle, but why would you want to? It's much easier, and much less messy, to cook your pancakes and bacon on the kitchen range. This "feature" adds complexity without adding much functionality.

As mine is a reconditioned unit, these objections aren't as important as if I'd paid the full price, but they're still areas for concern. I'll just have to see how well it lasts.

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This is one of the best counter top grills I have ever had. Its very high quality and is built very well. There are only two bad things I can think of with this product. It does make a mess more so then the regular George Forman type grill. The lack of sides around the grill plates means that greese gets all over the area you are cooking. So clean up is much more frequent. The other problem is getting replacement grills. The teflon does wear out over time and i found getting replacments are almost 40.00. Its cheaper to buy another grill with 2 new sets of grilling surfaces. Other then these two itemsits a great unit.

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mediocre design heats unevenly, overcooks directly over heat coils while center area undercooks. Grease from top grill drips down on to counter when the top of the unit is lifted. Can do as well with a cheap foreman grill..

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I bought it thinking it would be an improvement over my older George Foreman since it had removable griddles for easy clean-up. Turns out cleaning the griddles is easier BUT the splatter from anything other than thin, flat sandwiches is a 30-minute clean-up with 409 [countertops, counter backsplash, under-cabinet, unit's exterior especially knobs]. And I'm talking about cooking with the cover DOWN! I would never try cooking any meats or vegetables with the lid open. And I'm surprised they couldn't engineer it so that the griddles would fit either side.

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