Factory-Reconditioned Ronco Inventions ST4000R Showtime Indoor Rotisserie and Barbecue

Many gadgets for the kitchen are less than essential. Some are pretty foolish. But the Showtime Indoor Rotisserie & BBQ from Ronco is a machine that our family uses, I would guess, about three times a week. Not only does it do a real job, it performs tasks that we can't otherwise accomplish in our kitchen. For example, a bread machine is a convenience, but not essential for baking a loaf of bread. The rotisserie grill, however, turns out food that I could not produce any other way.

Although we've mostly done chickens, we have also cooked chicken pieces, bratwurst, beef roasts, pork roasts and a leg of lamb. We successfuly roasted a 13 lb turkey. We even cooked frozen salmon filets in the basket after a quick basting with herbed mayonnaise and it came out delicious.

The food quality is, simply put, fantastic. The whole chickens are far superior to even the most conscientiously roasted poultry. The dark meat is tender and fully cooked, the white meat moist and savory, and the seasoned, crisped skin is a nutritionist's worst nightmare. A cheap, rather fatty pork shoulder roast came out with much of the fat rendered away and an even doneness that made for delicious eating.

Speaking of fat, Ron Popiel markets this machine on his informercials as causing the "fat to run off," thereby delivering some kind of health advantage. Well, the fat does drip continuously, but the poultry and meats cooked in the rotisserie are plenty greasy. Please be aware that this is certainly part of the reason the chicken is so good! I don't think there is any more or less fat in a rotisseried chicken than in a roast bird.

If you don't want to use the skewers or rods, you can cook foods in an adjustable basket. For example, we put in several bratwurst, set the top of basket down so that the links are tightly in place, set the timer for 20 minutes, and come back to sausages that are fully cooked, lighly crisped on the skin, and bursting with juices.

I really like the engineering on this machine. The controls are very simple. The setup is uncomplicated and intuitive. You have only one heat setting, and adjust the time to control doneness. A single timer dial works both to set time and turn the machine on and off. In an age where a TV remote comes with four dozen buttons, this kind of plain, understable usability is, I think, a real blessing.

I bought the reconditioned model from Amazon and haven't had any trouble so far. Hey, if a machine comes out of the factory with a defect (and some are going to), why not get one that has been diagnosed and repaired? At the price savings it's really hard to go wrong. I'd recommend the Showtime Rotisserie to anyone.

I have had my unit for over a year. It makes the best food even better, the problem is when something goes wrong as the company will never reply to their Emails. Mine first broke on Thanksgiving day. I Emailed them requesting information on replacement parts, No reply. 2 months ago the timer handle broke so I Emailed them again, 2 Emails 0 replies. If you buy the item you will enjoy it until it breaks.

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Well, I wanted this Ronco rotisserie that day I saw it on TV... But I never buy anything from HSN or any other shopping channels. I was watching birds rotating on the screen, drooling over those ribs... I didn't buy it because I felt it is too much money for something I can't see or touch. Then, I saw this same rotisserie on Amazon.com. What a deal! I bought reconditioned model and it came in perfect condition and I love it! Food comes out perfect every time. So far I made 6-pound chicken,

chicken and pork kebobs, salmon fillets, shrimp screwers. You cannot beat this price for such great product. Thanks Ron! I hope you will fix your Customer Service department like you reconditionned my rotisserie.

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Purchased the Ronco unit from Amazon after a couple late night informercials 'primed the pump'. Absolutely no problems with my reconditioned machine arrived as advertised in perfect condition.

I've had the machine for six months now & still use it frequently. My favorites? Pork loin roast & roast chicken. My local Costco sells a pre-marinated pork loin that rotisseries perfectly. Sliced thick, my now-famous roast pork has been the favourite of many events this summer.

Chicken: No marinade is needed; simply salt & pepper (or season with your favourite rub), skewer on the rotisserie wheel, set and forget. Chicken is cooked to perfection, tender & truly falls off the bone.

Finally, I'd suggest trying the following:

Halve and boil red potatoes cooking until tender. Drain and place potatoes in the wire basket. Brush with butter & sprinkle with salt and pepper (I add a little cayenne and minced garlic to the butter to 'kick it up a notch'). Rotisserie until browned & serve hot. Scrumptious.

I sincerely hope you find as much enjoyment from your machine as I have.

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Although the food cooked in this rotisserie (I bought one new but wanted to share my experiences with you) is flavorful and succulent, anyone who purchases a product should be prepared for extremely poor and occasionally rude customer. Be prepared on multiple occasions to be put on hold for a long time and then hung up on before you even hear the sound of a live human voice. After this kind of treatment and waiting more than a month for a response to my letter, I attempted to get a customer service representative to refer me to a supervisor. Her response was she would not refer me to a supervisor because all the supervisors were gone for the evening and besides they would give me the same response as she would. (Perhaps but I doubt that he or she would have screamed at a customer who had not raised his or her voice or had made every effort to be polite.)

As for the promotional nonsense about being able to "set it and forget it" as another reviewer mentioned, that could be a dangerous practice: I had a small grease fire in the rotisserie and had thankfully read all the disclaimers which come with the machine warning that one should not leave the machine unattended while on. I had a different rotisserie (which cooked 2.5 time slower and rotated vertically) which did not require such close monitoring because of the configuration of the cooking elements.

The only other criticism I have is that it is not quite as easy to find the proper placement for poultry on the spitrods as you might expect. You really have to make certain the spitrods go through the center of chicken and turkey.

In short: a very good product but a very unreliable company.