My Opinion... The Hamilton Beach 26031 I bought from Amazon last week had a major flaw that I could NOT live with. The waffles it made weren't ever truly brown and crispy. I set the knob to the darkest setting and the waffles still only came out medium blonde. I like my waffles to be darker. The reviews contradicted the physical evidence I was seeing in my finished waffles and I couldn't figure out why the iron wouldn't brown. This was a common complaint with Amazon reviewers. I finally realized what was wrong. Hamilton Beach under engineered this waffler and there simply isn't enough power (800 watts) to get the job done. You'd think that 800 watts of power would be adequate, but it isn't. Important Research... In my research I learned that there is an indirect relationship between the color of the finished waffle and the time it takes to get there. The review I read stated that if the browning is inadequate then leaving the waffle in the machine longer won't produce any better result. This was totally counter intuitive because leaving the waffle in the machine longer should solve the problem, right? Wrong. If you leave the waffle in the maker for an extended cooking time to get the level of desired browning then the interior of the waffle will have dried out. So, I did my own little experiment and left an undercooked waffle in the iron for double the cooking time. Believe it or not, it didn't make any difference. The waffle still came out undercooked (blonde) on the outside, but now the interior was crumbly. That's when I realized just how important it is to have a higher wattage (raw max power) machine and the higher the better. So, I returned the waffle maker, got refunded and then bought the Cuisinart WAF-F30, which has produced perfect Belgian waffles baked to exactly to my specifications; crispy brown exterior with a perfectly cooked fluffy interior. The wattage on my new iron is 1,000 watts, which is 25% more than the Hamilton Beach. Apparently that's enough of an increase to make browned waffles versus blonde. My history with waffle makers... You should know that before there was a Cuisinart (1971) and before China became the world's manufacturing hub it is today there were only a few small appliance makers worthy of note. One is Kitchenaid which used to be synonymous with Sears at the time and the other was Hamilton Beach. My mother's first stand mixer, waffle iron, blender, toaster and milkshake maker were all Hamilton Beach and they were a very high quality compared to what's being made today. I'm talking about countertop appliances that represented a different era when things were made mostly of metal and not plastic. I'm talking about an era when these kinds of appliances were overbuilt and lasted generations and not just a few months before failing and going into the landfill. Sorry, but times change and it's now much more difficult to find high quality small appliances without paying an arm and a leg. Had the Hamilton Beach Belgian waffle maker produced a well cooked waffle I could have overlooked the cheap construction materials used in its manufacture. Nothing about the returned waffle maker spoke to acceptable quality, however. All I can believe is the higher ratings on Amazon and elsewhere were all just fabricated and fictionalized reviews meant solely to sell more irons for Hamilton Beach. This is why sponsored recipients/reviewers came into being as manufacturers are more than happy to give free products in exchange for positive and, unfortunately, untrustworthy reviews. Most every manufacturer has its own version of the program, so it's become more important than ever to seek out truly independent reviews and not those bought and paid for by manufacturers. You just have to look a little harder to find them. Cuisinart the Leader... As a service to all those who are shopping for the "best" waffle iron for the money let me just say that Cuisinart seems to be the leader in this area if you're wanting to buy a flip model. They'd get even more kudos from me if they had removable plates, but alas. Cuisinart has its own detractors, but they are mostly uninformed and complain about features that are non-critical to the finished waffle and therefore less important. This model WAF-F30 had a 5 star review 84% of the time on Amazon, which is outstanding and exceptional. My Goal... My goal from the beginning was to find a waffle maker that could handle baking Liege waffles, which are made from dough and not batter. Because Liege waffles use Belgian pearl sugar there is a tendency in regular, non-rotating wafflers for the pearls to settle towards the bottom of the lower waffle plate and the waffle being scorched due to the sugare being burned. Being able to rotate the plates cures the problem. That's the ONLY reason I selected a rotating waffler. Otherwise, I'd have bought either a Breville or an All Clad, which don't flip and are a known super high quality. I've got a standard waffle maker from All Clad and it's been perfect for over 15 years. I wanted to find that level of quality in a rotating model, but it doesn't really exist in consumer grade waffle irons. Actually, that's not entirely true. Croquade from Belgium... There is a waffle iron made in Belgium from Croquade that makes a $240 waffler, which is a very long way from what I paid for my new Cuisinart WAF-F3. Truth is if Amazon sold the Croquade waffle maker I'd have probably bought it just for the added confidence and convenience of Amazon's Prime return and refund policies. The only source I could find selling the Croquade was directly from Croquade themselves. The problem I had with them was they won't accept a return if it's been used even once. The reviews I've read about the Croquade waffle iron have not been glowing, however. They've complained about reliability, which made things even more confusing. Waffles are a really big deal to Belgians and Croquade has been producing them since the 1950's and claim to having sold over a million units. They think of waffles as a traditional staple in their diet and eat them in varieties Americans have never known. But, with all that said, I must add that I believe the Croquade is the best flip waffle maker in the world. I know the reviews don't reflect my opinion, but it's my belief, nonetheless. All the other removable plate, flippable irons are junk compared to the Croquade. If you want variety in your waffle life then you'll be happy to know Croquade offers another 6 or 8 swappable plates to produce waffle confections that go way beyond normal American waffles. I might still buy the Croquade, but will wait until I have a more specific need for it like making waffle cones or galettes or Croque Monsieur, etc. I had to lookup what the last two were all about, but I'd wager most Belgians off the street would already know because waffles are a lifestyle to them. The waffles produced by my Cuisinart F30 are, in fact, PERFECT and while I do like the additional features of the Croquade it's just not worth the extra money right now. Price is important, but not required... With discounts and a coupon I got the Cuisinart for right at $52, including tax, from Kohles.com. Amazon's price is just over $70. When or if the need ever arises I'll consider the Croquade in the future, but right now I'm just tickled to get perfectly cooked Belgian waffles on the cheap.
