If this review provides the info you need before buying, please consider marking it "Helpful", as that's very helpful for reviewers! I've wanted one of these for YEARS, because I basically eat a breakfast sandwich every day, previously from Tim Horton's, but now I make my own. I have some issues with this unit as it stands, but there are good things to say as well. I'll start with the good stuff: - does what it says on the box, makes breakfast sandwiches, and does it pretty well. - your bagel/English muffin/bun/whatever comes out nice and crispy and delicious. - if you use it right, there is practically no mess. - easy to use, with clear, well written instructions. - it's "easy" to clean, but it could be easier in my opinion. - the non-stick coating works very well. - small footprint, doesn't take up a lot of counter space. - relatively inexpensive, and if used often will pay for itself quickly. - feels well made of quality materials. I bet it would last a long time. Now the stuff I don't like so much: - your bagels better be small. English muffins are fine, but only quite small bagels fit, and even then I had to sort of "squish" them in there, though they lose moisture when cooking and shrink to fit pretty well. This does not happen with regular bagels like the four cheese Dempster's bagels I often use, they simply don't fit. - Better crack your egg directly into the egg tray. If you do as I do, and whisk them with some salt and pepper before cooking, some of it will run out of the tray no matter whether you make sure it's fully closed or not. I'm not sure why this is, but it is the case. I do not add water or milk to my egg either, I can only assume it has something to do with changing the consistency of the egg by whisking. - it takes like 5 minutes to heat up, and if you want to make a second sandwich, well, gotta wait for it to heat up again (though not the full 5 minutes) - they say in the manual that you should be waiting 5 minutes for the egg to cook. 5 minutes is not enough. I ended up with undercooked egg every time unless I left it longer than that. - to clean the unit, you pull out the trays by lifting the lid and taking them out. Now, this is fine. What I find kind of annoying is that they are all attached to each other, and that just makes it cumbersome to clean. I would be much happier with individual trays that you re-stack back in the unit, but I'm sure this is the way it is to make it as idiot proof as possible, and honestly it's kind of hard to argue with that. - only the one swivel "bottom" of the egg tray has a coating to stop you burning yourself. Seriously? You have to use a towel or oven mitt to open the unit and retrieve your sandwich? I simply don't understand this design choice. There are plenty of heat resistant materials that could be used for this purpose. Bottom line - I can literally make an equally as good breakfast sandwich, CONSIDERABLY faster, with the exact same ingredients using my toaster for the bagel and a single 10" frying pan for my sausage patty and egg in a silicone egg round. Not only that, but washing a single pan is a lot faster than trying to wash the awkward contraption that is the interconnected stack of cooking trays from this sandwich maker. I wanted one of these forever, and wanted so badly to like it, I had a real struggle telling myself to return it, but I have to. I won't be using it when doing it the old fashioned way gives the same or better results, more easily and quickly. This is a gadget that unfortunately does not make cooking easier.
