If you love having movie nights at home, you probably love snacking on popcorn too. Popcorn can be a healthy snack that you make yourself, whether you’re looking for something savoury or sweet. It’s a great choice for movie snacking, or when you simply want to satisfy a hunger craving.
Making your own popcorn is much more fun than buying it from the store. Of course you can buy preprepared bags but these are relatively expensive and you won’t be able to control all the food chemicals added to your popcorn. A microwave popcorn popper and a jar of kernels makes much more financial and dietary sense long term.
Not all popcorn poppers are created equal. Some of them will burn your popcorn, leave many unpopped kernels, and create low-quality popcorn in general. If you want to take a stand and make a better quality popcorn, this post is for you. Let’s take a look at some of the best microwave popcorn poppers for 2022:
1. Chef Rimer Microwave Popcorn Popper – Compact, durable and pops with the best of them
The size of the Chef Rimer popcorn popper is 12.3 x 8.2 x 2.9 inches. It weighs a light 9.4 ounces. This makes it large enough for you to make popcorn for your whole family, although still very easy to use and store. The silicone material is extremely durable and easy to clean. It offers even heat distribution, so one of the best things about this popper is that you will find hardly any unpopped kernels.
Although this is a large popper, it also allows you to fold it up for easy storage as the design is collapsable. This is a useful product feature and therefore won’t clutter your kitchen.
For the price point, this is a great quality popcorn popper to go for. One of the only issues some have found with the popper is that it can burn popcorn easily if the time setting is not set correctly. Depending on your microwave and the size of the kernels you use, a quarter cup should create a full bowl of popcorn. Usually, 2 minutes of heating should suffice but you can always reduce and add further cooking time if need be. Testing will avoid the burning that some reviewers on Amazon have mentioned. Then you can create popcorn to your preference depending on your microwave power rating.
When you buy this model, you also get a ‘How to Use Guide’ emailed to you, as well as a recipe book. You can also pop rice with this model, but a slightly different technique should be used, as outlined in the recipe book.
Pros:
- Consistently makes tasty, crunchy popcorn
- A light product
- Large enough to make popcorn for everyone
- Durable material that will last a long time
- Leaves hardly any unpopped kernels
- Great price point
- Foldable for easy storage
- BPA and PVC free
- Handles for ease of use and to avoid burnt hands, no tea towel needed to take out of the microwave
- 100% lifetime guarantee
- Very highly rated by most users
- The least expensive of all models on test
Cons:
- Can burn popcorn – experimenting with the cooking time will prevent this
- Guide and E-book are emailed to you, rather than sent with the package
- Bowl usually gets quite hot after cooking, so you’ll need to be careful and use the handles
Summary
This reasonably priced popcorn popper could be a great starter popper for anybody. As it’s a durable material, easy to use, and creates great tasting popcorn, you can’t go wrong. It might not look very expensive, but it does the job. It is the easiest popper to use.
2. Ecolution Kitchen Extras Glass Microwave Popcorn Maker – The best looking popcorn popper on test
This model is 7.7 x 7.7 x 7.2 inches, weighing 28.8 ounces. This popper uses temperature safe glass, allowing for tasty popcorn and a sleek design. It looks great on the side in the kitchen with the eye catching red logo which looks quite retro.
With this model you don’t need oil or butter for your popcorn to pop, but you do have the option of adding it into the recess within the lid. It’s dishwasher safe and it’s compact size will fit 99% of home microwaves.
Pros:
- Temperature safe glass means no accidents
- Dishwasher safe for easy cleaning
- Fits most home microwaves
- Packaging made from 70% recycled materials
- Sharing with friends and family is very simple
- Looks great in your kitchen
- Easily measure out the perfect amount of popcorn kernels using the silicone lid
- The lid has holes in allowing you to drip butter into the glass vessel
Cons:
- The heaviest of these 3 poppers
- Can leave lots of unpopped kernels. May even scorch popcorn if you don’t get the settings just right
- May take practice to get the technique right depending on your microwave
- The glass is quite thin and can result in breakages
- The most expensive of the poppers
Summary
You get the best results from this glass microwave popper when you avoid using oil and butter on the popcorn and simply air pop it. This makes for a better quality and healthier snack. It’s also easier on the glass. You can add any flavors you like later on.
Some users have also said that when placing your popper in the microwave to keep it on the outer edge, as this produces the best result. Prhaps the microwaves are less concentrated there.
Preheating the popper rather than using it from cold can also help to make the best popcorn and avoid glass breakages. Although this popper can be tricky to get the hang of, when used correctly, it can create delicious movie theatre style popcorn. So if you want to buy from a company that cares about the environment, and have a great looking popper to boot, this option could be the right one for you.
Checkout the video below of the Ecolution popcorn popper in action.
3. Cestari Kitchen Microwave Popcorn Popper – For even the smallest of microwaves
The size of the Cestari Kitchen model is 5.2 x 5.2 x 6 the smallest on review. It weighs 11.2 ounces, making it very small and fairly light, it can happily be accomodated by even the smallest of microwaves.
You can produce a lot of popcorn in this small machine, making it easy to use. You also get a lifetime warranty so you can feel confident buying this product.
The design looks pretty good too, although not as nice as the glass popcorn popper design from Ecolution. That being said, preparing popcorn is unbelievably fast. This is the fastest option of all the popcorn poppers.
Pros:
- The smallest popper of the bunch
- Lifetime warranty
- Nice design
- Makes making popcorn a breeze
- 100% food grade silicone
- BPA free
- Dishwasher safe and easy clean design
- The fastest of all microwave popcorn poppers
Cons:
- The popcorn can easily burn in this popper
- Does not come with a recipe book, although using flavoring is recommended
- Could be too small for some people’s preferences
- Some people find it difficult to use depending on their microwave model
- Can get very hot after being in the microwave – must be careful not to burn yourself
Summary
With this model, it’s super easy to add seasonings and flavor to your popcorn. All you do is close the lid after adding your favorites and shake it up. It’s so simple to make air popped, healthy corn. You only need about 2 tablespoons of corn to make a serving.
Unfortunately this popper gets so hot after use, you will need to find a way to avoid burning your hands perhaps with oven gloves or a tea towel.
It’s perhaps not the safest or easiest to use of all of the poppers. However, if you don’t want to have to wait around for your popcorn and want something nice and compact, this popper is a good choice.
Which is The Best Popcorn Popper For 2022?
If producing the best quality popcorn is your main objective then it’s easy to find the winner of the 3 microwave popcorn poppers. The Chef Rimer Microwave popcorn popper has the most pros and the least cons out of them all.
Not only is it the cheapest, but it’s also the easiest to use and creates high quality popcorn. Although large, you can clean it and store it away easily with it’s collapsable design. The extra recipe book makes it an awesome purchase too! It doesn’t look very flashy, but you really get your money’s worth with this one.
The Chef Rimer is also available in blue.
The other two poppers could potentially suit your needs, but you may need to practice with them first to get your popcorn just right. The Ecolution Glass Popcorn Popper is the most beautiful on test and looks great on display in your kitchen. This would make an excellent under $20 birthday or Christmas gift that produces great popcorn. The lid which can be used for measuring kernels and dripping butter is a particular highlite.
The Cestari Kitchen Microwave Popper will also sell in high numbers thanks to it’s compact size and ability to cook popcorn in a jiffy. There are however some doubts over it’s safety as it tend to get very hot when in use.
In general, it’s important to weigh up the pros and cons of each model yourself. This will allow you to choose the best popcorn popper for your lifestyle and your microwave.
