George Foreman 14181 Four Portion Family Grill and Melt, Silver and 12207 Cleaning Sponge, Pack of 2, Blue

I am not overly impressed. It cooks/burns food easily. It cooks too quickly and does not even give a cheese toastie time to melt the cheese properly before the outside of bread is burning. And of course, as it has the grill-lines, the bread is not evenly toasted. Nothing like as good as my ancient Breville which is smooth and makes fab toasties but has lost all non-stick. Bacon did not look appetising and my son complained that the bits between the burned stripes were not very nice. I cooked a fillet of chicken breast and surprisingly it did cook the inside - just - as the outside started burning. I have heard that you can cook from frozen but how on earth when it burns thawed food? I would not chance with meat or fish from frozen. I cooked a veggie burger from frozen and the inside was just warmed but not hot, and the outside was starting to burn. It tasted burned and underdone at the same time! A one-centimetre thick piece of fresh tuna cooked very nicely. The Melt bit is the saving grace of this thing and is the reason I bought it. To get a good cheese toastie you have to melt the cheese with the Melt facility and then pop the toast on top otherwise the cheese is not fully melted. It did just manage to cook a pizza well.Cleaning/nonstick is ok, not fantastic. At first rubbed very hard with kitchen paper for quite some time and even use my nail behind the paper to get it cleanish and then washed with soapy sponge. It came up clean then. I then bought some toasting/grilling bags, cut them open to get flat sheets and use them above and below the food. They are very easy to wash and saves all that scrubbing of the Foreman plates.Size: it is not big. I would not call this a family size grill. The useable space measures 272mm wide and 160mm deep. The back corners are rounded so minus a bit there. Two slices of bread with (unusable) space around them - Three slices NO. How is that 'family'?One of the clips to hold the thing closed when not in use stopped clipping in properly within a day and broke off within a few weeks.I really wish now I had not bought this grill. I should have gone for something else and with smooth plates

I bought this grill to replace a dead toaster in hope it would be more versatile, and I was not disappointed; it functions perfectly as a grill and as a toaster. It is wide enough to take two sandwiches or slices of toast side-by-side.Easy to work out of the box; wipe grill plates with damp cloth.Plug in, turn on - lamp on lid illuminates, then goes out when grill is at correct temperature.Put in sandwich (or other food item), close lid, lift and peek at intervals until it looks done (2.5 minutes for my thick tomato and mozarella toasty), remove with spatula (plates are HOT!).Instructions say you should spray or brush oil on the plates before heating them. However, I found that if you oil the top plate it drips down and messes up the back of the grill and the counter. USER TIP: don't oil plates, brush top and bottom of food item with oil instead.After use, wipe plates clean with dry kitchen towel(preferably while grill still hot). Close clip on each side,stand item on its base to store (lid facing forward looks best).NB. Cable length is only 75cm, but you should be using it close to the socket anyway.

After years of sceptisism about these grills I finally bought the 14181 form Amazon. I was of the opinion that this would bebome like several other kitchen gadgets purchased in the past - initially used for the novelty value then it would gradually find its way to the back of a kitchen cabinet and be forgotten about.I'm pleased to say how wrong I was ! We use this grill almost on a daily basis, be it for sausages, bacon, totmatoes in the morning or burgers, steak or fish at night. The grill heats up extremely quickly, it comes with 2 spatulas and 2 drip trays. Once used and cooled down it's easily cleaned with a damp sponge. The food does actually taste better as not only all the surplus oils and fat drained away from meat products but by utilising the top plate sears and seals the flavors - try it on a salmon steak and you'll see what I mean. I found it best to experiment with different cuts of meat as you can sometimes achieve better results by using the unit as a griddle and turning things over with the provided spatula - this avoids the top plate burning the top of the meat.Since buying I've hardly used my old built in grill as the George Foreman is quicker, cleaner and much easier to use - plus the results are genuinely better. All I can say now is buy one and try one - you'll be pleased that you did !

I purchased this grill for my son who recently moved into student accommodation as he loves toasted sandwiches, grilled panini and grilled chicken which is so easy to do in this grill. He is very happy with it and uses it on an almost daily basis. The only reason we're giving it 4 stars instead of 5 is because, unlike the larger one we have here at home which has removable hot plates, making cleaning them so easy, this one doesn't. Also there is no timer button to select with an acoustic alarm when the grilling time expires which is a really useful feature. All in all though, a very useful piece of equipment and cooks chicken in no time at all (but thoroughly) and is also great for grilling vegetables and vegetable/chicken quesadillas. Much healthier than frying and more cost-effective than oven cooking. Very well made and good quality.