Now, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to use this grill in a small room (ie. dorm) unless you don't mind your place smelling like a busy kitchen for a few hours.

The Extra Large Contact Grill is only large compared to the smaller foreman grills. It really will only hold about two steaks, 3 burgers (2 if they're big), 3 chicken breasts, and about 2 lrg pork chops. If you have a big family, I suggest you go up one model to the even bigger grill.

I really don't like washing cleaning. This grill is improved from the previous model, because the heat panels come off, and are dishwasher safe.

In conclusion: Great grill for smaller families. Awesome grill for college folks in an apt/house. Not so good for dormatories. Easy to clean.

47 of 47 found the following review helpful:

Sorry George  Oct 23, 2004
By Charles D. Lumpkin
The Hamilton Beach Meal Maker Grill is the perfect indoor grill. Its timer feature insures the food is cooked the proper time and then shuts off. The best feature is the detachable grill plates, which makes cleaning quick and easy. We often cook on our grill for lunch, clean it and cook on it for dinner. The George Foreman grill of our past were hard to clean and those in our price range did not have timers, automatic shut offs, or detachable grill plates. This grill is the right price with the right features to make indoor grilling a pleasure. Sorry George, Hamilton Beach stole your punch. Five stars because it is 100% of what we were looking for in a counter top grill.

66 of 70 found the following review helpful:

Watch out for model numbers  Feb 07, 2003
By Telstar
This looks like the GE product that [a local store] carried a couple of years ago. In fact, Hamilton Beach made that unit. However...watch out, this is about 30% smaller. The picture is deceiving. It is quite a bit smaller than the Foreman Jumbo or Family size grill. Only one T-bone can fit on this grill at a time...or two chicken pieces.

The non-stick surface on my previous grill started flaking after two years of light use. I do like the removable grills, however.

You will need to turn the food once, since like all indoor grills, the bottom is hotter than the top plate.

Addendum:

I went to a Foreman jumbo. This grill just does not get hot enough to really work well. The Foreman is hotter and produces superior product.

28 of 28 found the following review helpful:

Prefer it to the George Foreman  Dec 07, 2004
By Pete Vere
When our George Foreman mini-grill got too small for our expanding family, my wife and I purchased this product because it was bigger and much less expensive (and it was on sale, which even further reduced the price).

We've now had it for almost a year and it is still holding up well. During this time we've noticed no difference in quality between it and the George Foreman. The fod comes out just the same -- nicely grilled and much of the fat drained. Speaking of which, we also found the drip tray for fat much more convenient on this Hamilton Beach grill. So I would save yourself the money and pick this up instead of a George Foreman.

37 of 39 found the following review helpful:

Excellent design but....  Jul 12, 2003

I ordered this to replace our third George Foreman grill. The first three Foreman grills all suffered from the same defects: they are very difficult to clean thoroughly, and the non-stick coating wears off quite quickly. The Hamilton Beach model is much, much easier to clean, and therefore I hope that the non-stick coating will last longer, especially since I do not plan to put the grill plates in a dishwasher. However, the Hamilton Beach grill has been in use for only two weeks, and already the automatic shut-off has failed. This might seem a minor issue, but on the day of its failure (yesterday), the user walked off assuming that the grill would shut itself off after he had removed his food. I came home several hours later to find the grill still on--and very, very hot. Today we tested the grill again, and again it failed to shut itself off. The timer no longer dings, either, which means the absent-minded user is no longer reminded that he has put food on the grill and that it has been on the grill long enough. One of the major features for which I purchased this grill--the automatic shut-off feature--has failed in a very short period, then. The second major feature, the removable grill plates, is less likely to fail, and I therefore will keep this grill for the time being. But I do hope the almost immediate failure of the automatic shut-off does not foretell a short life-span for this applicance.

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