Breville BREBGR200XL Panini Grill, Silver

Hot, solid, reliable, easy to clean and to stow. Highly recommended.Pro:- High but tunable heat sears food quickly, perfectly, and invitingly.- Surfaces cook evenly, top and bottom. Neither cool spots nor cheap restraining clips as with the Griddler.- High quality nonstick surface. Far better than most on market, and makes a big difference in cooking.- Adjust height and hinge to fine-tune pressure on the food. I often heat frozen chicken wings with top angled for even pressure.- Move slider the other way to lock the halves together for storage.- Adjust angle to guide juices and cleaning liquids into capacious pan in front. Griddler uses tiny channels into small catcher and pan hidden beneath unit.- Easily cleaned: nylon brush with soapy followed by clear water while griddle cools. Empty and clean the drip pan and you're done.- High sides limit spills and splatters.- Plug has hole that invites you to unplug it, removing the highly unsafe temptation to yank the cord.- Simple engineering, solid construction, superior materials.Con:- Pricier, but soooo worth the extra money. Some great deals for refurbished models.- Older versions of this model lack on/off switch.- Single temp control for both surfaces, but I've yet to find a good reason to vary them.- Both surfaces are ridged, so pancakes will look a bit...unusual.Why not some other brand?- Though most Cuisinart products are excellent, their griddles are cheap, cheap, cheap, and don't cook very well. Removable surfaces sound good, but they heat poorly, unevenly, and the hardware holding them in place falls out within a few weeks of use. Dishwashers kill their already poor nonstick surfaces.- Besides all the other advantages I noted above, I was most interested in a unit that could get to higher temperature for cooking meats, and the data and reviews brought me to Breville. They were right; this is a great girdler!

I just ordered it but still have the original one with no on/off button and no temperature control. Sounds like the original was better. Since you have to plug it in to use it there is no big reason for an on/off switch. As for temperature control I doubt I will use that either since I have never had a problem without one. I own about four of these type grills and this is my favorite of all. I assume the temperature on the original unit is the same as high on this one and I never saw the need to lower the heat. The 2 nicest feature are the simple height control so you can cook a normal or fat bun sandwhich and the solid plates. The removable plate ones I have do not heat as evenly and if you take the plate off you can see why. The plates are thin and the electric coil only is under a very small area of the plate. If the plates were heavier and made of a good conductor they would distribute heat evenly. I assume the coils are built in to the heavy plates on this unit because it heats very evenly. Of the four panini style (some call them grills but how can it be a grill with a solid surface, a griddle maybe) cookers I have, this is the one I grab, even if I have to go to all the trouble of plugging it in for on and out for off. The new one will hopefully turn on and I will never use the switch again. The original has had five years of weekly use and been run over once but still works great.

I have been using it at my work for years and although I use it very often mine last about 1 year before I need to buy a new one. That’s only bc of how often I use it though. Must clean well to keep for awhile!

I bought this as a new product, as a gift to my wife. Upon opening it recently (my wife's grandmother died on Christmas Eve, so we were delayed in "celebrating" the holiday), we discovered the top was dented in several places. The item was in the original box, but the box had clearly been opened and the packaging removed. When I tried to return the item for a refund, the seller refused to accept the return and provide a refund. For $250, this is more than a small disappointment. Suffice it to say, we are sorely disgusted with this lack of service and seller integrity. I do not know if the item works. It was clearly not "new" and we hoped after seeing it to return the item without using it. Shame on Amazon for tolerating this shoddy practice.

OEM. Much bigger than the original version. JUST like what you would buy say Williams and Sonoma. I would recommend. GREAT press.

I am truly enjoying using this grill. The heat is evenly distributed to cook everything through quickly. The cleaning process is quick and easy, too. This is a good buy.

Paninis, grilled cheese, quesadillas

My family is delighted with this appliance. We use it almost every day - sometimes twice a day. Performs flawlessly and cleanup is a breeze. The downside is that we are consuming much more bread than we should...but it is so darn good!