r/BuyItForLife • u/JavaGeep • 1d ago

Vintage Given to me over 40 years ago

Post image

And I used it again tonight. Good as new. I wish it had a longer cord.

1.0k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

80 comments sorted by

217

u/larryzzzzz 1d ago

I participated in the design of that hot air popper along with engineering while I was an Industrial Designer at National Presto Industries.

56

u/JavaGeep 1d ago

Cool! Still works well and always has.

20

u/Meister1888 1d ago

That made great fluffy popcorn and was a lot of fun to boot.

Did it take a lot of iterations to get it to pop optimally?

35

u/larryzzzzz 19h ago

1000 of hours of testing. We had our own UL test lab. Plenty of early prototypes would not eject the popped corn, load up and start on fire.

4

u/JavaGeep 13h ago

Yes, that can happen if it's overloaded with kernels. It restricts the airflow. I didn’t have a fire but the popped corn did get stuck.

19

u/Pacostaco123 20h ago

Poptimization, if you will.

13

u/FlattenInnerTube 22h ago

We still have one, too. Righteous device!

13

u/graffiksguru 1d ago

Wow, that is crazy, I love these style of poppers! 

11

u/Meister1888 16h ago

Beautiful design and excellent functionality.

Your team must have been elated when the popcorn popper was flying off the shelves. Great job.

2

u/KleinUnbottler 15h ago

That's awesome! Ours got knocked off of the counter and broke after 20+ years in service, so we had to buy a new one.

I like the small tweak to the current design: There are now tabs coming out the back of the spout and base that you can wrap the cord around. Storage is improved: not only does the cord wrap up more neatly, but it also firmly attaches the spout to the base.

59

u/ManicPixieDreamHag 1d ago

OMG we have the same one we took from my in laws basement and we still use it! I always joke it’s probably made of 100% BPA

41

u/NoNDA-SDC 1d ago

Best

Popcorn

Appliance

🍿😁

7

u/UptowNYC 1d ago

Incredible, now that's a quality appliance right there 💯

10

u/echocall2 1d ago

I say the same thing about my 45 year old thermos

28

u/Level-Historian6435 1d ago

If a short cord is the only complaint after 40-plus years, it has done pretty well. Funny how the simplest appliances are often the ones that refuse to die.

13

u/larryzzzzz 19h ago

The short cord is for safety so in operation it stays on the counter.

27

u/Kqtawes 1d ago

I bought a modern generic version of an air popper and it melted on its third pop. Just to give context to how good OP’s air popper really is.

6

u/virkendi 1d ago

Same, on the one I have the lid is all melted, I still use it though 😅

15

u/m3atbag17 1d ago

Bennedetto!

5

u/Kasajizo1 1d ago

Labor Dabor!

4

u/wirelesswizard64 1d ago

I hope OP collects their 5 bucks before it bites the dust.

11

u/MoonOverJupiter 10h ago

I grew up with one of those! I liked how it would melt your butter on the little dish, from the ambient hot air. Low tech, but not everyone had a microwave back then, so a clever inclusion.

I do remember that it had a rather short cord!

9

u/lilziggg 1d ago

I use one of these for roasting coffee beans, it works like a champ!

2

u/JavaGeep 1d ago

Interesting, I may try that.

7

u/Srnkanator 1d ago

Wow, childhood memories. My stepmom had this exact one and I loved the popcorn it made. I want to say around 1988.

7

u/SewerSocials 1d ago

Worst burn of my life.

But yes, amazing popcorn. Also lid inverts to melt butter.

5

u/JavaGeep 1d ago

Wow, ouch. I guess the "Plus" feature is the butter cup.

7

u/SewerSocials 1d ago

I did not respect steam. It was my fault.

6

u/nicbeans311 1d ago

We used to put butter in that top reservoir to melt it. Not sure if that was its official function. 

5

u/JavaGeep 23h ago

As I recall that is what the instructions said to do . Just don't drip butter into the popper.

4

u/Kestras 17h ago

Yes, it was meant to be used as a measuring cup for the amount of popcorn you put into the popper and then used to melt the butter.

6

u/CoNsPirAcY_BE 19h ago

I recently bought an air popper, but I find the taste very bland. What is the best way to add flavor to air-popped popcorn without it getting mushy?

10

u/sicurri 19h ago

You want to melt the butter before performing the popping. Depending on the air popper there may be a butter melting tray, dont rely on that.

Microwave or use the stove or even toaster oven to melt your better before air popping. You want your butter liquid, but not hot to the touch.

Once you've popped your popcorn you want a sufficiently rounded bowl for tossing the popcorn. If you've never tossed any food, its recommended to fill the tossing bowl halfway and try with that amount at first.

You'll want to slightly tilt the bowl while pouring the butter in at the side, making little initial contact with the popcorn. Then toss the popcorn for a minute. Check a random popcorn kernel to see if its sufficiently buttered. If not, more butter should be added.

After tossing is when you'll want to season. Salt is the classic seasoning. Flavacol a special Salt used by movie theaters to give it that specific taste. You can find it in some stores but its easily bought online.

Good luck.

5

u/jimk12345 19h ago

Flavacol. Or just butter and salt and toss it real good to avoid it sitting on any one piece.

1

u/erietech 17h ago

It's all in the seasoning, I like to put in melted butter with buffalo wing sauce and a sprinkle of salt.

1

u/xeroxchick 15h ago

Spray butter and parmazian or nutritional yeast.

1

u/Kryptesthai 14h ago

You don’t.

Cook it in a pot with oil instead.

-1

u/TXOgre09 15h ago

Don’t use an air popper. They’re from the ignorant days of 0 fat, 0 flavor cooking.

5

u/Khryen 1d ago

Last year, I found one of those new in the box from 1991 at a garage sale.

6

u/zcpibm3 17h ago

Makes the MOST driest popcorn. Did you melt the butter on the top cover?

2

u/JavaGeep 17h ago

Yeah, and never had luck. Spray butter seemed to be the best otherwise the kernels shrink into raisins.

1

u/Mayank_j 16h ago

I'm in the market for getting myself a Stir Crazy (or similar name) how's that?

4

u/my_clever-name 1d ago

I wore one of those out. Replaced it with another brand, it wore out too. I'm on my third.

4

u/Robotoid2 1d ago

Benedetto!

5

u/circus_orgy 1d ago

Bennedetto!!

4

u/Final_Significance72 15h ago

anyone else just use a deep pan with glass lid?

6

u/kbmoregirl 5h ago

I think my mom has the exact same popcorn popper, and it's been popping since the 80s!

3

u/Chickadee486 1d ago

I had this same one from my family home for awhile in my 20s, making it easily 30-5 years old, but it really started to scare us when the plug began to get hot to the touch during the short time it was on. If I was wiser I might have tried to repair it but when the plug became too hot to touch comfortably we stopped using it. Sad about it now!

3

u/Goge97 1d ago

I just used mine last week! It still works perfectly. Makes great popcorn.

2

u/Any_Total_971 1d ago

We had one of those for a while.

2

u/3fxz_ 1d ago

Didn’t know air poppers have been around for so long. Interesting.

2

u/HumbleAbbreviations 1d ago

I miss these style of air poppers.

2

u/quigley0 1d ago

What is a good modern equivalent? I'm still making jiffy pop on the stove over here

1

u/Bluetheron 16h ago

I bought the Presto Poplite in 2014. We use it at least every other weekend for movie night. They have updated the design and the price its at 4.4 stars with 55k reviews at a certain online retailer.

2

u/Weary_Tea1606 21h ago

forty years of use and it's still around? they really don't make everything like they used to.

2

u/MetaKnightsNightmare 21h ago

My grandmother still uses hers. Same model

2

u/Mammoth-Record-7786 20h ago

Had that same model on my counter in the 90s

2

u/SylniaTallune 19h ago

stuff made back then was just built to survive an apocalypse tbh. Meanwhile my modern can opener gave up on life after six months of opening black beans. You literally cannot kill the old stuff.

2

u/Web4bingAmpa 17h ago

Wow that’s look so good

2

u/gnesensteve 17h ago

I have one just like it and use it monthly!

2

u/_thebaroness 15h ago

I bought a new circa 1988 Westbend Poppery on eBay. Will definitely keep it until I die!

2

u/xeroxchick 15h ago

👋🏼 I have that too! My grandmother gifted it in the 1980s! Still works perfectly.

2

u/sofaking_scientific 13h ago

My parents still have this exact model. Works perfectly

2

u/thebigdu 13h ago

Holy crap this brings back memories! My parents had one when I was a kid!

2

u/elenorfighter 11h ago

Had the same but I must throw away mine.

It started to smell like it is burning.

2

u/JoshOfArc 10h ago

Nice to see I'm not alone, my popcorn pal:

https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyItForLife/s/SSy3VhIN2Q

2

u/JavaGeep 9h ago

Cool, cheers!

1

u/shaggydog97 17h ago

I can't unsee Joe Dirt in the bug tented house!

2

u/JavaGeep 17h ago

Hahaha had to look that up.

1

u/go2wolf 16h ago

Popeil ! 😂

1

u/BustaCon 16h ago

I have that same one. And I've had it about that long. I mean it's not that hard to understand, the thing is basically a heat gun, which is just a heating element and a strong fan so not much to fail.

1

u/__pde 12h ago

My parents used to have one of these (probably still do to be honest) and I still remember the noise it made. I was always agitating for microwave popcorn but in the end they were absolutely right.

1

u/FlukeHawkins 11h ago

I had one of these growing up, we replaced it when we noticed how hot the plug was getting 😬

1

u/Dependent-Pickle-634 10h ago

Do you melt butter in the lid?

1

u/But_why_tho456 3h ago

If you get sick of popcorn, you can roast coffee in it!!

1

u/OregonHotPocket 11h ago

I’m bout to have PTSD. My wife tossed (donated) mine because she thought it was old and wanted to get me a new one… well, guess what else is old and boy would I love a new one

-3

u/Early_Macaroon_2407 1d ago

Given the insanely high fire risk from these, statistically, a bunch of these are definitely BIFL.