5 stars

This was a gift from my husband and he purchased it on line. I first watched some people on YouTube making candy with this machine, so I had a general idea of what to do. I knew it wasn't industrial strength but figured for [the price], what the hey...we've spent that more on one meal at a restarant! It is a joy to use and, since I'm a sugar freak, I use it every morning before work...at only 23 calories a spoonful of sugar, why the heck not! I'm cheap, so I tried using regular granulated white sugar, like what you use in coffee, and that works just as good as the sample of "pink stuff" it comes with, if not better. I put some "grippers" under the wheels to keep it from "walking away" and that works tremendously, otherwise it will vibrate off your table/countertop. Helpful trick--really let it get good and hot by turning on for about 10 minutes before you're ready to add sugar...it's hard to wait, but so worth it! :)

5 stars

After reading the other reviews, I let the machine warm up for 8-9 minutes. Then I turned it off, waited for the spinner to come to a FULL stop and then added the sugar. Do this and you won't get sugar all over. If you don't have fine enough sugar it can cause problems. While you can get good results if you use really fine table sugar, you get the best results with the real stuff. Enter "cotton candy sugar" into your internet search engine and shop around for the lowest price.

5 stars

My husband got me this for my birthday the other day. I LOVE cotton candy, and have always wanted one of these little machines. It's really hard nowadays to find cotton candy at carnivals, and when you do, it isn't the same as what they had when I was a kid.
We tried it out yesterday, and we were thrilled with it! It makes cotton candy just like the kind I got as a kid!
For those of you who stated that anyone giving this a good review must be on drugs, I'd like to say that you just probably don't know how to follow directions.
You have to warm it up first, then turn it off, add the sugar, then turn it back on. The first cone takes a while to make, but after that, it goes faster. We didn't have any mess, or any sugar flying all over the place like some reviews said. My only complaint is that I wish it would make more at once, but you can't expect this little machine to work like the big machines they have at carnivals. Either way, it DOES make really good cotton candy, and I am so glad my husband got this for me! He couldn't have picked a better gift!

5 stars

I too bought this with little expectations in mind and was surprised how well it worked. Purchased a year ago for my eight year old and a year later he continues to make everyone cotton candy all by himself. Comes with a small bag of the "floss sugar" but you can get a 3 pound box of it [elsewhere for cheap]. Great item!

5 stars

We just bought this today and it is wonderful! After a quick cleaning out of the box, we were eating cotton candy within 15 minutes! Just follow the directions and it will work fine.

5 stars

If you are looking for something that is going to work like the full size cotton candy machines you see at the fairs, then this is not for you. Keep in mind that those machines cost several hundreds of dollars. With that in mind, as for the [...] mini version, it is a great buy. My kids loved it. I couldn't make it quick enough. As soon as I was done with one, the other wanted a refill. :) Remember these two little rules, and you too will get a nice little treat for the whole family.... 1.Don't forget to heat up the machine for 5 minutes, turn off the machine, pour in the sugar and then turn it back on (if not you will sling sugar EVERY WHERE!!!). 2. When you see the "cotton" starting to form, just kinda move the cone around the top of the machine while rolling it. It forms a nice little treat for the kids as well as the kid in you! :)

4 stars

this works pretty neat...read the instructions when you use it. It works the best on the second or third cone when the machine is really hot. Best to warm it up first like it says at least 5 minutes first, stop, then put in any sugar. Only one scoop when you do it. Machine will remove any sugar over the one scoop in the holder due to the force of the spin so you will waste it.
only down side is that it takes 10 minutes or so per each cone...that is a long time with hungry kids:)

1 stars

Quality control for this product must be non existent. Reading the other reviews gave me some reasonable hope that this thing would work. I'm an engineer, and I can get just about anything to work. However, this thing - the one I got - simply would not produce the results advertised. I spent over an hour trying to get something out of this thing, and finally came to the realization that this thing is an overated piece of trash. What really made me uncomfortable is the way it tries to walk off the table with insane vibrations. Holding this thing down with a death grip brings your face close enough to the wheel to get spattered in the eyes with tiny molten chunks of sugar crystals. Luckily, I didn't smash this thing to pieces, so I will get a complete refund. However, this episode has me thinking about returning to anger management therapy. Please do not buy this thing. No no no no no no nooooo!!!!.

4 stars

I purchased this model at a local Target store in the kitchen appliance department for [a low price] after reading all the reviews. Target may be clearing their stock out, but I'm not sure. I figure that I can return the product more easily if it doesn't work.

This machine is not a toy and is capable of producing a full size cone that you see on the outside of the box that the machine comes in. But, I did go through some trials and errors before I got there. I hope my experiences below will help you get that big fluffy cone all of us cotton candy lovers dream about.

Here's my experience with my cotton candy machine...

[...]

I read that another reviewer had to make the crevice/opening wider himself to get a lot of floss to come out. After examining the way the sugar pan was welded togther, I decided against doing what he did. Instead, I went back to Target to exchange the machine for another one...especially seeing that reviewers either got a good machine or a bad one. The possibility of the heating element not being hot enough also existed...although I doubt that was the case because the sugar pan was really hot.

I did everything exactly the same with my second machine. More sugar came flying out this time at the beginning prior to collecting the floss due to the larger opening for the floss to come out, but I got a ton of floss from the larger opening. So, I was very happy. I was able to create a head of floss 6 inches wide on a cone with two scoops of sugar. After my third scoop of sugar was completely processed, the head of floss came out to be about 10 inches wide on my cone. It took about 30 minutes to burn through three scoops of sugar. I was grinning from ear to ear.

The second machines still did the following, but I'm still grinning from the nice head of cotton candy I just ate to really care...

1) Machine likes to jump off my kitchen counter (solution: write to Nostalgia that the rubber feets fall off while the machine moves across the counter and the wheels don't grip to anything. In the meantime, put rubber shelf liner/mat underneath the wheels and legs)

2) Sugar pan likes to spit out sugar, which is normal if you don't have a heat resistant clear plastic lid (solution: write to Nostalgia about making a lid or suggesting in the instruction manual the use of maybe using clear ovenware as a lid before collecting floss and after collecting floss. You might also want to check the size of your sugar granules. If the granules are too small, more granules will shoot out.)

3) Some machines have small crevice/openings where the floss comes out, resulting in almost no floss output (solution: write to Nostalgia about putting in adjustable screws to widen or narrow the crevice so users can adjust for floss output. In the meantime, return low floss output machines for another machine and hope the next machine is better. Keep in mind that the more wider the opening for more floss to come out, the more sugar get's spit out from the crevice/opening before floss collection).

9/30/08 Update: Per instruction manual, I tried adding a small pinch of Kool Aid into the scoop of sugar and mixed it well before adding the dry mixture to the sugar pan. The floss that came out tasted much better.

I would only add a pinch of Kool Aid to the sugar granules though. Due to the Kool Aid granules being smaller than the table sugar granules, I had a ton of flying granules into the air as a result (even more so than with my second Nostalgia machine)...again before the sugar was in the floss producing stage. You get less stuff flying in the air if the granules are larger in size.

Again, flying sugar can be avoided by using a inverted oven/heat resistant tupperware and holding it over the plastic bowl in the beginning of the process (not sure how safe this is though. As soon as I see threads of floss coming out, I pull the lid away so that a large dome of floss can form to enable floss collection.

I found it to be critical that I wait for a dome of floss to form before collecting from side to side and horizontally over the heating element. Otherwise, you end up with dense and flat floss (i.e. not a fluffy cone).