Diablo Stovetop Toasted Sandwich Maker - Perfect for Grilled Cheese, Paninis & Quick Snacks at Home, Camping or Office

We love love our Diablo stovetop toasted sandwich. We have literally used it at least once a day since we’ve had it! Amazing!I've only been using this a week or so, but on a daily basis. I love the size and surface coating. This sandwich press is not perfect, however. The hinge doesn't flip to 180 degrees without separating, and that complicates inserting the sandwich. Not a deal breaker. I'd also caution that the insulated handle is limited and younger cooks may grasp a hot surface, so this really is best used by adult cooks.We also have an old-timey sandwich press of a similar design and the diablo is preferrable due to the nonstick surface.Easy to use and clean, makes a fantastic grilled cheese!?????Grew up with these as a kid in South Africa, called it a waffle iron.Works great, just wish the hinge was farther out allowing a larger angle when closing, have to tuck the bread in on the hinged side to make sure it crimps it properly.Have touched the hot iron a few times, the handle could have been designed better.Already had to tighten the screws on the handled, but otherwise we love it, gets uses a few time a week.Makes a nice change from a normal "flat" toasted sandwich. Only thing which I have had a few times is that the handle (metal bits) are hot of course. The metal runs halfway down the handle where it meets the silicon piece, this seems to be the area where one (me) holds it to open it and check if the sandwich is done or not.I ordered this item after remembering the delicious little round grilled cheese sandwiches from childhood that were made by a similar looking device. I always loved the way it sealed the edges of the bread, turning an ordinary cheese sandwich into a mini grilled cheese "pie". All golden and crusty on the outside, gooey, warm and melty on the inside. Amazing when served with a cup of tomato soup! The day it arrived I opened the box, took a look at it and noticed that it seemed a little ...flimsy. Especially where the two halves of the sandwich maker hinged together. I remembered the only one-star review of this item on Amazon that warned, "It is constructed with two poorly designed cotter pins that fall out... making the product useless" and how I ignored this review and ordered it anyway. Now it was here and I was ready to use it for the very first time! I sprayed a little Pam on the inside, made a sandwich (nothing fancy first time out of the gate: a slice of cheddar cheese between two slices of lightly buttered sourdough bread) I placed it in the center of the device, closed the two halves together. trimmed the excess bread away and immediately noticed that somehow one of the "poorly designed cotter pins" had already popped out. I managed to find it and I screwed it back in. I turned on the stove top and held the sandwich maker a few inches above the heat, turning it over every now and then to make sure it was toasted evenly. After about 3 or 4 minutes I decided to open the device slightly to see if it was done and thats when the two halves completely separated, dropping the piping hot sandwich and one half of the device onto the stovetop with a loud crash and the other half of the sandwich maker crashing to the floor. I looked briefly for the 2 tiny little screws that had quietly popped out during the heating process but couldn't find them. I promptly threw what remained of this dangerous cheap-o device into the trash. "What about the sandwich?" you may ask? "OMG! It was soooo freakin' good!"The NY Times dining section recently featured an article on the popular Toastite maker from the '50's. For me, it immediately conjured memories of amazing childhood sandwich lunches that my grandmother would make...I hadn't had one of those sandwiches for 40 years, but I could still taste it like it was yesterday. The article described a new version of the Toastite and I excitedly checked it out. I was on the verge of buying it when I saw this product also on Amazon. What I like about the Diablo compared to the new Toastite is two-fold: price and clean up. (1) The Toastite is approximately $40 (no free shipping) vs $15 for the Diablo (free shipping) (2)The Diablo is dishwasher safe, the Toastite is not. I think the fact that the Toastite is not dishwasher safe is a major design flaw. It's really convenient to just pop it in the dishwasher when done. I've been making 3-4 sandwiches a day and the only problem I've had is the hinge came off during a wash in the dishwasher. So, I went to the hardware store and purchased a cheap 1" clamp to keep it locked while cooking. It's worked great! Another option would be a strong rubber band. Either way, you'll find this makes addicting sandwiches and is well worth the price.Ugh. we were so excited to get this... We tried the french toast recipe, and the insides bubbled out all over our stove. Aak! By then we had the whole recipe set up and a hungry family needing brunch... so we kept on going. Main problems: the pockets are rather small, so if you have, say, a family of four, and you have to cook it over the flame for 4 minutes total each, you can do the math... 2 minutes to prep the diablo; 4 minutes to cook each pocket, times 2 per person, times 4 people... By the time you are done, you have either a bunch of pockets getting cold, or you have to add in extra time to throw it all in the oven to stay warm... Very hard to not get burned because the plastic section is quite low on the handle, and the top portion gets SUPER hot... Maker forgot to place an indentation so the wire clasp at bottom has a place to "lock" onto... this means the handle is forever opening when you don't want it to... Online video claims you can "re-use" all the scraps you have to cut off your bread or pita pieces, but we cannot find any tips on what to do with them. We tried placing pieces into the open diablo, and that simply allows the filling to run out into the diablo and burn... The maker needs to offer a much better website/instructions... Maker has disabled his website's comment section, I presume because there were too many complaints.Absolutely fantastic little product, making sweet and savoury snacks in a few minutes on an induction oven. Easy as pie to clean, extremely robust, and easy to store.If you're concerned about wastage, I recommend buying Milk Roll bread, as the round shape is the exact size to fit the Diablo, and the brioche crust is amazing toasted.If you've not had one of these you're crazy:Get big square bread, put the last night's dinner filling in, Close the handles shut, remove excess bread and hold over the small gas hob on full power for 2:30 each side! Then boom you get presented with a parcel of sheer devilish joy that cannot be replicated. Screw Gregg's they haven't got nothing on what you can accomplish with a Diablo baby!!! WoooooOK, so first of all, let's get the good part out the way:Yes, it does make a sealed griddled sandwich and it's easy to open and close as, being non stick, the bread doesn't stick to the sides.I haven't tried pastry, so can't comment if that might stick.SO far so good.Now the not so great:First of all, the handles are far too short. The griddle bit, you put over the fames, obviously and they are coated in black teflon, I assume. Made of aluminiumThe handle bits are made of plastic and are coloured maroon. On the end, there is a cli so you can make sure the two halves don't come apart whilst you're cooking...,Problem No. 1: the handles themselves are far too short and, as I found out to my cost, it is far too easy to get a finger on the metal, thus OUCH!!!! You can work out what that means, I'm sure.Problem No. 2: The end clip, which is meant to stop the griddle from opening doesn't really work, as it just slips off by just looking at it almost. Once you hold the griddle, given the shortness of the handle, it is practically impossible not to slip the clip off as your palm is over it and the smallest movement does it.Problem 3: not a major issue, but the paddles are very shallow, which means you can't really get much filling inside it. Also, the diameter could have been a bit bigger. There is a lot of bread wastage using a standard size UK precut slice.Problem 4: this is more of an observation. On the video, they show nice toasty browned bread . This will not produce nice browned toasty bread. It will produce white looking dry toast. If you want browned off, you need to cover the outside of each slice with butter. Which sort of makes the stick free irrelevant in a way. They don't tell you this on the video.Problem 5. The Griddle part really can only be used on the smallest ring of your cooker as it isn't very wide either, so any bread caught in edges will burn straight away, thus filling your kitchen with burning smoke.Overall, it's OK, but my Australian 1950s Griddle iron if far superior in every respect and suffers from none of the above other missing a non stick coat.No chance of using this on a BBQ. Handles far too short.Overall, this is a useful little griddle iron, but it really is not well designed and it will be relegated to those times I can't be bothered to butter the bread. Or I might use it to experiment with pre buttered crumpets. It might work.So I first picked one of these up in 2010 on a camping trip to the Western Isles. The wife is a vegetarian and camp food for her is just that wee bit more unpleasant than it is for someone that eats burgers, steak, sausage, etc. To this day, it's one of about 4 gadgets I've bought that she actually rates. The things I've cooked, oh Lord, mozzarella and chorizo, cheddar and pepperami, chicken and... stuff (I can't remember), even apple pies.I've badgered a lot of people into buying these and nobody is ever disappointed. Here's some pics from over the years.Happy days...I purchased the Diablo in 2014, to use for campfire pizzas/sandwiches/heating up appetisers.It was not fit for that purpose.Every use, the handles got too hot. Food cooked okay, but the Diablo was a big disappointment.Whereas my old-style grill sandwich maker (like this: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08259GKQQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ) worked perfectly.Then, last night, the Diablo gave up the ghost - neither the diablo nor handles were in the fire, but obviously were close enough for cooking, and the handles just melted right off. See picture.We've been disappointed in the Diablo since we first used it in 2014, but I never felt the need to make that public knowledge. Now, I feel that it is important for buyers to beware.