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Ronco Jr. vs. George Foreman Rotisserie

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Mark Thorson

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Jun 18, 2003, 12:03:29 AM6/18/03
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I just bought a George Foreman rotisserie. Since I already
own a Ronco Jr. rotisserie, I thought I'd share my observations.

Both machines cost the same -- $99.95 plus tax at a discount
store.

Physically, they are both about the same size. The Ronco Jr.
has a door that swings out, so it requires extra space in front
of the unit. The George Foreman is shaped like a horizontal
cylinder, with a curved door that slides up like a roll-top desk,
so it doesn't require extra space for the door.

I've had the Ronco Jr. for about 8 months, using it about
3 times a week on average, and it's performed very well.
It seems to be very solidly constructed. The George Foreman
seems more lightly constructed, but I've only had it two days,
so I don't know how durable it is.

The George Foreman is a nicer-looking unit. The Ronco Jr.
is very functional-looking, like it was designed by an
engineer.

The Ronco Jr. rotates at about 8 RPM, as compared to the
George Foreman at 4 RPM. The Ronco Jr. always rotates
in the same direction, while the George Foreman seems to
randomly pick a direction of rotation. You can unplug and
plug the unit to get the direction of rotation you want, which
doesn't matter for most purposes but does matter for mine.
(More about this later.)

Both units come with a flat basket. The Ronco Jr. basket
is about 8 x 8 x 1.5 inches. The George Foreman basket
is about 7 x 8 x 2 inches. Because I mainly do chicken
drumsticks in the Ronco Jr, and they fit well within 1.5 inches,
the Ronco Jr. is better in this regard. I usually have more
trouble fitting the chicken within the plane of the basket
rather than its thickness.

VERY IMPORTANT -- the Ronco Jr. has a non-stick
coating on the basket, spit rods, and drip pan cover.
The George Foreman doesn't have a non-stick coating
on any surfaces. Although the George Foreman has a
drip pan, it does not have a cover for the drip pan.

VERY IMPORTANT -- the George Foreman also comes
with a cylindrical basket for baking vegetables and french
fries. This is why I bought the George Foreman -- I thought
it could be used to roast nuts. It does this VERY WELL.
In about 15 minutes, it will roast a pound of almonds,
pecans, or hazelnuts very evenly. I am very pleased with
the machine for this reason. Unless it breaks down in the
near future, I consider it an excellent purchase just for this
purpose. I had been looking for a nut roaster, and all the
alternatives seemed to be much more expensive.

I was considering the Alpenro$t coffee bean roaster, but
its high price (minimum, $259, not including shipping) and
low capacity (max. 8 ounces) made it seem a poor choice
for my purpose. I think the George Foreman probably
could be used to roast coffee beans, but I'm not going to
try it because I don't want to deposit volatile oils from the
coffee beans in my machine.

All in all, I would say if you want to roast meat, the Ronco Jr.
is a better buy because of the non-stick coating and solid
construction. I'm pleased to own both units, because I plan
to roast a lot of nuts, and for the latter purpose only the
George Foreman will do.

Note that there is also a Baby George rotisserie which I saw
at $59.95. That is a much smaller unit, and does not appear
to come with a cylindrical basket.

Rick & Cyndi

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Jun 18, 2003, 12:46:47 AM6/18/03
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"Mark Thorson" <nos...@sonic.net> wrote in message
news:3EEFE536...@sonic.net...
: I just bought a George Foreman rotisserie. Since I already
:
:
: ===============

Cool review Mark! I've seen a lot of posts about how pleased everyone
seems with their rotisseries.

Are you going to try to roast beans in the Ronco? Since you stated
virtually everything's non-stick it should make cleaning the oils
easy... I haven't made the plunge for a rotisserie yet and am
currently weighing the factors. IIRC, you can also roast beans in an
air popcorn popper.

Thanks again for posting your experiences with both...

Cyndi


Mark Thorson

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Jun 18, 2003, 1:19:00 AM6/18/03
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Rick & Cyndi wrote:

> Are you going to try to roast beans in the Ronco? Since you stated
> virtually everything's non-stick it should make cleaning the oils
> easy... I haven't made the plunge for a rotisserie yet and am
> currently weighing the factors. IIRC, you can also roast beans in an
> air popcorn popper.

I can't. There is no cylindrical basket available for the Ronco.
Therefore, I can't use it to roast nuts or coffee beans.

Yes, you can roast small quantities of beans in a hot air popper.
See this web page (and the rest of their highly informative site):

http://www.sweetmarias.com/airpopmethod.html

I forgot to mention that the Ronco has both a no-heat rotation
mode and a heat-only, no-rotation mode. The George Foreman
only has heat+rotation. I have no use for heat without rotation,
but I use rotation without heat all the time, to allow my chicken
or ribs to cool down and rest after cooking.

Also, for what it's worth, the Ronco is made in Korea, and the
George Foreman is made in China.

The George Foreman has a heat reflector behind the heating
element which can be removed for cleaning. The Ronco
doesn't have anything behind the heating element, except
the back wall of the cooking chamber. In either case,
if you're cooking meat, it's probably hopeless to try to keep
the machine clean. I look at the Ronco commercials and
laugh -- they're using brand new, unseasoned machines,
totally unrealistic.

Although some Ronco machines come with kebab skewers,
my $99.95 (retail) unit did not. The George Foreman comes
with skewers and a big tong-like tool for removing the
spit rod or basket from the machine while it's still hot.

The spit rod device for the George Foreman is secured
by a setscrew, while the Ronco spit rods fit into holes on
the opposing plate. The Ronco device is much simpler,
and works fine, even after "seasoning" (i.e. after developing
a coat of brown crud).

The axis of the spit rod device for the Ronco rotates in
two depressions pressed into the sheet metal in the sides
of the cooking chamber. These areas must be lubricated
occasionally with fat, otherwise the machine makes a
groaning sound as the device rotates. The George Foreman
has two strips of metal bolted to the sides of the cooking
chamber to hold the rotating food holder, and seems to
require no lubrication at all. In this respect, the George
Foreman machine is a superior design. It can be annoying
when the Ronco starts groaning during the middle of
cooking something, when everything is too hot to remove
from the machine just so you can lubricate it.

shipwreck

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Jun 18, 2003, 2:01:32 AM6/18/03
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I made my own basket for my Ronco machine. I've roasted green coffee
beans and they came out OK. Try it. don't worry about deposits on
the interior walls...just do it OUTSIDE due to smoke.

I also use the basket for peanuts...works great. I've put about 350
chickens in my Ronco machine (digital) and can't believe I lived
without it.

On Wed, 18 Jun 2003 05:19:00 GMT, Mark Thorson <nos...@sonic.net>
wrote:

Mark Thorson

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Jun 18, 2003, 3:44:01 PM6/18/03
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Rick & Cyndi wrote:

> Since you stated virtually everything's non-stick
> it should make cleaning the oils
> easy...

No, only the spit rods, flat basket, and drip-pan cover
are non-stick. The interior surfaces of the cooking chamber,
the drip pan, and the gear wheels on the ends of the spit
rods are all uncoated. That's not a problem for the drip
pan or the floor of the cooking chamber, but everything
else gets spattered with grease which gets burned on.

I suppose some obsessive-compulsive fanatic could
clean all of those surfaces after every use, but that
would be an incredible amount of labor. Unless your
time is almost worthless, it wouldn't make any sense
to spend so much time cleaning it. The way I figure it,
considering the value of my time, if I ever decide the
machine is too dirty to use, I'll just buy a new one.

I've probably used my machine over 100 times.
If I spent 1/2 hour each time to clean it, that would
be 50 hours of labor. My time would have to be
worth less than $2/hour for it to make sense to clean
the machine, rather than just buying a new one.

For sanitary purposes, the only important surfaces
are the ones which touch the food, and those are
non-stick in the Ronco. Even at that, it is a chore to
clean the basket, spit rods, and drip pan cover after
every use. I find that a big help is to use a bucket
to soak the basket and spit rods in hot water for
a while before cleaning off the crud with an old
toothbrush.

Unless you've got cheap illegal alien household help
to do the cleaning, you should assume your machine
will become encrusted with a brown coating of
burned-on grease. That's just in the nature of these
machines.

cynthiafu...@gmail.com

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Nov 3, 2015, 8:01:45 PM11/3/15
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I bought the baby George rotisserie used it a few times, set if aside, now that I am retired, guess what after sitting on the counter, it fell apart inside. Cyndy

jmcquown

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Nov 3, 2015, 8:27:05 PM11/3/15
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On 11/3/2015 8:01 PM, cynthiafu...@gmail.com wrote:
> I bought the baby George rotisserie used it a few times, set if aside, now that I am retired, guess what after sitting on the counter, it fell apart inside. Cyndy
>
Before I say "bye bye", what made you think we could do anything about
this failed appliance?

Jill

dsi1

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Nov 3, 2015, 8:34:49 PM11/3/15
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On 11/3/2015 3:01 PM, cynthiafu...@gmail.com wrote:
> I bought the baby George rotisserie used it a few times, set if aside, now that I am retired, guess what after sitting on the counter, it fell apart inside. Cyndy
>

Oh that George!!! :)

gtr

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Nov 3, 2015, 8:56:21 PM11/3/15
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I don't know what "fell apart inside" means but I'd suggest contacting
the company to see about having it repaired since for $200 dollars it's
likely worthy of fixing I'd guess but don't know the quality of the
original product just the cost and I hope this is an entertaining
run-on sentence too.


Nunya Bidnits

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Nov 4, 2015, 1:13:48 PM11/4/15
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"gtr" wrote in message news:2015110317561530988-xxx@yyyzzz...


>I don't know what "fell apart inside" means but I'd suggest
>contacting the company to see about having it repaired since
>for $200 dollars it's likely worthy of fixing I'd guess but
>don't know the quality of the original product just the cost
>and I hope this is an entertaining run-on sentence too.

Now _that_ is true Sheldon Lite. But you still have a ways to go
before you can produce an entire screed in one paragraph
comprised of a thousand words and only one sentence.

Tierra Amarilla

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Nov 4, 2015, 2:00:17 PM11/4/15
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Nunya Bidnits wrote:
>
> Now _that_ is true Sheldon Lite
You're a lousy unrepentant Groupkilla, you worthless leeribg greaseball:

Old King Troll _loves him_ some trolling...



https://groups.google.com/forum/#!search/the$20agononizingly$20slow$20group$20killers/rec.food.cooking/7Sulcch8qh8/cpvJm3w2KpEJ

Groupkillas (R)

7/6/13
This Group Is Now Killed. Scram. By Order of The Agonizingly Slow
Groupkillas® Cabal

Robert <racemaildro...@yahoo.com> wrote:

> It depends on the state. Ohio charges tax on food consumed on
> premises but not on take out. The state constitution prohibits it for
> food eaten of premises.

Good for them.

BTW, this group is hereby KILLED. Li'l boner was right! Yo poor slobs
shoulda LISTENED!

MUAHahahahaHAA! You DIE!

So all of you go away. You don't have to go home but you can't stay here.
BEGONE!

I mean it.

!! Come on, man.

Now.

Grrr....

Drat. You aren't moving very fast.

You folks already heard about The Agonizingly Slow Groupkillas, didn't ya.
Over in RFC.

You aren't skeered any more, are ya.

Well crap.

Yeah, ok, we are indeed agonizingly slow at killing groups and we were found
out. Exposed. We admit this.

OK then. Take your time but get the hell out. When you're ready No rush,
but hurry up.

And you're still killed. I mean it.

On Behalf of The Agonizingly Slow Groupkillas® Cabal (TINASG®C),

MartyB
Supreme Exalted Leader and President for Life
The Agonizingly Slow Groupkillas® Cabal (TINASG®C)
Member #007 (license to groupkill)
(adv)
You too can become an Agonizingly Slow Groupkilla®! It's FREE! You are a
member when you say you are. Just pick any title at all you want to claim
for yourself, and assign yourself a any member number you like. Except mine,
of course.

John Kuthe

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Nov 7, 2015, 2:39:37 PM11/7/15
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On Tue, 3 Nov 2015 17:01:41 -0800 (PST), cynthiafu...@gmail.com
wrote:

>I bought the baby George rotisserie used it a few times, set if aside, now that I am retired, guess what after sitting on the counter, it fell apart inside. Cyndy

Doesn't matter, they are probably both cheap Chinese JUNK!! :-(

John Kuthe...

Magdalena

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Nov 7, 2015, 2:52:51 PM11/7/15
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SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU XENOPHOBIC HEAD CASE!!!!

Magdalena

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Nov 8, 2015, 11:33:23 AM11/8/15
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Sqwertz wrote:
> You gave up your right to bitch


Fuck off and DROP DEAD YOU WOMAN_STALKER!

Steve Wertz - unrepentant woman stalker and total head case begging poor
Omelet to shoot him with a sniper rifle in austin.food:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
swe...@cluemail.compost
<i6x4dy0h0232$.d...@sqwertz.com>
3/18/2011 3:49 PM
Microsoft Internet News 4.70.1162
readnews.com - News for Geeks and ISPs
fa35d278.newsreader.readnews.com


Sorry I don't fit either of your Ideal Psycho Pal Profiles.

-sw
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'd prefer you use a sniper rifle on me from a few hundred yards away.
There you go - a reason for you to buy yet another gun and ammo.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Nunya Bidnits

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Nov 8, 2015, 12:56:14 PM11/8/15
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"Sqwertz" wrote in message
news:1026159a...@sqwertz.com...

>You gave up your right to bitch about Chinese-made crap when
>you just
>bought a Chinese-made van. So shut the fuck up about it
>already.

>-sw

Those vehicles were built in Windsor Canada and St. Louis. Not
sure if that's still true but chances are a new one contains a
lot more Chinese parts than a 90's model. That being said, they
are now owned by Fiat which stands for FIx It Again Tony. The
series of vehicles has been sold worldwide and imported into
China until 2007.
http://media.fcanorthamerica.com/newsrelease.do;jsessionid=0F0A531A739B3BDC234BCA0DBDD21A4C?&id=7472&mid=194
AFAIK none of those were imported to the US.

MartyB

el pie de Onate

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Nov 8, 2015, 1:00:52 PM11/8/15
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Nunya Bidnits wrote:
> Those vehicles were built in Windsor Canada


Bugger off, Groupkilla:

el pie de Onate

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Nov 8, 2015, 1:31:58 PM11/8/15
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Sqwertz wrote:
> 2007 onward.
>
> -sw

el pie de Onate

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Nov 8, 2015, 2:38:35 PM11/8/15
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Sqwertz wrote:
> Several web sites say

Nunya Bidnits

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Nov 8, 2015, 7:27:53 PM11/8/15
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"Sqwertz" wrote in message
news:1vy1mmgw...@sqwertz.com...


>Several web sites say the Dodge Grand Caravan are produced in
>China
>from 2007 onward.

>-sw

Yes, that's what the link I posted from the manufacturer said.
Those aren't imported to the US. And Kookie's van was made in
the last century IIRC.

el pie de Onate

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Nov 8, 2015, 7:31:55 PM11/8/15
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Nunya Bidnits wrote:
> Yes, that's what the link I posted


Get out of here, Groupkilla, you MOTHERFUCKER!

KC Luzer-Q...

http://www.nationalbbqrankings.com/ranking/team/4202


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el pie de Onate

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Nov 9, 2015, 10:36:45 AM11/9/15
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Sqwertz wrote:
> Get a new newsreader that can quote properly


Fuck off and DIE, you Goddamned woman-stalker!
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