I have seen the ads on TV saying just how good this thing is so, when I found one at a local Walgreen's, I bought it. I used it a couple of times and, as of today, I tossed it in the recycler because it is useless.
OK, the good news is that it cooks well and I never had a problem with food sticking BUT to keep it from sticking you HAVE to apply some cooking spray to both pans before you start to heat them.
The bad news is just about everything else. First and foremost--it leaks. When you try to flip the pan over if there is anything that is even slightly liquid inside it will leak out the joint between the pans. It could be egg white or batter, if it is still liquid it will leak. Second, and something that the commercials never mention, you cook in the lower pan while the upper pan is still upright. You close the upper pan and flip the thing over. Now you have to wait while the (used to be) upper pan heats up and begins to cook. Also, in the commercial they show a woman blowing on a pancake to make it slide out of the pan and it is nowhere near that easy. While the food doesn't stick badly. at least for the few times I used it, it often has to be nudged with a spatula to make it slide out. On top of everything else it is VERY cheaply made, the handle broke the fourth time I used it. This needs to be re-engineered so that the edges of the pans overlap rather than just meeting. That would help stop the leaking. The heating of the second pan is something we would just have to live with. Do I recommend it? Absolutely not!
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I bought this hoping that it would be good at making eggs over easy. Unfortunately, it's not so good. The non-stick just doesn't work and the eggs end up stuck to the upper lid of the pan. Even after i seasoned it like the instructions say. Eggs definitely don't slip around the pan as in the commercial. Well it's only $20. i'll try it using cooking spray.
UPDATE:
Having used it for a few weeks now, I've figured a few things out. First, I have to use cooking spray. Without question. And I need to spray it on while the pan is cold. Spraying it on when hot just makes a mess. Second. I need to flip the pan and pre-heat the top before putting anything in it. Third, I think this pan will completely fail when the hinge fails. It's made with very small rivets. They don't look like they will stand up to a lot of use or abuse. So I think there is a life expectancy that I have to look forward to.
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I followed their seasoning instructions and tried to fry some eggs. I had to use a spatula and they still stuck to both sides.
Honest reviews on Orgreenic Flip Jack Ceramic Non-stick Pancake Maker, As Seen On Tv
I saw this on TV and thought, hey great concept. I actually don't have much trouble cooking eggs or pancakes, but if you can make it easier, hey, why not, right? My next trip to WalMart, I saw it on the shelf, and bought on impulse. I wish I hadn't.
ON the informercial, you see them all happily cooking their eggs and pancakes, and nothing sticks, and just simply blowing onto the pan slides the food right off! WOW! Right?
Wrong.
My first thought, as I opened the package, was, hmm, this looks extremely cheap and flimsy, and will probably leak out the sides, and likely break in time. Not worth $20. You can get a really nice skillet for $20 that will LAST. My next thought was, hmm, is this dishwasher safe? Probably not, with my luck... so I look, and I'm right, it recommends hand washing. Okay, no big deal, this thing is supposed to be as slippery as a banana peel, so it won't need much washing, right?
Wrong.
Next, I read the instructions, and it tells me I have to season the pan. Seriously? This isn't cast iron, it's not a wok, why do I have to season it? It's supposed to be non-stick, right?
Wrong.
So I dutifully seasoned the pan, exactly as instructed. And I'm not new to seasoning pans. I just so happen to have some cast iron, and a fancy wok, and both need seasoning. So I season. Season, to my hearts content, and deciding that season doesn't really stick to this pan, I decide to season it once more for good measure. Afterward I wipe the excess oil as the instructions say (which shouldn't exist if it were seasoning!) and I feel like all I've done is waste oil, but I figure, maybe some of it soaked in there and did the trick. I decide to test my shiny new contraption by making a fried egg. Over medium, my preferred way to eat. And this egg, it comes out perfect. I'm somewhat impressed, though worried about the edges should I try more than one egg, or runny crepe batter. I wipe the pan out with a paper towel, and not much is there to wipe. I'm happy. I think, cool, so far so good. Will test more tomorrow. I put the pan away, and the next day, I decide to try 2 eggs. On TV you see them doing 3, so surely you can do 2, right?
Wrong.
I'm thinking my earlier success with 1 egg coming out perfect will mean success with my second attempt, too, right?
Wrong.
I grab my handy-dandy flip jack pan, and heat it up, I even put a light coating of oil on it first just to be safe, because I always use a bit of oil with other seasoned pans. Not much, just enough to make it shine. I crack 2 eggs into the heated pan. I cook it until the point of needing flipped. I flip. I lift the lid, and what to my wondering eyes should appear? 2 egg yolks spattered onto the bottom of the pan, while the whites hang out happily on top. I grumble, I scrape my eggs out, and kind of have this not quite scrambled eggs thing but certainly not overmedium. I choke them down and ponder what went wrong. After the pan cools, I clean it out. It's a bit harder this time as there is some egg stuck to it. But I clean it, and get it spic and span, and try the seasoning process over again. Repeat what worked the first time, right?
Wrong.
I tried again. Two lovely eggs cracked into the freshly seasoned heated pan, and cook until time to flip, and flip, and... same thing as the second attempt. Yolks on one side, whites on the other. Again I scrape up my egg mess, and this time just toss it out.
I haven't tried a 4th time. 2/3 failed egg attempts really make me question the validity of the non stick claims of this pan. I am not a novice in the kitchen, I am quite the expert at most things culinary, and as I said, I certainly know how to fry an egg. I'm not sure I'm going to try and 4th time, because it seems that unless I'm just cooking one egg, it's not so great, and with a family of 4, I'm usually going to be cooking more than one egg at a time. And for all I know it's a one and done kind of pan and that very first egg was the only one that will ever work out. I will forever have fond memories of that one perfect egg. Meanwhile, this pan is going to the back of the cabinet and likely not be used again. I will just stick to my normal skillets with my awesome spatula, which by the way, only cost me $4, and flips a perfect egg every time.
Save your money, and frustrations. This pan is just all kinds of wrong.
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I was very excited when I bought this, but upon getting it home I realized it had to be seasoned just like any cast iron skillet. When did nonstick surfaces need to be seasoned? It was also cheaply built. Upon cleaning after seasoning it, the rivets on one handle popped loose and the handle was floppy after one cleaning.
When I finally did test it out by cooking eggs, upon flipping it over, not only did the eggs stick to the top I now had a real mess as i had eggs on top and on bottom. I grabbed a plastic spatula to slide the remaining egg into my old cast iron skillet and had to actually scrape to get the egg from the orgreenic pan. They were not burned they were just stuck to it as they would have been to a non greased iron pan. I finished cooking the mess in my properly seasoned cast iron skilled, to which they did not stick, and tossed the Orgreenic pan in the trash.
