The best waffle makers of 2018

The best waffle makers of 2018 (Photo: Jackson Ruckar/Reviewed)

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Nothing is more delicious than a crunchy, crispy, tender waffle! But this is one item that you simply can’t make without a special piece of equipment—a waffle maker! A good one will churn out perfect waffle after perfect waffle until the whole crew is served.

Our favorite waffle maker for regular waffles, the Breville the No Mess Waffle(available at Amazon for $103.96), doesn’t come cheap, but it makes the crispiest waffles and lives up to its name, making it a pleasure to use. For thick fluffy Belgian waffles, we recommend the Cuisinart Double Belgian Waffle Maker (available at Amazon) which bakes up two at a time. For great waffles at a more reasonable price, we like the Cuisinart Round Classic Waffle Maker and the Presto Flipside Belgian Waffle Maker.

To help you spend wisely, we tested 10 highly-rated waffle makers and used each one to bake a whole lot of waffles both from mixes and from a recipe.

1. The best classic waffle maker: The Breville BWM520XL no-mess waffle maker

The Breville BWM520XL no-mess waffle maker (Photo: Reviewed/Jackson Ruckar)

You can depend on the Breville the No Mess Waffle for thin crispy waffle rounds, one after another, after another. The other great thing about this brushed stainless-steel waffler is that it has a moat around the waffle grid that catches any excess batter so there’s never any runover on the counter or the machine itself making it truly no mess. It lights up and beeps when it’s hot enough for baking and again when your waffle is ready, but we wish the beeps were louder—they would be easy to miss in a noisy kitchen. After breakfast, you can latch the grids together and store it on its side to have more room to prep for the next meal.

Get the Breville BWM520XL on Amazon for $103.96

2. The best Belgian waffle maker: Cuisinart WAF-F20 Double Belgian waffle maker

The Cuisinart WAF-F20 Belgian waffle maker (Photo: Jackson Ruckar/Reviewed)

If you love waffles, it’s worth giving the large Cuisinart Double Belgian Waffle Maker some of your precious counter real estate. It makes the waffles dreams are made of thick, fluffy, and tender on the inside, and crunchy on the outside. Plus, it bakes two at a time. After you add batter to one chamber, you rotate it in its frame, fill the other side, and rotate it again. Lights and tones signal when each one is done. Unlike less expensive flip machines, this one feels solid and well built. It also comes with a ¾ cup measure for batter.

Get the Cuisinart WAF-F20 Belgian waffle maker on Amazon for $74.99

3. The best value waffle maker: Cuisinart WMR-CA Round classic waffle maker

The Cuisinart WMR-CA classic waffle maker (Photo: Jackson Ruckar/Reviewed)

There’s a lot to love about the Cuisinart Round Classic Waffle Maker. It heats up and bakes faster than any other in our test. And it was one of the few that gave a very distinct range of shades from light to dark—although it’s beyond me why anyone would want their waffles pale and flabby. Not only is the appliance itself small and thin, it stands up for storage and the cord can be wrapped in the bottom. While there’s a light to indicate that it’s ready for batter and that waffles are fully baked, there’s no sound so you have to keep an eye on it. We think that’s a small drawback for a waffle maker this good and this inexpensive.

Get the Cuisinart WMR-CA classic waffle maker on Amazon for $23.99

4. The best value Belgian waffle maker: Presto 03510 FlipSide Belgian waffle maker

The Presto 03510 Belgian waffle maker (Photo: Jackson Ruckar/Reviewed)

Unlike most flip waffle makers, the Presto FlipSide Belgian Waffle Maker doesn’t take up a lot of space when it’s not baking waffles. Its slim and sits low on the counter and it can easily be locked into place so it can stand up for storage. However, you do need to make sure you have room on the countertop to flip it completely over on its side after you fill it with batter. Rather than settings, the Presto has a timer which you set by pushing a tiny button. It is designed to beep with only two minutes remaining, but often, at that point, it didn’t beep and stopped counting down. Nonetheless, it produced evenly browned, crispy waffles one after another and it is among the less expensive Belgian waffles.

Get the Presto 03510 FlipSide Belgian waffle maker at Walmart for $39.99

This article was originally published on Reviewed. To see our results from all 10 waffle makers, along with thousands of other product reviews, check out Reviewed here.

Prices are accurate at the time this article was published, but may change over time.

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