Cotton Candy Machine – 1000W Vortex Floss Maker with Stainless-Steel Pan - Uses Sugar or Hard Candy for Party Treat by Great Northern Popcorn (Pink)

This machine was purchased for a church event. We were looking for a sturdy, durable machine to use at this and future events. Instructions for use were not included; I think initial assembly directions were included. The packing was good- no damage or dents when it arrived. The machine made cotton candy as advertised. It is sturdy, quiet and works well. When used at our 5 hour event, it shut down once; maybe because it was overheating. After about 8 minutes it was started again with no problems. Cleaning is easy. I suggest the distributor provide access to a "how-to" video. We found a volunteer to show us how to use the machine; it's not difficult but observing her "hands on demo" was most helpful. If you're outside in any breeze or wind, the hood (sold separately,or a screen to block the wind is needed. I recommend this item but I am interested to see how long it works for our various church groups. DO set it up on a sturdy table about the height of a coffee table. You want to reach down to roll the floss onto the cones. Our Health Dept. required anyone running the machine to be at least 16 years old. Practice, practice! We rolled 24# and taped copy paper into cones when we ran out of the purchased cones, which worked just fine. You can also bag it, which may keep it fresher if the weather is humid. Damp weather and rain will make the cotton candy crystallize.

I had ordered the cotton candy machine for work in order to celebrate success and use for fundraising for charity. The first time I used it the device worked fine without any trouble. The second time I used it was a completely different matter. Half way through the batch, I noticed a burning smell and sparks started to come out of the front vent. I let the machine cool down, following the guidelines for use in the manual, and started it back up once more. Sure enough as soon as it started to spin it was shooting out sparks. I read online that this machine has a history with shooting sparks. I took the cone off around the floss and have a little searching, I found that two of the wires were damaged having been rubbed down to the metallic part of the wire. I reached out to the warranty people who claim to stand by the product they sold. My first email was sent out on June 13th informing me I would be getting new wires to replace the device with. The email was from Heather M. Fast forward to today's date July 28th and nothing. Still no wires or working cotton candy machine. I called them last week on Monday the 17th, the reason, because the second cotton candy machine I had bought for another work center was having the same trouble. The agent over the phone helped process the order for the second machine while I asked about the first. I was informed they would send out the wires, as to why they had not sent them out before I do not know, and I would get an email confirmation. This was almost two weeks ago and no email about the status of the needed parts. The second machine was also shooting sparks. I went through the song and dance of calls and emails needing to get a replacement. It turns out the second one had to be sent back in due to the machine failures. Over all the device was a waste of money.

Ive decided since there are not enough reviews to make one for this cotton candy machine. First off I was also one of those people that owned one of those 30-40 dollar cotton candy machines and yes they are more for novelty than anything else. I love cotton candy and always buy it when i see it as a fair. So for me, paying 3-8 dollars for a little cotton candy I would much rather own this and be the fun uncle and eat it whenever i want for 240. Lets start about when I got it. First off mine came warped on a leg. It was smashed in so check your machine when you get it. I will not deduct stars for this because its mostly likely cause was shipping. Besides that it came well packaged and i fixed mine and kept it The machine itself is VERY well built. But i expected that for the cost. It was very simple to use and had well enough instructions. If its heated up correctly its more like 3 seconds for cotton candy so be ready. It makes a ton of cotton candy and fast. I used the gold medal stuff 3 for 25 which was an amazing deal. You can make a cone within 20 seconds and you could feed an army fast! It comes with spare belts, spare fuse, and a wonderful floss scooper! Cleanup is so easy as you put it over the sink and i have a spray attachment on my sink so you just melt the candy away. I made about 8 cones and shoved them in tuperware for later! Yum! All in all for the price i give this a 5/5! Its a wonderful deal and if you want more than a thimble of cotton candy from the 30 dollar machine, this one can satisfy! Enjoy!

I purchased this item to start up a small business. It work fine but would be best if use with the Shield or bubble. The candy threads messes up your hand and there is no meshing at the sides (as seen with other commercial machines) to catch the threads, hence making easier to spin a candy. Overall generates the cotton candy in a matter of minutes and is not loud and disturbing. Kids stand in awe seeing their candy being made. Again- its good enough but could be improved.

Nice review. I just purchased my vortex cc machine. Yes we love it! I am glad i purchased the bubble to fit over the top of the steel bowl....it keeps the cc from flying all over the machine. I too reviewed the more expensive and less expensive machines....I learned the bigger machines do throw cc out the sides of the spinning head..nice.. but also learned that the vortex machine threw cc straight up. We use the machine in the kitchen...the only mess is a little cc on the hand that holds the cones, and some cc on the floor...but not the mess you depict you had. I don't have any ceiling fan on while making cc. I tried making cc with the cieling fan on,but it would blow air into the cc machine then it made a mess. You are correct in having to have a cone at the ready as soon as you put the sugar into the spinner...if you don't, the cc just makes a thick spider web like formation inside the bubble and then after a while if you still don't use the cone as i tried just to see what will happen.. first the cc wraps itself to the center of the spinner then pulls the cc into a wad that is blown outside the bubble and that is the only mess we have ever created to find this out. As far as the vibration of the unit.. i agree it does vibrate itself during wind up of the spinning unit.. then i realized that the unit was making little dances left and right on the table we had it on.. I decided to use a gob of elmers glue set to dry over night on the bottom of the rubber feet of the unit and some around the outside of the feet too.. it must dry solid.. and this cured the unit from traveling around on the table.I glued it to the table. I also agree the unit is slow to wind up when first used...but on the second start up the next day..it spun right up fast and was nice to see we had no more vibrating problems or such. I have heard others talk about the belt breaking. I have a suggestion when shutting down, this occurs because the heater is still hot and when you shut down the power and the heater..you don't allow the unit to cool down with heat off first and let the spinner run for five to seven minutes to cool. With the heat switch off, and power switch off, the heat still travels through to the belt pulley area where the belt connects to the spinner and this weakens the belt in my own opinion, so ever since i have owned this vortex cc machine...my belt has lasted so far. i don't keep the belts in the drawer while the unit is operating, this might make the belts brittle, I store them elsewhere. So giving my unit a "cool down" with heat off for 7 minutes and the spinner still running, the unit seems to cool quicker and saves the belt in my own opinion. I am NOT a seller of this product, I am a customer who knows a little electronics /electricity... i did notice in the description of the product reads 1050 watts. But on the plate riveted to the side of the unit, it reads 1080 watts. . . this is what the bigger more expensive machines use. Thus the "commercial quality" unit? Please buy the 3.25 lb units of sugar from amazon that sell for $10.49 each.. they last a long time. They make more cc than you can eat. So.. i believe this unit is capable ,easily to make one cone in about 30 seconds as advertised..and you will be rest assured that if you take it to a church function or a birthday party or block party or a work event... you will be able to keep up with the demand.. but i would also suggest that you buy the bags and make some cc at home before you go to the party and stuff three or two flavors into each bag and tie them and make twenty or forty bags. Make all the blue first ,fill all bags with one part blue cc then make all pink cc and stuff those in all the bags.. then make the yellow and stuff them into the bags.. that's three in each bag. Tie them and put them in a box at least three feet long, by two feet wide and fill the box with cc in layers, and take that to the party so you won't be standing around the cc machine with a line of ten to fifteen people waiting. While at the party, try to make more bags if you run out at the party while there is a lull or you are waiting for customers.This will keep your next wave of cc eaters satisfied. Not everyone loves cc.. so don't push it too much. Just be there with a smile and be cheery while at your station . I think the vortex has served us very well..Cleaning is a breeze, I just take THE DOME to a double sink and turn on the hot water and grab the sprayer and let the hot water wash off the sugars. Do not use any detergents.. The instructions say to just wipe the MACHINE part with a wet rag. but use hot water that won't burn you on a cloth, and i find this to be a good way to clean. Every person loves the machine they buy, because it fits their situation. But for a home user of this cc machine, it serves the casual use for me and my wife; and it also keeps up with the party at work or church or birthdays. It is fun to operate and is exciting to be able to make your own cc when you please! Also,if you do have any electrical problems.. as with anything electrical, you must take care and take it to a service warranty or electrician to be fixed,it is safer that way and you won't have to worry if it was fixed right.. ok.. ENJOY!

Bought this brand from another user review comparing to the VIVO brand essentially being the dame with the added drawer and apparently more capacitor fir power. Maybe 3 years ago but something is not right today!!! Already own two VEVOR brands and a VIVO and wanted to bring this version to our production given the different sugar bowl style. Product arrived in fairly good order, aside from small dent on the main container bowl. The unit is heavier then the same style Vevor brand but without opening the machine, this unit is a belt driven spin unlike the VEVORs direct motor to Sugar bowl. Setup all the same and got the machine up and running. The unit features a safety switch on the front facing latch and my unit had the feeling of a very loose spring which on multiple occasions would release the latch and shut the motor off. On initial run, let the unit warm up for 10 minutes and checked the temp with IR thermometer. Temp range was not showing values exceeding 250ish. With no knows to adjust, it is what it is. Let it go a other 5 minutes and tried to spin. Nothing. Bits of spun sugar eventually came out but not at all in a way to use for production. After two attempts, shut it down and went back to VEVOR. Tried again on different power source (home vs customer site) and nothing. Both flavored and regular white sugar left nothing spun. Very disappointed in product. When power to heat toggled on and off, you can hear motor slow down then speed back up when turned off. Temperature not hot enough to melt sugar leading to nearly 100% loss on 6 attempts to spin sugar.

Experience is similar to other reviewers. I too bought the $40 "Cotton Candy" maker and found it to be way too slow. The commercial units are nice but more than 2x the price of this unit, so I had to try this one out. Unit came packed well, but was beat up pretty good in shipping. Had a hole in the carton. The bowl has 2 deep dents in it from being pressed up against the steel shell of the unit itself. Also one of the metal straps the feet is attached to was dented in pretty badly. However not worth RMAing in my opinion, since it does not affect operation other than being unbalanced on a flat surface. The unit spins sugar FAST, once you get going about 30 seconds per cone. Worked great at our neighborhood block party and kids were not left waiting long for another cone. I found that keeping the heat off if you are not actually spinning helps with the smoke and burning. You can spin with regular table sugar but for me it had an odd taste. I'll run regular sugar through as the first batch to clean up the head before serving. You're going to want the plastic dome, too. The machine throws floss vertically up into the air, and when you finish a cone you will have a few loose threads that will most likely get on you. Unfortunately the edge on the dome is not finished well so will snag your cotton candy if you are not extra careful.

This model throws a lot of sugar to the side of the bowl instead of allowing it to become cotton candy. The first model we bought we had to return as it threw most of the sugar to the side instead of allowing it to become cotton candy. Amazon was SUPER good about the return and the second unit does work better. Although it arrived with one of the feet of the machine bent (I assume in the shipping process). It will have to be unbent to make the machine stable. You will be able to use this machine to produce cotton candy as a novelty at your kids parties and other gatherings like that; however, dont expect you will be able to use this machine as a way to fund raise. If I had it to do over again I would buy a better quality (more money) machine.