Nostalgia Cotton Candy Machine - Retro Cotton Candy Machine for Kids with 2 Reusable Cones, 1 Sugar Scoop, and 1 Extractor Head – White

I have a few things to say, both about this product and the things you can use to make cotton candy with it, about the hateful and (sorry) uninformed feedback from some buyers, and about expectations on planet earth. First, those expectations: you can go buy a chimpanzee. You can put him in little clothes and ask him to shake your hand, and you can giggle as he eats pieces of banana. And you can either admit to yourself that it's a chimpanzee, or you can fool yourself into thinking it's a live-in Certified Public Accountant. Go with the first option. Enjoy the handshakes and banana nibbling. Because if you hand him your W-2s and your bank statements and your box of receipts, you'll be really unhappy when you come back on April 15th and he hasn't prepared your Income Tax returns. He's a chimp. He TOLD you in the ad that led you to buy him that he is a chimp. It never said "Chimp CPA who can also whip up a heckuva chocolate souffle." That was YOU projecting YOUR desires on him. Not him making promises he didn't and couldn't keep. So please, people: before you buy this product and get on here and give it a One-Star review stating how disappointed your 75 party guests were that they had to wait a whole 5 minutes each for a ball of candy floss made of chewy caramels, THE PRODUCT DESCRIPTION CLEARLY TOLD YOU WHAT YOU WERE GETTING YOURSELF INTO. - This product is adorable, and so versatile in that it creates delicate cotton candy out of not only traditional commercial candy floss, but also common table sugar and an almost unlimited variety of hard candies. - "Almost" unlimited is stated very clearly in the description and the more helpful user reviews, as well as the enclosed direction manual. How many times do you have to read "soft candies and Jolly Ranchers and gummy candies do NOT work" before you stop screaming here "I used soft candies and jolly Ranchers and gummy candies and they did NOT work!" Seriously, how many times are you going to stick your hand in the chimp's mouth while he's eating his banana, each time screaming "Ow! Why did he BITE me?" - There are products on the market, many available here on amazon.com, that cost into the thousands. These are great machines for when you own a carnival concession, or rent out to party planners and catering managers. But this unit? It costs less than 40 bucks. Hello? I don't think I REALLY need to educate you here. You're lucid enough to use a computer to find and order such items, so there is an assumption that you can take certain crucial bits of info and interpret them knowledgeably (or at least rationally). IT'S FORTY BUCKS! Do you think Ringling Brothers execs sit there smacking themselves on the head, saying "Darn it all! We bought all these two-thousand dollar machines, when we could have just spent 35 bucks a pop -- with free shipping!" Nosir. A $35 machine does a $35 machine's work. And if you thought you'd stumbled upon the goose that laid the golden egg, I hate to report that the sad fact of life we learn here is "you get what you pay for." That all being said, what you PAID for is a darned good unit! If you're having the fly-away problems reported by some, you have to realize (a) it's fibrous, sticky candy being made, not adobe blocks, so yeah... gravity doesn't have much say in this; and (b) if you're vigilant in properly catching it on your cones, this is minimal at worst. Just be careful to do it, if this troubles you, in an area where a few stray wisps of flying sugar floss won't mess with your head. I was going to prop the unit up next to my grandmother's antique lace wedding dress from 1932, but instead I decided to do it on my kitchen counter with the range hood exhaust fan on. But I'm funny that way, I guess. All the complaints of the candies used to make floss, I'm sorry but: I am dismissing these summarily for the reasons of not paying attention as stated earlier. I used two different brands of floss. Both worked flawlessly and BOTH -- with just a tablespoon of product as measured by this machine's enclosed measuring scoop -- had me wondering if I'd have to start a second cone. Not because it became scary-huge, but because I thought it looked like WHAT I WOULD EXPECT A HOME COTTON CANDY CONE TO LOOK LIKE WHEN FILLED TO REASONABLE CAPACITY. I stuck it out bravely and made it all fit on one. I'm daring that way. I also used plain old, bottom-shelf, store-brand white sugar. Again: flawless floss, and more than the "two small bites" several reviewers complained of. But also bear in mind that "two bites" of cotton candy are not equal to two bites of meat loaf. Cotton candy is simply not as dense. That's why it's called "cotton candy" and not "candy loaf". And I don't think meat loaf would work well in this machine either, but I'm sure that somewhere out there someone is totally miffed that their experiment with their saucy dinner leftovers did not produce a fluffy ball of candy when stuffed into this machine. I then pushed the envelope with hard candies and discovered a truth: you have to use a "hard crack" confection, plainly and simply, as the directions and reviews and product description and logical thought have dictated already ad nauseum. Lifesavers and Worther's Originals are brilliant. I THEN GOT REALLY MAD SCIENTIST AND TRIED HALL'S COUGH SUPPRESSANT DROPS AND GUESS WHAT? Amaaaaaaaaaazing! Cotton Candy Medicine! You cannot BELIEVE how amazing this turned out. Because first, I had a cough and needed pampering, and second, because THE COUGH DROPS ARE THE RIGHT CONSISTENCY. The big lesson here though, and I think it had a lot to do with why some found the floss balls too small: the direction to use two hard candies does not take into consideration the SIZE of the candies. Two Lifesavers have FAR LESS MASS than two butterscotch or striped peppermint candies. Since it is NOT a nuclear reactor and you will NOT decimate your neighborhood or our planet by being a bit experimental, if the candy looks small, use three or four of them. G'head. Go nuts. Finally, to the complaints of it taking forever to heat up: Bull pucky. I let it run for about 10 minutes just as a preheat. From thereon in, it's smooth sailing. I found that with the addition of floss or candy or sugar or what have you, it's necessary to not belabor the step of adding the sweets. Shut it, wait for the spinning to stop, load, and then turn it right back on. Don't give it cooling time. You'll probably note as I did that there's an initial "floss fake-out" where you get a batch that spins on contact, and then barely anything further happens. Don't even bother gathering this: in a minute or so it will really start producing floss and you'll want to conserve your energy for gathering the real stuff. Do as the directions say: start by coating the cone with one or two turns in the upright, vertical position (like you see the pros doing); but since the unit is small and as the ball grows it gets too close to the heating and spinning action in the center, you want to turn the cone once started to the HORIZONTAL position, and then like you're casting a spell on the machine, wave it back and forth slowly like a magic wand, spinning it between your fingers as you gather. Don't be afraid to use your free (ahem, and CLEAN) hand to sort of smooth it into place as necessary on the cone. And use your ears in conjunction with your eyes: the faster the unit spins the faster the floss is produced. So when you hear it revving higher, get ready for an increase in output. My first time out, I made six batches (I know, I'm a pig) in rapid succession. I stood over the machine, and took breaks only to get other ingredients out and ready as the mood struck. I left the machine running so it would stay warm, and literally, each batch only took a minute TOPS to get flossing once the candy was added. It works really well if you and a friend or two sit around the machine, at the table, with all your ingredients laid out, and your own cones. You can take turns, keeping it hot and going, and enjoy bolt after bolt of fluffy yum. Think of it as a spun sugar fondue. No seriously. This isn't just for kids anymore... Clean up? A total snap. And yes, there will be a buildup of unflossed candy gunk around the rim, but that is a total BONUS because when you EASILY break it loose you have a crunchy candy treat that reminds you of all the cotton candy confections you just enjoyed. Some users complained of how hard it was to assemble and dissemble but I disagree completely. The heating/spinning cup inserts VERY easily, and slides off easily with a bit of a tug. But it's built to stay together when spinning at a high RPM, so duh: it takes a tiny bit of effort. You can't just ASK it to come off. You actually have to (gasp!) pull it. The top rim pops on and off with no effort. The bottom bowl twists counter clockwise to "lock" into place but admittedly, I don't even lock it fully. I twist it, keeping downward pressure, until it says "yeah, that's good enough for me." And then it's good enough for ME in turn. It stays snug, and since there is no motion involving the bowl, and no unit motion that even shakes it loose (either up or clockwise) this has NEVER failed me. And it comes right back off, again, with a bit of a tug. Fears that the wear and tear perpetrated against the unit in this process I feel are without foundation. You needn't force the poor thing, and you also (in my opinion) shouldn't be making so much cotton candy in your every day life that the unit is used often enough to suffer much wear and tear in general. I cannot recommend this unit enough.

We purchased this cotton candy maker to use and have fun with this summer. I wanted to try it out because it uses candy that you probably already have around the house and you don't need to order anything special to use it. I also liked the fact that you can make it using sugar-free candies as well, that way I can enjoy the treat with my children. It's ready right out of the box with just a couple pieces to assemble. You must put the extractor head, bowl and rim on top of the main unit and you're ready to roll. It also comes with two plastic cones so you can get started right away. It does not come with any candy or sugar so you need to have those. I read several reviews and watched some videos that I found on the web so I would make sure that I knew how to use it. After assembling, turn the unit on and let it heat up for 5 minutes. Turn the unit off and add your candy, sugar or sprinkles. Turn the unit back on and just shortly the floss starts appearing. Take your cones and start circling the inside the bowl to get it started on the cone. Now you can just hold over the unit and twist the cone over and over again to wrap the floss around the cone. It was actually pretty easy and it worked perfectly. We made a couple of different batches and we turned the machine off in between each batch because the extractor head spins when the machine is on. We would insert our candy while the machine was off and then turn the machine back on to make cotton candy. We used lifesavers the first few times and then we used blue raspberry flavored and colored decorating decors from Cake Mate (just the standard cookie/cupcake sugar sprinkles that come in the cake baking section of the grocery store). They each turned out terrific and had amazing flavor. The smell of the blue raspberry cotton candy making was fantastic. The sprinkles did seem to take a little longer to start making than the life savers did. It makes the same texture as carnival cotton candy but honestly, the taste is much better. Cotton candy just has a ... well, a cotton candy flavor but when you taste it and it tastes like yummy tropical flavors, etc, you will be amazed. This is cotton candy on a whole other level. Yum! You can order sugar and cones for it right here on Amazon but you probably already have candy around the house that you can use and you can even make your own cones with just rolled up paper if the 2 plastic ones included are not enough.

Okay - so I bought this because I love cotton candy, and I thought my daughter would like it. I also bought the Cotton Candy Express - Cotton Candy Sugar - 5 Floss Sugar Flavor Pack - 12 Oz. Containers . The sugar is great! It has 5 great flavors, all with bright wonderful colors! So the cotton candy machine came the day after the sugar. I set it up immediately, carefully following the included instructions. I ran the machine for five minutes (using a timer to ensure that it was the correct amount of time), then turned the machine off, then poured in one scoop (scoop included with the machine) of the aforementioned sugar (blue raspberry), turned the machine back on and waited. After a few short minutes, the sugar webs began to fly. I grabbed up my included plastic cone to collect the web and started twirling and swirling, collecting my sugar webs. After about 2 minutes, the webs stopped and I had about a lemon sized ball of sugar webs on my cone. It wasn't much, but well, it's a toy, so I stuffed my ball in my mouth and prepared to make another ball. That's when I noticed that at least half, if not more, of my sugar was still in the cup, melted and clogging the machine. So I turned it back on and waited for about 5 minutes to see if it cleared out. It didn't. So I wondered if maybe I could put a little sugar in, not so much, if it would work. I put in about 1/3 of a scoop. It just melted further clogging the machine. So, I dismantled the machine, soaked out the sugar and tried again, this time with half a scoop. This time, I got a golf ball sized piece of candy, and it still left about half the sugar. So that would be my biggest complaint. I'm not really sure what I'm doing wrong, or if I'm doing something wrong, it is what it is. It makes cotton candy, it's fun, if you want more, apparently it's kind of a hassle. I'm not entirely sure at this point if I'm going to keep it. I just got it today. I'll play with it and wait to see if I get any suggestions on how to make it work better. We'll see. Okay....this is an edit to the original. I originally rated this a 3 star but have amended it to a 4 star. We tried again and it turns out if you stop the machine and give the spinner a light tap with one of the plastic cones, the sugar that melted will shake off, remelt and spin out. So if you do that 2 or 3 times you can spin out all of the sugar. We actually get a large grapefruit sized clump when we do that. We let it spin until most of the sugar spins out then stick the cone in and collect the sugar, turn off the machine, give it a thump, then go again. When the sugar is gone, we refill it. It takes about 10 minutes to get a carnival sized scoop - well worth the wait. I only rate it 4 stars due to the thumping issue. Otherwise, I say it's definitely well worth the $30 price tag.

We have only used this once so I will have to update this review if my opinion changes. We used some floss sugar in our initial batch and it seemed to work just fine. It didn't make a huge amount so if you are thinking of getting this for a party I would say, just rent a big machine. It takes 10 minutes to heat up and then you need to shut it down after all of your sugar has spun out in order to reload the next batch. The next batch should come out a bit faster than the first. I found that it was sort of random in subsequent batches. Some did come out pretty quick and others didn't. You are making such small amounts that it just wouldn't be very practical if you had a line of people waiting around for cotton candy. But we weren't having a party. We were just making it for fun for the two of us. So for us, it was totally fine. If you have a couple of kids waiting for the cotton candy and helping it would be great. Any more than a few people and you are probably going to be disappointed in this machine. I do have to say that cleaning it up was not hard. I thought for sure the other reviewers that said it was easy to clean were just super cleaners and not as lazy as me when it comes to cleaning up after cooking, baking, etc, But, hey! They were right. We used the floss sugar and we also did a batch where we crushed up two dum dum cream soda lollipops. We had no problems cleaning everything up. When we used the dum dum's things did get a little crazy. The pieces were different sizes as I just smashed them with a meat tenderizing mallet. So when the larger pieces of the candy melted it seemed that larger amounts of cotton came shooting out. It was not a problem but didn't have as smooth or even of a distribution as the floss sugar. Still really cool to be able to put candy in there. I advise reading the very short directions and following them. It is super easy. Im a little scared it is too easy and one day my husband will come home to find we are having 100 different flavors of cotton candy for dinner. But, given that you do still have to wave the stick over the top to collect the cotton candy, I'm sure eventually I will get tired of it.

My son saved up all his money to purchase this, we’ve had it for about 3 years now and we’ve seriously only used it 3 times because it’s kind of a hassle to clean. This week was our 3rd time ever using this and the sugar would not stop melting to the metal circle and dripping down into the heating element. It’s the same sugar we used the first 2 times and we didn’t have this issue. So in order to make multiple things of cotton candy, I’d have to stop between each one to unscrew the metal circle and try my best to clean up all the melted sugar without burning myself. Long story short, the cotton candy machine ended up catching on fire so if I could give this thing 0 stars, I would. Also, can’t seem to reach the company at all. Even if they don’t refund or replace, I’d at least like to let them know that their product catches on fire so that they can look into it.

After reading the reviews about this cotton candy machine I was a bit worried. I read reviews but I also take them with a grain of salt. Face it, many people don't read what a product really does let alone the instructions. So I thought that if it wasn't what I wanted, I would just return it. I looked at the Waring brand too. But a little research showed that this unit gets hotter and since the sugar needs to get melted by the maker I thought hotter would be better. Once the machine arrived I opened the box, wiped all the parts clean and started in. First off let me say that this machine does work as advertised. Period. I did not have any issues or unrealistic expectations. Though I agree with the other reviews that the instructions are a little short, they are accurate. How much information do you need to heat a machine, shut it off, put in a scoop of cotton candy floss sugar, turn it back on and roll a paper tube around for a few minutes? It was that easy. It produced a light and very fluffy product with Mary Mack's Cotton Candy Express brand sugar floss that I also bought from Amazon (which I find a bit expensive). As per all the reviews I wasn't expecting it to make much in one go. But I was pleasantly surprised at the size of the cotton candy ball. It is cotton candy after all and it is supposed to be fluffy. But it got to a size where I didn't put in another scoop of sugar for fear of not being able to continue to efficiently turn it without worry of hitting the center heating element. Was it a lot of cotton candy? No, as other reviewers stated... but it was very fluffy which made it look large. Again, like cotton candy should be. Plus I also purchased it for not only my sweet tooth but for my grandchildren as well. I actually find a single amount useful because there is no need to give that much sugar to the kids at once. It is an ideal amount for smaller children though teens and adults may want to make a double or triple batch. Being a new unit, I know that somethings require a breaking in period. The instructions said to heat the unit 3-5 minutes. I let it heat for 10. Once I poured the sugar in it began emitting cotton candy as soon as I turned the unit back on. I did not have sugar fly out of the unit as several people have mentioned. Though wisps of light cotton candy did float up it was pretty easy to catch that on the cone as well. I highly suspect that the people who had that issue must not have read the instructions and put in more than one scoop or a super huge scoop of floss. I fill the scoop to the top. Not heaping. There are plenty of videos on the net that show how to roll cotton candy on a tube. Start vertical until caught then turn the tube horizontally and don't touch the heating element. That's it. It's not rocket science. It is not difficult. The only thing is that it was coming out so fast I had roll the tube fast enough to catch it! The unit comes with two plastic cones to catch the cotton candy. For paper cones, I have been making some out of a single sheet of paper. Works great. Summery, it worked as advertised, surpassed my expectations. For less than 40 bucks it does the job considering the high output units cost over $200. To save over $200 I find it worth it to simply make 2-3 batches per adult serving. This is for the home, not a carnival! If I have any criticism at all it is that it would be nice if the unit had a smaller footprint to take up less storage space.

This Nostalgia PCM805 Hard & Sugar-Free Candy Cotton Candy Maker is so quiet, it purrss like a kitten, and it works great for hard candy and the Gold Metal Sugar Floss. It only takes 10-15 minutes at the most the get really hot (the hotter the better the fluff). Never use any candys that are gummys, chewy or soft. Hard Life Savers are awsome tasting and really fluff up nice. The Gold Metal Sugar Floss fluffs up the biggest and the fluff melts immediately in your mouth just like you got at the carnival. The trick to making a fluffy cotton candy is to make sure you are patient and wait for the machine to heat up as stated, and only add 1 scoop of sugar floss or 1-2 candys at a time. Always shut the off manchine briefly before adding sugar floss or hard candy. Never put the paper stick inside the drum of the machine to collect the floss. Just wait a few minutes and wait for a nice thick web going across and keep the paper stick held above the centerfuse ( the candy melting pot) at least 6". If you put the paper stick inside the drum ito collect the floss, the floss will get dragged across the centerfuse and get sticky and the web will stick to the centerfuse and the web wont be able to rise up. So keep the black part of the centerfuse clean. Stay above while slowly spinning your paperstick back and forth for a nice fluff. When you assemble the machine, use all parts. You will notice a small metal rod going across the center of the metal post that holds the centerfuse on. Make sure you align the metal rod while pushing the centerfuse down onto the metal post. To remove make sure you lift the centerfuse straight up after it has cooled down. You can use a pot holder to grip it more easily to remove. DO NOT TWIST FROM SIDE TO SIDE while lifting it up to remove the centerfuse or you will wind up bending and warping the metal post, and your machine will not work properly and it will make noise. You just pop it on, then just pop it off to clean. When you clean the plastic drum, cover and the centerfuse. NEVER USE DISHSOAP to clean or you will wind up with a soapy residue taste if not rinsed thoroughly. Only use hot water to dissove the candy to clean the parts and make sure they are good and dry before using again. Our family makes cotton candy on a daily basis and we are hooked. We LOVE this well designed machine at a reasonable price. We are so satisfied with this machine. A tip of advice, 'Practice Makes Perfect', so dont get discouraged if you cotton candy is not as big as you expect. We noticed that different brands of hard candy can produce a more dense cotton candy vs others that produce more fluff. But whether the cotton candy is big or small, there one thing for certain, they ALL tastes amazing!

My wait is over. I ordered this little contraption after reading a very thorough, enlightening review. I had some reservations based on some negative reviews I read through, but I wanted a cotton candy machine for my daughter's birthday party. It was only forty bucks so I took a chance. Guess what? This little machine will do JUUUUST fine. The trick is completely heat the elements before putting the candy/sugar in. (I used floss sugar three times tonight. I still need to experiment with candy.)The booklet said to heat it for at least five minutes if using candy and ten minutes if using sugar. I turned it on and let this baby heat for a full 15 minutes. I poured in a tablespoon of the sugar and quickly turned it back on. Within a couple of minutes, the floss began to fly. Paper cones seem to stick to the candy a bit better than the plastic cones that came with the machine, but it's still nice to have reusable cones! Granted, my cones weren't masterpieces,(one even came out looking like "Judy Jetson's hairdo") but believe me, I got a GOOD amount of cotton candy out of one serving of floss. I took pictures and will hopefully add them to my review when I have more time. If you don't rush the heating time and be patient, you will get a big, fluffy ball. The candy was the perfect consistency. After taking a bite, my husband looked at me with adoration in his eyes and told me he loved me. Oh yes. Each batch came out perfectly and they didn't take long to make. Our new little kitchen gadget is a hit, so far. It produces fluffy happiness and love. If you are considering a machine like this for home use, I highly recommend it. UPDATE: Well, it's the second night of owning this machine and we need practice making cones. (That's our excuse, anyway!) So, we had another fun time making huge, fluffy cones to eat. We made several more out of floss sugar, which turned out as beautiful as the previous batches. We tried a couple of peppermint candies as the last batch. OH my goodness, it was delicious! We still had better results with the floss sugar, but only in the quantity and "fluffy factor." The candies made less and were a bit more brittle than the what the sugar floss produced, but it was still very, very good tasting. I have downloaded a couple of pictures using my subpar laptop, so I hope they turn out okay! Thanks for reading!