BLACK+DECKER WM2000SD 3-in-1 Waffle, Grill and Sandwich Maker

What the maker puts in writing

• “INTERCHANGEABLE PLATES: Waffle, grill, and sandwich plates snap in easily. Securely attach both cooking plates while the appliance is cool, then close the lid before plugging it in.”
• “PREHEAT INDICATOR LIGHT: The green ready light illuminates when the correct cooking temperature is reached and cycles on and off with the thermostat during use. Wait for the green light before adding food.”
• “NONSTICK COOKING SURFACES: Removable nonstick plates help food release and are dishwasher-safe for easy cleanup. Avoid metal utensils, abrasive cleaners, and aerosol cooking sprays to help protect the coating.”
• “HEAT-RESISTANT HANDLE: Use the heat-resistant handle to safely open and close the appliance while cooking. Always operate the unit in the closed position on a stable, level, heat-resistant surface.”
• “COMPACT 3-IN-1 DESIGN: Prepare waffles, grilled foods, and toasted sandwiches with one space-saving appliance. The stainless-steel finish and removable plates make cooking, cleanup, and storage simple.”
• Reference WM2000SD · Catalog: 2,812 g (99.2 oz), 229 × 229 × 102 mm (9.02 × 9.02 × 4.02 in)

The only care instructions on this shelf

“Avoid metal utensils, abrasive cleaners, and aerosol cooking sprays to help protect the coating.”

At least eleven of the fourteen items here say nothing about care at all. The one other caveat is the GVODE at $38.99, which qualifies its own dishwasher claim: “Most of time, recommend hand wash with soap to protect the non-stick for long term use.”

The aerosol-spray item is the one nobody else mentions, and it is the commonest way a non-stick plate is ruined.

A spray can contains more than oil: a propellant, and usually lecithin as an emulsifier. On a hot non-stick surface the lecithin polymerizes into a thin, hard, brown-gold varnish bonded to the coating.

It is not grease and it does not wash off — not with detergent, not in a dishwasher, and not without the abrasion the same bullet forbids.

On a waffle plate it is worst of all, because it builds in the pockets and the corners where nothing reaches. The result is a non-stick plate that sticks, which the owner then blames on the coating.

And the warning is needed on this shelf specifically. The Aigostar at $39.99 tells its buyers “No oil or butter needed makes for healthier eating” — a buyer who believes that and then finds a waffle sticking will reach for a can, and that page says nothing.

What to do instead: brush a little melted butter or oil with a pastry brush.

The metal-utensil half is just as real. One cut in a non-stick film propagates from that point for the rest of the plate’s life — batter works under the edge, food sticks there permanently, and the break spreads every time something scrapes past.

Which bites hardest on a press, because a sandwich that catches gets a knife to it and a waffle that sticks gets a fork.

And one habit no page on this shelf gives: let the plates cool before pulling them out and washing them. Thermal shock from a hot plate into cold water is what crazes a coating.

Fit the plates cold, close the lid, then plug in

“Securely attach both cooking plates while the appliance is cool, then close the lid before plugging it in.”

It is the only fitting procedure published on this shelf, and both halves do something.

Plates cold — a plate half-seated on a hot machine is both a burn and a bad electrical contact, and the plates are the part you handle.

Lid closed before plugging in — so the machine never heats with its plates facing open air, which is both the safe state and the one that preheats properly, since a closed press heats the cavity rather than the room.

Seven machines on this shelf are built on swappable plates and each describes it differently:

this — “snap in easily”, with the procedure above Dash Forged Iron, $34.99 — “Trade the two Grill Plates for the two Griddle Plates whenever the menu changes” OSTBA, $29.99 — “simple to swap out” Aigostar, $39.99 — “detachable plates for paninis, grilling, and waffles” Metine, $49.99 — three plates, “easily switch between breakfast, snacks, and dinner” GreenPan, $299.95 — “Removable and ultra-durable plates”, stored in the base of the unit

Three plate sets means two sets are always out of the machine, and only the GreenPan solves where they live: “SIMPLE STORAGE: Belgian and Classic Waffle Plates store in the bottom of the unit.”

At 2,812 grams this is the third heaviest machine sold on Amazon.com here: Aigostar 1,814 g · both Dash Flex Press 2,268 g · OSTBA 2,313 g · this 2,812 g · Metine 3,602 g · GreenPan 8,165 g.

And unlike four of its rivals it makes no upright-storage claim — where the OSTBA, the Aigostar, the Metine and the Dash Forged Iron all do. 229 × 229 × 102 mm is about nine inches square and four deep, which is a flat object to find a home for.

Closed position only, which rules out the flat griddle

“Always operate the unit in the closed position on a stable, level, heat-resistant surface.”

Both Dash Flex Press machines on this shelf do the opposite, and sell it as their main feature.

Forged Iron, $34.99: “pulls down to press bistro-style paninis… then opens a full 180 degrees to lie flat, creating an indoor grill on your countertop.” Graphite, $49.74, eight cents more than this: “The 180° Hinged Lid design lies flat for indoor flat top grilling or pulls down to press paninis.”

Why it is a real functional difference. A press cooks between two plates and compresses — on the Dash that is an 8 × 5-inch surface, 40 square inches of contact. Laid flat you get both plates side by side: 80 square inches, heated from below, which is a griddle rather than a press.

And the two cook different things. A press works from both sides at once and squashes — right for a panini, a toasted sandwich, a quesadilla, a cheesesteak. A flat griddle works from one side and you turn the food — right for pancakes, eggs, bacon, anything with a top you want to keep. You cannot press an egg.

So here the sandwich plate and the grill plate both work closed, and there is no flat mode at all.

The instruction is also a safety statement, not only a limitation. A press opened flat has a live element facing upward at countertop level, which needs a hinge and a body designed for it — and a machine not designed for it is right to say so.

The other three closed presses on this shelf — the OSTBA at $29.99, the Aigostar at $39.99 and the Metine at $49.99 — say nothing either way, which is less helpful than a clear prohibition.

The heat-resistant handle in the same bullet is published by three machines here: this, the OSTBA and the Aigostar (“cool-touch handle”). And the OSTBA is the only page that says the rest of the body gets hot: “The outer surface gets hot during use—handle with care and avoid direct contact.” That is true of this one too.

Stainless steel, and no cooking surface to go with it

“The stainless-steel finish and removable plates make cooking, cleanup, and storage simple.”

It is the only finish named on this shelf besides the two Dash colourways — Forged Iron and Graphite — and the GreenPan’s Cream White.

On a press the finish is mostly cosmetic, with one exception: stainless shows every fingerprint and does not discolour, where a painted body next to a hot plate eventually does.

What is missing is the dimension that would let you size the machine.

Four of the twelve items sold on Amazon.com publish a cooking surface: 10.8 × 5.5 inches per plate on the Metine at $49.99 — about 59 square inches · 8 × 5 inches on both Dash Flex Press machines — 40 square inches · 4 inches on the Dash Mini plate pack at $9.99 · “4-Square” on the GreenPan at $299.95, with no dimension.

Eight publish nothing, and this is one. The catalog 229 × 229 × 102 mm is the carton, and on a press the plate is well inside it.

No wattage either. Three of the seven machines sold on Amazon.com publish one: 1200 W on the Metine, 750 W on the OSTBA at $29.99 and on the Aigostar at $39.99, which also gives 120 V.

So two of the three cheapest machines publish their power, and the most expensive by far, the GreenPan at $299.95, does not.

And power on a press governs recovery rather than peak temperature. A press loses heat every time the lid opens and every time cold food lands on it — which is why a second sandwich can take longer than the first, and why the one machine here with five browning levels is also the one with 1200 watts.

The green light, described more honestly than anywhere else here

“The green ready light illuminates when the correct cooking temperature is reached and cycles on and off with the thermostat during use. Wait for the green light before adding food.”

Three useful things in one sentence.

It is a readiness light, not a power light — it comes on at temperature. It cycles during cooking, because a thermostat lets the plates fall a little and reheats them. So the light going out mid-cook means the thermostat is working, not that something is wrong. And the instruction is explicit: wait for green before the food goes in.

The warning this page does not give is on the Metine at $49.99, and it is the obvious misreading of a cycling light: “we bake our waffles by time, not by the indicator light. The green light going off does NOT mean your waffle is ready - it’s just a signal. Always follow the timer.”

The shelf, on signaling:

Two lights — red power and green preheat — on the Aigostar at $39.99 One green ready light — this, and the Metine at $49.99 An XL LCD, a one-touch dial and adjustable shade and crunch control — the GreenPan at $299.95 Nothing at all — the OSTBA at $29.99 and both Dash Flex Press machines, the Forged Iron of which has no on/off switch either: “No on/off switch to fuss with; plug in and the… Cooking Surface heats up fast”

And with no browning control and no timer here, your stopwatch and your notes are the only repeatability you get. The Metine is the only page on this shelf to publish actual times — “level 3 for about 8 minutes and level 5 for about 5 minutes”.

What is not published

No wattage, as above.

No cooking surface, as above.

No browning or temperature control. Only two of seven machines here have one: the Metine’s five levels (“1–2 for gentle warming, 3–5 for toasting and searing”) and the GreenPan’s shade and crunch control.

No timer and no times.

No moat. Two items on this shelf solve the characteristic failure of a waffle plate: the Breville at $64.95 — “the no-mess moat design feature prevents excess waffle batter spilling out and onto your counter top” — and the GreenPan at $299.95 — “EXTRA-LARGE MOAT… frames the plates on all sides”. The OSTBA at $29.99 names the consequence instead: “Avoid overfilling the sandwich press to prevent latch damage.” That warning belongs here: waffle batter expands as it cooks, because the steam that lightens it pushes it outward, and batter forced into a hinge sets hard.

No batter quantity, which no item on this shelf publishes.

No waffle thickness or count. The Cuisinart at $56.26 and the GVODE at $38.99 both publish “4 deep pocketed, 3/4-inch thick Belgian waffles” — the only thickness figure on this shelf — and the GreenPan ships two sets, “classic American-style” and “thicker Belgian”.

No coating chemistry. Three items on this shelf name one: GVODE names “double-layer TEflon” and “BPA free”, Aigostar names “teflon”, and GreenPan names “Thermolon Volt, a diamond-infused ceramic… free of PFAS, PFOA, lead or cadmium” — the only non-fluoropolymer plate here. On the one page that tells you how to protect a coating, naming it would have been the natural next line.

No plate material. Two items name one: the GVODE’s “food grade aluminum” and the GreenPan’s “CAST PLATES… optimal heat conduction”.

No drip tray, where the Dash Forged Iron at $34.99 publishes one: “the Drip Tray channels grease away”. On a machine sold for “grilled foods”, the fat goes somewhere — and on a press that must be operated closed, it goes into the body.

No upright storage claim, where four machines here make one.

No warranty, which no item on this shelf publishes.

No country of manufacture, which no item on this shelf publishes either.

Availability

Read on the day this page was built: $49 at the American Amazon shop.

Read from Keepa on the day this page was last revised; stock and price both move without notice.