OSTBA ABS06 3-in-1 Waffle and Sandwich Maker

What the maker puts in writing

• “3-in-1 Versatile Grill: Comes with interchangeable plates for sandwiches, waffles, and grilling. Perfect for making breakfast sandwiches, grilled cheese, crispy bacon, fluffy waffles, and juicy steak all in one machine.”
• “Removable Non-Stick Plates: Each plate features a food-safe non-stick coating for effortless food release and easy cleanup. Dishwasher safe and simple to swap out.”
• “Fast & Even Heating: With 750W of power and double-sided heating, the unit heats up quickly and cooks evenly—crispy on the outside, soft on the inside.”
• “Safe & Compact Design: Cool-touch handle and anti-slip feet ensure safety while cooking. Compact and upright storage-friendly design fits easily in any kitchen.”
• “Usage Tips: Avoid overfilling the sandwich press to prevent latch damage. The outer surface gets hot during use—handle with care and avoid direct contact.”
• Reference ABS06 · Catalog: 2,313 g (81.6 oz), 101 × 237 × 215 mm (3.98 × 9.33 × 8.46 in)

Thirty dollars for a whole machine with three plate sets

This shelf holds five plate-only sets and seven complete machines, and this is the cheapest machine on it.

The machines, by price:

OSTBA, $29.99 — three plate sets: sandwich, waffle, grill · 750 W Dash Forged Iron, $34.99 — two sets: grill and griddle, with waffle plates sold separately at $13.49 Aigostar, $39.99 — three sets: panini, grill, waffle · 750 W, 120 V BLACK+DECKER, $48.99 — three sets: waffle, grill, sandwich Dash Graphite, $49.74 — two sets: grill and waffle Metine, $49.99 — three sets, each 10.8 × 5.5 inches · 1200 W · five browning levels GreenPan, $299.95 — two waffle sets, classic and Belgian, with an LCD and shade control

And three plate-only sets on this shelf cost more than this entire appliance: the Breville waffle plates at $64.95, the Cuisinart GR-WAFP at $56.26 and the GVODE at $38.99. The Breville plates alone weigh 1,619 grams against this machine’s 2,313.

Which is the honest frame for the whole shelf. If you already own a Cuisinart Griddler or a Breville Smart Grill, a plate set is the cheap way to add waffles. If you own neither, a complete three-plate machine starts at thirty dollars.

What the extra money buys further up: control. Only at least two of the fourteen machines here regulate browning — the Metine’s five levels and the GreenPan’s shade and crunch control — and only two publish a moat against overflow, which is the thing this page warns you about instead.

The overfill warning, which nobody else on this shelf gives

“Avoid overfilling the sandwich press to prevent latch damage.”

It is the only mention of the mechanism on this shelf, and the mechanism is where a press actually fails.

A press closes with a latch that pulls the two plates together, sized for the gap the plates are meant to leave. Overfill it and the latch takes the load of holding the lid against a filling that will not compress.

On a waffle plate it is worse, because waffle batter expands as it cooks — the steam that makes a waffle light is the same steam that pushes it outward. A plate filled to the pattern will overflow when the lid comes down.

So the failure is not a mess, it is a mechanism. Batter and cheese forced into the hinge set hard, and a press that will not close flat stops cooking the top face at all.

Two items on this shelf solve the problem rather than warning about it:

Breville, $64.95 — “the no-mess moat design feature prevents excess waffle batter spilling out and onto your counter top” GreenPan, $299.95 — “EXTRA-LARGE MOAT: to prevent batter from leaking, the large moat frames the plates on all sides”

A moat is a recessed channel outside the pattern that catches the overflow and sets it into a thin ring you snap off.

At least nine of the fourteen items here say nothing about overflow, and no item on this shelf publishes a batter quantity.

So the method on this machine is empirical: underfill the first waffle deliberately, watch how far it spreads, and use that as the measure. And wipe the rim while it is still warm — set batter on a cold plate is the worst cleaning job this shelf can produce.

The second half of the same bullet is the other candid line: “The outer surface gets hot during use—handle with care and avoid direct contact.” Which is why the cool-touch handle in bullet four matters: three machines here publish one — this, the Aigostar at $39.99 and the BLACK+DECKER at $48.99 (“heat-resistant handle”).

Seven hundred and fifty watts, and three of the seven machines sold on Amazon.com publish a figure

The wattages on this shelf:

1200 W — the Metine at $49.99, with “dual-sided heat conduction” 750 W — this, and the Aigostar at $39.99, which also publishes 120 V None — both Dash Flex Press machines, the BLACK+DECKER at $48.99, and the GreenPan at $299.95

So the most expensive machine here publishes no power figure and the cheapest does.

What wattage governs is not the final temperature — a thermostat sets that — but how fast the plates reach it and how fast they recover.

A press loses heat every time the lid opens and every time cold food lands on it. Power decides whether the second sandwich takes as long as the first, and 1200 W against 750 W is a sixty percent difference in that recovery — which is part of why the Metine can offer five browning levels and this offers none.

At 120 volts, 750 watts is 6.25 amperes — well inside a 15-amp circuit, with room for a kettle alongside. 1200 W is 10 amperes, which is most of a circuit.

And “double-sided heating” is the other half of the claim. Both plates heated means the food cooks from above and below at once, which is the whole difference between a press and a pan. Only this and the Metine state it explicitly.

What is missing is the cooking surface, and without it the wattage cannot be interpreted. 750 watts over a small plate is hotter than 750 watts over a large one.

Four of the twelve items sold on Amazon.com publish a surface: 10.8 × 5.5 inches per plate on the Metine (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, with no dimension.

The catalog footprint here is 101 × 237 × 215 mm — about 4 × 9.3 × 8.5 inches — which is consistent with a compact press stored on its end, and is the carton rather than the plate.

Compact, upright, and on anti-slip feet

“Compact and upright storage-friendly design fits easily in any kitchen” · “anti-slip feet ensure safety while cooking”

Upright storage is published by four machines here: this, the Aigostar at $39.99 (“locks shut and has a collectable cord”), the Metine at $49.99 (“stands upright for neat storage”) and the Dash Forged Iron at $34.99 (“this small Grill locks closed to store away”).

Which matters because a press is a flat, heavy object that is used occasionally, and on its end it occupies the depth of a book rather than the area of a chopping board.

The anti-slip feet are unique on this shelf, and they are not trivial on a press in particular. Closing a latch means pushing down and forward on a machine with a hot plate in it — and a press that slides is a press that slides towards you.

At 2,313 grams this is in the middle of the machines here: Aigostar 1,814 g · both Dash Flex Press 2,268 g · this 2,313 g · BLACK+DECKER 2,812 g · Metine 3,602 g · GreenPan 8,165 g.

The GreenPan is three and a half times this machine, which is what cast plates and a two-set storage drawer weigh.

What this page does not publish on storage is where the plates not in use go. Three plate sets means two sets are always out of the machine, and only one item on this shelf solves that: the GreenPan at $299.95 — “SIMPLE STORAGE: Belgian and Classic Waffle Plates store in the bottom of the unit.” The Dash waffle pack at $13.49 at least claims its plates “stack neatly in cabinets or drawers”.

Food-safe non-stick, with no chemistry named

“Each plate features a food-safe non-stick coating for effortless food release and easy cleanup. Dishwasher safe and simple to swap out.”

“Food-safe” is a claim with no content — a coating sold for cooking is food-safe by definition — and the page names no material.

Three of the twelve items sold on Amazon.com do name one:

GVODE, $38.99 — “boards sprayed with double-layer TEflon”, and “BPA free” Aigostar, $39.99 — “non-stick/teflon cooking surface” GreenPan, $299.95 — “Thermolon Volt, a diamond-infused ceramic nonstick… free of PFAS, PFOA, lead or cadmium”, which makes it the only non-fluoropolymer plate on this shelf

at least twelve of the fourteen items here say dishwasher safe. Two qualify it.

GVODE, $38.99: “Most of time, recommend hand wash with soap to protect the non-stick for long term use.” BLACK+DECKER, $48.99, the only care warning on the shelf: “Avoid metal utensils, abrasive cleaners, and aerosol cooking sprays to help protect the coating.”

That third item is the one nobody else mentions and it is the most useful. Aerosol cooking sprays carry propellant and lecithin, which polymerize on a hot non-stick plate into a gummy varnish that no dishwasher removes — and on a waffle pattern it collects in the corners. Brush a little melted butter or oil instead.

The metal-utensil point applies here in full too. A sandwich that sticks gets a knife to it, and one cut in a non-stick film propagates from that point for the rest of the plate’s life — which on a machine whose plates are its whole value is the expensive failure.

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, and a press is at its most vulnerable the moment you finish with it.

What is not published

No cooking surface, as above, which also leaves the 750-watt figure uninterpretable.

No browning or temperature control of any kind. Only two of the seven machines sold on Amazon.com have one: the Metine’s five levels (“1–2 for gentle warming, 3–5 for toasting and searing”) and the GreenPan’s “ADJUSTABLE SHADE & CRUNCH CONTROL” with an XL LCD and a one-touch dial.

No indicator light. The BLACK+DECKER publishes a green ready light that “cycles on and off with the thermostat” and tells you to “wait for the green light before adding food”; the Aigostar publishes a red power light and a green preheat light. This machine has neither — so preheat by the clock, about five minutes, and judge doneness by time.

No timer. The Metine is the only page here with times: “level 3 for about 8 minutes and level 5 for about 5 minutes”, and the only one that warns the light is not a doneness signal.

No moat, as above, on the one machine that warns about overfilling.

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 on this shelf.

No plate material. Two items name one: the GVODE’s “food grade aluminum” and the GreenPan’s “CAST PLATES”. Mass is what keeps a plate hot when cold batter lands on it.

No drip tray, where the Dash Forged Iron at $34.99 publishes one: “the Drip Tray channels grease away”. On a machine sold for “crispy bacon” and “juicy steak”, the fat goes somewhere.

No 180-degree hinge. Both Dash Flex Press machines open flat — “opens a full 180 degrees to lie flat, creating an indoor grill on your countertop” — which doubles the surface and is the clearest functional difference on this shelf. The BLACK+DECKER explicitly forbids it: “Always operate the unit in the closed position.”

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: $30 at the American Amazon shop.

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