Right off the top, I love yet loath gadgets. I only bought this because of the incredible deal on it, so 'why not', right?If you don't want to read a bunch of extra stuff then simply.... this actually does make me eat breakfast, it's just too easy not too.Now for the long part of it.Space wise it's smaller than a toaster over, but just about the size of a small pop up toaster. You do need some clearance on the sides (if you have a small work area, this matters to you) to slide out the egg cooker/separator things. Overall, the footprint isn't that bad, especially if you have a space to store it away.Basic usage and tips. Read through the reviews and you'll get the gist of it, that's what I did. But in summary, I use an oil sprayer that I fill with whatever oils I choose to use, and I mist the egg part (not doing this results in sticking and left over egg 'skin'). The machine takes no time to pre-heat, so if you need to microwave a frozen sausage patty, start that first. The lights seem counterintuitive considering the 'pre-heat' light comes on when it's heated, but there you are. From here you decide what goes in, add ons, bread choice, what have you. Before inflation doubled the price, the best thing I found was the whole wheat burger buns as the bread choice. At the time they were .88 and fit the rings perfectly (this is no longer the case). I'd started with canadian bacon (way to expensive for what it is) then switched to frozen pre-cooked sausage patties. A minute in the microwave was good enough (45 seconds was better but took finding an extra button to press) and the machine was already set to go.Place bottom bun, sausage, close that part, then add egg to top part. How do you like your egg? Use part of the shell to break the yoke and swirl it around a bit, or if you want to mess up another dish, scramble before hand. Do not add top bun, just don't! Let cook for about two minutes or so (check how done the egg is) and now season if you didn't before, unplug machine, add top bun and close. This way you can walk off and finish getting ready, whatever, the come back and slide out egg ring thing, take out sandwich, and NOW is when you can add cheese. Don't add cheese before hand unless you are using something other than sliced version.I top mine with salsa and this is how I get great results every time. I mean, this isn't fast food results, and is always messy, but good enough for me.Someone asked and at the time it was about .77 a sandwich. It's a bit more now thanks to inflation but still cheaper than getting take away. That is unless you are grabbing a $1 deal somewhere, then by all means, that's honestly a better option probably.Things that angered me in the beginning: (I say 'angered' cause people pay $40 for this)The egg tray is temperamental. Large egg? = mess. Maybe it will spill over, maybe not. This is the reason to not only make sure the plate is well heated but that you don't even try to put a top bun/bread on it for a couple of minutes.Short power cord. Seriously, it's annoying.One of the main reasons I could only suggest this thing to someone is because they have kids and would like them to be able to make something without using the stove. However, this also means they prob won't take the time to do it properly and just throw an egg in and put the bread on top, worse yet, even the cheese and just walk away. Both of those things will be burnt to the sides of the machine and maybe spill onto your counter.There you have it. I wanted to dislike this thing as using it I said "I can do all of this with just one pan", but it serves a purpose. It's a no fuss devise that does what's indented but with caveats.It encourages me to eat breakfast (that I don't normally do) and others can use it with a bit of learning curve. I'd fully expect to see an overflow mess on the counter when I got home if you have others who don't take basic precautions. But then again, they probably didn't burn down the house with it.I am a senior who has to cook for two, and there is little I hate doing more than cooking. I suppose I could be good at it if I enjoyed it, but I heavily depend on my Ninja Foodi to throw things together for dinner. My partner, who doesn’t want to be bothered with anything, microwaves his lunches, and it’s your typical over-priced, over-processed stuff that creates a ton of plastic trash. Also, I just don’t like the way food cooks in a microwave so I avoid it myself.So I watched YouTube videos of people using this little egg sandwich maker and bought a Kindle book with recipes. So much advice from so many people! All say “It takes trial and error to find out what you like.” So I thought I’d just ruin something to take this tidy little machine on a maiden voyage. I brushed a thin layer of olive oil on the rings and griddle parts before I cooked my first sandwich. We haven’t bought muffins or bagels yet, but I did buy a set of stainless steel cookie cutters that has a 4” ring in the set so I can cut bread or tortilla or other circles. But when the cooker came, I was too excited even to fool with that. I cut a piece of that wide rye bread with the rounded edges in half to make one sandwich, fully expecting leakage because the bread didn’t extend to the edges of the rings. Put in the bread half, a slice of ham, a slice of cheese; closed down the top ring and cracked in an egg, using an edge of the shell to break the yolk. (I am confused why Hamilton Beach’s instructions say to prick the yolk with a fork, but then says not to use metal utensils because they’ll damage the non-stick coating.) Following advice from others, I didn’t put the top piece of bread on the raw egg until the last minute or so—they say it keeps the bread from having egg soaked into it—but that was probably unnecessary and prevented the top piece of bread from being as toasty as the bottom one.Initial impression: Easy. Tasty. This thing is forgiving as long as you remember to use oven mitts and give your cooked sandwich time to cool down some—especially if you cook it a little too long, as I did. Also, next time I make TWO of these, I’m going to scramble one egg and mix in a few veggies fritata-like, divide it between the two top sandwich rings, then put the cheese on top before putting on the bread instead of putting it in the bottom ring. Or maybe put half a cheese slice on the bottom and half on top. The book I bought with egg sandwich maker recipes does the cheese on top of the egg, and I think that’s a good plan to keep egg out of the bread while ensuring the top and bottom pieces cook evenly.People are nothing but creative with this egg sandwich maker. Just search for Hamilton Beach egg maker on YouTube. My mother used to make a marvelous enchilada casserole she got out of some 1950s magazine: four lightly turned-in-oil corn tortillas in a layer, a layer of chopped onion, a layer of sharp grated cheddar cheese; repeat for two more layers; then top it all off with a can of Hormel or Old El Paso chili without beans and more cheese. I’m going to try adapting that recipe to this egg cooker to make little dinner enchiladas for the two of us. The worst that will happen is that it will make a mess and it won’t cook quite right, but I’m game to experiment. Now I just have to try to wean Robert off his Jimmy Deans, which always seem to be sold out…and he ought to be able to manage it with this cooker.UPDATE: I use this almost every day. Street taco sized tortillas work great in it, the corn ones less well than the flour. The La Banderita flour tortillas curl up the sides a bit and cook to a satisfying crunchiness with sides that help keep the ingredients from sliding around. I make two with real bacon bits and cheese and an egg on top of each, then flip one over on top of the other for a perfect two-egg sandwich. I'm still experimenting with how best to time cooking the eggs so they're not overdone and rubbery, but this little appliance is great!This sandwich cooker is great especially for the price. Easy to clean with its non stick surfaces. It is recommended that you cook your egg in it before adding the top of the english muffin due to the weight of the upper part of the machine pushing down on the muffin into the egg which causes the egg to rise around the muffin and in my opinion does not make a good breakfast sandwich.My down side is this... If you have to pre cook your meats before adding to your sandwich, why wouldnt you just cook your egg and have your english muffin or bread toasting in the mean time? Does this thing save time?? Not at all, I can make a breakfast sandwich in the same ammount of time to be honest, however, when im cooking in a frying pan, I have to watch my food to be certain it does not get over cooked or burned. With this, you set a temp and a time. When the timer is up, it beeps so you know it is done. The reason I gave this 4 full stars is the engineering and quality of the machine. The fact it cleans easier than a frying pan and it makes 2 sandwiches at a time. If your making bacon or sausage for the sandwich, it just makes more sense to fry your egg as the frying pan is still hot, dont have to preheat.Overall great idea, but only practical if your using precooked meats or just having a plain egg and cheese sandwich.Some people may swear by this product, this is my experience and opinion only. I was not paid to do this review.Absolutely loving this device.Are you kidding me?The main trick to enjoy this appliance is to follow the instructions that say PREHEAT the appliance first. If you ignore this step you will have a leaky egg mess. Don't ignore this step.Another tip is to spray the egg disk surface with olive oil PAM spray very lightly. Eggs slide off awesome.My recipe is:So all you do is buttered English muffin half on bottom, stack with circle cut provolone cheese. Then stack with precooked bacon (the one you buy precooked at grocer) or a slab of meat like a salami slice or balogne. Close the layer with middle disc. Now crack an egg on the egg layer and salt and slightly break yolk. Then cover egg with too half of buttered English muffin. Close entire contraption. 5 minutes. Done. Before you open the contraption, slide out the egg slider tab. Then open it and remove the disc layers. Use a spatula to grab the entire muffin breakfast.I would love to show a video but Amazon platform disabled the video and pictures sharing during covid.I've this far used this appliance 7 times. Works amazing. Easy to clean. The unit does get hot so be careful . The tabs to slide out the layers are hot but not too had to use your bare fingers to handle.I only wish there were a 4-sandwich maker model because doing two at a time takes a while when your need to make 6.Here it is, March of 2018 and I've finally used this unit for the first time. I purchased it late in 2015. Until now, it has been under original factory seal, in its box. Rather than continue to spend more than what breakfast wraps are at a famous coffee chain, I decided yesterday to get the items and test drive this handy little maker. It's perfect!!! I used English Muffins, slices of ham, cheese and real eggs for our sandwiches. My husband commutes down to the city during the week, and needs something which is quick and easy to take with him. Wraps and sandwiches have been his mainstay for many years. Tomorrow, I think I'll try sausage patties. You have to use precooked meats, and I lightly toasted the English Muffins...enough to just crispen them. Then I put the bottom half of the muffin in with cheese strips (trimmed thin pieces) and ham slice on top...let that heat until the cheese melted (a minute or so). Then cracked a whole egg into the egg ring, and let that cook for a couple of minutes until it was almost done. Then put a couple of strips of cheese over that and then the top half of the muffin. I let it cook for about 2 minutes. Pulled the divider out that separates the egg from the bottom half of muffin, and let it cook for another minute. To keep them warm, I removed the sandwiches very easily with a spatula, wrapped them in foil until time for my husband to leave for work (20 minutes or so).My husband suggested to get it, but at first I wasn't sure that we need it. Still, I ordered it. It arrived super quickly and after using it the same day, I couldn't be any happier..It is so simple and breakfast can be cooked just in few minutes. We use it weekends at breakfast time, but also sometimes when we just want quick bite and we are not hungry enough for regular meal. You can make healthy choices with ingredients, so it doesn't have to be sausage, bacon and similar all the time. We are switching, so it's not always the same. It's super easy to clean, and never had issue with egg spilling over. I agree that sliced cheese may leak, but not an issue really. Highly recommend it.I can make two english muffin or frozen pancake breakfast sandwiches, eat them, drink a coffee, and clean up in under 15 minutes start to finish.If you get maple syrup, frozen pancakes, and frozen breakfast sausage patties (which you can pre-cook and store for a couple days in the fridge) you can make a replica of a certain griddle breakfast sandwich that tastes as good or better.You need to plug this in to let it preheat so the egg cooks and fills the cracks enough it doesn't run out. This works. The only reason I don't give it 5 stars is because everyone knows at least one person thats going to forget to unplug this appliance. Especially children. It will remain on until its physically unplugged. It gets quite hot actually. I wouldn't want to test how it makes out plugged in for a entire day or a week if you went away. I'm amazed the timer doesn't shut it off! The timer is no different than an egg timer sitting on the counter. It has no function other than make a beep when its done and leaves the unit on and heating.Makes great sandwiches, just make sure you're aware not to leave it plugged in.