Sunvivi 3-in-1 Sandwich Maker with Glass Top

I received this electric sandwich maker and immediately put it to the test. One of my favorite comfort foods is grilled sandwiches. My Mum used to make them for me, even when I was an adult living in my own house. She had a special tool that she brought from England with her when we came to the states. My sister and I used to call them flying saucers because they would make the bread round and cut the crust off automatically. When you put all the stuff in the middle it would mound it up like a flying saucer. Any way I have not found one of those tools to make my own, so I figured this sandwich press would be the closest thing to it, so I ordered it. This is my experience with it.
First of all, it arrived well packed and had zero damage. It had the sandwich press plates installed in the unit and the waffle plates and the Panini plates were separate in a foam baggie. I like the dark navy-blue color and the glass top. Unfortunately, you cannot see anything through the glass top due to the top plate being in the way, which I think is kind of a bummer. The directions are very vague and are mostly about safety stuff, there are no recipes or even instructions to tell you what to do and how to prepare your food. I had seen my Mum do it a thousand times, so I knew I had to butter the bread on the outside. There is no ON/OFF switch, you just have to unplug the unit to turn it off when you are done. At the very least it should have a self-timer or auto shut off feature. When you plug it in you better be ready with your sandwich ingredients, because it does not take long to heat up.
I tried the sandwich maker plates first and found that you cannot put many ingredients in your sandwich or you will have trouble closing the machine. Basically, a slice of cheese and one piece of sandwich meat. I made such a mess and it was smoking like crazy. There is no timer, so you just have to experiment with what works for you. 3-4 minutes is what I found worked. The sandwich maker plates do not work with crust on the bread, and it does not cut the bread in half, you will need to do that after it cooks.
Not feeling successful with this machine, I decided to try the plates with the linear grill lines or the Panini plates as I call them. The results this time with these plates redeemed the machine in my opinion. Wait for the green light to go out and set your sandwich fixings on the bottom plate and close the lid. 3 minutes worked perfectly for me, but I guess it depends on what ingredients you are using. It made the perfect grilled sandwich with melty cheese and ham slices. You need to wait for it to cool down before eating it because it will be very hot inside, but it will be delicious.
I have not tried the waffle plate; I will let my wife have a go with that one..
Bottom line.. The sandwich plates suck The Panini plates work great. I wish it had an on/off switch and a timer. The plates are truly nonstick and are very easy to clean. The instructions are pretty useless, unless you have forgotten that you should not use electrical items with wet hands. I wish they had provided some suggestions and procedures for using the machine, but Oh well I guess I will keep experimenting with different ingredients. Despite all these down sides I would still recommend it because it does make delicious Paninis....

This 3 in 1 kitchen gadget is a nice to have, functional and can become an indispensable device for your cooking. Primarily, it is a waffle grill maker. And with the 2 additional interchangeable grill plates, it can convert to a sandwich or pannini grill. The grill plates are easy to change, non-stick and easy to clean and wash. It heats up quite quickly and within minutes, the grill is ready for your task. The waffle grill plate is somewhat redundant since the default top and bottom grill surfaces is already shaped for waffles. The sandwich grill plate is a bit small so you may have to trim the sandwich edges to fit. The pannini grill plate is just of plain surface which can be used for other grilling usages. While using, heat is contained inside and is not transferred out to the grill surface top or bottom. I tested it to make waffle and sandwich but not testing the pannini grill plate. For waffle, it is ready crisp and brown only within a few minutes. The same is for sandwich but I had to trim the sandwich edges to make it fit. The manual give ideas that it can be used with bacon or steaks but I doubt that the device is that functional with these usage. First, with bacon, pannini grill plate can be used but you can only grill 2 bacon strips at a time and this would be so much slower than using your pan over conventional stove. For steaks, unless it's sliced steak strips, regular steak cuts of 1 inch or more would be too thick for the grill to close properly. The grill exterior is nice with glass top and is quite compact for your cooking top. Price point is about average. Overall, it is a nice kitchen apparatus to have and is quite functional for your waffle and sandwich grilling.

Excellent product! The toaster heats up quickly, browns evenly, and is very practical to use. Easy to clean and takes up little space. I highly recommend it!

This is my third Sunvivi sandwich press. They are all similar but this slightly bigger than others I have been using, which is great. It’s also the most attractive of the three I own. We use them nearly everyday. They can take the most mundane of ingredients and turn them into something special, without using mayonnaise.

Today I was going to use some sliced sourdough bread which I buy expressly to press in these sandwich makers but discovered that the sourdough loaf had started to turn so used some fresh Bulkie rolls instead. As it happens that’s my wife’s preferred bread.

I first made myself a sandwich with three slices of turkey breast and two slices of mozzarella, which proved to be just a tiny bit too thick for this press, which surprised me. So I had to hold it closed (not locked) while it cooked. I have decided not to include the photos of that sandwich in this review although the results were pretty delicious. My point in mentioning this is that these Sunvivi presses are not super robust: they are a consumer product and not industrial strength. Our first such press broke because I tried to make sandwiches that were just too thick.

In the photos and video you can see my wife’s preferred lunch: two slices of salami with mozzarella in a Bulkie Roll.

The green light goes off and on. The directions aren’t really clear about what that means exactly but with some practice you’ll get the hang of it.

This is the best waffle/sandwich maker I’ve ever ordered! Works great, made waffles with it just this morning! They came out
Perfect!! The absolute BEST part is the plates that detach from the baking unit itself for easy clean up!! Dream cook item! 3 in 1 cooking, size is small enough for easy storage, so simple to use and cook time is quick! Definitely recommend!!!