Buy Factory-Reconditioned Ronco Inventions ST4000R Showtime Indoor Rotisserie and BarbecueFactory-Reconditioned Ronco Inventions ST4000R Showtime Indoor Rotisserie and Barbecue Product Description:
- Reconditioned by the manufacturer to "like new" condition
- Pause setting permits meats to be browned on spit
- Tray fits atop rotisserie for steaming foods
- Includes heavy gloves, 12 elastic ties
- Instructional video; 6-month factory warranty
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
81 of 84 people found the following review helpful.
What a great gadget!
By Andrew Gray
Many gadgets for the kitchen are less than essential. Some are pretty foolish. But the Showtime Indoor Rotisserie & BBQ from Ronco is a machine that our family uses, I would guess, about three times a week. Not only does it do a real job, it performs tasks that we can't otherwise accomplish in our kitchen. For example, a bread machine is a convenience, but not essential for baking a loaf of bread. The rotisserie grill, however, turns out food that I could not produce any other way.
Although we've mostly done chickens, we have also cooked chicken pieces, bratwurst, beef roasts, pork roasts and a leg of lamb. We successfuly roasted a 13 lb turkey. We even cooked frozen salmon filets in the basket after a quick basting with herbed mayonnaise and it came out delicious.
The food quality is, simply put, fantastic. The whole chickens are far superior to even the most conscientiously roasted poultry. The dark meat is tender and fully cooked, the white meat moist and savory, and the seasoned, crisped skin is a nutritionist's worst nightmare. A cheap, rather fatty pork shoulder roast came out with much of the fat rendered away and an even doneness that made for delicious eating.
Speaking of fat, Ron Popiel markets this machine on his informercials as causing the "fat to run off," thereby delivering some kind of health advantage. Well, the fat does drip continuously, but the poultry and meats cooked in the rotisserie are plenty greasy. Please be aware that this is certainly part of the reason the chicken is so good! I don't think there is any more or less fat in a rotisseried chicken than in a roast bird.
If you don't want to use the skewers or rods, you can cook foods in an adjustable basket. For example, we put in several bratwurst, set the top of basket down so that the links are tightly in place, set the timer for 20 minutes, and come back to sausages that are fully cooked, lighly crisped on the skin, and bursting with juices.
I really like the engineering on this machine. The controls are very simple. The setup is uncomplicated and intuitive. You have only one heat setting, and adjust the time to control doneness. A single timer dial works both to set time and turn the machine on and off. In an age where a TV remote comes with four dozen buttons, this kind of plain, understable usability is, I think, a real blessing.
I bought the reconditioned model from Amazon and haven't had any trouble so far. Hey, if a machine comes out of the factory with a defect (and some are going to), why not get one that has been diagnosed and repaired? At the price savings it's really hard to go wrong. I'd recommend the Showtime Rotisserie to anyone.
95 of 101 people found the following review helpful.
Set it, but *DON'T* forget it!
By A Customer
I'll admit - I haven't had as much fun with a kitchen appliance since I was eight and got an easy bake oven! The Showtime really is about showmanship: wonderful aromas in your kitchen and meat dripping tantalizingly as it rotates.
While this unit is working, I won't be buying supermarket rotisserie chicken again! For 1/3 the price, I can have a bigger chicken, that hasn't been sitting under hot lamps waiting for purchase, nor getting soggy skinned in the bag on the way home.
On the minus side, ******do NOT***** take Ron Popeil's informercial "literally". "Set it and forget it"? You are going to want to watch the oven while it's roasting, because an improperly skewered or improperly balanced load could result in smoke or fire...or if what's cooking has a lot of grease, it could conceivably overfill the drip tray and spill out of the oven bottom...consider it an appliance due attention and respect, just like a deep fryer or a waffle iron.
As for taking up a tiny footprint in your kitchen: well...the Showtime covers a small area, being about 10X14X14, but as a practical matter, you need considerably more space. The literature says not to put it under a low cabinet! (It needs 8" clearance on top and around sides/back to avoid possible heat damage or fire to your surroundings!) And you probably want to have about a foot of free countertop in front of it, as well. The tempered glass door slides under it neatly enough, but when it's time to pull your entree out, it's going to be dripping those lovely juices all over your floor, unless you've got a plate right up to the unit to drop your meal onto. For our tiny kitchen, the solution is to use my rolling cart's cutting board surface, after I've done my other dinner prep - that way, I can keep the Showtime well away from heat-damageable stuff.
Note that this unit appears to be disappearing in favor of a newer model with a digital display. "Big deal" ...but the fact that this is the older model is something to keep in mind when doing a price comparison.
50 of 52 people found the following review helpful.
Great food, Awful customer service
By Mark A Flaherty
I have had my unit for over a year. It makes the best food even better, the problem is when something goes wrong as the company will never reply to their Emails. Mine first broke on Thanksgiving day. I Emailed them requesting information on replacement parts, No reply. 2 months ago the timer handle broke so I Emailed them again, 2 Emails 0 replies. If you buy the item you will enjoy it until it breaks.
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