Nordic Ware Microwave Egg Boiler

This works like a charm. I eat more hardboiled eggs than any others, and I hate to cook them on the stove - I'm never sure if I will over- or under-cook them. The shells come off easily with this. I'm as happy with this as I was with my old Oster. With this, you are not buying another appliance. It relies on the power from you microwave oven. So when it's done, it turns off. It cooks by not the amount of water you put in, but your microwave timer to shut the power off when they are ready. My first batch of hardboiled eggs I cooked at 10-minutes, and they came out perfectly. The shells come off easily, and you do not even need to poke a hole in it before cooking. And I've yet had one break open while cooking. I think the only way one would break open while cooking would be if the shell has a weak point, such as a fine crack. I would recommend this to anyone who has a microwave oven and loves hard- or soft-boiled eggs. Simplicity at it's best. And it was only nine bucks when I bought it. ================== ADDENDUM: I'm not going to change my rating of this, but it does take some experimentation. With a regular egg cooker, you put the amount of water in that is used for soft-boiled or hard-boiled eggs, and they either shut off or buzz to let you know they're done. All the water evaporates. This cooking relies entirely on the wattage of your microwave oven, and your estimated cooking time. When your eggs are finished, you will still have plenty of very hot water in the cooker. Be careful. They evidently put more thought into the aesthetics of the cooker than the safety. So, one must expect to experiment to get the eggs they want. I originally said that I took a chance and set it for ten minutes to get hard boil eggs, and they came out beautifully. But as I keep experimenting with the times, I discovered something I didn't expect. After cooking four eggs for my ten minute hardboiled egg supply, I quickly took them out of the oven and showered them with cold water until I was able to carry them to the fridge. Those four eggs did not come out as hard-boiled, but soft-boiled (though fairly excellent soft-boiled eggs). So in closing, plan to do some testing until you get your times right, including the cool-down times. When I got my hardboiled at ten minutes, I let them cool down normally. Gosh, I never thought I could write so much about an inexpensive egg-cooker. ================== ADDENDUM, Jan 2014: I have had this for almost exactly one year, and use it once or twice a week. The rim around the bottom of the cover and around the top of the base is becoming distorted. It is beginning to bulge out a bit on both sides, so it doesn't fit together quite as it did new. Twice I've come back to it and the cover had come off while cooking. It's a nice little egg cooker, but its life expectancy is up for debate. HARD-BOILED EGGS: I cook nothing but hard boiled eggs. A good starting point on getting great hardboiled eggs is to set your microwave oven to exactly ten-minutes. Since they are extremely hot when the ten minutes is up, they are still cooking. Let them cool down to room temperature to end up with perfect hardboiled eggs (don't put them in the fridge as they will cool down quickly as soft-boiled eggs.).

This Microwave Egg Boiler is the coolest thing! I don't know how $14.65 could possibly buy more joy! It works perfectly! The eggs never taste like they were cooked in a microwave. They actually taste better than when I boil eggs in a large stock pot on the stove. Now I enjoy perfectly hard boiled eggs every day. The best part is the eggs are super easy to peel, and they taste so much better when eaten immediately. We used to boil a couple dozen eggs and eat them throughout the week. By day #2 they were already cold and rubbery. But this Microwave Egg Boiler makes cooking hard boiled eggs so fast and easy that I now cook them "to order" so to speak. When I want hard boiled eggs, they're done in 9 minutes, and I eat them immediately. All you have to do is, after removing the cooked eggs from the microwave, place them in a cold water bath for 30 seconds. Then they're ready to eat. They're still a little warm, but not hot by any means. And the egg is so tender, fresh, and delicious that way. The instructions do a great job of recommending cooking times based on your microwave's wattage, but you may want to tweak that a little. If the yolks are a little soft for your taste, add a minute to the cooking time. No big whoop. TIP: Use "medium" eggs. Don't use extra-large eggs. Think about it. This thing is designed to hard boil "typical" eggs. If you put extra-large eggs in there, it takes longer to cook the center, and by that time the outside is over-cooked. If you use medium eggs, the recommended cooking times (based on microwave wattage) will be much more reliable. Here's what I do... I put 4 medium eggs in the cooker, mic on high for 9 minutes, and when the timer goes off, I leave the microwave door closed for 2 minutes. This is the recommended "cooling down" time in the instructions so that you don't try to open the cooker when there is still too much steam inside. By keeping the door closed for 2 minutes, the eggs continue to cook a little more during the cool-down period. Think of it as putting them on "simmer." Then, after the 2 minutes, put the eggs right into a cold water bath for 30 seconds. So the total cooking time, for me, using a 1,000-watt microwave, is 11 minutes (9 minutes on high, plus 2 minute cool-down period). Perfect eggs! Every time! One more thing... If you take your Microwave Egg Cooker to work and use it in your break room, you will never have a shortage of conversation. EVERYBODY will want one, and they will have a thousand questions. When people see it, they're mesmerized by the clever design. I couldn't be happier with this thing.

Since most people will have read both the the rave reviews as well as the very negative ones, I'll stick to what I see as solutions to some of the drawbacks. Some of these solutions have been mentioned previously by other reviewers. 1. It is difficult to see the fill line when adding water. I've solved this by putting a couple of very small dots with a permanent maker just above the fill line. I can't see this extremely small amount of pigment being dangerous to one's health. 2. It is difficult and dangerous to try to remove the lid after cooking without scalding oneself. Inserting a knife to gently pry off the lid or running the whole unit under cold water are good ideas suggested in other reviews. I have solved this problem by placing a pen in the little hole at the top and using it to gently tilt the lid off. Pretty well anything that fits in the hole should give the same result. 3. Removing the cooker from the microwave could result in scalding if the unit is tipped in the process. I haven't tried it, but I think that placing a microwave-safe plate or microwave saucepan under the cooker might make it a lot safer to remove. To test to see whether a plate is microwaveable, place it and a cup of water in the microwave for a few minutes. If the plate gets warm or hot, it should not be used in the microwave. 3. It is ULTRA-IMPORTANT to make sure that the lid is properly seated all the way around and that there are absolutely no gaps. It must fit tightly or there will be problems. Exploding eggs, I believe, are due to failure to pay enough attention to this step. What happens is that the steam escapes from the gaps between top and bottom sections and instead of being steamed the eggs are being microwaved. One will recall the good old days when attempts to microwave eggs led to explosions or rubbery, foul-tasting eggs. Eggs, even when pierced to avoid explosions, cannot be cooked by microwave alone. They must be boiled or steamed. 4. The lid could be better designed to make for easier removal. Nordicware could add handles to the lid, and also a larger base. However, this would spoil the cute design, which is probably why they haven't done it. 5. Some people have suggested that the lid be threaded. I believe that this would be dangerous to do. The present lid acts as a safety valve in case the steam pressure inside gets too high. If the lid were threaded, it is possible for the whole cooking "egg" to explode, with potentially disastrous results. All in all, a very good product with a few drawbacks. However, I think that most of these drawbacks can be dealt with. I give it five stars for cooking excellence, but I'm deducting one star because of the drawbacks. UPDATE: Afer using the cooker for a couple of months, I discovered that the top part warped and so would not seal properly to the bottom part, which seal is absolutely essential. In addition, I found myself spending lots of time checking the seal from a few inches away, and still it wasn't sealed properly. I now own a Cuiinart electric cooker, and it does the job perectly. Of course, it is more expensive and needs to be plugged in, but the better results are much worth it.

Outstanding purchase! I ordered the 2-piece set, although I have only used the two-cavity egg poacher thus far. The first time I used it, I wasn’t as pleased with the results. What I realized was that I had 1) used too much water and 2) hadn’t arranged the two-cavities equidistant to the center of the microwave. By that I mean that on the turntable, originally I put them in like a slice of pie and they didn’t cook evenly. When I arranged them like they are the crust of the pie along the edge of the turntable, then it is perfection. Benefits: 1. Cooks 2 eggs in 1 minute 2. No mess from exploding egg pieces in microwave 3. Easy cleanup of poacher Prior to using this poacher, I did typically microwave eggs. It can be difficult to get cooked egg off ceramic dishes even if using bread or a tortilla to contain much of the egg. Highly recommended time saver!!!

Update 4/28/2022: I bought this product in 2014 and it is still making hard-boiled eggs flawlessly, today. I used a magic marker to mark the water level on the inside of the base so I don't have to measure it everytime. There is a raised mark on the inside, but it's white on white, so it's difficult to see in a dimly lit room. I fill it with really hot water from the tap. Eggs come out more consistent time after time if you start with the hottest tap water that you can. The egg will be very hot if you remove it too quickly from the microwave oven. You might want to wear kitchen gloves. I just soak my hands in ice cold tap water and then I've got about 10 seconds to move the egg cooker from the microwave to the sink before my hands start to burn. If it's still too hot to move this way, then it's still too hot to take the eggs out. The yolks are still cooking for a while after the microwave is done. The sooner you try to cool the eggs, the softer the yolks will be. Often there is a nice vacuum seal around the lid when it's done cooking. It can be difficult to get the lid off after the egg cooker has had a chance to cool down a bit. It has to do with the inner contents cooling and the air inside the cooker contracting to create a vacuum inside the egg cooker. The lid refuses to come off easily -- sometimes. Just put cold tap water in the little hole at the top of the cooker and the lid will pop right off after a couple of seconds. Then turn the base upside down. Carefully (to avoid cracking the shells) pour the hard boiled eggs into the inverted lid and turn the shelf upside down on the upside down base. The inverted lid will be fairly stable when sitting in the middle of the 4 egg positions when the lid is inverted. Turn on the tap water (cold) and let it run for a few minutes into the inverted lid to cool the hot hard boiled eggs. I find this eliminates the need for another bowl to cool the eggs in. This inverted stack of parts is also a great position to let everything drain and dry after you're done with the egg cooker. End of update. I LOVE this!! Makes 4 hard boiled eggs, easily. If you handle the eggs carefully, then they won't break or crack during cooking. If they don't break or crack, then I don't always wash this after using it. The water in the bottom does a good job of sterilizing the surfaces inside.

Great for cooking my dogs daily egg. I scramble one egg and divide it between the two sides and it makes for two meals mixed with her dry food. Works great at 33 seconds and easy to clean.

First of all, the dual egg poacher I received was heavily scratched up, suggesting that it had been used before and returned. I ordered new and that's not what I received. Granted, I could have asked for a replacement so this says nothing about the quality of the product if it were new, and thus my rating has nothing to do with this. I just wanted to mention it. Moving on... I shouldn't have ordered any of these products at all because I forgot that these are plastic and will likely leech some level of toxin into your food. So why leave a bad review if it's my fault for ordering plastic items in the first place? Because they're still potentially harmful and it's not like you're mad aware of this in the item description. Typically, plastic items distributed for food purposes must show the type of plastic it is made out of somewhere on the item. These can be seen as a number with arrows around it. The dual egg poacher shows a 5 but the other item shows nothing. The other item also has a glossy finish to it and the dual poacher does not. Red flags are going up. While it's true (5) polypropylene is, according to the FDA, "generally" or "typically" considered microwave safe, this type of vagueness leaves a lot to be desired. This is called "Double Speak" and therefore can be translated as: "it may leech a little bit of toxins into your food that probably won't hurt you if you don't do it all the time", or "it leeches LESS toxins than other plastics". This is how I translate a statement like this in the most generous way possible. But how do they know what "general" or "typical" is? And what level of toxin is safe to consume? And what if you use it everyday for breakfast? Some would argue that toxins are in everything and that, therefore, it's safe consume small amounts of it. Well, I agree that toxins are in almost everything but I disagree that we should throw caution to the wind. That being said, try putting an egg into a BOROSILICATE glass bowl and heating it up in the microwave. Voila! No plastic leeching ...and you get to keep your money. This is MUCH safer. No plastic container necessary.

These little items work very well. I've used one of these microwave egg boilers for years. I've normally done four eggs at a time -- its capacity, but two have worked just as well. Once you know how long you need to set your particular microwave for how you like your eggs, you'll get consistency every time. And that's the key with boiling eggs. Our previous egg boiler finally needed replacing and I bought this.It looks exactly the same. But it clearly isn't made as well as the previous one. First, the plastic is thinner; it's an indication of cutting back to make it as cheaply as possible. It effects the working of the thing to the extent that it's VERY hot when you take it out of the microwave. You'll need pot two holders, one in each hand, to remove it without burning yourself. That wasn't an issue an all with my previous one. It felt very warm, but could take it out of the microwave with my bare hands. Secondly, there is supposed to be a water fill line inscribed on the inside of the bottom piece, but there isn't. (The directions assure me it's supposed to be there, and there was a fill line on our previous egg boiler). That's not a big deal for me because I know from the previous egg boiler how much water to put in it. But for somebody who never had one before, they will wonder, and may have to experiment. (Fill to roughly 1/2 inch below the silver egg holder.) I'm not sure the one I got somehow missed getting that inscribed on its inside, or if they ALL are missing the fill line. Thirdly, when I used this the other day for the second time, the silver tray expanded when it got hot to the point that it was stuck into the bottom water reservoir. (That didn't happen the first time I used it.) That was an issue when the eggs were done and I wanted to remove the tray (with the eggs in it, as I've always done), and briefly run them under cold water to loosen the shells. I ran the cold water over the tray/bottom together, then removed the eggs, but I still couldn't get the tray separated from the bottom -- and the bottom was still full of near boiling water. I had to dump the water out through the little steam holes in the tray. I finally got the two pieces separated by prying a knife under the edge of the tray. (I guess I could have waited a while for the thing to cool and contract, but it seemed like that was going to take quite a while, and I wanted to clean up and put the thing away.) In short, these little items do boil eggs nicely, but not nearly as nicely as they used to. I guess that's just another indication of manufacturers cutting corners to save money. Too bad.