George Foreman vs. Hamilton Beach Indoor Grills

Okay, you cooks, give me your opinions! Howie wants to get me an indoor grill for Christmas (yes, I really want one!). I'm looking at two:

Hamilton Beach HealthSmart Contact Grill #25325
102 square inches of grill surface

vs.

George Foreman contact grill #GRP4
72 square inches of grill surface

Both have dishwasher-safe, removeable grill plates. That's the big thing I'm wanting...That and a grill which cooks different thicknesses of meats well. I grill a lot of chicken breasts, so that's a biggie.

I had one of the tiny George Foreman Champ grills and loved it. Eventually its thermostate conked out on me and I got a Hamilton Beach contact grill to replace it. I tried the HB because it gave me more grill space for the money. I never was impressed with the HB grill, though. It didn't really crispy-brown meats like the little GF did. Also, the bottom of the meat tended to be done before the top was and thick pieces of meat didn't always cook evenly.

I'm wondering if HB has addressed those issues. Who among you has either of these grills? I'd love to hear what your experiences have been.

*** By the way, I was looking at the specs that Wal-Mart shows for the HB 25325 (they call it model 25325W and I suspect it's made just for sale in Wal-Mart stores). Guess what...It has less surface area! There's where your big savings comes from, evidently. Everywhere else advertises it as having 108 square inches of cooking area, but Wal-Mart says 102" on theirs. I'm hoping it's just a typo on their website.

This message was edited Dec 8, 2004 4:52 AM