Full disclosure: I did not buy this item on Amazon. I bought it at the local ACE hardware for much less money (about $15), but price was not the reason I bought there; I was in a hurry and needed something right away. I never thought that I would be buying an electric 'hot plate', or 'burner' as it seem the industry calls this type of item. They seemed so 'Elwood Blues' to me. But I was outfitting my home shop to do aluminum anodizing, and needed to keep a couple glass beakers warm. I was looking for something that would not be out of place in a shop environment, sturdy and plain, yet inexpensive but still functional. I really wanted a 'dual burner' unit, but every one out there, at least those that run on 120V, are 1000W on one burner and 600W on the other burner. I think this is because two 1000W burners running together would trip the 15A circuit breaker that most residential wiring uses. 1000W + $600W is about as much as can be handled without trouble on a normal circuit in a home or apartment. But be aware, even if you just run this single burner, you will most likely not be able to also run a toaster, coffee maker, or microwave on the same circuit at the same time. In the case of my shop, I have previously set up a quad outlet, with each of the four outlets wired to their own dedicated 15A circuit breaker, for the purpose of running four electric space heaters that I employ to warm a small corner of the basement shop so that woodwork projects that I have varnished or painted will cure properly during the winter months. I can use two of those four outlets to run the two Proctor Silex 34101Y burners, and another outlet to run the anodizing power supply. Some specifications, since I see that other people have asked about these things: - The burner unit is all-steel, painted white. Only the temperature control knob and the four feet are not metal. - The power cord is 3 feet long. - The burner housing is 9" x 9", not counting the protruding knob on front. - The burner is 3" tall from the bottom of the feet to the top of the actual heating element where your pot or pan will rest. - The heating element hinges up to allow cleaning the drip pan underneath. The drip pan does not come out (at least not without complete disassembly of the product). - The red lamp lights whenever the power cord is plugged in. It is NOT an indication of whether the unit is actually heating. To address a concern I have seen others comment on, like most electric burners/hot plates, this does not use an expensive and complicated heater controller. It uses a simple thermostatic switch, adjusted by the temperature control knob, to cycle the heating element on and off. This is not a safety feature as some have commented; it is how the unit works by cycling the heating element at full power, thereby averaging the power (pulse width modulation) to get the desired amount of power to your pot or pan. This is conventional design, and not a 'feature' or 'malfunction' of the unit. If you find your pot or pan heating up too much, you turn the knob to the left, and vice versa if you want more heat. Note that the temperature control knob is not calibrated in any way, but then neither are the burner knobs on most gas or electric ranges in the kitchen. So far, I have found the two of these I bought to be doing a good job in my application. I have also drafted one of them into service to boil water for my Ramen noodles, since at full power it boils the water much quicker than even the biggest burner on my gas range can at its highest setting. But I do have some concerns over quality of this product, based on the experience I have had with my two burners: - One of of the burners, the piece of twisted wire that is supposed to anchor the internal wiring to a bracket, so that wiring does not touch the bottom of the drip pan (and possibly be damaged by heat) was falling out an air vent on the bottom of the unit, hence not doing its job. This was just poor assembly at the factory. I fixed it, but what would have happened if I had not noticed this? Possibly nothing, but it would be wise to heed the warnings in the user's manual, "Unplug unit when not in use" and "Do not use unattended". I also found a couple screws inside the unit were not at all tight, rather loose actually. - On the other burner, the temperature control knob only turned a few degrees and then jammed. I opened the unit and found that the metal bracket that supports the thermostat was not installed correctly, so a key ridge on the thermostat shaft was binding on the edge of the hole it passed through in the housing. I loosened two screws and readjusted the bracket, and all was well. - On one burner, a short ground wire was wrapped around one of the wires (going to the heating element) in such a way as to make that wire too tight, which restricted how much the heating element would lift to allow cleaning the drip pan under it. Again, poor assembly and quality control at the factory. I fixed this by revising the way that the ground wire was routed (to match how it was done on the other burner). Funny, but the label on the box brags about the manufacturer's testing and quality. I should not have needed to fix either of my burners to make then functional OR safe. That I was willing and able to, and successful in my attempts, is unusual.....something that most buyers will not be prepared to do themselves. With the low price point on these, and on similar units by other brands, I would not be surprised to see similar lapses on competing products. It is all part of the glory of unsupervised low-end Chinese manufacture; whether the products are made well or not all comes down to the quality of management and supervision in these factories, and I don't think Hamilton Beach (owner of the Proctor Silex brand) has done a good job at this. I see nothing fundamentally wrong with the quality of the design or the materials used. The problems I observed were all due to poor assembly. Maybe both of mine were made the day after the factory workers had been out partying, and perhaps most of these leave the factory properly assembled. I have emailed Hamilton Beach about this, but have not heard any reply so far. If you ARE inclined to check yours out, I have included a few photos as part of my review here. All you need to do to take the unit apart is completely unscrew the nut on the center of the unit's bottom, and remove the washer and lock washer. Use a small flat blade screwdriver to pry between the top and bottom halves of the case, and it should pop right open. When closing it back up, screw the center nut down tight until it stops (it will slightly bow the bottom metal case half). Does yours have a binding or stuck knob? If so, see the two screws on the thermostat bracket, they are easy to adjust. Take a look to make sure the wiring is tied off to internal structure such that it cannot contact the bottom of the drip pan. And look for any loose screws. There is not much else there to check.