We chose this one because the large baking tray also had handles- the other one we were looking at only had handles on the heating element. We used this to serve different chopped meats and it worked really well. It was nice to have the cutouts for the serving utensils.

The smaller pans are narrow but fairly deep so we liked the size. We haven't used the large baking tray yet but I was glad to find out that it can go into the oven up to 350 degrees (the smaller pans can't).

Overall we're very happy with it and will use it quite often.

Basically bought these because I'm sick of using sternos with water. Bought 3 of these for the holidays. xmas eve is finger food and xmas day is sit down dinner for 30!! So I was very nervous to use for sit down dinner food needs to be hot. So I spent some time testing out with an electric probe using in all different variations. My conclusion... Putting water in large pan to then place in dividers does not heat up enough (Used hot tap water and left on for 1 1/2 hr. only achieved 125 degrees) you need direct contact with the dividers and large pan which is what I'll do for finger food that will be out for basically the whole night (Achieved 134 with plastic covers) ( 144 with no plastic covers used tin foil as cover). For Hot food to serve immediately from oven to people I'm gonna to put food in small pans directly onto heat pad. For larger things like mashed potatoes, directly in large pan which you can put in oven and then directly onto heat pad. I also found if you want the food to be hotter DO NOT use plastic covers (they look pretty but are useless for keeping in heat). I will cover with foil and at the last minute take off foil and put on covers. If you really want to achieve the hottest use tin pans directly on heat pad (184). So basically plastic covers look pretty but useless. DO NOT have to use water and/or sternos!! Much easier to control Temp. compared to sternos and you don't have to worry about those darn things running out or heating up too much. It is 4 days before xmas and I'm all set up!!!! Attached 3 photos showing 3 different ways to set up. Hope this helps all.

I received and used the warmer today for the first time. Everything seems to work as expected. I have a church dinner tomorrow and that will be the true test. One issue I did find concerning is that there was dried food on the bottom of the tray. There are also a few superficial scratches on the front by the temperature control knob. I am guessing the warmer I got was returned and re-sold. I am fine with that. However, I feel better quality control on resending something out is needed. At the end of the day, the unit seems to work fine. Tomorrow I will update my review if it's needed.

Used for a cocktail buffet party for 8. I loved the look of it on my table (presentation is important to me) and it held a sufficient amount of food in each tray that I did not have to refill. It kept the trays warm, however, I must admit that I didn't read the instructions or enough reviews to realize I could put hot water in the bottom of tray which would have worked so much better. Oh well, next time. I did receive 1 wrong lid (opening for utensil faced opposite side). Amazon couldn't replace just the lid...they had to replace the whole unit. I received it 1 and 1/2 days later.

I did run this through temperature tests, using temp probes connected to a computer logging data over time. I did this because of some of the reviews where people were complaining it would not keep food at the advertised temperature. I wanted to find out if this was the case right away while still within my window of time to return it if needed. I cleaned all the parts with soapy water as directed, and dried. I filled the main tray with HOT water, about 1/3 full. I put all three stainless trays in, and filled them each 2/3 full with COLD water. I put a temperature probe in the main water tray bath, and one in the middle food stainless tray, with covers on, careful that the probes were suspended in water and not touching the bottom or sides.

My initial water bath, hot water from my sink tap, read at 103F. I set the temp on the unit to "low", which according to the instructions, will maintain 130F. After about 2 hours, the 103F water had risen up to 131F; right on target. since the food trays are sitting in that bath of water, its' water temp followed very closely, +/- 1 degree. I set it to "high", which the manual says should be 150F, and after about 2 hours, the bath water and food tray water were both at 152F. I left the unit running 3 more hours, and the water maintained a steady temperature.

I went through all of this to make sure it would work as advertised; I didn't want to get a surprise the first time we use it at a party, and find out it didn't work! It works just fine.

I suspect, just a hunch, that the people reporting that 'it never got over 90 degrees...' probably filled the water bath tray with COLD water. This is not a stove-top, it's a warmer. If you give it a large volume of cold water, its going to take several hours to get that up to temp. Just fill it with HOT tap water, about an hour or two before you fill the food trays, and I bet that solves 99% of the 'cold food' problems people are complaining about. Hope this helps!