If I could give this grill six stars, I would have done so! This grill is fool proof! I've already cooked lobster tail, bacon, filet mignon, New York Strip steaks, and pork chops without one bad result yet! I'm still not sure how it "knows" how thick an item is that is cooking, or when to alert you when the item has completed cooking! I love cooking with this grill! Next, I'm cooking chicken breast. I usually avoid chicken because it can become so dry. I'm sure that it won't be an issue with this grill! A great feature is how you can cook frozen meats with the same great results by simply pressing the snowflake button, too, as you program the grill as usual. Clean up is so easy! The metal plates come free in an instant, pop in the dishwasher, and click right back on again. Likewise, the drainage dish for excess fat drainage for once really fits perfectly compared to other grills, and there is simply no spillage. Sure, the grill is a bit costly, but you do get what you pay for. I bought the larger grill so I could have more programming features for bacon, etc., which the smaller model does not offer. If you are concerned about any possible issues down the road, purchase the protection package for four years for repair or replacement at Amazon's great price. Then, you really are risking nothing giving this grill a try!

I loved this grill the first 3 times I used it! It cooked my steaks to a perfect medium rare! But the 4th time was a total loss because the automatic setting, which is why I bought this grill in the first place, completely quite working!!! I've done EVERYTHING the book has suggested doing, and it still stays in manual mode. I am NOT going to pay nearly $100 for a product I got to use 3 times. Hey Amazon, if so many people are having this problem, you need to quit selling this product. It's an excellent idea, but definitely needs the reason for the defect found and FIXED before YOU continue the sell of it!!! VERY DISAPPOINTED!!!!! Will be requesting a total refund!!!!!

I've had this grill for about 10 months. For the first few months of "light" use around our home, it worked great.. And then, the next time we tried to use it, it would not work as advertised. Rather than letting you select the cooking mode at power up, it went immediately to the "manual" mode. After trying a number of "power cycles", I just gave up and set it on the shelf.

Now, the one year warranty was about to expire so I decided to call T-Fal to find out what they would do about this grill. If you look at enough reviews, it seems as though a number of people have had this same problem. I called the "800" number and quickly got to talk to a support person. This person told me how to "reset" the grill's "memory", if you will, so it would work as intended.

The process involved holding several buttons down at the same time and waiting for "beeps" and flashing lites. No way a user could ever believe that such a procedure would reset the machine but it DID! I was told that sometimes it gets "confused", depending upon what a user might do. Given that some believe that there shouldn't be ANYTHING that a user can do to screw up a machine like this, but, okay, at least there is a fix.

After completing the process, the support person offered to email me the procedure in case it needed to be redone (which she did do). I was happy to get this time-saving grill back in service. Both of us are retired and neither likes to spend any more time cooking than necessary. So, time-saving devices are a welcome investment for us.

Been relying on this grill for a few months now, a few days ago it decided to stop for no reason, sausage button keeps blinking along with an annoying sound, basically it's bricked.

Tefals website is outdated and there's no information about local centers, their support didn't pickup the line after being on hold for an hour. Think about that before buying

Update 1/14/2017!!

You will need something to use as a 1-1/2" spacer in the recalibration process. An oven mitt or hot pad, a rolled length of aluminum foil, or even a wooden spoon can serve as this spacer. The height of the spacer needs to be at least 1-1/2" and no more than 2" to properly align the plates:

For model GC702

1. Plug the unit in.

2. Press and hold for the following buttons at the same time for 3 seconds: Burger + Fish + Manual and release the buttons.

3. The Steak button will flash 3 times.

4. Once the Steak button is solid, open the grill, place the spacer between the grill plates and close the lid.

5. Press the Steak button once and let it go, it will flash 3 more times.

6. Open the Grill and remove the spacer, then close the grill.

7. Unplug the grill for 10 seconds.

8. Plug the grill back in and it should operate correctly.

If you have the OptiGrill with Ceramic Plates or the OptiGrill Plus - models GC704 & GC712 "“ please follow these additional instructions:

1. Press and hold the following buttons at the same time Burger + Poultry + Manual until the unit beeps and shows the blue light.

2. Open the lid.

3. If the unit light turns red open the grill and insert the spacer, close the lid until the light goes off.

4. Open grill and remove the spacer, close the grill and unplug for 10 seconds.

5. Plug the grill back in and the unit will be reset.

If in step 3 the light turns off, follow these additional steps:

1. Insert spacer

2. Close lid

3. After 3 seconds the unit light will turn green then beep.

4. Open lid, Light will turn red and the unit will beep.

5. Remove the spacer and close the lid

6. Press the power button 3 times, with each press the light will change from Yellow "“ Orange "“ Red.

7. Unplug the unit for 10 seconds.

8. Plug the grill back in and the unit will be reset.

This review is for the OptiGrill Plus XL model (8 servings)

Like many other reviews we have been plagued with the stuck in manual mode problem, this presents as one of the following:
1. When powering on the grill, the automatic cook mode lights flash letting us know we can select one. After a moment of flashing they stop, and it goes straight into manual mode with no option to select an automatic cook mode.
2. When using the automatic cook mode, after a few minutes of preheating the indicator turns red and has switched to manual mode.

We have also encountered a third issue, where a steak was cooked to past well done when the indicator only said it had just reached medium.

I believe all three of these issues are related to the units sensors, there are steps in the reviews to recalibrate the unit - but they DO NOT WORK for the OptiGrill Plus XL model. After calling T-Fal and receiving a different set of recalibration instructions, that failed to recalibrate the unit I was advised to exchange the unit.

When it does work in automatic mode (four times out of more than eight attempts in the last week) we had mostly positive results: amazing hot dogs, the best hamburgers we've ever had, juicy pork chops, and a very overcooked steak.

My hope is that we just received a lemon, the concept behind this product is great and as I mentioned it cooked the best hamburgers we've ever had - a blessing for someone that is very uncomfortable in the kitchen but wants to save money normally spent on eating out, and to start eating healthier.