Why I love my Rotimatic – Rotimatic review

Are you looking to buy a rotimatic and reading up rotimatic reviews to get a feel for the product? I bought my rotimatic in April 2018 and this post explains why I bought it and my feedback from using it.

FYI – This rotimatic review is not a paid review. The opinions listed below are fully mine.

Short version – I think this device is awesome, makes our lives easier and such a huge asset for busy women/men in this day and age. Longer version – read on!!

Why did I buy it? The tale of 3 reviews:

You know what is better than exploring 1500 search engine results for the review of an appliance ?? – word-of-mouth!!, especially from people you know…nothing tops that. Here is the story behind how I heard about this appliance from 3 family members and friends and why I took the plunge.

Review from a tech geek:

The first time I heard about this device was more than a year ago. My cousin, an early-adapter of all tech, paid for his Rotimatic when they fundraised on kickstarter in 2014, and then waited over 2 years to get his device. I had a good laugh when I heard the price. But then, he went on to tell me how much he really appreciated it. My cousin, is a man of few words. So when he goes out of his way to tell me about this appliance, I was intrigued.

Until then, the maximum I ever spent on a kitchen appliance was a Vitamix (my beloved high-powered blender), which was still about half the price. Now, I love my Vitamix with all my heart, and 6 years later, it is still going strong, but the rotimatic was a stretch at around $1000.

Review from a busy mom:

A few months later, I was standing in a queue in my daughter’s school to submit her documents, when I stuck up a conversation with the mom in front on me. We discussed school, kids, etc and randomly the subject of rotimatic came up.

Now she works full time for Walmart as a tech engineer, has a one-hour commute and has 2 kids in different schools. So, she leads a very hectic lifestyle. But, she was so much in awe and thankful for having rotimatic. She told me, she uses it every morning, packs lunches with the rotis and is so grateful for the device. Again, I was impressed, but $1000…uhhhh….it is a lot of money….

Review from a perfectionist:

The final recommendation, which really sealed the deal for me came from my close friend. She lives in Qatar and we typically text each other recipe and cooking ideas. Recently, when the topic of Rotimatic came up, these are the praises she heaped on the device –

“We don’t eat rice everyday. When my parents and in-laws came, nobody was standing in the kitchen all day making rotis. Everyone was thankful to eat hot rotis straight from the machine.”

“We are eating healthier than ever” and this killer recommendation –

“Yesterday, we had such a leisurely lunch at a friend’s place because they got their rotimatic and instant pot. No one was standing there cooking.”

This coming from my friend who is a perfectionist!! – Ding!! Ding!! Ding!! SOLD!!!

So, this February, we finally took the plunge and placed the order. Still, wanting to save any extra dollar, we decided to wait 6 weeks and waive the high shipping fee (I think around $100) and finally the order arrived a month and a half later. We have been using it since then and I am very happy.

Look at the step-by-step process – so cool!! The first few times, my kids were transfixed by all the moving parts. They would excitedly bring their friends over to show them the device.

First of all – Appreciate the tech, folks!!

Watch this link on the story behind inventing the rotimatic. The inventor couple spent 8 years, 15 iterations and $15 million to develop this product. How can you not be in awe of that?

Some other YouTube videos have negative reviews ready to pounce with their comments. Here are some samples followed by my opinion –

• Who wants to spend all that money to make rotis?
  • Ans: Have you seen the investment needed to make this product happen? Inventions cost money!!
• Apparently, it makes mistakes even after all that money –
  • Ans: Yes, it makes rare dough miscalculations (see example below), but nothing that terrible to get all pouty about it.
• It is so noisy
  • Ans: Yes, a little noisy. We put the machine in the pooja room in anticipation of that. Noise vs Ease/Health – Priorities, people!!
• People can’t make rotis now-a-days – what has the world come to?
  • Ans: Rolling eyes!!
• No wonder people get sick – they don’t want to lift a finger in the kitchen – yada, yada, yada 
  • Ans: Rolling eyes harder!!

All these naysayers – please review the video, understand the blood, sweat and tears the founders have poured into it. I can’t understand, why people can’t be happy that our fellow-Indians have invented this cool product to make lives easier for our women. Why is this such a hard thing to cheer? I, for one applaud Pranati Israni and Rishi Israni for taking huge risks and coming up with this wonderful product.

Nutrition & Utility

If you look at my Whole Grain post, you will realize that wheat has the most fiber and protein compared to other grains. Unless you have gluten-sensitivity, wheat is a great grain to include in your daily diet. This is especially true for South Indians who eat a lot of white rice.

Being a South Indian myself, making rotis is not an easy task for me. I used to buy Kawan frozen chapathis, but the palm oil in the product made me worry about its long term effects. This machine is a huge gift in helping me make chapathis a staple in my household.

Ease of Use:

You have to load flour, water and oil in 3 separate compartments. Press the machine on and walk away. It takes about 8 minutes to warm up and then the rotis start coming out one/minute or less.

The 8 minute time gets ingrained in your head after a while. So, both in the morning, or evening, about 15 minutes before I want the rotis, I mentally chalk out time to start the machine and fill out the containers.

There are different sensors that give out alarms if something goes wrong. A few examples below:

At the end of each session, you have to clean out the side container and tray to remove the dried out dough from the roti making session. It is straight-forward and quite easy.

Does it make a good roti?

So, people often wonder, why it comes out looking slightly different than home made.

I have a few theories –

1. The heating plates are non-stick instead of iron

This makes cleaning and maintenance super easy, but it cannot get the browning as the iron tavas.

2. You cannot add oil/ghee while heating the rotis.

The browning and caramelization that happen at home usually results when you add a spoon of oil around the tava while the roti is cooking. But, you cannot do that in a rotimatic. Here, the oil is only sprinkled into the dough. Because if oil was used, then the oil droplets would just stick everywhere in the machine and mess it up.

But, despite this concern, the rotis come out fully cooked – no doubt about it!! It puffs up, with steam filling inside the rotis. Sometimes, you can even get a little burnt, when you pull out a hot roti that just came out of the machine with steam still inside. 

The best way to soften the rotis is to immediately rub ghee and put it in a closed container with cloth/bounty paper surrounding it. 5-10 minutes later, it is a soft, tasty roti.

Recipes

Here are some examples of meals that I have used until now:

Here’s roti with scrambled eggs for breakfast

Here’s roti with mayo spread, beans and chopped veggies for a roti roll which I wrapped up for the lunch box.

Here’s roti with cauliflower subzi and lehsuni palak (garlic-spinach) for weekend lunch. (The roti looks dry because I did not add ghee – but I ate it hot-hot)

I make a quick Peanut butter and honey snack for the little one when she is hungry in between meal times.

People have tinkered with thickness level (to get thick rotis and stuffing inside), adding masala, spinach powder etc, flavorings to flour, etc. I have stuck to the standard rotis until now. I am yet to experiment other ideas and excited to try them. There are plenty on Youtube and several recipes on rotimatic website as well.

Cons

Yes, my review is predominantly positive, partly because I love a good entrepreneurship story, partly because it is a super cool product.

But, here are some of the cons of the product (just so you have a complete overview):

Here’s a ball that once came out not fully flattened. This happened 2 times since we got this machine. This happened especially when we changed flours.

Every 8 chapathis or so, we get a ‘running low on flour’ beep. This happens even if there is enough flour in the machine.

This is a minor issue, but sometimes, when you are in the midst of the morning hustle, you wish it could roll out more rotis before asking for a refill. The flour container maxes out at the ~8-10 roti level.

The noise level is an issue as well. But, well…priorities. I rather close the door to dampen the sound, than not get a machine at all. But, that’s just me. 

Conclusion

I hope this review was helpful and gives you a general overview. For those looking for more info, here’s another Rotimatic review by a fellow Rotimatic enthusiast.

Do you adore these technological changes like me or are you a traditionalist at heart? Post your comments and thoughts below, I would love to hear them!!

*This post contains Amazon affiliate links for other products (not rotimatic)*