Has anybody used Rotimatic?

Philosopher · Post by **Philosopher** » Wed Sep 27, 2017 7:23 pm

Bump.

Rotimatic is now taking pre-orders in the UK. Did any forum member in the US or Singapore buy and use it? If yes, what is your feedback? DW and I are quite proficient in making roti/chapati, but would not mind some free time if Rotimatic makes rotis anywhere near to homemade ones.

DrJ · Post by **DrJ** » Wed Sep 27, 2017 8:50 pm

Philosopher;663339Bump.

Rotimatic is now taking pre-orders in the UK. Did any forum member in the US or Singapore buy and use it? If yes, what is your feedback? DW and I are quite proficient in making roti/chapati, but would not mind some free time if Rotimatic makes rotis anywhere near to homemade ones.

Do not buy. We are in the US and ordered one earlier this month (after being on the wait-list for sometime). The machine did not work out of the box. Customer service is via chat only and it took a long time (as in several days) for us to get a meaningful response. We found out later that our experience is the norm not the exception. They do not have a phone number to call. After about a week, we hadn't made our first roti (using the Rotimatic). We finally returned it and are now waiting for our refund. Not sure how long this will take.

The whole process has been a disappointment. Here are some cautionary points:

1. You will find no negative reviews about Rotimatic if you do a cursory google search. However, if you go to the Amazon page (https://www.amazon.com/Rotimatic-Roti-Automatically/product-reviews/B00U08TE3G), you will see a lot of negative reviews. Rotimatic is not available on Amazon anymore. I am not sure about the reason but about 50% of the reviews have 1 out of 5 stars. If you are serious about buying the Rotimatic, please spend time and read all the reviews, especially the negative ones.

2. There is an owners group in Facebook which has only positive comments, pictures and videos posted. We found out later that the group is owned by the company that sells the Rotimatic (Zimplistic Inc.) and the posts are moderated. My wife bought the Rotimatic after looking at all the wonderful facebook posts. We were allowed to join the group after we purchased our Rotimatic; however, when we tried to post about our initial problems with the machine, they never showed up.

3. Read answers on Quora about experiences from owners and you can find several negative ones.

4. Now, the actual machine itself is an amalgamation of a $50 dough-kneader and a $20 tortilla maker stuffed into a wet-grinder sized body. Not sure why it took three years and six patents to arrive at this concoction. May be it took them all this while to design the plastic arm that pushes the dough-ball on to the hot plate. The parts are all plastic with two hot plates inserted in there. I did not get a sense of durability when I turned it on and watched it start-up. The fact that it got stuck on an error that could not be resolved is for an other day to discuss :(

5. Most of the negative experiences described in the web are on
(a) the consistency of the machine varying between the machine not being able to make any Roti (our experience), uncooked edges, uncooked middle-layer, not being able to control the thickness or the oil level even though you should be able to;
(b) the machine throws several errors and not all of them easily solvable leading to extensive baby-sitting while chatting with the customer service waiting for them to respond;
(c) the machine makes a lot of noise and sucks up a lot of power (> 1.6 kW).

The machine is listed for USD 999 (or about INR 65,000 as of today). I don't think any sane person in India would buy it. In UK and USA, perhaps. But I find it ironic that a Singaporean company is selling a roti-making machine to Indians living outside India. I think we are doomed when China starts selling frozen curd-rice in Patel Brothers.

My advice would be to not buy it.

Philosopher · Post by **Philosopher** » Wed Sep 27, 2017 9:10 pm

Thanks for the detailed response DrJ, much appreciated!

Sigh..I had my hopes pinned on this one. The fact that they had taken quite some time to roll it out, I thought they would have tested it thoroughly. The no-negative reviews did raise a red flag for me. All of the people in those adverts should try their hand at acting! I was almost sold on the idea.

Back to handmade rotis then..it is my turn this evening :-)

Desi · Post by **Desi** » Wed Sep 27, 2017 9:21 pm

DrJ · Post by **DrJ** » Wed Sep 27, 2017 9:32 pm

Desi;663348

Desi ji, thanks for the pointer but unfortunately these things have (besides the wheat flour, water, and oil) unwanted stuff such as guar gum, baking soda, fumaric acid, tartaric acid, sodium pyrophosphate, sodium aluminium phosphate, calcium carbonate, yeast, etc in varying proportions. If you don't find any additive except the three main ingredients, by all means, go for it. In our homes, we go to the extent of making our own wheat flour. The products are convenient time- and effort-wise but a strict no-no in our household, esp. with very young children.

VS007 · Post by **VS007** » Thu Sep 28, 2017 12:10 am

nut1pack-196x164.png
You get this lavash in Costco!

Desi2return · Post by **Desi2return** » Thu Sep 28, 2017 1:02 am

DrJ;663349Desi ji, thanks for the pointer but unfortunately these things have (besides the wheat flour, water, and oil) unwanted stuff such as guar gum, baking soda, fumaric acid, tartaric acid, sodium pyrophosphate, sodium aluminium phosphate, calcium carbonate, yeast, etc in varying proportions. If you don't find any additive except the three main ingredients, by all means, go for it. In our homes, we go to the extent of making our own wheat flour. The products are convenient time- and effort-wise but a strict no-no in our household, esp. with very young children.

I agree.....this is why we simply buy fresh rotis from a near by desi restaurant...although little expensive, its well worth it. Only, second to making it at home.

Another tip is find out if anyone sells rotis from home; just negotiate a deal that you will provide the raw materials and that they make it at their home for a price. This way you are only out sourcing the labor.

My Roots · Post by **My Roots** » Thu Sep 28, 2017 5:09 pm

Poori for an entire week:emdgust:

dbs · Post by **dbs** » Thu Sep 28, 2017 6:03 pm

My Roots;663398Poori for an entire week:emdgust:

I shall definitely be getting poories tonight. We had the Ashtami puja in the morning with kala chana and halwa as Prasad.

mn_op · Post by **mn_op** » Thu Sep 28, 2017 8:17 pm

DrJ;663346Do not buy.

Thanks for the detailed review. Although Rs 65000 for a roti maker is unaffordable to me, I am still hoping that such things will evolve into a full fledged robotic kitchen. You come home and ask the machine what can be cooked with stuff available in fridge and it gives you a menu. After you select items, out comes a plate with food in 30 minutes!!! Once you are done eating, just slide in the plate and the machine gobbles it and cleans it and stacks it somewhere inside it. And it should be able to place grocery orders as well.

Kitchen would turn into a giant 10x10x10 machine with all built in gadgets.

I mean how difficult can be making roti and subzi and salad and a small refreshing drink??? I see machines doing super complicated work and making onion fritters should be an easy job. Is making such machine so technically difficult?