Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

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!