On toasters

[lnr]

So when Mike and I first moved in together we bought a toaster. It wasn't a terribly expensive one, but it made toast, and occasionally we'd curse the fact it only really wanted to make small toast, so the edges of big slices of bread would remain untoasted, but it was by and large good enough, especially since we don't eat a lot of toast. Matthew however has toast fairly regularly, and I noticed earlier this year that not only did it only do small toast it also did small toast *unevenly*. It was time to get a new toaster.

Conveniently enough at just the moment I'd been lamenting this (and having big toast evenly toasted at Mum's house was driving the point home) I spotted a toaster on special offer on Ocado. £29.99 reduced from £49.99 - possibly a bargain? I'd looked at the toasters in John Lewis and they were all huge or ugly or expensive or all of the above, and I couldn't tell by looking if they'd fit big toast in or not anyway. So I figured why not, give the toaster a go.

So we bought one, and at first it seemed like a great buy - admittedly we only tried small bread in it - but it was really great for getting small bread back out of. After a few weeks though I was starting to get frustrated. My toast was still not evenly toasted. Then I tried to cook a slice from frozen using the toast-from-frozen button and burnt it to a crisp. I turned it down a notch and tried the next slice without the toast-from-frozen button, and this time it was only a bit burned, so I could scrape the black bits off and get away with it. But I'd had enough - I left a slightly grumpy review on Ocado - thinking it wasn't really a *broken* toaster, just a rubbish one, so I'd got what I paid for.

One week later Ocado ring me up and offer to refund me if I order another toaster and return the broken one. I explain that I don't think it's necessarily broken, just a bit naff, and it could have been just me with the burnt toast, but they are certain - and we even agree that as I've thrown away the box I can return the old one in the box from the new one. So this has been done. New toaster arrived on Friday and we gave it a whirl, one slice of bread, defrosted, cooked on 3 without the from-frozen button pressed, and this was the result:



Argh! My toast is still uneven. (And upside down, which makes me twitch slightly)

I emailed Ocado the photos, and they've offered to take this toaster back too and refund me. Still not sure whether to bother or not. I mean it toasts, it just doesn't toast very well. And we did give away the old toaster. But 30 quid for a rubbish toaster is a lot of money, even if it was 20 quid off. Bah!

Anyone recommend a decent toaster?

Comments

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

I have a rather lovely purple Swan 4-slice - in fact, this one (http://www.very.co.uk/swan-sk13110pust70100pu-fastboil-kettle-and-4-slice-toaster-pack-purple/1116899438.prd). The kettle's pretty standard as kettles go, the toaster is excellent. Copes with everything except very thick muffins/crumpets, and has been fine with frozen bread.

[lnr]

The guilty toaster is a Swan one! And our kitchen is a bit too dinky for a 4-slice too. (Nearly typed 40slice there!)

http://www.ocado.com/webshop/product/Swan-2-Slice-Toaster-Stainless-Steel/235698011

(You can see my original review there too)

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I use the grill. I can see that might not be a good answer if what you need is fire-and-forget toast capability though.
Now I want cheese on toast...

[pm215]

fire-and-forget toast capability

...yeah, the pop-up spring on mine's a bit overpowered too.

[stephdairy.livejournal.com]

Which? rates the Russell Hobbs Easy Toaster 19990 (L30 or so from Tesco) highly for evenness of toasting and toasting tall slices. But it is only two slices and has a peculiar toast warming pocket feature which seems gimmicky to me.

(S)

[lnr]

Gosh those toast warming things look bonkers.

[addedentry.livejournal.com]

I wanted a 4-slice toaster to cope with toddler toast demands and we bought a DeLonghi Icona CTO4003 (http://www.delonghi.com/en-gb/products/kitchen/kitchen-appliances/toasters/icona-cto-4003r-0176141805) in the sale at John Lewis.

It toasts evenly but slowly (the two may be connected). I haven't tried toasting from frozen except once as proof of principle. It seems to be around £75 online, which I still think is more than I want to pay for toasting bread. It is also huge!

[sesquipedality.livejournal.com]

The only toaster I have ever seen that toasted evenly was a very expensive Dualit that belonged to a friend. It made very nice toast, but did cost about £120, I think. My toaster is lameass, and consistently fails to brown the bread properly on one side. If I could afford the Dualit, I'd probably buy one.

[uisgebeatha.livejournal.com]

We got a Krups toaster from John Lewis. It's similar to this one (http://www.amazon.com/KRUPS-KH732D50-Breakfast-2-Slice-Stainless/dp/B0083VCXQM) and it was £25-30 I think. Not let us down yet, and it looks pretty good too ;)

[htfb.livejournal.com]

No toaster is any good. To make one that can respond adequately to differing thicknesses of slice, starting temperature, moisture content of the bread, &c, &c, would be simply insane. There's no real substitute for close attention, or ideally a long fork and an open fire.

Our current Russell Hobbs is lasting better than our previous flimsier Russell Hobbs, which came with a kettle in a nifty cut-price package. Both toaster and kettle died rapidly. I think the toaster choked on a broken scone, which fell through the cage onto the element, caught fire, and burnt the element out.

None of the brands except Dualit have replaceable heating elements, which for an exposed incandescent wire seems like a poor design choice. Everything else, even the fanciest-looking John Lewis toasters, seems to be fundamentally the same technology as the very cheapest models, which is why we didn't drop Russell Hobbs from consideration for the replacement. The last real innovations were the moveable cages which pinch your slice in place while it toasts, and the handle with enough play to lift the toast out when it's done---or, more usually, to raddle your HXB about when it gets stuck*. The fancy buttons are never any use at all, unless you want to be able to toast only one side even before one of the elements burns out. (For features that never work, see also "crumb drawers".)



*Oh, and modern toasters all now turn the element off when they've popped, rather than continuing to heat as long as the handle was pressed down, as those of my youth did. That could be amusing when something jammed.

[lnr]

Irritatingly the old toaster (A Kenwood one) had a toast pinching cage, which I think did lead to more reliably even toast on thin slices, at least until it got old.

I really think toasting a piece of toast the same on both sides, and all the way to the edges, ought to be pretty standard, but it seems I am overly optimistic.

[aiwendel.livejournal.com]

Russell Hobbs £24 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Russell-Hobbs-14360-Classic-Stainless/dp/B001DYUT94/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1403602111&sr=8-3&keywords=russell+hobbs+toaster+14361) is good.

It does pretty even browning, fairly big bread (my bread machine bread sticks out the top if I put it in vertically but fits if installed sideways), it can handle hot cross buns and crumpets, and has both 'frozen' and 'cancel' buttons (but not a lift to check half way through option which I know some toasters do nowadays.)

I'd recommend it.

[aiwendel.livejournal.com]

Actually I've just double checked, and whilst my toaster looks like the above (which has good reviews, except saying the walls get hot, which mine don't) I've checked again and mine is actually this one, 9206-40 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Russell-Hobbs-9206-40-Classic-CoolWall/dp/B00008BQY7/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top), which has absolutely terrible reviews.

Perhaps I got lucky as mine is great, or perhaps manufacturers have not yet figured out how to consistently manufacture good toasters (which might mean it's worth seeing if you can get another one and try third time lucky on the one you've got!) ....

Anyway, the one I first linked to has good reviews at least! And mine is great. (I've been eating hot buttered toast whilst typing these comments and reviewing, just to double check that it works well, which it does. Perfect toast...)