Decent toaster?

[The Medway Handyman]

After a succession of el cheapo supermarket/Argos toasters that were kin useless, we decided to go for a brand name & bought a Kenwood.

This is about as useful as a back pocket in a sock, worse than the cheapies. I happen to like well done toast. On its maximum time setting of just over

6 minutes, it produces warm bread in a pale shade of magnolia.

Apart from taking ages to toast bread, half the time a standard slice of bread won't fit into the piggin slots & has to be forced down.

Don't these people ever test anything they sell?

So, any recommendations for a 4 slice toaster that takes standard sliced bread and produces toast fairly quickly?

[Huge]

Yes, but judging by my recent suggestions on this n/g, you aren't going to like it. :o)

Dualit.

After similar experiences to yours, plus exposure to many, many consumer toasters in rented cottages (*) we finally swallowed hard and bought a Dualit. Except the other day when a small piece of cottage loaf fell under the tounges of the toast extractor leading to burned fingers, much cursing and cold toast, I've never regretted it.

(* We nearly always rent cottages for our holidays. Sometimes 2 or 3 a year. This has given me interesting insight into Agas [crap], wet rooms [very crap], posh "farmhouse" kitchens [crap], cheapo toasters [crap], electric hobs [crap] and a bunch of other things.)

[The Medway Handyman]

"Ah, so if someone asks for advice about buying a new car and the only responses are: "Buy a Bentley", you'd expect me to rush out and buy one, yes? I find it amazing that you and a few others seem almost proud of the fact that cheaper products are tat. I was hoping that at least one of you might have had a good word to say about a particular cheaper model, but I can tell that you've all now closed ranks, so I shall withdraw. (And I'm NOT buying a Dualit, either!)"

:-)

[neverwas]

Not a suggestion but a request for the benefit of your experience. As I'm sure you'll have tried it, may I ask what was wrong with, say, a Bosch GWS 24-300 and 180 grit disc ;)

[Bob Eager]

Hear hear.

One good thing is that there is no pop-up mechanism to jam, the elements being controlled by a clockwork timer. So, a jammed piece of toast doesn't start a fire.

Slots are nice and wide and there are sandwich toasting racks to fit in them.

[geoff]

Lets face it - he first posted about single cup heating elements some while ago and wasn't interested in replies which didn't fit his expected answer

a terminal d*****ad

[Bob Eager]

The point is, Dave, is it's probably cost effective. It meets the spec for thick slices etc., you can buy spare elements etc. if they ever go, and they even include instructions on how to fit them (not that one has ever gone on ours).

Ours has already exceeded the previous lifespans of several toasters combined.

[RubberBiker]

Lol - I'm going to say a dualit toaster too. Probably over-built, with a ludicrously simple clockwork timer and no pop-up. But I tried the others, and they all break.

What I'm looking for is a kettle with the same work-ethic (the dualit kettle didn't impress me - just a lifestyle product).

I might get a secondhand russell hobbs k2

[Huge]

[Huge]

:oP

[Tony Bryer]

Back in the UK I bought a mid price Tefal. Only toasted half a standard slice - needed to turn it over and toast the other half. But it looked nice and no doubt some designer is really proud of his work.

[chris French]

In message , RubberBiker writes

Me too :-)

got as a wedding present in 1997, though I have had to replace the clockwork timer, which was probably the price of 2 or 3 crappo ones from Argos.

but it works, it keeps on working and if there is a fault (not much to go wrong though) spares easily available - and it's more satisfying to repair something than to chuck and replace.

Though beware the cheaper Dualit ones, not the 'proper ones', they aren't as dismantable as some bits seem riveted and not so repairable (you can just unscrew all the various bits on our)

[John Rumm]

Not going to help much since the model range has been revamped (and reviews on the new ones don't seem that good), but the current 4 slice Tefal Avanti we have at the mo has been in service now for a number of years without too much irritation. Toasts well enough and consistently. The slots auto adjust in width and will take up to about 3/4 bagel thickness each. The only crap bit was the extra lifters - it has a second set of sliding knobs that are supposed to lift the carriage higher than normal to make retrieving shorting things like buns or muffins (English style!) simpler - but that seemed to fail after not that long.

[Owain]

Doesn't your cooker have a grill?

Owain

[Frank Erskine]

I've only had a Dualit (a chrome 2-slice one) for a year or so. It's really well constructed - none of your fancy auto browning stuff (which always seems to go wrong on other machines, so I would recommend it, and as you said, Bob, you can readily obtain spares. The only thing is does lack is provision for keeping the bread upright between the elements, but that doesn't seem to be a problem.

[Andrew Gabriel]

My parents' Morphy-Richards model TU1D (chrome steel version) is doing very well, although only 2 slots. I think you'll struggle to find anywhere with stock though, as it was last manufactured in 1965, although theirs was bought nearer 1955. I have had to repair it a couple of times, but one of those was due to someone sticking a knife into it.

[Clot]

THat mechanism was the demise of ours. Otherwise, it was a good toaster.

I've replaced it with a four slice Kenwood which works .....slowly and the additional lift for small items is a PITA. I'm continually using a sharp knife to carefully remove small items.

>

[Jules]

Ours is like that (not Tefal - I don't remember the brand). Plus everything apart from the last 5% of the dial is useless for making toast. Worse still there's no separate cancel button - cancel is done* by turning the dial all the way back to 0 (frustrating when you've just got the dial set to the exact position that you want it!)

• I've taken to just yanking the cable out of the wall now, which works nicely :-)

(Although I've never found a toaster / grill that can do toast as nicely as that done over an open fire or - at a push - held over one of the burners/rings on top of the cooker, though)

[R]

Never bother with a toaster and always use the grill. Toasts to whatever shade you like including flaming

[John]

I have every sympathy - they are probably all built in the Tulip Toasters for China factory around the same element design which was passed to them 30 years ago.

Gripe over.