I also have a Tefal - not too bad - but slot size is a bit limited. However, I have found that sometimes after giving it a good shake to get rid of crumbs the lifter thing won't stay down to engage the element. Crumbs get on the pole piece of the magnet. I have become deft at taking it apart to remove the offending crumb.
I hope this helps if anyone else has the same problem.
Remember the days when a manufacturer would be interested and would take steps to improve things..................?
Not a designer - but a Stylist.
Not sure about the energy efficiency of trying to drive heat downward though. A toaster does bring the heat source close to the target.
I'm not sure how seriously people take Which? reports, but and and the 4 slice toasters didn't come out as well as 2 slice. Of the 4 slice Breville TT33 and Cuisinart 400U best buys. 2 slice Krups Toast expert FEM 231 came top.
Rob
We have a grill, but the toaster is quicker (certainly for the first round anyway) and I'm endlessly burning things under the grill.
In message , R writes
My problem is the rather to frequent achieving of the 'flaming' shade ....
We had two big Dualits at school. I think we only had two for redundancy
- one of them always seemed to be away for repair. Those of us who'd been on Cadet camps kept agitating for one of the big conveyor-belt types found in Army cookhouses - also no chance of the still-soft bread in one slot being mangled when the owner of the finished toast in another pounded his fist on the lever to launch it directly onto his plate.
Then again, a normal consumer cheapy probably wouldn't have lasted a day :-)
Pete
In message , Bob Eager writes
Co-incidentally, the time setting for toast is the same as that needed for soft poaching an egg. (first round only).
You can also do toasted sandwiches. Just close your eyes and buy one.
regards
>
I think my mum's got one of those as well.
Owain
For all of my childhood, toast was produced on a device like this. It never went wrong.
Oh, and the OP wanted it to be quick. It'll do 130 slices an hour (the 4 slice version).
6 minutes ??????
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And can any of these toasters produce repeatable results between burn 1 and burn n ?
The Medway Handyman coughed up some electrons that declared:
Recent purchase of a standard Russel Hobbs 2 slice from Argos has proven surprisingly fruitful.
Think it was this one (looks about right, right price):
I would say it's pretty much as good as the Dualit Lite it replaced, which was stupidly expensive (but not as stupid as a "real" Dualit) and when push came to shove, you can't replace the element on a Dualit Lite, which given the brand and the price was a pretty poor show...
Cheers Tim
On our Dualit, burn 1 takes a little longer than burn 2-N. When making toast in relays, it's easy to adjust for (since the setting is a clockwork device where you rotate to the appropriate time, then let it tick back to zero).
We've got one of those - useless !!!
OK for the first year but now sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Load toast - press down - sometimes it stays down and toasts, sometimes it just springs back up. Get there in the end by keep on pressing down but am looking at another toaster.
Seriously considering a Dualit after reading this thread.
Hugh Jampton coughed up some electrons that declared:
Oh bum.
Well, have to see what happens to mine then.
In this age of supercomputers, carbon fibre, fancy ceramics and super mega engineering, why can't anyone make a basic toaster that works for a reasonable price?
30 years ago they were no worse than now performance wise, seemed to last longer and a roll of nichrome wire from the local electrical shop would sort out a fused element.
So, instead of watching the grill, I could insert 2 slices and press go, then 2 more and press go, then another 1 and press go - and get 5 decent slices of toast without thinking? Otherwise, i'll watch the grill ;)
Really the Dualit is a basic toaster. It's not pop-up, the 'browning' control is an electromechanical timer, there's a real switch to select the slots you want to use, and a proper neon lamp to show that the thing's operating. I'm not sure whether or not most toasters now use a sheathed element as does the Dualit - this prevents crumbs from landing on the nichrome wire and causing hot spots which lead to early failure of the element.
The 'non pop-up' bit is useful if you like your toast warm and you're doing multiple slices. Because the slices stay inside the machine they're less inclined to cool off whilst you're scoffing the first one :-)
Frank Erskine coughed up some electrons that declared:
Ahem ^^^^^
I don't disagree the Dualit "hotel version" is probably very good. They muddied their name with the "Lite" AFAIAC though.
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