OT: Toasters

[T i m]

Yep, seen them on their website (and cafe's). So, does the std (Vario?) take the sandwich toaster's Bob and if so what's the 'Combi' model all about (it seems to have some extra knobs as well)?

So did our old Swan toaster? In fact I've just measured the slot and 'open' it's a good 30mm wide. When you press down the lever it spring-clamps whatever (4 slices of bread or 6 crumpets etc) to hold them central.

Understood and accepted and seemingly one of the few things our old toaster was lacking (now also it won't cut off etc) :-(

All of uk.d-i-y round to yours then tomorrow morning Bob (for a proper test)! ;-)

All the best ..

T i m

[T i m]

Ah thanks. So in our instance it *was* operator error.

All the best ..

T i m

[John]

Nah, sorry mate. We just use sliced bread here - Hovis "Best of Both", Mother's Pride, etc., etc., but always *thick* or even extra thick, so I know it copes well with that.

John

[chris French]

In message , T i m writes

We have a Dualit (proper one, no the cheapy 'lite' ones), it was wedding present and now in it's 11th year.

Dunno about direct, but spare seem easy to get from various places. Not that there are many things to go wrong. I replaced the timer on our Dualit last year as it got a bit erratic, sometimes sticking and then the toast burning. Ok a new timer was more than cheap toaster, but then end result wouldn't have been better - and more waste.

[Toby Sleigh]

Do the job properly & get an AGA

[T i m]

But not both sides at once? ;-)

Well, there is that ... we have the luxury of both electric toaster and gas grill as it's not so easy to do bacon, chops or cheese / sardines_on_toast in the toaster. ;-)

All the best ..

T i m

[T i m]

Cheers ;-)

All the best ..

T i m

[chris French]

Like I said, my timer stopped working properly.

I find the same setting seems to do ok-sh we the bread we mostly use, which we get from the bakers over the road - though wholemeal tends to need a bit longer than white. but bread from a different source can be different - I guess it's to do with moisture content or something.

What I do like about the Dualit is the manual lift means you can check how the toast is doing without turning it off. Crumpets. halved teacakes etc. will go in, but we tend to use the grill. It will do more in one go.

[chris French]

In message , Toby Sleigh writes

Will it fit on the space on worktop?

We had an AGA when I was a teenager. doing toast on it seemed the silliest thing really.

[T i m]

Hmm, not sure I'd get one in the kitchen ... .. ;-)

All the best ..

T i m

[Bob Eager]

I assume ours is the standard one. Two knobs...one is the clockwork timer setting, which also winds the clock. The other one selects 1, 2 or

4 slots for use.

[Clive George]

Like Huge, I've met them at hotel breakfasts. I found that mine gave one which was too lightly done. A second full pass took it too far. But chucking it in to give a half pass worked about right. Don't think I'd want to play that game at home :-)

(I've seen nasty fast food pizza joints have a rather larger equivalent - reckon in that environment it makes a lot of sense).

I remember having access to a catering-style toaster when I was a teenager. Lots of people getting toast as fast as possible - bit of a scrum. The catering one couldn't take that - kept dying, and not apparently through any significant abuse. At one point at home we had a russell-hobbs toaster which had a knackered pop-up. So I brought that in to alleviate the load - and it worked really well. Since we'd all had practice at getting toast out via a knife shoved in the middle (good way of jumping the queue, esp. if you're tall and can just lean over everybody) the lack of popup wasn't a problem.

(of course these days bringing in knackered electrical equipment to such an environment is probably out :-( )

cheers, clive

[T i m]

No, that sounds like a bit of a kerfuffle ..

Indeed, and probably run slower?

So did I .. we called her 'Mum' (and she still works pretty well as a toast maker) ;-)

Imagine if you were trying to make a living with one? :-(

Often the case .. probably because back_in_the_day they were made better and although one bit might fail the rest is will last for ever?

They are all spoiled these days .. ;-)

All the best ..

T i m

[T i m]

Ah, good to know (single parts source not reassuring etc).

And that is important isn't it (how well it works on the whole).

Another feature so often overlooked.

I was looking at all this clean, perfect plastic and steel whilst repairing my tumble dryer recently, and would have found it hard 'just chucking it out'.

All the best ..

T i m

[T i m]

I think as long as it gets somewhere near that's a start.

Maybe and that brings me onto an extra question Chris, is there a facility for dealing with frozen bread or do you just compensate for it manually?

Good point and something I do on our one but it sounds much less slick.

Good point. So, maybe if you also have the use of a grill then the toaster can be more 'basic' (and something I'm happy with as long as it toasts basic bread well)!

All the best ..

T i m

[chris French]

In message , T i m writes

Manually, just turn the dial up more.

[Huge]

They have a knob that controls the belt speed. The slower the belt, the more cooked the toast is. The problem is that they are quite slow, a queue forms and people CBA to stand there waiting for their toast. There was a much better arrangement in a hotel in Veranasi where we were a few weeks ago - serried ranks of domestic toasters and a little man making toast!

[Bob Eager]

It's worth pointing out, for those that don't know...on a Dualit you set the dial every time you use it..you wind the dial round to the value you want, and it 'ticks' back to zero before switching off. So, frozen bread requires only a 'brain' adjustment when setting rather that an alteration that later has to be reversed on the toaster.

[Pete C]

Seconded.

cheers, Pete.

[David]

I'm so sorry, but am I the only person who finds this funny? Wouldn't it be better to take a selection of bread and pastry items crafted from cardboard numbered to tally against a reference list. Number 7 - Tesco crumpet, number 12 warburton's oven bottom muffin...

David