I'd agree with all that. I toast bagels in it with no problem. One learns the timer settings so it not 'remembereing' is fine (and probably agood thing as there can be several different things being toasted one after the other).
Had ours about ten years. Replaced one element; that was probably maltreatment by a teenager.
I looked at a Kenwood TTM310 s shown on Amazon:
Having seen them at their original ridiculously high price (can't remember the number but it was more than I was willing to pay), I actually bought one, at a very low end of line discounted price, from Robert Dyas online. Seem to no longer be available at all.
Being so pleased, and utterly convinced that when it went wrong I wouldn't be able to find a suitable alternative, I bought a second one which is waiting in the loft right now...
Handles everything I throw at it from fully frozen croissants to doorstep slices. Not good, however, if rate of toasting is an issue. Being single slot it is relatively slow, but perfectly adequate for me (partner doesn't eat bread at all). For those who care, it does not pop up but does have a manual lifter.
Well, I loved the old 1950s Dualit. Noisy yes, so what, clockwork timers ar e. Yes the settings shift as it heats up if you make lots of toast. I never found that a problem. Having used various modern ones since, I'd take the old Dualit any day. Its as robust as a rock and does the job, day after day , decade after decade, and with a little maintenance it should do century a fter century. Gimmicks? none. Bit pricey now unfortunately.
Elements, upto a point you can just bolt broken ends together. But really t hey tend to break only if abused, just don't, how hard is it.
NT
Without being an expert the above comments confirm everything I've always thought about Dualits. Basically if you're running a canteen or a transport cafe where you need a toaster which will be in continuous use for 4 or 5 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week, often being used often by untrained staff, and which is robust enough to survive in a hostile environment, and where the amount of noise it makes won't be an issue, then maybe the cost of a Dualit is money well spent. Otherwise if you're only going to be using the thing for 5 minutes a day and may become irritated by the its more "industrial" aspects, then the fact it may last for 20 years maybe isn't its biggest selling point. Because they're spending so much money on a toaster, customers may be led to believe that they're buying a Ferrari of toasters. When in fact they're buying a Mark 1 Land Rover.
michael adams
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I like the Land Rover analagy!
I find myself wondering how many actual manufacturers of toasters are out there in China - and how many makers of elements.
The badge tends to infer many things - including the desire to spend more money and infer status on an item.
True, but there are times when we seem to have loads of peope here and want a lot of toast in a hurry. We also have heavy handed teenagers. But one thing that attracted me originally was something said here a long while ago...about pop-up toasters jamming and catching fire. Not in the nature of a Dualit.
I expected a Land Rover! But then I used to own a Mark I Land Rover.
I dispute most of the above, but I'm a happy Dualit toaster owner.
But I appreciate it's a bit like the Dyson vs Henry argument. You'll never please everyone.
Student central in Exeter. There's almost always a queue out the door for it.
I like kitchen gadgets that "just work". The quiet buzz of the timer then the final click and the fact that it doesn't auto pop-up (which keeps it warm) are things I like, but I also bake my own bread and have never had an issue with it not fitting...
There are more Mk 1 Land Rovers on the road than Ferrari's, and they're easier to fix :-)
Gordon
Indeed, maybe a Mk1 Landrover is appropriate technology for a toaster? :-) Dunno about a Ferrari, most other toasters seem more like a Little Tikes Cozy coupe to me :-) (those little red and yellow ride in toy cars)
I like that it just goes on and on, that it's tough, that the timer makes a nice clicking noise etc. etc.
I use various other toasters and they all annoy me in one way or another and don't seem to add anything. If one was to actually take something and to be able to toast it automatically to a given brownness then that might be an improvement, but none has so far AFAICS
This!
Doesn't seem very enlightening!
You know what....
We've been making toast for 100s of years, yet we've not come up with a good reliable design that "just works". My dualit is almost there - the one niggle I have is that the 2nd load of bread through it toasts slightly quicker... But then I've seen the opposite in toasters that have a bi-metal strip type of "ready" mechanism.
The most repeatable ones I've used have been the chain/belt type - used in cafes, etc. but then they need a warm-up time and also need the public to not fiddle with the speed control or be stupid and put criossants through it (I've seen them on-fire )-:
It seems simple enough - put bread next to something hot enough to heat the bread and toast the surface - not too hot that you end up with toast with a cold middle, nor too cool that it takes too long and the inside ends up at furnace temperature.
Can we throw technology at it? I'm not sure - there are colour sensors but what happens when you put in brown bread?
But given that the internal temperature affects the toasting time, can we use a combination of internal temperature and time via either a mechanical device, or some electronics?
And if-so, who wants to take up the challenge?
Or maybe we just put up with what we have and keep an eye on it. It's either that or this:
Gordon (any excuse to post that link ;-)
uk.d-i-y calling Sir James Dyson...
You appear to have overlooked the moisture content of the bread. Without having conducted any actual experiments I'd hazard a guess that moist bread will take longer to toast to the same degree than drier bread. And this is assuming that the moisture gradient of each slice - even if indivdually measured, is the same all the way through.
michael adams
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but please make it for under £300 !
I wonder if Apple would consider making iToasters
I wooden make suggestions like that ifn I was you. The king might have you thrown in the moat.
Surely it must be possibe to detect how done the toast is with a photocell of some sort. I seem to remember many, many years ago there was a toaster that did this.
Yerbut. The toaster should be designed to handle bread.
If you have to re-shape the bread in order to fit the toaster, the designer of that toaster has really done a cr@p job.
Still, it's probably more important that a toaster looks like the Tardis or a Dalek than to have the bliddy thing actually work.
Did you miss the point, that bread is not all the same size and shape?
What size do you make a toaster that'll handle _any_ bread you're likely to have handy? And how the hell will you ever get, say, a crumpet out of the bottom of it?
Mmm. About the crumb tray that nobody's emptied lately...
turn it upside down
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