Toasters

[Gordon Henderson]

So... It's getting on for new toaster time in the Henderson household - our 20+ year old Philips Sunrise with it's single long-slot, while still functional has lost some of it's appeal as well as it's ability to pop-up in a timely manner.

I recall from some postings here some time back that Dualit is the choice of many, so wondering if that's still the learned opinion.

I don't want the Formula-1 of toasters, but neither do I want the Morris Minor either. The ability to take 1 or 2 slices of irregular sized home-made bread and produce toast in a moderate time period is the requirement. No fancy settings for defrosting, bagels and the like, nor an add-on egg poacher.

So is it Dualit and be done, or something else?

Cheers,

Gordon

[Huge]

Yes.

:o)

[Andrew Gabriel]

Funny you should say that, Last night, I repaired my parents' ~55 year old Morphy Richards.

element had burned out at one end.

It's getting to need a repair every few years now.

[fred]

Do they all have that silly, non resettable clockwork timer?

:-/

[Tim Watts]

"Real" Dualit - maybe, but v. expensive.

Do NOT get a Dualit "Lite". They work OK, until they break and are then totally unrepairable unlike their big brothers - and still not cheap.

[Andrew May]

What do you mean by non-resettable? Certainly mine you just twist the knob to 0 if you want to stop it prematurely.

[djc]

Dualit, but a proper traditional one, not the cheap things bearing only the logo.

[Huge]

On the grounds that they don't have a "silly, non resettable clockwork timer", then no.

[fred]

My experience was of a 4 slice commercial unit. The knob could be turned freely clockwise to set the period required but it could not be turned easily anticlockwise to reduce the period if it had been set too high or if it turned out the toast was ready earlier than expected to turn the heaters off.

Attempting to turn the knob anticlockwise resulted in groans of pain and opposition from the clockwork mech giving the impression that it didn't like going in that direction.

[jkn]

Hmm - really? We have a 3-slot Dualit (not 'Lite') and I hadn't realised that the timer could be turned anti-clockwise (ie. reducing the time set).

As fred says, it gives the impression of not liking the idea. My attempts have been pretty gentle though; if the consensus is that you can indeed do this then I'll give it more of a bash.

As others have mentioned in uk.d-i-y, they work better with a short 'warm-up' period; I set the timer for (say) 3 mins, then actually put the bread in at about 2mins.

Cheers Jon N

[Brian Gaff]

Just don't get an intelligent one with lcd screen and usb connection.. grin

Brian

[NT]

The old Dualits are very good toasters, but imho are rather overpriced. Why I've never encountered a modern one that makes toast as well I find hard to understand, the technology is very basic.

NT

[Huge]

The domestic ones don't work like that. You can turn the knob back to zero quite easily.

[Frank Erskine]

And well worth it :-)

[Martin Bonner]

swmbo bought a Dualit toaster, and we have (both) not been particularly happy with it. It takes an age to toast things (we tend to have quite heavy breads), and doesn't do it very evenly.

I also don't like the clockwork timer. I much preferred our old electrical one where you pressed a button, the toast popped up, and the timer stopped.

[docholliday]

I've never regretted getting one 10 years ago - but then I bought it secondhand from a catering equipment shop for less than half price. They sold out quite quickly...

[Derek Geldard]

The new ones are Chinese (- Japanese. Don't forget to wash your knees!).

Say no more ...

The clockwork timers are a particular problem. They are unreliable and replacements are expensive

Derek G

[Frank Erskine]

The problem with pop-up (when it works!) is that the toast gets cold a lot quicker out of the machine. It's much better to leave it in there until _you_ want to take it out to butter it...

[Jules Richardson]

In the spirit of the group, make one. Couple of cooker hob elements, a timer, some microswitches and relays, a few springs, and a bit of sheet metal... ;-)

[Andrew Gabriel]

I did when I was at university.

It was a grill actually, built into the side of a biscuit tin. The element was a toaster element flipped horizontal, but I had rewound it to make the heat output more even (toaster elements have proportionally higher output at the bottom) and to increase the power output a bit.

It had two power settings, depending on if a series diode was switched in or out of the circuit. It worked brilliantly. When not in use, it sat on my self and looked just like a biscuit tin. (We were not allowed cooking appliances in the hall of residence.) It cooked many pork chops, bacon, toast, and other things. I thought the cooking smell would get me caught one day, but it never did.

Much to my annoyance, it has vanished. I certainly never chucked it out, although not used since university. I have searched for it a few times for its nostalgic value, but I can't find it. I only have the little grill pan left which I bought for it (and is still really useful as a 1-chop grill pan).