Easy clean toaster?

April 22, 2020 9:56 AM

I love toast. I absolutely hate cleaning my toaster. I have the kind with a removable crumb tray. I have to clean it monthly, and I hate hate hate doing it. The crumbs get stuck around the edge where the toast goes in, and they fly everywhere when I remove the tray. It takes me a good 15 minutes to get my toaster and the area around it clean and crumb free. Is there a type of toaster that's easier to clean? I've had one that a hinged crumb tray and it was even worse to deal with. I think if my toaster had a really deep crumb tray that was easily accessible the process would be a lot easier. A toaster oven is not an option due to limited counter space.
posted by Stoof to Home & Garden (19 answers total)

Response by poster: It just occurred to me that another thing that might make the cleaning process easier is if the power cord could be detached from the toaster. I've been searching for easier-to-clean toasters without much luck and thought I'd try crowd-sourcing here.
posted by Stoof at 9:59 AM on April 22, 2020

I have a cast iron skillet that sits permanently on my stove. I use it for everything, but it makes great toast. Never have to clean it, I just let the crumbs burn off while the skillet cools down, or, rarely, I wipe into the trash.
posted by MountainDaisy at 9:59 AM on April 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

Can you put your toaster in trash bag when you clean it? All the crumbs will stay in the bag when remove the tray. You can flip the toaster upside down in the bag and shake crumbs as well. Then use the trash bag for the regular trash. Or how about a vacuum cleaner with a crevice nozzle?
posted by ShooBoo at 10:27 AM on April 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

I make toast multiple times a week, and it's just dawned on me that I've never once cleaned my current toaster... which I've been using for nearly five years. No wonder it sometimes smells a bit burnier than the colour of the toast seems to justify. Perhaps I should do something about that...

Anyway. In a previous kitchen, at a time in my life when I remembered to do things like clean toasters, I kept the toaster on a tray so as to minimise chaos and crumb spread. Your limited counter space probably makes that a non-starter, but maybe it's helpful.

Is there a consumer organisation in your country that assesses and rates consumer products? Here in the UK it's Which?, and if I look at their toaster ratings, they include ease of cleaning as one of the key aspects.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 10:30 AM on April 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

After I've cleaned out the crumb tray, I turn the whole thing upside down over the sink and shake it gently to dislodge as much of the bread crumbs that have become stuck in and around the coils or other crevices. That mostly gets the job done, but I wish there was a more thorough way to clean it out.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 10:36 AM on April 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

I open mine and shake it out in the sink, and then rinse the crumbs away, wipe the inside down and let it dry. Is this a regular old two slice toaster you have, or is it prohibitively difficult to move?

I also have a cast iron tortilla pan that in sometimes use like MountainDaisy describes, cleanup there is easy as well.
posted by mhoye at 10:40 AM on April 22, 2020

We toast our bread in our Ninja Foodi (an air fryer / electronic pressure cooker) on the broil setting. Easy to clean because any crumbs just fall into the pot. Any air fryer with a broil setting would do, but I find the Ninja a lot easier to clean than a traditional air fryer.
posted by saltypup at 10:42 AM on April 22, 2020

I had an apartment with roaches many years ago, so got in the habit of shaking it over the sink and wiping out the tray after every single use, which only takes about 45 seconds.
posted by bonobothegreat at 11:20 AM on April 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

I think bonobothegreat's suggestion to make it part of the the daily routine (ritual, in my case) is the way to go here.

This is going to sound strange, but I actually have a dedicated kitchen blow dryer hanging from a magnetic hook on the fridge which I use to blow the crumbs out of things as well as to dry stuff I don't want to wipe out with a paper towel. For a toaster, I would take out the crumb tray, place the toaster on some kind of platform in the sink, and blow it out from the top, because blowing it out from the bottom or shaking it out is more likely to get crumbs on the heating elements.
posted by jamjam at 11:40 AM on April 22, 2020 [3 favorites]

I also just open mine over the sink, use a damp cloth on the top near the openings and on the crumb tray and give it a shake both ways over the sink. If you have stuck on things I image a (dedicated) dry toothbrush should scrub it off.

You can also use the broiler in your oven - just flip for both sides. Note though that things can burn VERY quickly under the broiler so you have to keep an eye on it.
posted by Crystalinne at 11:41 AM on April 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

I usually just take my toaster outside to clean it; take it as a unit, remove the tray, scrape and shake. Breadcrumb treats for the birds, zero indoor cleanup, it's not enough food to cause problems to the wildlife population.
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 12:47 PM on April 22, 2020

Vacuum's crevice tool, like once a week.
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:22 PM on April 22, 2020

Response by poster: So I don't mean to be rude, but I actually am not interested in your toaster cleaning routines, and that's not at all what I asked for in the question. I just want a toaster that's easier to clean. I already dump it in the sink or the garbage bag. I hate doing it. Cleaning it daily is not an option for various reasons.
posted by Stoof at 2:11 PM on April 22, 2020 [3 favorites]

I should note--as an addendum to my airfryer comment above, the reason I use my Ninja Foodi (instead of the normal oven) is that it has a timed broil function. So we set it at five minutes and forget about it, no monitoring required. It toasts evenly, I think because it whirls the bread around inside.
posted by saltypup at 2:28 PM on April 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

This one seems to have a removable crumb tray. It's $99.
posted by oceanjesse at 3:18 PM on April 22, 2020

Unfortunately, you've identified the two common types of toaster in your question (removable crumb tray, vs. hinged crumb catch). FWIW, Consumer Reports claims: "For toasters, a removable crumb tray is easier to clean than one that's hinged and attached to the toaster." A four-slot toaster, regardless of slot width, will have a broader (not necessarily deeper), easier to negotiate crumb tray. For some, limited counter space = a 'spacesaver' toaster oven mounted beneath a cabinet, with a drop-down crumb tray. Others skip toasters and toaster ovens altogether, and use pans or other stovetop methods.

(Is there something going on with your bread, like thick brioche slices 'shredding' on narrow-slot toaster innards? The Cuisinart Custom Select 2-Slice Toaster has adjustable slots. If you like"rustic/artisan" loaves that produce a lot of crumbs, you could try refrigerating the slices before toasting. I, too, love toast; here, a once-a-month crumb-cleaning schedule would be a fire hazard. Wishing you good luck.)
posted by Iris Gambol at 3:26 PM on April 22, 2020

Best answer: Ok. I paced myself but it's time. Prepare to have your world messed up.

We hated our stupid toaster. It sucked at making toast. It was huuugeee. It had the same oddly hard to remove tray. We also had a stupid microwave we used for exactly reheating coffee and 3 bags of microwave popcorn per month. And several other bizzarre wierd devices that semi sucked. And the kitchen in most boats is larger than ours. So....

We Googled it. And we Amazoned it. And the best toaster OVEN we found was the Panasonic NB-G110P


Check it. It's wierd. It's got a different size and technology display for the whole and half minutes. The temperature is odd (like 420 440 480 for Fahrenheit). There's no explanation of the buttons
you have to read the manual once Buuuutttt here's the thing(s)

It's smaller than any toaster we ever owned.

It makes really good toast (my family of 4 eats between 4 and 10 slices of toast a day ok average I shit you not). I mean really platonically ideal toast.

It has a button to reheat fried food leftovers that somehow through black magic makes the stuff warm and yet crispy again

We bake cookies on its hilariously small tray with great result.

It does literally everything well. We threw out the shitty toaster. And the microwave. And the wierd sandwhich press thing. And the odd panini press thing. We just have this cute little Japanese doodle buf of a toaster. It's a life changer.


Oh, the crumb tray just pulls right out. No issues. I clean it maybe once every 6 months. Never had a problem.

I have offered friends a "buy it and if you don't love it I'll pay for it" guarantee. Never had to remit.

Internet toast hugs!
posted by chasles at 6:14 PM on April 22, 2020 [6 favorites]

I have a classic Dualit. I find it much easier to clean than other toasters I’ve used. The lack of a pop up mechanism helps, I think, as do the wide slots. I do empty the crumb tray every time I make toast just as part of the toasting routine.

Edited to add: there’s rarely more than a couple of tiny crumbs, when I empty the tray, though I do toast brioche and all kinds of artisanal breads.
posted by tavegyl at 7:50 PM on April 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

My toaster is easy to clean because it is easily picked up and, on the way to the cabinet where it lives, has the tray pulled out over the garbage can and both shaken loose while standing directly above the trash bag. It takes 7 seconds and we do it whenever we remember to; no more, no less.

So, yea, not weighing a thousand pounds and being able to be unplugged is a big benefit.
posted by RolandOfEld at 6:59 AM on April 23, 2020