may I know your toaster?

August 3, 2007 11:09 PM

What kind of toaster do you have, and do you like it?

Recently: Moderately priced General Electric art deco repro was OK but did not lift finished slices all the way out of unit, ceased toasting after a few months.

A cheap walmart unit from China proved to be (well..)

Toast! English muffins! Pops d'art! Thick slices of homemade bread! What do you recommend?

less than $100, we are talking about toast here.

posted by longsleeves to home & garden (26 comments total)

I have this one, for wayyyy under $100 and it works great for everything I do, which includes Toast! English muffins! Pops d'art! Thick slices of homemade bread!
posted by The Deej at 11:24 PM on August 3, 2007

I have a Hello Kitty toaster that was a gift from a friend.
It's delightful, both in the making of toast, and the fact that said toast has a big old Hello Kitty on one side.
posted by heeeraldo at 11:26 PM on August 3, 2007

(By the way, the part of the description that says "Includes baking pan and broiling tray"... that mustbe a typo that refers to a toaster-oven, because, no, my toaster neither bakes nor broils.)
posted by The Deej at 11:27 PM on August 3, 2007

Toast! English muffins! Pops d'art! Thick slices of homemade bread! What do you recommend?

A toaster oven. You can put any size or shape bread in, adjust the distance to the coils, it takes about the same time as a toaster (as opposed to an actual oven) and it's much easier to clean. Mine is a Euro-pro X and cost me about forty dollars last year. I haven't used my toaster since. Of course, it's slightly bigger than a toaster...
posted by frobozz at 11:28 PM on August 3, 2007

it can be found here. [target website]
Sorry about not putting that in my first post.
posted by heeeraldo at 11:29 PM on August 3, 2007

Got this one. It's smarter than I am.
posted by kindall at 11:39 PM on August 3, 2007

My toaster cost rather more than $100, and is not even particularly versatile, but it consistently makes perfect toast and I like it very much.
posted by misteraitch at 11:50 PM on August 3, 2007

Thanks for all responses so far. Typeface not meant to be so tiny.
posted by longsleeves at 11:51 PM on August 3, 2007

I have a black and decker toaster oven, and well, I usually just turn all three nobs and hope it gets hot. Not recommended.
posted by Citizen Premier at 12:13 AM on August 4, 2007

kindall, toaster is not available
posted by longsleeves at 12:29 AM on August 4, 2007

I have a Proctor-Silex that I got at the local discount store for $9.99. It's been toasting bread, bagels, frozen waffles, and pop tarts for about 10 years now. No problems. I like it.
posted by amyms at 12:56 AM on August 4, 2007

Seconding the toaster oven. My Oster Digital Toaster Oven didn't cost significantly more than a decent bread-slice-only toaster. Holds lots of thick slices of bread, if needed.

Sandwiches are great. You put the whole sandwich in, not just the bread, so the cheese is melted and the meat is hot. I also use my toaster oven for baking smaller items, when I don't need to fire up the large hulking gas oven that takes forever to preheat. The toaster oven uses convection, so in some ways it's even faster to cook.
posted by meowzilla at 1:09 AM on August 4, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Toaster ovens are good, but I've got to second the Dualit as being the best toaster in the world. Also, you'll pass the sucker on to your grandkids, so the cost may be worth it.

If you don't want to spring that much, look for a toaster with a timer rather than a darkness setting. I'm of the opinion that darkness settings on cheap toasters are never consistent.

Slate review of toasters.

Also, there is a Dualit lite out now for under $100.
posted by BrotherCaine at 2:47 AM on August 4, 2007

I sprung for a Dualit Lite and I've never had no burnt toast, no undertoasted bread, and no regrets ever since.

It has none of the defects attributed to its more expensive brethren in the Slate article.
posted by chrchr at 3:58 AM on August 4, 2007

Dualit combo - love it!
posted by kenchie at 6:05 AM on August 4, 2007

No specific recommendation, but I would advise against a toaster oven. They're great, versatile things, but for the true toast connoisseur, only a dedicated toaster will do the job. The nearly direct, high heat of the toaster crisps the outside of the bread while leaving the inside moist. The toaster oven, on the other hand, bakes the bread and dries it out.
posted by SampleSize at 6:25 AM on August 4, 2007

I have a cheapie Rival toaster that I loathe. The slots aren't quite wide enough for anything other than standard-width bread, and it toasts unevenly, to boot. Which pisses me off to no end. I mean, how fucking hard can it be to make a cheap toaster that, well, toasts?
The idea that one has to spend over $100 to get a good piece of toast has to be one of the signs that the endtimes are nigh.

My mom's old chrome-plated 1950's toaster spat-out perfectly-toasted slices up until the day it finally died, sometime in the late 1980's. I can guarantee it was the cheapest toaster they could buy way back then, too. That's how my folks roll.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:41 AM on August 4, 2007

I will never understand why anyone buys a slot-style toaster when they could have the multi-function glory of a toaster oven.
We have this one, which would be just about perfect if it didn't occasionally emit a high-pitched whine when you forget to switch the the knob from Toast to Off after you finish toasting.
posted by willpie at 7:51 AM on August 4, 2007

We've got this Krups now. We had one of the Brauns with the long slot like kindall's but it broke quickly, as did the off brand ones we had before it. The Krups seems a little sturdier, or perhaps it's just that it hasn't jammed, thereby forcing me to attack it with a fork just to retrieve my toast.

None of them (including the Krups) would actually finish toasting a piece of multigrain bread in one cycle no matter how you set them, which kind of misses the whole point of an automatic, pop-up toaster. I think the toaster makers are trying to avoid burning toast at all costs.
posted by timeistight at 8:28 AM on August 4, 2007

Warning: T-Fal Avante Deluxe. Slots are shallow, and the toasters don't last. I had one that worked for one year (rarely used). My mother had two, each of which lasted six months or so (daily use).
posted by wryly at 9:15 AM on August 4, 2007

You're about to make a huge mistake! Toaster oven! Toaster Oven! Toaster Oven!

There is no electrical appliance in our house that gets used more than our Krups Pro Chef Plus toaster oven. Not only does it make great toast quickly, but I think I could cook a turducken in it.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 9:35 AM on August 4, 2007

Yegads. Do *not* get a toaster oven for toasting bread, unless that's what you really want. When our 10yo cheapie toaster died 4 years ago, we thought that we could just use the toaster oven for toasting. We were Wrong. So now we have both -- an older long slot Krups toaster and a B&D toaster oven. IME, toaster ovens don't really make very good toast. The Krups does everything we've thrown at it (bagels, pop-tarts, homemade bread, multigrains, etc). [The Krups we got from my MIL who got it as a gift and didn't take it out of the box for a year.]
posted by jlkr at 10:06 AM on August 4, 2007

I've got a GE 4-slice toaster oven with a curved door that rotates to to back (instead of the usual configuration of the door being hinged at the bottom). It's fabulous, and I've had it for years. I think I paid about $30 for it, probably at walmart or target. It has 2 dials, on that switches between toast/oven/broil and one for the timer. Twisting them randomly does not work well, but if you understand how to use a dial it's not a problem.

Stay away from the expensive toaster ovens, they are larger and have the heating elements farther away from the bread. I think these must be the ones people are complaining about.

I've attempted to toast my homemade bread in a slot type toaster, and it was a disaster. I had to flip the toaster over and rip the bread apart to get it out, creating a huge mess.

Another advantage of a toaster oven comes into play if you like to melt cheese on your toast.
posted by yohko at 10:33 AM on August 4, 2007

I have a DeLonghi 4-slotter with retro dials that makes it look like the control room of a zeppelin. Spent more on it than I ever would for a toaster, but it was a gift certificate, so it was like it was free. Cheap toasters tend to lose toasting power after a couple of years, but this one's hanging in there, and has enough oomph to nicely brown homemade bread and English muffins in one go-round.

If you have two for breakfast on a regular basis, a four-slot is definitely the way to go! In fact, with the little one I could use a five- or six!
posted by rikschell at 10:56 AM on August 4, 2007

I think ours is the same DeLonghi as Rickschell's, and it'd been toasting nicely for 6+ years now. The only thing I'd change is that I'd like it to lift the toast out a little higher than it does when it's done.

Although that Hello Kitty toaster is way cool. And it would either entertain or weird out guests, either of which would be fun.
posted by altcountryman at 7:55 PM on August 4, 2007

404 toaster not available

Yeah, it looks like the particular Braun model I linked to is no longer made, but they do have newer models with the single long slot. That is very handy.

Also, to those who are debating over a toaster oven vs. a toaster: I barely cook and I decided I needed both. So, yes, the correct answer is a toaster oven (I recommend one with a convection feature, also known as a fan) and a toaster.
posted by kindall at 11:58 PM on August 4, 2007