Best vintage toaster?

[dustin92]

I haven't posted on here in a while, but I am hoping somebody can point me towards a good vintage toaster. I was looking on ebay and saw lots of nice ones, but didn't know which ones work the best? We are on our third cheapy toaster (which never pops up) and I remember one that used to belong to my grandma, which worked wonderfully, and I think it was from the 50's. I don't remember what brand it was but it had a shade selector on the front, and a fine tuning adjuster on the bottom of the toaster. I don't really care what brand of toaster I end up with, it just has to work well and consistently. Thank you!

 

[maytagbear]

Ones with

"fine tuning" on the bottom are Proctor-Silex, and they are decent. The new ones aren't, but few new toasters are worth much.

I prefer the Sunbeam "Automatic Beyond Belief" radiant self-lowering ones, but they are usually fairly expensive. Easy to work on, though, as long as it's unplugged!

Good luck.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[dustin92]

Our last two have been Proctor Silex and the quality has definitely gone downhill. The one that was just replaced was from around 2000 or so and it worked ok and was fast but never toasted evenly. The current one is new but takes forever and only pops up when it feels like it.

 

[norgeway]

Sunbeam!

Radiant Control, all around best as far as im concerned.

 

[wayupnorth]

Toastmaster

I have my grandmothers vintage model that you just had to put the bread in and it automatically lowered, toasted and popped up. The old fabric cord is a tad worn out so I use it as one of the vintage decorations over the kitchen cabinets.

 

[rp2813]

Currently Stored Away, But . . .

Our Sunbeam self-lowering is the best at what it does out of all toasters I've ever owned or used.  Perfectly even toasting every time.  In those infrequent cases where the toast isn't quite done, when the toast is lowered again the machine knows to only provide a brief amount of additional toasting before raising the perfectly finished product.  With any other toaster, lowering the toast again triggers a full cycle which will burn the toast if you don't intervene.

 

Where Sunbeam self-lowering types fall short for me is in processing anything other than plain white bread.  It was a crap shoot with bread of any other texture or density.

 

[perc-o-prince]

I have to agree...

Sunbeam radiant self-lowering has been our daily toaster for years and it requires little/no work. Just keep the crumb tray clean. Ours tends to not lower if the tray needs to be emptied!

I have several on my shelf. If you are interested in one and don't want to pay the high eBay prices just send me a private email. We'll discuss

Rich

 

[toploader55]

Sunbeam Radiant

Just happen to have one and agree, they're the best.

Another is the First GE Toaster Oven. This makes great toast too

 

[whirlcool]

I think the best vintage toaster is the old Sunbeam T-9. Nice design, toasts evenly and the decor on the toaster even matches that on the Sunbeam Coffeemaster. My parents had one while I was growing up. It lasted virtually forever.

 

[polkanut]

We have my in-laws Sunbeam T-20 from 1957 and it is still going strong.  I can also do English muffins, and bagels in mine.  It all comes out perfect every time. 

 

[appliguy]

I have all 3 toasters mentioned in the previous 3 posts.....

and I agree with each of the posters......you can not go wrong with any of the 3 (the GE Toaster Oven is especially good if you like to do english muffins)....BUT I do give an extra nod to the Sunbeam self lowering toasters for a couple of reasons.

Reason # 1 due to the fact that they were made from 1949 to circa 1997 there is still quite a few of them around.

Reason # 2 Usually all these toasters need to work properly again is a adjustment to a screw inside the crumb door of the toaster (but the two T-20's and the one T-35 I have had have worked just fine and needed no adjustment at all).

Of course if you wanted to be really different you could get Toastmasters version of the self lowering toaster.....they were the only toasters I have ever seen that had an electric motor in them......PAT COFFEY

 

[dustin92]

I'm watching 3 of the Sunbeam self lowering radiant control toasters on ebay, hopefully I can grab one of them.

 

[dustin92]

I won a sunbeam radiant control model vt-40 on ebay for about $20. About when was this model made? It looks to be in nice condition too! I will post an update when it gets here.

 

[xraytech]

I currently have been enjoying using my grandmothers toaster. Hers is a General Mills model. It was a wedding present in 1952 from my grandpaps friend Fr. Phil Baroni who was the best man in the wedding. 60 years later and the toaster is still going strong.

 

 

 

[rp2813]

VT-40

The style with the sliding darkness control was, I believe, the final design treatment for this toaster.  Your toaster is probably of 70's vintage, give or take a couple of years on either side.

 

[kenwashesmonday]

For toasting regular sized bread it's hard to beat a late 1930s Toastmaster 1B6 or similar.  I've been using mine almost every day for almost 25 years.  Perfect toast every time, and it's very fast.

 

Ken D.

 

[dustin92]

Just got it today and it works so well! Really cool to watch it lower and raise and it toasts really well. It is really clean and looks almost new. I have two questions though: 1. HOW does it raise and lower? And 2. Why does one side of the toast (the center of the toaster) get darker than the other side?

 

[appliguy]

Dustin your toaster was made circa 1962 to circa 1973

I got this information from the website at the link bellow which is dedicated to the Sunbeam Radiant Control Toasters. This web site will be able to tell you all about your new find. Congratulations on your purchase.....PAT COFFEY

Home Page

 

[dustin92]

Thanks! That answered my questions! It sounds like the mechanicals of the toaster are really simple.