fan-of-fans
Well-known member
Here's a Kenmore Elite 4 slice toaster, probably about 10 years old. I'm not usually much into modern toasters, I'd like a vintage Sunbeam, but I grabbed this one because I always liked these, and remember them.
I bought my mom a similar, but non-Elite two slice version of it in white in 2007. I liked how the buttons lit up green when you selected defrost/bagel/reheat and on that one, the dial had green lights around it that turned on as you increased or turned off as you decreased the toast setting. So for setting 5, 5 LEDs were on and so forth. Unfortunately a few years ago one of the buttons got jammed and it stopped working. The new Sears toasters by then were so bland, that we replaced it with a cheapo chrome Hamilton Beach which isn't that bad, but very basic. It does the job, and I consider toasters a disposable appliance these days, so no need to pay for more features.
Anyhow, this is the Elite model, so it's all metal on the outside and basically the same setting-wise as the non-Elite we had, except this one has blue LCD screens that light up in blue as soon as you plug it in.
I was wondering if anyone knows who made these toasters? The model number starts with 100.
I also cannot figure out how to take this apart, I took the screws out, but the top and sides (which appear to be one piece) won't come off. I decided to just use a small brush and scrub out the crumbs in the bottom of the slots. I also used Mother's mag polish, and it did a great job polishing the chrome and got the brown burned on sugar (?) off that toasters get on top. I may go at it with compressed air and see if I can't blow any more crumbs out.
Another thing, is I seem to recall reading back then that the Elite models had quartz elements, this appears to just be wire element, maybe it was just the two-slice models were quartz?
I bought my mom a similar, but non-Elite two slice version of it in white in 2007. I liked how the buttons lit up green when you selected defrost/bagel/reheat and on that one, the dial had green lights around it that turned on as you increased or turned off as you decreased the toast setting. So for setting 5, 5 LEDs were on and so forth. Unfortunately a few years ago one of the buttons got jammed and it stopped working. The new Sears toasters by then were so bland, that we replaced it with a cheapo chrome Hamilton Beach which isn't that bad, but very basic. It does the job, and I consider toasters a disposable appliance these days, so no need to pay for more features.
Anyhow, this is the Elite model, so it's all metal on the outside and basically the same setting-wise as the non-Elite we had, except this one has blue LCD screens that light up in blue as soon as you plug it in.
I was wondering if anyone knows who made these toasters? The model number starts with 100.
I also cannot figure out how to take this apart, I took the screws out, but the top and sides (which appear to be one piece) won't come off. I decided to just use a small brush and scrub out the crumbs in the bottom of the slots. I also used Mother's mag polish, and it did a great job polishing the chrome and got the brown burned on sugar (?) off that toasters get on top. I may go at it with compressed air and see if I can't blow any more crumbs out.
Another thing, is I seem to recall reading back then that the Elite models had quartz elements, this appears to just be wire element, maybe it was just the two-slice models were quartz?
