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The only good new toasters

Are commercial. All the rest are electronic horse feathers.

Been through this with two friends who wanted 'new', not vintage in the last few years - nothing, regardless of price, especially the UK overpriced 'items' is worth the money.

They both finally bought commercial at a local restaurant outfitters. Both 120V, 20Amp (the 'funny' plug) and both are happy to this day.
 
I know you want a new toaster, but I have to agree with Keven, none of the new toasters are very good. You can't go wrong with a vintage Sunbeam Toastmaster, either a T-20-, T-30 or a T-35. I have a T-35 that I bought at Goodwill 10 yrs ago for $5.99. It looks and works like brand new, I wouldn't trade it for any other toaster.
Eddie
 
Residential toasters weren't even very good in '79. My sister got 3 of them as gifts when she and her first husband married. She went through all of them in less than 5 years. She then bought a Toastmaster commercial toaster, which was quite expensive. It still works great.
 
haven't been toaster shopping in ages...  I just checked CR and on their recommended list the highest rated 2 slice is 

<h1 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 36px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-family: 'Averta W01 Light', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; color: #333333; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; font-family: 'Averta W01 Semibold', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Krups</span> 2-Slice KH732D50 toaster scored an 80 price $60</h1>
 

or this fun looking Cuisinart with the glass sides scored 78   $60

<h1 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 36px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-family: 'Averta W01 Light', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; color: #333333; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; font-family: 'Averta W01 Semibold', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Cuisinart</span> View Pro Glass 2-Slice CPT-3000 toaster</h1>
 

 
 
I already have a vintage toaster, a 1952 General Mills model.
A vintage model doesn't fit my needs as they seem designed for toasting sliced white Town Talk bread.
Most of what I toast is Jewish Rye, Italian, and artisanal multi grain breads that are either too thick to fit in the hole or are too long and only 3/4 of a slice fits in the toaster.

I'll look at the Krups model, may just get a commercial one on next trip to Restaurant Depot
 
Main complaint

With most modern toasters is they dry the bread out and toast too slowly.

 

We have a Toastmaster 4 slice. It was inexpensive,  It's adequate.  Every review I have read from Amazon, to Cook's digest: "toast is too dry". 

 

 
 
The best modern consumer toaster I found when I was really searching last was a base model white Cuisinart I got back in 2010 for $25. When it comes to appliances I want no frills and want it to do the one thing an appliance is supposed to do well (I think most of us here feel the same or we wouldn't be here!), it fits the bill considering I make toast maybe a dozen times a year. If I made toast every day I'd have invested in something commercial or gone vintage.

The one thing that really aggravates me about modern toasters, the ones I've used, is if you set it for the right darkness on the initial use it will toast much darker on the consecutive cycles after that (since its already been preheated). Idk if vintage toasters had this issue or not.
 
I've been  satisfied with the Kitchen Aid long  slot toaster Kelly gifted me a number of years back. I make my own sourdough rye and I can fit a nice long slice in there, or 2 slices of regular bread.  It has a bagel setting as well as reheat and frozen.  I was after a thin toaster as I keep mine in the wall and a typical  2 slice would never fit.  I had been using a Cuisinart branded one but it died. 

 

I make toast frequently and this fits my needs.  I do have an old Toastmaster from the 50's but it really does not fit the bread I use, it's been decades since I bought simple white bread -- what it was designed for.
 
I never buy white sandwich bread, but I do regularly toast big slices of whole wheat bread in my Sunbeam and also english muffins on occasion with no problem. But these older toasters do have their limitaions as far as the size of bread slices they will accommodate
Eddie.
 
Here is a picture of how I did my toaster, I made a pullout shelf under it and tuck it back in when not in use.  The space used be occupied with a true built in toaster - it was a 4 slice model that managed to catch fire.  Believe it was Modern Maid.

mattl-2017040100222808873_1.jpg
 
Sam, I agree about vintage toasters being designed for Wonder/Bimbo/Town Talk sliced white bread.  I loved how our vintage Sunbeam Radiant Control turned out perfect toast, consistently browned from the first automatic cycle to the last, but with anything other than plain white bread, it was a crap shoot.

 

We found an excellent deal on a KitchenAid Pro Line toaster several years ago at Tuesday Morning.  It will accept halved bagels, and I like the manual raise/lower feature.  You can check for browning without shutting off the toaster, and keep one slice lowered while buttering the other.  It's a little slow on the first cycle, but reasonably expedient on subsequent ones.

 

We also had a slim cool-touch-exterior Bosch (I think) with a single long slot for quite a while.  It worked well for oversized slices, which have to be cut in half to fit in the KA, and its slim shape against the back splash economized on counter top work space.

 

 

 

 
 
I think I have that Bosch you're speaking of. Has a cord wrap on the bottom and I like the wall-hugging design. The crumb tray slides out from the short end. I would buy it again, although I suspect it comes from the source of all modern toasters, the Number 1 small appliance factory in Harbin, PRC (ha ha)
 
Self Lowering

Did any company every make a Self Lowering toaster beside Sunbeam? That feature always has seemed luxurious to me. I got a new Sunbeam in 1980 that is self lowering, still use it. For the second toasting the lever must be adjusted, it always was that way, and it is radiant control.
 
the trouble with UK toasters

Is getting parts/repairs.

It's next to impossible in the US.

 

There are commercial toaster with wide slots, I'd go down that route. BOSCH is no longer BOSCH made, so you're paying German engineering and getting Chineseum.

 

I wish modern appliance were better built.
 
Self lowering toasters

Enter and Arize...



I've got one stashed away. The only hitch with it is that it only works with standard bread slices; it relies on very uniform bread thickness.

But it is entertaining.
 
I have a Chefman, capable of toasting four slices of bread, that I got from my late-brother-in-law... In addition to my two-slice Cuisinart that we got for our wedding... (And I like to keep that because it still works & doesn't take up as much space, as I find myself swapping each appliance, from time to time...)

 

I have no idea how to remove the crumb tray--the owner's book makes it seem easy as you press on something, in which case I think it's the nameplate that gives me the impression that it's spring-loaded and will make the crumb tray underneath pop out, but that doesn't seem to work...  Doing that, theoretically, it will still not release...

 

Without my brother-in-law to help us, (even though he had just bought that toaster & it looked like it had been just taken out of the box, and seems to have not ever used before that first cleaning), I'm left to just shake the crumbs out through the slots...

 

 

-- Dave

[this post was last edited: 4/2/2017-03:32]
 
I have one of those B&D Arize toasters as well. Got it on sale years ago..  It's a big fire risk. If you put in bread any much thicker than Wonder, or slice your own bread unevenly it has a tendency to catch on fire.. That's why we quit using it.  But it's novel.   Lots of negative reviews about the fire issue on amazon. 
 
Since we are talking toasters here, I have noticed that putting the bread in upside down into the slots and toasting that way that I am getting a more even toasting of the bread. If placed in the normal way, flat end down it does not come out evenly toasted or the bottom area is much lighter than the rest. This just started in the past month or so. All elements are on and I have cleaned it out. One is a Waring 4 slice and a BD 4 slice and both are doing it. Bread does come out of the freezer then into toaster. Don't know if this makes a difference.

Jon
 
I've probably said it before, but the main issue with toasters in America is the lower voltage in American homes. This is not a big issue with two slice toasters, but when people started demanding four slice versions, the total number of watts available compromised the heat available to each of the four slices. And that reduced wattage is the same whether you try to toast one slice or four (unless for some reason the mfg has some way of detecting how many slices have been inserted).

About 20 years ago I got a pretty good toaster - Krups, I think - that heated not with glowing resistance wire, but with quartz tubes in front of parabolic reflectors. This was the one long slot design, but it worked. I remember buying one for my mom and she later remarked how well it worked.

That said, I tend to like lightly browned toast, and have found the KA four slice number to work well enough for my purposes. It's usually tasked to warm up burger buns, not much else.
 
Sam -
For what it's worth, I bought the Cosumer Reports "Best Buy" toaster from a couple of years ago. It's a stainless steel exterior Hamilton Beach two-slice model. Got it at Costco for $20. It's not fancy or sophisticated in design, but it toasts evenly and quickly, accommodates large slices of bread and bagels and is fairly easy to clean. Whenever it decides to stop working I'll toss it out and get another, but after three years it's still performing well.
 
I'm not a heavy (toaster) user...

 

 

I wish I still had the toaster I found in it's original box in my moms attic years ago (a never used wedding gift).  It was a late 50's/early 60's Toastmaster.  It was beautiful, heavy, very solid, worked great and was much faster than the one we had been using!   I currently have a Black & Decker cool touch(?) that I've had at least 10, if not 15 years now.   It has recently started to act up, occasionally not popping up.

 

I have friends that use their toaster every day.  They said over the last 20 years they have only been able to get 2 to 3 years max out of any toaster.   Doesn't matter of it's a cheapo $20 model or high-end $200+ Dualit, 2 plus years is about it.  However they are currently using a $23 T-Fal toaster they bought at Target and it's a trouper, going 3+ years so far.

 

Kevin 

 

 

 
 

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