What is the deal with toasters?
 

What is the deal with toasters? Does anyone here have a toaster that still works that they bought more than oh, 8 years ago? If so, what kind is it?

I've tried spending just a little money on them or spending a lot of money on them, and they all break after 2-5 years. Cheap $15 toasters last 2 years, but $70 ones only last 5 years. Do you have to buy one of those $200 toasters to get one that will last ten years or more?

Our (extended) family has a summer cottage. In that summer cottage is an old toaster with a cloth insulated cord. Must be from the 1940s. It is slow, but that thing still makes perfect toast. So I know it can be done.

Does anybody make a decent toaster that will last?

Sounds like my luck with dvd players.

I've had my DeLonghi convection toaster oven for more than 5 years I guess... I don't like regular toasters, too limiting.

The toaster I bought when I moved out of London packed up late last year. I will celebrate moving back to London by buying a new one.

My ex husband got our Dualit toaster. I have no idea if it still works, but let's face it, it outlasted our marriage.

My last toaster, one of those German quartz element ones ... a Krups or a Braun, I forget, was phenomenal. Lasted 10 years before it decided that the level 7 setting was for lukewarm mildly yellow toast. Up until then, it was Der Toastmeister. After that one, I went for the "emergency until I can get a real one" toaster. $6.99 at K-Mart. Lasted for another five years or so. Only problem was that it was made to toast perfectly even squares of Wonderbread, and the larger slices of today's pretending to be good for you breads required a flip halfway through the process to toast the end that hangs out of the toaster. Very workable.

When the K-Mart toaster became an obvious fire hazard I replaced it with a $30 shiny stainless steel altar of toasting.

Lemme tell you something. The mid price toasters are all about the same ... and the only difference between it and the $6.99 toaster is that the $30 toaster has extra buttons you never use.

If I had it to do over, I would have gotten this baby.

I really want another quartz element toaster, but I wasn't able to find one. I have a sneaking suspicion that they were burning down houses in their spare time or something. They make awesome toast, though.

I didn't know you'd been married. For some reason I thought you'd just lived over-the-brush like me and my ex.;P

Well, maybe I should transition over to a toaster oven. But I like regular toasters. This review of toasters gave the standard DeLonghi toaster it's highest praise. But $130 seems a little more than you should have to spend for a toaster.

Was your marriage long? Nevermind, it doesn't matter. I see that the Dualit is $320 through Amazon. I'm willing to pay a bit more for quality, but not that much more.

That one got good reviews in that link I posted above. And $60 is reasonable for such a simple device. My last toaster, before this Philips that just died, was a Krups quartz element, and it was awesome. They put a cheap plastic knob on it though that seemed to actually be designed to break after a specified amount of time. Built in obsolescence. It was made from a different type of plastic than the rest of the toaster, and I was unable to repair it. Even after drilling out the tamper resistant screws to get inside the thing.

Toaster ovens, despite their versatility, take up too damn much counter space. I already have appliances that don't get daily use that I have to keep in closets and therefore use even less often than I would otherwise because it's a hassle to extricate them.

You're describing the toaster I want (but can't find): a metal box with one lever for lowering the toast, and one light-to-dark adjustment.
Do they even make these anymore? Instead, this seems to be all there is out there:

That's funny. Did you see Wolf's toaster recomendation? It actually got decent reviews, but the reviewer said he needed to read the owner's manual to figure out how to make toast with it.

Fuck. That. The toaster is one item that doesn't need any "new, improved features" - it needs to do one thing, and one thing only.

I know that sometimes it's the machine, and sometimes it's the operator, and sometimes it's the bread. Maybe your bread needs some help.

We use a toaster oven. We just don't eat that much toast. Pete actually mentioned the condition of our toaster oven this morning, "What do you call it, racking, when a frame looks like a parallelogram? Check this out." The thing is a little loose in the stays.

I got a Hello Kitty toaster for Xmas. We use it sparingly, and if it lasts 2 or 3 years, I'll be satisfied.

You are very lucky wolf is way over in Philly. She'd be bustin' in your door.

She was totally jealous when I got it. I got her a cool Xmas present though--Hello Kitty Pez dispensers.

You really are not much of an a-hole.

I have never made toast in my toaster. I make frozen waffles. But my Cuisinart has lasted, oh, maybe 5 years now...

Flint, I actually broke the toaster at my work by forcing the lever up rather than realizing there was something as stupid as a cancel button on it.

Did you look here for toaster reviews?

You're just saying that because you've been drinking.

I'm lovin' humanity but the bottle is empty...

The reviewer is clearly lame.

Like any toaster you set the doneness, and push the lever. Interesting features on that one include a muffin warmer (those grids on the top), a bagel setting that actually works, and a soft eject, so that your toast doesn't go flying across the kitchen when it's done. The doneness is assessed based on humidity rather than temperature, so you can toast multiple slices in a row and get them right every time, rather than progressively lighter toast with the same setting.

This drives us crazy. Most toasters are uneven and unpredictable. I want one that will do a full sized bit of toast as well as bagles. So far we are striking a big zero. I will have to check out some of those on the sites above. $60, maybe; $320?!?!?!?! no frigging way.

Well, over the weekend, I took my toaster apart.

Had to break a little plastic latch that was holding the lever on in order to remove the case. Unplugged two cables, and had it apart. Cleaned crumbs out of it. There was one crumb wedged in between the plastic body and the circuit board. By the way, there were two integrated circuits on the circiut board for this toaster. Toasters with circiut boards! What the hell? Integrated circuits?! Anyway, now it works. I needed to repair the lever I broke, but drilling a hole and using a little strand of copper wire like a twist tie makes it work just fine. So now it works perfectly. I guess the crumb touching the leads to the IC was messing up the circuitry a little bit somehow. Hopefully I'll get a couple more years out of it.

Flame on...

I got a Toastmaster Lightwave toaster oven/broiler about two years ago, and I love it. It's damn versatile. You have to be willing to "learn" how it does things, though. Once you've got it sussed, you get great, reproducible results every time.
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Oh yeah, and I banished the old toaster to the bottom of the appliance cabinet. It hasn't seen the light of day in two years.

Toaster ovens rule.

Cooking, heating up left-overs, and they even make some awesome toast. It's awesome to be able to eat without heating up the entire house by firing up the full-size oven.

No need for a microwave if you have a toaster oven.

Remember the day before planned obsolescence that you would actually take a toaster in to be REPAIRED? I don't either, but I've heard tell of those days. We throw away everything now.

We have it way better than Lisa Douglas on Green Acres.

OK newer model, much better than the last.

Related question, I think: why do toasters actually get the toast to dark brown on their darkest-brown setting, whereas toaster ovens' max setting gets the toast to light yellow at most? I've never even seen a toaster oven that gets the toast visibly toasted and not merely warm and dry in a single cycle. I always have to do one long toasting and then a short one.

Some complain the ovens' distribution of heating elements doesn't tan the toast evenly, but I don't mind that; the flavor is still the same -- but if only the toasting setting were adequate to the task without having to fiddle with it!

My guess would be the moisture. A toaster is open, and lets the moisture out.

Maybe a toaster oven would make darker toast if the door were open for a bit of time at the end.

Naw, my toaster oven will do light-brown, medium brown and very dark brown in one cycle (depending on setting). It does the lightwave/halogen thingie, in addition to standard ohmic heating.

There are a couple of variables with the browning of bread in a toaster. Technically, it is called "carmelization". For a given toaster how long it takes the toast to achieve a level of brown depends on the sugar in the bread, as well as the moisture and the mass. Breads like wonder bread will incinerate before a sourdough whole wheat 37 grain bread will even be warmed up.

The other issue is the proximity of the heating elements to the aforementioned bread. Some toasters the elements are "up front and touching", others, like toaster ovens, are too far away to effectivelt brown a bagel without drying it out in the process.

To keep the moisture you want a high heat very close. Think black and blue steak, you won't get that on a medium flame.

When selecting toasters in a store that won't let you do a test run (WTF is up with customer service these days?) check to see how many amps the toaster draws, more should be better.

I am born to eat toast. Right now I have a KitchenAid and it is ok, but not a patch on the asbestos lined beauty I got at a yard sale. That fucker could toast. I mean it could TO-AST. (plus I loved making toast for my chemically pure MIL when she came to visit. That was second only to making pie crusts with lard, which she thought was awful, and telling her it was manteca, which she raved about how wonderful it tasted. Hey, there'll be lots of toast in hell, join me!)

I'm headed for that hot place anyway, very pleased to hear there is toast there!

I'll get a shot of my toaster later today...9$ (8.99) at the local 'Freds' (discount sorta-kinda place) one lever, one knob.. does the job and at that price! although.. it's really only good for toasting bread and the occasional bagel/english muffin.. as to durability? I dunno only had it a year so far.

I've lasted for 24 years and counting.

Didn't see this thread before I signed up, I've been lurking for a while and decided to join. Funny, I've rarely viewed this category and this was at the top today.

Wolf...remember this?

My toaster is in the attached picture on the right...it rules!

Do you still have the old toaster? (edit: just read the thread & saw that it was fixed, but it's a general solicitation...)

I want a push-down pop-up style, 2-slice toaster, ideally chrome exterior but I'm not going to be picky for a project I'm considering. It doesn't need to work (I hope to salvage the switching mechanism, but that's about it).

I'll pay postage if anybody has one they want to donate. Could probably write it off as a charity donation (art student.)

I'd recommend Goodwill, they always have plenty of old-style appliances for under $10.

Or you could just buy a new one at Kmart or Wal-Mart for $10...that's how much my last toaster was. A White-Westinghouse...had it and used it semi-regularly for 5 years. Only got rid of it because I didn't need it anymore after I moved home. I know college kids don't have a lot of scratch, but still...

I had no idea that Bhuddist meditation had such power!

It's something that's not talked about much...spontaneous combustion by Buddhists...fuck! Said too much...

Im in ur toaster, reportin' to Bush. :eyeball: :eyeball:

My toaster, the one with least features I could find, has a blue light on the front that never goes off. I have to fucking unplug it because it bothers me so much - I only use it maybe once a day at the most, it doesn't need a fucking blue light constantly announcing whatever bullshit it thinks I need to know! Fucking toasters. Like everything else, built to break.

It's gotten into your fucking head, man!

Good thing for you it doesn't need your puny electrical grid. All hail our fusion powered toast masters from Cylon 3!

I got somethin' else that don't need no electricity: my sawed-off shotgun!

Damnit Flint, it's too early to be breaking out the gun...wait another hour.

Yeah, get some drinking in first!

My neighbor had their house go up in flames, because of their toaster. The little annoying blue light may well be a good thing. It reminds you that you should unplug toasters. Their toaster was a month older than its warranty, so I am guessing then about a year old. It took out the kitchen and half the living room, because of a glitch/fault/wire. This really made me start to think. I always left ours plugged in, now, I unplug it, just in case. (when we go on holidays, we unplug everything but the fridge and freezer. But that was because in a thunderstorm two years ago, we had our brand new TV get the brunt of a lightning bolt.)

That was an awfully, er, greasy trick to play on someone innocent of Spanish, dude.:p

The Cellar is a crazy place. I just spent, what, 10 minutes?, reading about toasters, then felt compelled to respond. Toasters? What do they put in the Cellar water?

I have this same toaster (where did the picture go? See reply #9), but in the 4-slice version. The only problem with it is that it is very slow. I have to start the breakfast toast before I go to bed, then hopefully it will be ready when the eggs are done the next morning.

Plus, it uses more energy to toast 2 slices than did our old cheap toaster (I measured it using a Kill-A-Watt).

Of course I read the toaster manual. But I didn't have to. I just like reading toaster manuals.

OK I gave it over a month. And still. I can't beat this on my own and need to resign to a higher power to get me through this.

[steps up to the mic] thump thump - This thing ON? --shrill feedback--

"I'm Beestie and I STILL cannot read title of this thread and NOT hear Jerry Seinfeld saying it."

There, I feel better now. And now, I bet, I'm going to have LOTs of company.:D

By the way, my toaster, which I thought I had fixed, is now broken again. Target is selling one for $5. Maybe I'll get that one.

Planned obsolescence; we used to get things like toasters repaired. Now they're cheap so you just throw it away and get a new one, making toaster companies very happy! ;)

Counter space is a premium at my place, so I actually picked up something I didn't expect to last beyond one year: a combination microwave/toaster oven. Both functions are somewhat underpowered, but the thing still works after two years.

I miss the cheap, dangerous $25 toaster oven that had to go because it developed a short. The thing was incredible, but the little bastard shocked me on opening the door.

Thanks to HungLikeJesus, this thread was pointed out, and I read it again.

I ended up fixing my old toaster a second time, but it didn't take. So we got one of the ones that are in post #9, except with 4 slots. Had it a year, and it does a great job on toast, bagels, and waffles. I hope it lasts.

ha ha ha I love reading my old posts. . . . it's all about meee!!!1

i use a toaster oven rather than a toaster; it's more versatile. anyways, my previous one cost $40 and lasted only 6 months. talk about sucky quality.

I had a run of Toastmasters that didn't last for shit, so I told the ex we should go toaster shopping and the only criterion was that we should not buy a Toastmaster.

After looking over all the toasters she settled on... a Toastmaster.

Fucking control freak. That was year 6 of the marriage and that's the exact point at which it should have ended. The marriage was broke. Instead we tried repairing it and it went another 5 years.

The Toastmaster died quickly, and I bought the best-reviewed sub-$50 toaster on Amazon, which was a Black & Decker 4 slot deal. It's gone about 8 years now, and one of the levers broke, but the nice thing about a 4-slot is that if one side goes you still have the other side to work with.