toasters

The prices vary so much! I bought a decent one which was on promo, with loyalty points, at our supermarket - less than £20.
It takes 2 slices.
Then I saw in a Lakeland catalogue one for £89.99 and another for £189.99 (4 slices.)

Do you want to toast frozen bread? I do so bought accordingly. I always try to buy a reasonably cheap one but I find that as I always want a plain white one, that dictates the price also.

Get one with nice wide slots ggmarion mine will only take skinny (thin sliced) bread and everything else gets firmly stuck.

I have a cheap wide-slot Asda toaster which has performed perfectly for about 15 years. Value supermarket goods are usually good quality.

I have come to the conclusion, after owning several toasters both cheap and expensive, that the elements in all of them are the same.

So far we haven't found one that toasts both sides evenly at the same rate.

Mine isn't in a cupboard so I have a toaster and kettle that match but it is no better than a cheap one we used to have in the caravan.

look for one that is deep ! a lot of cheap ones £5+ are so shallow the top of the bread sticks out and half way through toasting you have to take it out and turn it upside down

And wide slots if you want to toast anything other than slices of bread

I use a small toaster oven and use it all the time! I don't bother heating up the big oven unless Im preparing a larger amount of food.

After going for a retro look in my kitchen, my new toaster is cream with duck egg blue stripes on it and "toast" in a burgundy colour wrote on it. I love it and it toasts very well. Very happy.

From what I remember about another thread on kettles and toasters, the consensus appeared to be that the more you spend, the longer they last.

I came to the conclusion, years ago, that buying expensive appliances for the kitchen was a waste of money so I bought this one, but in black to match my other appliances. It does a good job.

My latest toaster does boiled or poached eggs too. It gets a lot of use so I hope it lasts.

I bought a Russell Hobbs and it was quite expensive. It was hopeless, either burning or undercooking the bread. So, I then went to Asda and bought one of their basic toasters. I think it was around £3.50. It also burns or undercooks the bread!I can't win.

I think unless you can afford/justify buying a really good expensive toaster (I'd go for Dualit purely on the grounds of superb design but am assuming at that price they do good toast too)and go for the cheapest acceptable version that works for your kitchen on the grounds they are not worth repairing and you can replace it (I too hate that attitude but given the cost of repairs...)

I now have a Dualit toaster and kettle. Both have given me more trouble than any other that I have had in the past. The toaster doesn't brown both sides evenly and occasionally trips the consumer unit (nothing wrong - we have had it all checked out by an electrician). The kettle will decide all on it's own whether to let the top open or not (so that you can refill it), at it's whim it seems which is really annoying. Also the on/off button is plastic and has cut my finger before now. Certainly not the quality I expected for the money..... I agree that the cheaper brands are probably better - they have nothing to prove and no inflated price to justify the name.

Russell Hobbs and Morpy Richards seem OK for branded items but I have found that supermarkets' own toasters and kettles are fine. You can get a perfectly decent toaster for twenty quid.

We've a cheap Sainsburys toaster which is still fine after several years. I think it cost about £10. (To be fair, I have to say that it isn't used daily, but is used several times weekly.) If we hadn't liked it, I'd have returned it to Sainsburys as I've always found their "returns" to be a straightforward matter.

I have a Kenwood which has been very reliable. My daughter recommended it - she has one too. I've had mine for over 10 years. Hughes have an offer on a Kenwood KMix - £29.99 instead of £54.99 which may be worth a look. Otherwise I'd go supermarket.

I have a dualit toaster, looks nice but it does not justify high price tag. Have to flip slices over halfway or they don't cook evenly. Slots are not wide enough either

I have a Marks & Spencer toaster bought over 6 years ago. It was one of the few on the market that has a button to switch to one slice only and has a tweezer-like gadget for picking up the toast if it is below the top. I have been looking for something similar recently but cannot find a one slice toaster.

For me it is the width of the toaster that matters, and many of them look too narrow. I mourn my old Tefal one

We were bought a four slice Dualit toaster as a wedding present in April 1985, it's been used most days and is still going strong!
That was in the days when they were truly 'handmade', I don't think they're of the same quality now though! I may not recommend anyone to buy a modern one as they really don't seem to be as good.
The slots in mine are more than wide enough to accept extra thick bread, and they seem to be taller too, we never have to turn slices over due to height.
It's not looking quite as shiny and beautiful as it once did, but it still makes perfect toast, crunchy on the outside and lovely and fluffy inside!

We have a 4 slice BOSCH toaster. Reasonably priced and produces great toast. Has a control so you can have it lightly toasted or black if you want it.

I've never got the hang of finding the right setting for the toaster. My microwave has a grill and I prefer to toast bread in that - it takes just as long, and the result is far more even.