Do any of you have any good advice on which toaster to buy? Since my
last one bit the dust, I've bought three replacements and been
dissapointed with them. None of them will toast dark enough, even
with the control all the way up. The last one, a Braun, won't toast
an English muffin without putting it down twice. And if that's not
bad enough, it burns the top edge and leaves the lower end raw. I
have even considered a Dualit, despite the price. Reviews are mixed
on it - some people love it, others hate it.

We've had a Kenwood for years and it does a good job - from the dreadful
white bread my daughter loves, which only needs to hover near the toaster
before burning to the dark heavy breads that my father likes to cremate!

The only think I would suggest is that you think about how many slices you
cook at once before buying a toaster. We bought one that does 4 slices and
very rarely cook more than 2, which means it's heating more than it needs
to. When it needs replacing, we'll go for a 4 slice toaster that has the
option of only doing 2 slices as well.

"Torky" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> Do any of you have any good advice on which toaster to buy? Since my
> last one bit the dust, I've bought three replacements and been
> dissapointed with them. None of them will toast dark enough, even
> with the control all the way up. The last one, a Braun, won't toast
> an English muffin without putting it down twice. And if that's not
> bad enough, it burns the top edge and leaves the lower end raw. I
> have even considered a Dualit, despite the price. Reviews are mixed
> on it - some people love it, others hate it.
>

"Torky" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> Do any of you have any good advice on which toaster to buy? Since my
> last one bit the dust, I've bought three replacements and been
> dissapointed with them. None of them will toast dark enough, even
> with the control all the way up. The last one, a Braun, won't toast
> an English muffin without putting it down twice. And if that's not
> bad enough, it burns the top edge and leaves the lower end raw. I
> have even considered a Dualit, despite the price. Reviews are mixed
> on it - some people love it, others hate it.

We've been happy with our Kitchen Aid for the past two years. About $45.
Very consistent.

Torky wrote:
> Do any of you have any good advice on which toaster to buy? Since my
> last one bit the dust, I've bought three replacements and been
> dissapointed with them. None of them will toast dark enough, even
> with the control all the way up. The last one, a Braun, won't toast
> an English muffin without putting it down twice. And if that's not
> bad enough, it burns the top edge and leaves the lower end raw. I
> have even considered a Dualit, despite the price. Reviews are mixed
> on it - some people love it, others hate it.
>

The Dualit 4-slice (it has two long toast wells). I have never turned
it above 5 of 10 for fear of setting the ceiling on fire! It has a nice
heavy mechanical pushdown lever; the problem with the spring is that it
sometimes launches light sandwich bread slices across the counter (no
joke). The bagel mode (activated by pushing a button on the darkness
knob) works well, toasting the inside without burning the outside.

The only disadvantage from my perspective is that I would like the toast
wells to be a bit wider (I bake some fat bagels), but 95% of the breads
I make or buy do fit in so that isn't much of a problem.

sPh

On Sat, 21 Apr 2007 23:07:26 +1000, "Viviane" >
wrote:

>We've had a Kenwood for years and it does a good job - from the dreadful
>white bread my daughter loves, which only needs to hover near the toaster
>before burning to the dark heavy breads that my father likes to cremate!
>
>The only think I would suggest is that you think about how many slices you
>cook at once before buying a toaster. We bought one that does 4 slices and
>very rarely cook more than 2, which means it's heating more than it needs
>to. When it needs replacing, we'll go for a 4 slice toaster that has the
>option of only doing 2 slices as well.

We've had a Kenwood for about eight years, and are quite happy with it. It's the
type which has only two slots, extra long -- great for toasting baquettes sliced
laterally, and handles four regular bread slices or muffin halves as well. There
are just two of us, but we very rarely do less than four slices.

I really like this flexibility, and wouldn't have any other layout.

I think every toaster's heating elements give off less heat as they age, don't
they?

-- Larry

pltrgyst wrote:
> On Sat, 21 Apr 2007 23:07:26 +1000, "Viviane"
> > wrote:
>
>> We've had a Kenwood for years and it does a good job - from the
>> dreadful white bread my daughter loves, which only needs to hover
>> near the toaster before burning to the dark heavy breads that my
>> father likes to cremate!
>>
<skip>

>
> We've had a Kenwood for about eight years, and are quite happy with
> it. It's the type which has only two slots, extra long -- great for
> toasting baquettes sliced laterally, and handles four regular bread
> slices or muffin halves as well. There are just two of us, but we
> very rarely do less than four slices.
>
> I really like this flexibility, and wouldn't have any other layout.
>
> I think every toaster's heating elements give off less heat as they
> age, don't they?
>
> -- Larry

I had a Kenwood for a number of years and absolutely loved it. It had
the two long wide slots, toasted evenly, toasted bagels and thicker
things, plus (the feature I really liked) I could not only raise the
bread/bagel/whatever high enough for easy removal, but it also had a
little rack which could be raised to keep items warm.

Unfortunately, our house burned and there went the toaster. I then
found out that Kenwood had been bought by Delonghi and the model was no
longer available. I googled and found one - in India, which didn't seem
practical to order.

Replaced it with a "state of the art" Cuisinart and detest it. I often
have to toast things twice, it toasts unevenly, and often burns the
edges. I wish I could find one I was happy with without continually
wasting dollars.

Dora