View Full Version : The New Toaster Drama
Oy. Are they ALL either cheap POS, or über expensive?? <sigh> The last toaster was at least 12 years old, and it is failing. No recall how much I spent on it, but surely no more than $30, as is my nature.
Sooo, I bought a $35 one from Amazon, used it twice, and it's going back. (My review: "I am returning this pathetic excuse for a toaster. More than 50% of the heating elements do not get hot, thus defeating the very design of the appliance. It's all red hot sexiness on the outside, and sad, cold metal on the inside." I enjoyed writing that...)
Then, this past weekend, I used the Dualit at my friend's house, the one she bought almost 20 years ago. Fantastic! Ok, researched it... and... $250?!?!?!? Seriously?? Who the heck spends that kinda bread on a toaster?? Well, rich folks, obviously, and my friend when she had money two decades ago.
Pluses: they are made in England. They apparently last for a long, long time. They are stylin', great colors, etc.
Minus: ummm... $250.
Enter the Dualit Lite. $90 at Amazon. Black & chrome (red one not available at this price, dammit all). 1 year warranty. Made in China (boo). Ok, it's on the kitchen counter. May the toasting begin! Still... Nearly a Benjamin for a freaking toaster? Sheesh. I better need to include its' disposition in my will...
catherine
7-31-13, 12:40pm
If you find a good one worth its salt let me know. We use our toaster oven as a toaster, but DH always complains about how long it takes to toast anything, and it's never evenly toasted.
Sorry I can't help! But it's ridiculous how much they charge for these simple appliances. I got my toaster oven on sale at Target for 19.99, but I could have gotten one with the same functions for $200.
I got an excellent Oster for $6-something at Value Village. It apparently hadn't been used. It's just a two-slice unit, but it does everything I want it to do. Note I use it once in a blue moon...
I got an excellent Oster for $6-something at Value Village. It apparently hadn't been used. It's just a two-slice unit, but it does everything I want it to do. Note I use it once in a blue moon...
I'm in the value village camp. I'm not partcularly worried if it's even a used toaster as long as it toasts. But I remember these toasters, they were awesome, but they are "vintage" now and expensive to find.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/DivaSharon/GEVintageToasterOven1.jpg
IshbelRobertson
7-31-13, 1:46pm
I have a Dualit toaster that I bought about 20 years ago. I also have a Dualit kettle and coffee maker. The toaster makes THE best toast in the world.
Dualit stuff always seems to be on wedding lists here in the UK.
Redfox, if you like red toasters, I got this one a while back. It is basically functional. I have been in the same toaster drama, as I put up with a sub-$20 piece of cheap Chinese junk for couple of years, and it fortunately quit working. The new one is at least ok. Maybe the solution is to go on eBay and get one from the reliable years. No way am I going to pay more than about 50 bucks for a toaster.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001AGLRX2/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I don't remember how much I paid for my Krups toaster maybe a decade ago, but I think it was around $40-50 and I remember thinking I was lucky to be able to throw that kind of money at a toaster. But that seems to be the world of small appliances these days -- cheap disposable assemblages of plastic or serious pieces with hefty materials and prices. So far I'm still in the camp of spending a lot once more than I am spending a few bucks and hoping I don't have to throw it away too soon. redfox, I hope the Lite part of Dualit Lite does not refer to the lifespan of the toaster itself. And I love the review you wrote (at least the part you repeated for us)!
My parents got a toaster as a wedding present in the forties. It just gave up the ghost a year or so ago. They really don't make appliances like they used to.
That said, I hope your Dualit lasts a long time.
My Dualit was a huge disappointment - it was the year they switched to electronic controls. It is rotting in my garage now, it never made a decent piece of toast, and was prone to fits of madness.
I remember my mother making toast in the broiler pan of our old gas oven. She would put little bits of butter on the bread; the butter would melt and the bread would toast brown all around the butter.
My Dualit was a huge disappointment - it was the year they switched to electronic controls. It is rotting in my garage now, it never made a decent piece of toast, and was prone to fits of madness.
Sad! Fits of madness... Do tell! And you didn't return it?
Sad! Fits of madness... Do tell! And you didn't return it?
The electronic computer toast-genius inside it randomly decides to reset, shutting off the toaster, but without any indication other than cold bread.
It went crazy after the return-period had passed, and the store was most uncooperative. I still have it sitting in the garage because it is such a nice pie of design and metal I have hoes of repurposing it someday. I'm even still tempted to get a new one, though the $5 recycling-center special we grabbed seems to work sorta-fine. I just use the broiler now when Serious About Toast, or my blowtorch.
Lol, Bae. Yeah, DH & I both have quite the stash of 'oh, this is worth fixin some day...' Mine are clothes & other textiles, his are machines n tools...
I am still using the toaster my dad had in college in the late '40's! Doing the math, that toaster is AT LEAST 65 years old if not older and I will rue the day it dies and then I'll have your dilemma! Or I could use the little camp stove toaster rack I have in the box of camping equipment down in the basement.
Oy. Are they ALL either cheap POS, or über expensive??
yes. yes they are.
I wrote a similar post some months--years?--ago and I tried to find it because it's funny how my disgust for the toasters available mirrored yours. And I remember that bae chimed in with his expensive toaster story.
Our toaster is working ok but not great, but I gave up on finding a replacement. I did try Ebay but wasn't sure how to identify ones that would be any good.
That experience DID prod me to buy on Ebay a used electric alarm clock from the '80s which is exactly what I want. I grew tired of the iddy-biddy-teeny-tiny cheap plastic control buttons of my recently manufactured clock radio. I couldn't operate it in half light, the stupid cheap thing.
The latest thing we will need replacing is a boom box. We have two boom boxes that we plug in to an outdoor cord and listen to radio when gardening. I think it's pretty hard to find a boom box and the last ones I priced were uber cheaply made and expensive. One of the ones we use DH dug out from the dumpster and fixed.
I'm in the value village camp. I'm not partcularly worried if it's even a used toaster as long as it toasts. But I remember these toasters, they were awesome, but they are "vintage" now and expensive to find.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/DivaSharon/GEVintageToasterOven1.jpg
OMG! We have this one packed away somwhere; it belonged to my grandparents.
My parents had a toaster from their wedding shower in 1956 that died about 10 years ago. We've been through 4 or 5 toasters since then--they suck! My toast is never evenly toasted, and the dial lies (Medium? Oh, you mean burnt?)
They had a GE toaster oven from their shower as well that lasted almost as long as the toaster. Our current one is so cheap and takes too long. The toast part has an annoying dial that ticks down to zero---I feel like I'm waiting for a bomb to go off while waiting for my corn muffin/english muffin pizza.
OMG! We have this one packed away somwhere; it belonged to my grandparents.
My parents had a toaster from their wedding shower in 1956 that died about 10 years ago. We've been through 4 or 5 toasters since then--they suck! My toast is never evenly toasted, and the dial lies (Medium? Oh, you mean burnt?)
They had a GE toaster oven from their shower as well that lasted almost as long as the toaster. Our current one is so cheap and takes too long. The toast part has an annoying dial that ticks down to zero---I feel like I'm waiting for a bomb to go off while waiting for my corn muffin/english muffin pizza.
I'd love to find one in a relatives attic!
I bought one at a discount store for, maybe, $6.00 and it works very well. It is red. I love it.
iris lilies
8-1-13, 12:21am
What do you want to bet that this toaster is pretty decent? It was made when things were still being made well. It's a nondescript style that will not stand out.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NIB-VINTAGE-FARBERWARE-292-TOASTER-CHROME-WOODGRAIN-2-SLICE-TOASTER-FROM-1970-/261253141073?pt=Small_Kitchen_Appliances_US&hash=item3cd3e69251
maybe I should buy it.
What do you want to bet that this toaster is pretty decent? It was made when things were still being made well. It's a nondescript style that will not stand out.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NIB-VINTAGE-FARBERWARE-292-TOASTER-CHROME-WOODGRAIN-2-SLICE-TOASTER-FROM-1970-/261253141073?pt=Small_Kitchen_Appliances_US&hash=item3cd3e69251
maybe I should buy it.
Absolutely.
Went through the same problem looking for a kettle, toaster, blender and hand-held blender. I finally ended up with Cuisinart products which are made in China as they all are but the quality seems to be much better, at least so far in my use.
Buying small appliances is a great frustration for us, too. Especially coffee makers. It's all junk so we generally don't spend too much as history shows they last 1-3 years at best. I do still have a steam iron I bought at Walgreen's for $8 about seven years ago that still works like a champ - amazing!
Tussiemussies
8-2-13, 2:31pm
We bought a Rowenta toaster after looking around different a models we thought this would suit us best and the reviews on Amazon were good at the to e of purchase about seven years ago. The slots are wide enough for bagels and the top is stainless steel where you can lay muffins, etc. to heat them up. We haven't used that feature that much since we don't eat any sugar. I would recommend it...:)
ApatheticNoMore
8-2-13, 4:21pm
Well I've been considering a toaster oven and I plan to go by the reviews in Consumer Reports probably (though I'm not sure they review the super high end speciality brands so you may be on your own there - they often just review a bunch of common brands). I'd trust them over Amazon reviews. But crowdsourcing blah blah ... crowdsourcing is stackable and hackable, so whle I've read plenty of Amazon reviews in my life, they're not the first source I'd seek out - maybe a second opinion. I agree that any way you slice it (hahaha) no matter how much research you do it's a bit of a something shoot. :)
Frankly, I wouldn't seek out Consumer Reports' advice, either. CR is okay for pointing out product features and giving an idea of how well a product operates. But they're still testing only one sample (Amazon users are roughly 1:1 on users:product). The weight they assign various features is fairly opaque, so it's hard to know what gives the top-ranked products their position in the list. And their frequency-of-repair information is a statistician's nightmare.
Not that Amazon customers are the last word in objective measurement. But their higher numbers of purchases and the fairly transparent areas of their concern (usually listed right in the review) make it easier to guess why the product got a great or lousy rating. CR rarely offers any such explanation of their methodology.
ApatheticNoMore
8-2-13, 6:35pm
Well I suspect some seeding of reviews goes on for certain products on Amazon - maybe not for products that have 100s of reviews necessarily but with those who just have a few all glowly positive - yea I expect the company is seeding. Plus there's many reviews you can't make heads or tails of - ok how can the same pillow be rock hard according to one review and completely soft and flabby according to another, sure there's a degree of subjectivity, but one can only conclude the product itself must be wildly inconsistent.
Or the product is great according to one user, or alternately a piece of junk that falls apart on the first use according to another - good luck ever sorting that out. My default response is usually to give up in hopeless confusion and buy nothing. This particular revision of "buying a toaster oven" has been going on in my mind for maybe 3 months. And it isn't the first time I've had the thought of "buying a toaster oven", several years ago I also considered it. Am I ever going to get that toaster oven? Um I might have to come upon a free one really. Since that does sometimes happen ... maybe a toaster oven is in the cards :)
You have to wonder how much better off we are financially than our parents when they could buy things that would last for decades that we could not afford to buy today.
You have to wonder how much better off we are financially than our parents when they could buy things that would last for decades that we could not afford to buy today.
Truly!!
just avoid toast. problem solved.
iris lilies
8-4-13, 7:50pm
I find both sources of reviews to be useful: Consumer Reports AND those websites were users review the products.
Usually I disregard these reviews because I am of the mindset of 25 years ago where when you bought a product, it lasted. That's a mistake. After fighting with a dishwasher for ten years it finally was beyond repair and I looked at Consumer Reports to see the brand that they rated highest for overall "good for the money." After that I checked out reviews and it seemed to check out ok. I've been very very happy with it.
In my use of the sites that host user reviews I was vindicated in seeing reveiws of my old dishwasher where poeple complained about the exact things that drove me crazy.
iris lilies
8-4-13, 7:53pm
You have to wonder how much better off we are financially than our parents when they could buy things that would last for decades that we could not afford to buy today.
Yes, I've had that thought.
I truly wish I could buy "Sears quality" small appliances but those days are gone. I've worked through my parents' toaster and my grandmother's blender. My stuff would never be around for other generations to use. Oh yeah, remember our first microwave oven? I think that the thing last 16 years. Now--about 2 years.
Oh yeah, remember our first microwave oven? I think that the thing last 16 years. Now--about 2 years.
I got almost 23 years out of my Amana RadarRange before it suffered a fatal magnetron failure. I'm now on year 7 of the replacement Panasonic. 11 years and counting on the Krups toaster (though not in daily use). Eight years on the Cuisinart coffeemaker before it was retired in favor of a Bunn. 32 years on the Cuisinart food processor, though it is on its second work bowl and it, too, was not used daily. That one is kind of an outlier.
I think there still are decent appliances out there. They're not cheap. But they're not always the most expensive, either. They just require some digging.
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