[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] This is a good, solid toaster designed for someone who wants a no-frills device without a lot of fine electronics inside. Which, is exactly me!
Even in its retail packaging, it arrives in a box with plenty of cardboard supports, wrapped in plastic with the manual easy to find on the top!
As the warning symbol embossed on the top of the machine indicates, the top of this toaster does get hot, but the sides stay cool, which is a MUST for me! I'm so happy about that!!! The bottom has a metal flap that opens and allows one to easily remove crumbs from the machine, in a much more simple and straightfoward way than typical crumb trays provide. I usually just take the unplugged machine and hold it over the sink while I lightly shake out the crumbs. My method is not the most elegant solution but, thanks to the easy design of the toaster, it IS a thorough way to clean it!
Even though this toaster is listed as compact, it does take the large slices of the bread I make in my bread maker. I was a little bit worried about that because, despite liking a small toaster, what I normally eat is the bread I make myself rather than the much smaller, commercial loves purchased from the store. Happily, my worries were for nothing! So far I've been making toast not only just for buttered toast, but also for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, egg sandwiches, grilled cheese, mini toast pizzas, cheese toast, garlic bread, and croutons for salad. Hopefully, as the season turns more toward fall, I'll be adding pumpkin bread to this list!
I have included pictures of the bread I made with my review, showing the darkness of each of three toast settings, as well as a piece of bread that is completely untoasted. Now, while a setting of 3 does not appear toasted, it -feels- toasted. The bread is nicely crisped up on the outer edges without drying out the toast or showing visible toasting marks. One side of the toast does get slightly more toasted than the other, but that's to be expected with a compact machine that has both toasting compartments placed so closely together.
In addition to the "cancel" button there's also a "bagel" button that one must press -after- pressing the lever to start the toasting process. It appears to make the toast -much- darker, like a "turbo" button rather than a "bagel" button. If you do use this for bagels, I recommend slicing each bagel into thirds, rather than halves, before putting them in the toaster.
Due to the simple versatility of the toaster, I heartily recommend it for anyone wanting toasted bread in their life. It's soooo good and easy to use even when I'm three-quarters asleep in the morning. Even if you're someone who likes fancy, smart gadgets, this is an -excellent- backup model for when all of those fancy electrical components start to fail and you're left without the wonder of warm, freshly toasted bread.
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