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.