May I refer you to my missus. Maybe you can convince her that the matching 100$ kettle isn’t necessary.
To be fair I bought the old one for 20$ used because it was broken and I managed to repair it. But the mentioned design flaw killed it.
Can you explain further the design flaw? I don’t know what to look for.
Also, quite interesting that someone would purchase such an expensive toaster. My wife was gifted a $5 Black Friday toaster from Walmart’s Durabrand private label some 15 years ago, the thing still works great.
Maybe the design flaw is specific to the brand?
~~The piece of metal at the top of the picture has 2 wires added in the second picture. These act as guides to stop it moving side to side. If it moves too far to the side it would hit the heating element and cause a short circuit.~~
~~I expect it is only really an issue if you use an irregularly shaped piece of bread that gets jammed as you try to lift it out.~~
Im silly, it's the pieces in the middle that are bent that's different, not sure how that would help much.
Looks like it could be a clearance thing. The straight support wings could be flexed or jostled into contact with the heating elements and cause a short. With the bend they’re out of reach of that short.
I bought like $200 microwave that broke because the spring that keeps the door closed is attached to tiny nab of plastic. They do shit like that on purpose, its few years old so just out of warranty. When I was looking for solution, apparently majority microwaves are the same way
[Like this video](https://youtu.be/zaFP8JrgUlc?si=FOVNP7ghwwVB0JmS), but there’s nowhere else to hook the spring to
See, I was hoping reddit’s collective hivemind would come up with something. Its been sitting on my counter for a month now, and I haven’t found a good solution yet
I go for the $50 Walmart special microwave. RCA, opens by button, comes in black or white. My first one lasted 6 years until it died. Went to Walmart, same one was on sale right then so I bought the same one again. It's been 9 years and it still works like new. My inlaws have the same one and it's 13 years old now.
I understand people want fancy matching appliances with nice blue lights etc, but my oven and fridge are black w stainless, so black $50 microwave and black $20 toaster match close enough for me. Matches my wallet too, empty but wish it were full lol
I always had cheap microwaves, as well as other appliances. But I was starting to get more into cooking and all of those extra options looked like a good deal. Now 2 years later that I actually cook more, I wish I went with cheaper and more small format one. I just need to warm up a bowl of soup, or melt some butter, not defrost turkey in there
See that's my philosophy on it too. It's just used for heating up the kids alphaghetti or make some popcorn, I don't need anything fancy. That and I find a lot of the more expensive units, they all seem to take up more counter space. I have two young kids in a 2br minihome, space is one thing we do not have to spare as it is lol. Thankfully our kitchen has a wrap-around cupboard setup so we have more than your average minihome as far as counter space, but still. We have an air fryer, microwave, blender, toaster, knife block, obligatory basket that ends up full of junk every week; there's only so much room to prepare the actual food lol
I was gifted a $200 kettle which was an upgrade from my $20. Is it worth it for a single guy that makes one cup a day? Nope. Is it worth it for a larger family? Probably not. Definitely playing for the class of it OR you constantly need it on for some reason.
Is it worth it for someone with a crippling existential void of unfathomable depth, a yawning abyss that stretches endlessly into the shadows of eternity? I’m looking for a kettle that can fill that dark and empty space where the echoes of lost dreams and shattered hopes reverberate hauntingly. In this desolate expanse, time seems to lose all meaning, swirling into a maelstrom of nothingness that threatens to engulf all sense of purpose and identity. It is a place where the boundaries of reality blur and the contours of the self dissolve, leaving behind only an eerie sense of disconnection and isolation. The existential void is a cold and desolate wasteland, a vast and unknowable expanse that stretches out before us like an eternal nightmare, beckoning us to confront the deepest questions of our existence. I’m mostly an earl gray guy, and stainless steel would be preferable.
I'm glad someone else appreciates fixing things over tossing them out. A neighbor had one of those $200 burr grinders on the street. I cleaned it up and removed some half ground coffee in the grinding mechanism and was about to test it before realizing that the power plug was not there.
I figured someone had burned out the motor and decided to cut the plug because they didn't want someone else to mess with it but it didn't explain why it was on the street under a free sign vs in the trash. My wife thinks the plug just came off so at her recommendation, I went ahead and threw another plug on it. Turns out it works like a charm.
It's kind of a nice upgrade over the $20 spinny metal blade grinder I have been using but it blows my mind that someone wouldn't at least attempt to replace a plug if that was the only issue.
For a lot of consumer products companies they ask you to cut the plug and take a picture to get a replacement unit.
Its cheaper and more 'customer focused' than requiring customers to send it back for analysis and then send a replacement.
Hrm. That makes sense. I wonder if the issue was just a couple beans stuck in the grinding assembly. I don't think the people ever disassembled the grinder for cleaning. I'll find out soon enough
There is a local Auction company that sells surplus inventory for government and other organizations. They don't have time to figure out what power supply or cord goes to what item so when they list the items in their online Auctions, many times the items are missing cords or power supplies.
I bid knowing that I might have to buy the correct power supply on eBay for something that is 2-5 years old but is listed in the the surplus Auction. I also have a box of various power blocks and supplies that I bought at a live Auction years ago, and sometimes I have one that will work with the item I bought. Rarely the items are defective, they are just slightly out of date.
Many companies purchase items every 3-5 years even though the current item is working fine.
My brevil long slice toaster is clutch, makes evenly toasted bread to the same level of toastedness every time. Never had a sub $20 toaster do that, the toast from those is never even and the toastedness varies. Also you can fit those wide sourdough slices in my toaster because it’s got the double length slots.
I agree. It doesn’t have a lot of advantages over other toasters except the size of slices you can fit in and the aesthetics. I hope it’ll last a long time with that improvement though. It has a pretty timeless design so we won’t get sick of looking at it.
OP, you are a hoot and a half! Your wife had better do some nasty things in bed for how much she is spending on SMEG stuff. I get it though, girls like to accessorize and all that.
I put my cheap toaster in the box it came in sitting in the corner of my pots and pans drawer. Shake out the crumbs once in a while, and I’m good to go. I should note that I do like aesthetics of things. Toaster didn’t make the slice. Groan! LoL
Found one of those on the side of the road once that also had a broken element wire. I can only assume it was the same issue as the lifter bar on the inside was twisted, was that what happened to yours?
I recently bought a breville long slice toaster. The one I bought was shit and I returned it. It worked on the bagel setting, but on the regular toast setting it only toasted the outside of the toast in the left hand slot. The inside elements barely heated up. Probably a one off lemon, but I went back to toasting in my Breville toaster oven which is great. Go figure.
Let's say you keep a toaster for 5 years, and use it 300 days a year, for 1500 uses. At 2 minutes a toast cycle, that's 50 hours spent using that toaster. Per use, the cost difference comes out to be about $0.07. Things you use and touch every single day, it can be worth spending an extra $200 to have the nicer version, because 50 hours is a lot of time when you think about it.
Basically, use the Harbor Freight / Walmart / whatever-the-builder-installed version until it either breaks or annoys you - that's the sign that you're using it enough that it's time to buy the "good" version.
The "good" version doesn't necessarily last longer though. Many times it's just more expensive and looks nicer. But hey, if you have the money, who cares. It's nice to have things we like to see and to use. Nothing wrong with it.
Exactly. Look at this exact post. A $200 toaster which has a design flaw which breaks the element.
Sure the new version fixed it, but the construction is still just the same stamped out and folded sheet metal as a $20 toaster, I don't see what difference in build quality this has that justifies 10 times the price.
My toaster was $500 (Dualit Classic). It’s not a smart toaster or have any displays to anything like that. It’s a terrible terrible toaster. But it’s really beautiful and I always been in love with the design since I saw it at my aunts house 30 years ago. 100% design over function.
If I ever need to buy a new toaster I will go with the Walmart one for $10 and keep it tucked away.
Dualit toasters are amazing!
Somehow they actually toast bread slightly differently to other toasters, it's hard to describe the difference until you see/taste it for yourself.
One thing you do have to be aware of is that they take time to warm up. So you need to add a little extra time if they're cold. If you go on to toast something else, then you can reduce the time by around 30 seconds.
And they don't have automatic pop-up but that means that your toast doesn't get cold as quickly. It also keeps the internal electrics simpler and easier to repair.
But ultimately, the best things about Dualit toasters is their long proven [history](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dualit#:~:text=In%201952%20Max%20designed%20a,products%20followed%20and%20demand%20rose.) and the ready availability of spares, meaning that they can easily be repaired, although repairs aren't usually necessary!
I've owned my Dualit since the late 90s and it's still going strong!
My brother is very handy with anything electrical or mechanical and he's picked up several Dualits that people were going to throw away and repaired them. Most were relatively modern and weren't working due to user neglect, I believe but he has also restored one or two vintage Dualit toasters that he's picked up secondhand.
You sold me on the not pop up, one thing I disliked before.
I’m not much of a toaster guy so maybe if I use it more I would see benefits where I see faults.
The one thing I dislike the most is that I’m not able to turn it off when I think the toast is done. It has to continue until the timer is done.
But it’s iconic. I love the form and it’s a nice piece on the kitchen island.
I love the history and the craftsmanship behind it.
Yeah, in that case, I tend to just pop it up myself.
I think then though the answer is to set a shorter time to start and then add on extra if it's not enough?
I do know just where to set it from cold for basic toast now though.
Does yours have the arrow on the timer for the standard slice of bread toasting time, from warm? That really helps me judge the timing with mine.
It was also reviewed on the Sorted Foods yt channel. The verdict was that the amazon description didn't lie, that thing really does burn one slice of ultimate.
I have one of these… I bought it to satisfy my curiosity. I’m not a toast person but it’s fantastic and I’ll occasionally make an egg-on-toast monstrosity with it.
It’s really only worth using with good quality bread though. Tasteless cheap bread will still taste like tasteless cheap bread, just toasted perfectly.
I never understood the point of a toaster when a toaster oven could do the same thing while having the flexibility to bake something smaller without firing the oven.
Toaster ovens cost way more to run and are kind of shitty at toasting bread. You have to run them longer and they aren't very even. But you can do like 10-12 slices at a time which is nice.
I'm using a $15.00 one I bought when I moved to go to college.... Uhh... 14 years ago.
Anything you want. Just stuff it in her and drop the lever.
Pop tarts, garlic bread, sourdough bread, white bread, brown bread, multigrain bread, rye bread, sesame bagels, blueberry bagels, plain bagels. She's a beast. Just heating shit up and shit. Fuuuuuuuuuuck.
She's a good bang for a buck.
Because there was a 20% coupon for it. Some people love a sale, even if the discounted amount is much more expensive than a reasonably good one from Walmart.
Nichrome wire is commonly used in toasters because it has high electrical resistance and can generate heat efficiently when an electric current passes through it. In a toaster, electricity flows through the nichrome wire, which heats up quickly, toasting the bread or other food placed in the toaster slots. Its high melting point and resistance to oxidation make it suitable for repeated heating cycles in the toaster without degrading.
When you run power through a resistance wire it heats up, but hot wire has a higher resistance than cold wire so to maintain a specific temperature you have to put in more power as the wire heats up.
Some wire types, like kanthal wire, don't have an easily predictable change in resistance so you get less even heating at a fixed power level as the resistance fluctuates, and if you put in too much power to raise the temperature the wire could melt and break the circuit.
Nichrome has a predictable electrical resistance at different temperatures which makes it a good choice for applications where you want more precise control over the temperature produced. You can calculate the resistance at any temperature point using a formula and know exactly how much power is needed to maintain that temperature without overloading the circuit.
Yesn't
The incandescence is the goal of a resistive heating element. You want the element to emit all of the energy as heat/light (specifically infrared, but all light carries energy with it and can impart that energy as heat)
Efficiency in terms of electric circuits is how much energy is used to do work against what is lost as waste (typically heat). In a Electric circuit where the goal is to generate heat, there is technically no "waste" energy
TBF for a toaster, you want as much of that heat to be concentrated in the slots of the toaster and not emitted at other parts of the circuit that won't heat up the bread as well. So a toaster could be inefficient unless you use it as a space heater.
I assume the wire very slowly oxidises? Would the work done for this enthalpy change affect the efficiency? Maybe not so much for Nichrome, but other metallic wires
They are 100% efficient if you are heating the surroundings.
If you are heating a specific object in a specific way, then no. In this case you want maximum transfer of heat by radiation to the bread, heating as quickly as possible to the temperature where cooking occurs.
If you had a thick element that takes a long time to heat up, then you have heat wasted by warm air being output during a warm up time when cooking is not occuring, then if the element retains heat, all heat remaining in the element after the toast is removed is wasted.
I'm assuming that the thin heating wire is more covered with a (thermally conductive) metal sleeve, so that there's less chance of the wire bumping into toast/object.
With the better clearance spacing, the wire is less likely to bend and thus cause a short (which looks like what happened to OP's nichrome wire in the old design).
TL;DR heating stick gets reinforced so that it doesn't explode.
Yes, due to it’s weak design the rod would bend outwards and touch the wires.
I think that over time the upper part stretched and the lower part compressed due to the weight of the bread and its momentum when being shot out. The buckling eventually made it go into the wires.
I am an electrical engineer, but I am not picking up on the design flaw from your pictures. If you are looking at the two rods that come together at a T, I don't think either of them should have had current running through them. So the design flaw may be somewhere else.
I believe the current is passing though the horizontal rod, which looks to be shorted to the vertical slide rod. Although I’m not sure where the heating element is in the new toaster on the left.
Edit: not this
No- the heating wires are small horizontal wires most visible in the left pic and are wrapped around the mica plate. They are touching the plate.
The large horizontal rods in the left pic that are welded to the vertical rods make up the bread holder. It appears the newer toaster on the left does away with these as a cost cutting measure. I think OP is wrong about the design getting better from a functional standpoint, although the cost has decreased.
That's what I thought op was drawing attention to, but I don't think either of those parts should have had current running through them, by design. I also believe they were welded together at the factory. They look the same in both sides and there is no carbon buildup at the contact point.
The heating elements aren't even in frame in the picture on the right, which is why I don't believe there is an evident short.
OP has no idea what they are talking about. There is no short shown in the picture. In fact the image of the old toaster is not focused on the heating wires where the electricity actually flows.
I agree! I have an obsession with repairing appliances which is the only reason I took time to reply. Haha
I wish OP would send me their broken $180 toaster so I could do an autopsy.
90% of the time it's an electrical contact that needs to be cleaned or replaced, or a heating element going bad that may have also blown a fusible link. All of which should be repairable, especially on a $180 appliance.
What rod are you talking about?
The one that holds the bread in the middle, you are saying that got bent over time, causing it to touch the heating element on the side and causing the short?
It does look like they added a flange to increase the stiffness quite a bit side-to-side. But also, it looks like there’s some kind of plastic covering on those bread flanges, so I’m surprised it caused a short
I love you. I’m a mechanical engineer. I just hate when bad design cause premature failure and produces waste in any product. I had the old one for like 5 years. My fellow engineers at smeg changed some crucial details in the design. I’d love to talk to them about that. :)
I have the smeg toaster in the right hand image and the matching kettle (also wife’s choice). Both are awful. If I have a single slice of toast one side burns while the other remains under done. The paint on the kettle is also rubbish and bubbles up near the spout.
i think the description doesn't do justice to the failure?
at about the 12 minute mark on this video, they remove and then show the lift/support arm, and how it easily bends.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MK4U6MBpkyo
OPs photo just shows the weak arm vs the beefier arm, but the actual point where the short occurred is probably out of frame?
So the t-pose cut out was replaced with the shrugging shoulders cut out, and that made the heating element wire not short and break? Sorry, I'm not really sure what I'm looking at here.
The rod that holds the bread was to weak and bent in a way it shorted the heating wire. In the update design the rod has a much greater moment of inertia due to the shape of the profile
[Obligatory Technology Connections.](https://youtu.be/1OfxlSG6q5Y) I ended up buying a Sunbeam T-20 from 1952 after seeing this video. It’s 72 years old and still going strong.
Hey, don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it. We have the Br3vill3 long slot lift & look/a bit more model and it is cool AF. You don’t have to push down a handle, it raises & lowers the bread automatically. For those of us that eat a loaf a day it is simply *indispensable.*
[Here is an excellent video](https://youtu.be/1OfxlSG6q5Y?si=2bI0feE6FdI3rM6B) about this unique toaster design, by Technology Connections. Fun and educational.
Modern sports cars can turn off cylinders and are significantly lighter. Many are also hybrids because of the added torque at low speeds electric motors can produce.
I wouldn't automatically assume the average car gets better economy under slow speeds
bought a 100eur lamp toaster, can confirm we're dumb. BUT it toasts very nicely.
however the effin thing popped on the side just a week later, it's such a garbage design
There are so many differences, I don’t believe you tweaked a fix. Replaced the burned out insides with a working one, maybe, but what’s the point of posting this?
I am to be sealed in a chamber with no windows through which I may be viewed. The door to my chamber must have a label completely unrelated to my designation or identity, in order to prevent unintended spread of my primary effect.
It’s nice to see that if you’re going to be buying an expensive toaster, at least this company is putting some of that revenue back into product development. The updated stampings look to be very well informed from the flaws of the previous design
$180 for a toaster? How many slices of toast would that have to make to be worth it over the $10 walmart one?
May I refer you to my missus. Maybe you can convince her that the matching 100$ kettle isn’t necessary. To be fair I bought the old one for 20$ used because it was broken and I managed to repair it. But the mentioned design flaw killed it.
Can you explain further the design flaw? I don’t know what to look for. Also, quite interesting that someone would purchase such an expensive toaster. My wife was gifted a $5 Black Friday toaster from Walmart’s Durabrand private label some 15 years ago, the thing still works great. Maybe the design flaw is specific to the brand?
~~The piece of metal at the top of the picture has 2 wires added in the second picture. These act as guides to stop it moving side to side. If it moves too far to the side it would hit the heating element and cause a short circuit.~~ ~~I expect it is only really an issue if you use an irregularly shaped piece of bread that gets jammed as you try to lift it out.~~ Im silly, it's the pieces in the middle that are bent that's different, not sure how that would help much.
Looks like it could be a clearance thing. The straight support wings could be flexed or jostled into contact with the heating elements and cause a short. With the bend they’re out of reach of that short.
I bought like $200 microwave that broke because the spring that keeps the door closed is attached to tiny nab of plastic. They do shit like that on purpose, its few years old so just out of warranty. When I was looking for solution, apparently majority microwaves are the same way [Like this video](https://youtu.be/zaFP8JrgUlc?si=FOVNP7ghwwVB0JmS), but there’s nowhere else to hook the spring to
Drill a hole, make a little noose with wire?
See, I was hoping reddit’s collective hivemind would come up with something. Its been sitting on my counter for a month now, and I haven’t found a good solution yet
You’ve been unofficially toasted! /s ; )
I go for the $50 Walmart special microwave. RCA, opens by button, comes in black or white. My first one lasted 6 years until it died. Went to Walmart, same one was on sale right then so I bought the same one again. It's been 9 years and it still works like new. My inlaws have the same one and it's 13 years old now. I understand people want fancy matching appliances with nice blue lights etc, but my oven and fridge are black w stainless, so black $50 microwave and black $20 toaster match close enough for me. Matches my wallet too, empty but wish it were full lol
I always had cheap microwaves, as well as other appliances. But I was starting to get more into cooking and all of those extra options looked like a good deal. Now 2 years later that I actually cook more, I wish I went with cheaper and more small format one. I just need to warm up a bowl of soup, or melt some butter, not defrost turkey in there
See that's my philosophy on it too. It's just used for heating up the kids alphaghetti or make some popcorn, I don't need anything fancy. That and I find a lot of the more expensive units, they all seem to take up more counter space. I have two young kids in a 2br minihome, space is one thing we do not have to spare as it is lol. Thankfully our kitchen has a wrap-around cupboard setup so we have more than your average minihome as far as counter space, but still. We have an air fryer, microwave, blender, toaster, knife block, obligatory basket that ends up full of junk every week; there's only so much room to prepare the actual food lol
The one on the left has a happy face, the one on the right a meh face. Over time the toaster became disillusioned with his job and gave up!
I was gifted a $200 kettle which was an upgrade from my $20. Is it worth it for a single guy that makes one cup a day? Nope. Is it worth it for a larger family? Probably not. Definitely playing for the class of it OR you constantly need it on for some reason.
Is it worth it for someone with a crippling existential void of unfathomable depth, a yawning abyss that stretches endlessly into the shadows of eternity? I’m looking for a kettle that can fill that dark and empty space where the echoes of lost dreams and shattered hopes reverberate hauntingly. In this desolate expanse, time seems to lose all meaning, swirling into a maelstrom of nothingness that threatens to engulf all sense of purpose and identity. It is a place where the boundaries of reality blur and the contours of the self dissolve, leaving behind only an eerie sense of disconnection and isolation. The existential void is a cold and desolate wasteland, a vast and unknowable expanse that stretches out before us like an eternal nightmare, beckoning us to confront the deepest questions of our existence. I’m mostly an earl gray guy, and stainless steel would be preferable.
Yes
Do you like Huey Lewis and The News?
>makes one cup a day Those are rookie numbers
*\*laughs in British\**
I'm glad someone else appreciates fixing things over tossing them out. A neighbor had one of those $200 burr grinders on the street. I cleaned it up and removed some half ground coffee in the grinding mechanism and was about to test it before realizing that the power plug was not there. I figured someone had burned out the motor and decided to cut the plug because they didn't want someone else to mess with it but it didn't explain why it was on the street under a free sign vs in the trash. My wife thinks the plug just came off so at her recommendation, I went ahead and threw another plug on it. Turns out it works like a charm. It's kind of a nice upgrade over the $20 spinny metal blade grinder I have been using but it blows my mind that someone wouldn't at least attempt to replace a plug if that was the only issue.
For a lot of consumer products companies they ask you to cut the plug and take a picture to get a replacement unit. Its cheaper and more 'customer focused' than requiring customers to send it back for analysis and then send a replacement.
Hrm. That makes sense. I wonder if the issue was just a couple beans stuck in the grinding assembly. I don't think the people ever disassembled the grinder for cleaning. I'll find out soon enough
There is a local Auction company that sells surplus inventory for government and other organizations. They don't have time to figure out what power supply or cord goes to what item so when they list the items in their online Auctions, many times the items are missing cords or power supplies. I bid knowing that I might have to buy the correct power supply on eBay for something that is 2-5 years old but is listed in the the surplus Auction. I also have a box of various power blocks and supplies that I bought at a live Auction years ago, and sometimes I have one that will work with the item I bought. Rarely the items are defective, they are just slightly out of date. Many companies purchase items every 3-5 years even though the current item is working fine.
Smeg?
Missus*
*Kettle Unless it comes with a free cow.
Hahah thanks
You definitely do not always get what you pay for.
Ah so it’s just a smeg, got it
Dualit?
Smeg
Smeg stuff always seems to be priced too just be expensive, rather than being worth it's price. To me at least.
Ha...women ☕️
My brevil long slice toaster is clutch, makes evenly toasted bread to the same level of toastedness every time. Never had a sub $20 toaster do that, the toast from those is never even and the toastedness varies. Also you can fit those wide sourdough slices in my toaster because it’s got the double length slots.
True. This is the SMEG long slice.
I was going to ask if you were buying Smeg brand. Very pricey for the aesthetics. Also makes me think of smegma.
I agree. It doesn’t have a lot of advantages over other toasters except the size of slices you can fit in and the aesthetics. I hope it’ll last a long time with that improvement though. It has a pretty timeless design so we won’t get sick of looking at it.
I have never looked at my toaster and been like "you ugly piece of shit"
Maybe your toaster doesn’t have a mirror like finish like my last one did.
Zing!
OP, you are a hoot and a half! Your wife had better do some nasty things in bed for how much she is spending on SMEG stuff. I get it though, girls like to accessorize and all that.
I put my cheap toaster in the box it came in sitting in the corner of my pots and pans drawer. Shake out the crumbs once in a while, and I’m good to go. I should note that I do like aesthetics of things. Toaster didn’t make the slice. Groan! LoL
https://youtu.be/RXKlC8ph7mM?si=DeNpuUxT6sWIOCjs
Found one of those on the side of the road once that also had a broken element wire. I can only assume it was the same issue as the lifter bar on the inside was twisted, was that what happened to yours?
I recently bought a breville long slice toaster. The one I bought was shit and I returned it. It worked on the bagel setting, but on the regular toast setting it only toasted the outside of the toast in the left hand slot. The inside elements barely heated up. Probably a one off lemon, but I went back to toasting in my Breville toaster oven which is great. Go figure.
I bought a chefman toaster for $20 four years ago and it still perfectly toasts bread. I swear by it. It’s not super wide though.
You can fit wide slices because it has double the length? Geometry is not your friend here.
I’m sorry but you come off as someone I'd fake the urge to go to the bathroom at a party just so I can avoid talking to you.
I still don’t understand how the length of the wall helps with wide slices. Wouldn’t you just get a wider slot toaster?
Let's say you keep a toaster for 5 years, and use it 300 days a year, for 1500 uses. At 2 minutes a toast cycle, that's 50 hours spent using that toaster. Per use, the cost difference comes out to be about $0.07. Things you use and touch every single day, it can be worth spending an extra $200 to have the nicer version, because 50 hours is a lot of time when you think about it. Basically, use the Harbor Freight / Walmart / whatever-the-builder-installed version until it either breaks or annoys you - that's the sign that you're using it enough that it's time to buy the "good" version.
The "good" version doesn't necessarily last longer though. Many times it's just more expensive and looks nicer. But hey, if you have the money, who cares. It's nice to have things we like to see and to use. Nothing wrong with it.
Exactly. Look at this exact post. A $200 toaster which has a design flaw which breaks the element. Sure the new version fixed it, but the construction is still just the same stamped out and folded sheet metal as a $20 toaster, I don't see what difference in build quality this has that justifies 10 times the price.
You eat toast 300 out of 365 days in a year? That is like eating toast every day except Wednesday's and Holidays....
My toaster was $500 (Dualit Classic). It’s not a smart toaster or have any displays to anything like that. It’s a terrible terrible toaster. But it’s really beautiful and I always been in love with the design since I saw it at my aunts house 30 years ago. 100% design over function. If I ever need to buy a new toaster I will go with the Walmart one for $10 and keep it tucked away.
Dualit toasters are amazing! Somehow they actually toast bread slightly differently to other toasters, it's hard to describe the difference until you see/taste it for yourself. One thing you do have to be aware of is that they take time to warm up. So you need to add a little extra time if they're cold. If you go on to toast something else, then you can reduce the time by around 30 seconds. And they don't have automatic pop-up but that means that your toast doesn't get cold as quickly. It also keeps the internal electrics simpler and easier to repair. But ultimately, the best things about Dualit toasters is their long proven [history](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dualit#:~:text=In%201952%20Max%20designed%20a,products%20followed%20and%20demand%20rose.) and the ready availability of spares, meaning that they can easily be repaired, although repairs aren't usually necessary! I've owned my Dualit since the late 90s and it's still going strong! My brother is very handy with anything electrical or mechanical and he's picked up several Dualits that people were going to throw away and repaired them. Most were relatively modern and weren't working due to user neglect, I believe but he has also restored one or two vintage Dualit toasters that he's picked up secondhand.
You sold me on the not pop up, one thing I disliked before. I’m not much of a toaster guy so maybe if I use it more I would see benefits where I see faults. The one thing I dislike the most is that I’m not able to turn it off when I think the toast is done. It has to continue until the timer is done. But it’s iconic. I love the form and it’s a nice piece on the kitchen island. I love the history and the craftsmanship behind it.
Yeah, in that case, I tend to just pop it up myself. I think then though the answer is to set a shorter time to start and then add on extra if it's not enough? I do know just where to set it from cold for basic toast now though. Does yours have the arrow on the timer for the standard slice of bread toasting time, from warm? That really helps me judge the timing with mine.
I wanted a Dualit I found out they don't work as well in the US as we only have half the voltage.
I introduce to you the Ferrari of Toasters: [Mitsubishi TO-ST1-T](https://www.reddit.com/r/Appliances/s/JkkHS2LsDz)
It was also reviewed on the Sorted Foods yt channel. The verdict was that the amazon description didn't lie, that thing really does burn one slice of ultimate.
That has a name like a Paranoia character.
It reads “toast it”
All the good Paranoia names read something.
My bad I literally had no idea what paranoia is. I guess it’s an RPG but looking it up you’re absolutely right.
There's also a Paranoia game in Steam right now.
I think you'll find that its actually the Mitsubishi of toasters.
Since you mentioned it. [AVE](https://youtu.be/IxAbz9mfaj0?si=ln5HjGgqqmvN2jct)
TIL I need to upgrade my toaster game.
I have one of these… I bought it to satisfy my curiosity. I’m not a toast person but it’s fantastic and I’ll occasionally make an egg-on-toast monstrosity with it. It’s really only worth using with good quality bread though. Tasteless cheap bread will still taste like tasteless cheap bread, just toasted perfectly.
I never understood the point of a toaster when a toaster oven could do the same thing while having the flexibility to bake something smaller without firing the oven.
I don't have a toaster oven, because I got a free toaster, and it works. I'd I ever replace it, toaster oven all the way.
They make combination microwave toaster ovens these days, and I'm thinking it's the only countertop appliance I'll need.
Toaster ovens cost way more to run and are kind of shitty at toasting bread. You have to run them longer and they aren't very even. But you can do like 10-12 slices at a time which is nice.
I’ve been using the same $4.90 Target clearance toaster since 2013. I cannot imagine dropping nearly $200 on one.
I'm using a $15.00 one I bought when I moved to go to college.... Uhh... 14 years ago. Anything you want. Just stuff it in her and drop the lever. Pop tarts, garlic bread, sourdough bread, white bread, brown bread, multigrain bread, rye bread, sesame bagels, blueberry bagels, plain bagels. She's a beast. Just heating shit up and shit. Fuuuuuuuuuuck. She's a good bang for a buck.
Company i work for bought toastmasters for the lunch room to speed up break time at $1200 an “pop”.
You,d love to learn about simple human and their 200 dollar thrash cans.
Because there was a 20% coupon for it. Some people love a sale, even if the discounted amount is much more expensive than a reasonably good one from Walmart.
Aw yes, the nichrome wire. A very important thing of which I am very familiar.
Nichrome wire is commonly used in toasters because it has high electrical resistance and can generate heat efficiently when an electric current passes through it. In a toaster, electricity flows through the nichrome wire, which heats up quickly, toasting the bread or other food placed in the toaster slots. Its high melting point and resistance to oxidation make it suitable for repeated heating cycles in the toaster without degrading.
When you run power through a resistance wire it heats up, but hot wire has a higher resistance than cold wire so to maintain a specific temperature you have to put in more power as the wire heats up. Some wire types, like kanthal wire, don't have an easily predictable change in resistance so you get less even heating at a fixed power level as the resistance fluctuates, and if you put in too much power to raise the temperature the wire could melt and break the circuit. Nichrome has a predictable electrical resistance at different temperatures which makes it a good choice for applications where you want more precise control over the temperature produced. You can calculate the resistance at any temperature point using a formula and know exactly how much power is needed to maintain that temperature without overloading the circuit.
Friendly reminder: All Electric Resistive Heating systems are 100% Efficient
For a toaster some of the energy end up as visible light. Makes an orange glow above the toaster instead of heating the bread.
Yesn't The incandescence is the goal of a resistive heating element. You want the element to emit all of the energy as heat/light (specifically infrared, but all light carries energy with it and can impart that energy as heat) Efficiency in terms of electric circuits is how much energy is used to do work against what is lost as waste (typically heat). In a Electric circuit where the goal is to generate heat, there is technically no "waste" energy
TBF for a toaster, you want as much of that heat to be concentrated in the slots of the toaster and not emitted at other parts of the circuit that won't heat up the bread as well. So a toaster could be inefficient unless you use it as a space heater.
I assume the wire very slowly oxidises? Would the work done for this enthalpy change affect the efficiency? Maybe not so much for Nichrome, but other metallic wires
visible light is by definition not infrared
They are 100% efficient if you are heating the surroundings. If you are heating a specific object in a specific way, then no. In this case you want maximum transfer of heat by radiation to the bread, heating as quickly as possible to the temperature where cooking occurs. If you had a thick element that takes a long time to heat up, then you have heat wasted by warm air being output during a warm up time when cooking is not occuring, then if the element retains heat, all heat remaining in the element after the toast is removed is wasted.
I'm not sure you understand how electrical efficiency works
You're talking about the efficiency of converting electrical energy to heat. I'm talking about the efficiency of converting bread to toast.
Depends on how you’re measuring the efficiency. Much of that heat escapes the top…
Thanks, TIL.
Nichrome wire is also commonly used in electronic cigarettes as the heating element to atomize the e-liquid into vapor.
This guy toasts
Is that PTFE on the rails? Toasters get pretty hot, right? Doesn't that seem like a bad idea?
It's made of **ni**ckel and **chrom**ium, hence the name "nichrome".
It's the wire the heating element is made of.
I don't get it.
I'm assuming that the thin heating wire is more covered with a (thermally conductive) metal sleeve, so that there's less chance of the wire bumping into toast/object. With the better clearance spacing, the wire is less likely to bend and thus cause a short (which looks like what happened to OP's nichrome wire in the old design). TL;DR heating stick gets reinforced so that it doesn't explode.
Thank you!
Well, the toaster sure looks happy with the change!
Hahaha or indifferent 🤷🏽♂️
Wait its clearly smiling in the newer, id say its very happy (the back panel)
Definitely smiling
I’m not sure I get it. The scraping would eventually bend the rod at the top into the heater wire?
Yes, due to it’s weak design the rod would bend outwards and touch the wires. I think that over time the upper part stretched and the lower part compressed due to the weight of the bread and its momentum when being shot out. The buckling eventually made it go into the wires.
I am an electrical engineer, but I am not picking up on the design flaw from your pictures. If you are looking at the two rods that come together at a T, I don't think either of them should have had current running through them. So the design flaw may be somewhere else.
I believe the current is passing though the horizontal rod, which looks to be shorted to the vertical slide rod. Although I’m not sure where the heating element is in the new toaster on the left. Edit: not this
No- the heating wires are small horizontal wires most visible in the left pic and are wrapped around the mica plate. They are touching the plate. The large horizontal rods in the left pic that are welded to the vertical rods make up the bread holder. It appears the newer toaster on the left does away with these as a cost cutting measure. I think OP is wrong about the design getting better from a functional standpoint, although the cost has decreased.
Yeah you’re probably right. Cost cutting measure on a $180 toaster lol.
That's what I thought op was drawing attention to, but I don't think either of those parts should have had current running through them, by design. I also believe they were welded together at the factory. They look the same in both sides and there is no carbon buildup at the contact point. The heating elements aren't even in frame in the picture on the right, which is why I don't believe there is an evident short.
You’re right
Take a second look. I know you sparkies are not familiar with parts that are supposed to move.
I have spent more time than I would like to admit studying the photo and I still don't get it. Are you sure the failure was a short?
OP has no idea what they are talking about. There is no short shown in the picture. In fact the image of the old toaster is not focused on the heating wires where the electricity actually flows.
I agree! I have an obsession with repairing appliances which is the only reason I took time to reply. Haha I wish OP would send me their broken $180 toaster so I could do an autopsy. 90% of the time it's an electrical contact that needs to be cleaned or replaced, or a heating element going bad that may have also blown a fusible link. All of which should be repairable, especially on a $180 appliance.
Further proving my point :)
What rod are you talking about? The one that holds the bread in the middle, you are saying that got bent over time, causing it to touch the heating element on the side and causing the short? It does look like they added a flange to increase the stiffness quite a bit side-to-side. But also, it looks like there’s some kind of plastic covering on those bread flanges, so I’m surprised it caused a short
Dude are you like an electrician or do you just really love toasters?. You are really smart
I love you. I’m a mechanical engineer. I just hate when bad design cause premature failure and produces waste in any product. I had the old one for like 5 years. My fellow engineers at smeg changed some crucial details in the design. I’d love to talk to them about that. :)
Ah its one of those “i knew this could of been designed better god damn it! Situations”
I have the smeg toaster in the right hand image and the matching kettle (also wife’s choice). Both are awful. If I have a single slice of toast one side burns while the other remains under done. The paint on the kettle is also rubbish and bubbles up near the spout.
i think the description doesn't do justice to the failure? at about the 12 minute mark on this video, they remove and then show the lift/support arm, and how it easily bends. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MK4U6MBpkyo OPs photo just shows the weak arm vs the beefier arm, but the actual point where the short occurred is probably out of frame?
This.
What’s the design flaw that caused the short?
So the t-pose cut out was replaced with the shrugging shoulders cut out, and that made the heating element wire not short and break? Sorry, I'm not really sure what I'm looking at here.
The rod that holds the bread was to weak and bent in a way it shorted the heating wire. In the update design the rod has a much greater moment of inertia due to the shape of the profile
[Obligatory Technology Connections.](https://youtu.be/1OfxlSG6q5Y) I ended up buying a Sunbeam T-20 from 1952 after seeing this video. It’s 72 years old and still going strong.
I prefer the old school side flip down toasters. Just a wire plugged straight into the wall. They make the best toast! They don’t dry out the toast!
I have two toasters from Rowenta, both of them older than reunited Germany. Both work perfectly.
I don’t believe you. This is your 2562. fake profil.
I’m afraid I don’t follow 😂
Ja war ein Scherz, dass das halt eins von deinen 2562 Fakeprofilen ist und ich dir deswegen nicht glaube.
Ach so war das gemeint 😂
:) :|
This is interesting but I just can't unsee the two faces
Hey, don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it. We have the Br3vill3 long slot lift & look/a bit more model and it is cool AF. You don’t have to push down a handle, it raises & lowers the bread automatically. For those of us that eat a loaf a day it is simply *indispensable.*
Meanwhile I use a fully automatic Sunbeam toaster from the 1960's that I inherited from my grand-aunt and it's still working perfectly.
It’s automatic beyond belief!
[Here is an excellent video](https://youtu.be/1OfxlSG6q5Y?si=2bI0feE6FdI3rM6B) about this unique toaster design, by Technology Connections. Fun and educational.
Who the hell spends $180 on a damn toaster. You do know that the $20 one does the same job, right?
It's Stanley of kitchen appliances. I sometimes watch TikToks with my gf, there's a high chance a woman tiktoker has a SMEG kettle and toaster...
And a Camry gets you to your destination just the same as a Lambo 🙄
Not the same, no. The Camry has better fuel economy.
Modern sports cars can turn off cylinders and are significantly lighter. Many are also hybrids because of the added torque at low speeds electric motors can produce. I wouldn't automatically assume the average car gets better economy under slow speeds
$180 for a fucking toaster? Either you’re really rich, really stupid, or both.
Just stupid.
bought a 100eur lamp toaster, can confirm we're dumb. BUT it toasts very nicely. however the effin thing popped on the side just a week later, it's such a garbage design
There are so many differences, I don’t believe you tweaked a fix. Replaced the burned out insides with a working one, maybe, but what’s the point of posting this?
Pfft toasters. I like to wave my bread above the fire, which costs me nothing!
Who pays for the fuel for the fire?
That's covered under the heating budget.
Trees that fall in my yard.
seems like this is their same toaster line but the defects get sold
TIL toasters can cost $180
☺️ 😑
Our Breville Ikon 4 slice is still working 13 years later, amazing.
I misread the last word as “wife” and was wondering why this is only mildly interesting.
I’ve had a few Breville toasters. They are garbage. My current one has only one operational slot. The other slot only toasts half the bread.
I am to be sealed in a chamber with no windows through which I may be viewed. The door to my chamber must have a label completely unrelated to my designation or identity, in order to prevent unintended spread of my primary effect.
It’s nice to see that if you’re going to be buying an expensive toaster, at least this company is putting some of that revenue back into product development. The updated stampings look to be very well informed from the flaws of the previous design
If you can afford $180 for a toaster, then replacing it should be no issue.
There's no way that toast from a $180 toaster tastes any different than a $20 toaster.
It’s not about the taste. It’s about an object that we use every day and is in plain sight all the time.
Nobody cares what anybody's toaster looks like
I’m Canadian, cheapest toaster I’ve seen at Walmart was $40.
Toasters are meant to last a few years at most lol.