A toaster isn’t just another kitchen appliance. It provides you with a mid afternoon snack, or it can even be the only source of hot food in the house if you are unorganised. But, the main purpose of a toaster, is to start your day right. Breakfast is often touted as the most important meal of the day, along with a decent cup of coffee or tea. A good toaster can make or break your breakfast and the knock on effect for the rest of your day can be catastrophic. OK, that may be a bit over dramatic, but here is our guide to the best toaster to buy.
There are lots of different toasters to buy and the price varies considerably between models. The range of modern toasters available can make buying one quite complicated. Whether you are setting up in a new home or replacing an old one there are a few things to consider when choosing the best toaster to buy.
Different Types of Toasters
You will find that there are tow main types of toaster to buy. They all come in different sizes to suit different needs.
Pop Up Toaster
The pop up toaster is the type that springs to mind when someone mentions a toaster. These toasters usually come with two or four slots to put your bread in. You operate them by dropping in the bread, pushing down the lever and waiting for your golden toast to pop up when it is ready.
Pros
- Easy to use
- Not expensive
- Designed specifically for making toast, therefore you should get good toast every time
Cons
- Have to make sure you buy standard sized sliced bread (or make your own)
- Van only make two to four slices of toast at a time. This may be time consuming for large families.
Toaster Oven
The second type of toaster you can buy, is the toaster oven. This type is a bit more versatile. Of course you can toast a number of different things from, muffins, teacakes and bagels. But, some people buy toaster ovens as an alternative to using their oven. This is because they use less electricity and are easy to use.
There are toaster ovens you can buy with four slots. These are more compact, but you can buy models that have six or nine slots. This makes making multiple slices of toast much quicker, making breakfast time easier.
This type of toaster is a little more expansive than their pop up counterparts. This is because they are larger and offer more versatility than just making toast. You will find that some toaster ovens have quite a lot of features that allow you to cook other things, such as:
- Pizza
- Cookies
- Rotisserie chicken
This type of toaster may be a bit overkill if you literally just want to toast some bread. However, if you want to easily carry out other tasks, a toaster oven is the one to buy.
Pros
- More versatile than just making toast
- Come in different sizes
Cons
- More pricy than pop up toasters
- Not as simple to use
Considerations for buying a toaster
When you are looking for the best toaster to buy, there are things to consider even for the simplest pop up toaster.
Size
When choosing the best toaster to buy you need to make sure you get one that is the right size for your needs. How many sliced do you want to toast at a time? Are the slots wide enough for your favourite type of bread? Can you easily fit it on your kitchen worktop?
It will be easy to decide how many slices you want to toast at a time, but you may want to toast something that is slightly thicker than your standard slice of bread. Therefore, your new toaster need to have larger slots. As with any kitchen appliance, you need to put it somewhere. So if you have a small kitchen, you probably shouldn’t go for that nine slice toaster oven.
Budget
How much you are willing to spend on a new toaster will be a big factor in determining which one you buy. You can actually spend £2,000 on a pop up toaster! Click here to have a look. But, these are usually the cheaper of the two types starting around the £10 mark. A toaster oven starts at around £30 and can go over £1000! Click here to have a look.
The reasons for the differences in price, is the features you can get on modern toasters. For example the toaster oven may have convection heating to allow you to cook extra items.
Usefulness
When choosing the best toaster top buy, you need to decide what you are going to use it for. If you want to simply toast your bread, you don’t need anything fancy. Just buy a pop up toaster within your budget that will look good in your kitchen.
To toast things other than bread, you need a toaster, you need to keep this in mind when choosing the right model of toaster to buy.
Features
The more basic toasters will have minimal features. You will be able to choose how long your bread is toasted for, or the level of toastieness. This is what most people will need, but more expensive toaster will have more features, such as:
- Bagel option
- Defrost
- Darkness settings
- One sided toasting
You will fond that toaster ovens have a wider range of settings, as they are more versatile. Settings may include:
- Presets
- Convection options
- Rotisserie
Whatever you choose, make sure your new toaster meets al your requirements.
Usability
You very rarely come across a toaster that is difficult to use. It is a simple case of working out what the settings do to make toast how you like it
It is important to clean a toaster from time to time. This is for hygiene reasons, but a poorly cleaned toaster can be a fire risk.
To make cleaning easier, there are crumb trays and on-stick interiors featured on some toasters to help you out.
Build Quality
Decent toasters last years, some for over a decade. A good sign of build quality, is a reputable brand. You can also take our recommendations and see reviews from customers. There are some toasters you can buy that have warranties that give you peace of mind. You also get what you pay for. More expensive toasters will usually have a better build quality and last longer.
Recommended Toasters to Buy
Russell Hobbs Futura 2-Slice Toaster
A well priced 2 slice toaster with some great reviews. It is a very basic and simple toaster, but looks nice. It’s brushed and polished stainless steel finish will suit most kitchens
Breville VTT476 Impressions 4 Slice Toaster
This is one of the best selling 4 slice toasters on the market. It has a number of features including:
- Illuminated control buttons for easy function identification.
- High gloss plastic with ridged textured finish, available in four colours
- High lift facility means smaller slices can be removed easily without burning fingers
- Variable browning control and bread slots for thick and thin slices.9 toast settings
- Defrost, reheat, mid-cycle cancel functions, Removable crumb trays for easy cleaning
Sage BOV820BSS the Smart Oven Pro with Element IQ
This toaster oven is very versatile. It can toast up to six slices of bread at a time, but it also has the following features:
- Element IQ controls heating elements to suit whatever you are cooking
- 10 pre-set cooking functions including slow cook
- Low and high slow cook with auto keep warm
- Convection fan for fast and even cooking
- Toasts up to six slices of bread
- The product is a small cavity table topoven and can be used with two shelves, however it comes with one shelf
- Brushed Stainless Steel
Andrew James Lumiglo Toaster 2 Slice
This 2 slice toaster looks great and has loads of features. With a matt black finish and blue LED lights, this toaster is part of the Lumiglo range. This means that you can match it with the kettle and a filter coffee machine. Its features include:
- Wide slots for thick bread or whatever you fancy
- Adjustable temperature control. This is done via a slider bar on the side of the toaster to control the temperature and browning of your bread.
- Defrost
- Reheat
- Cancel button
- Removable crumb tray
- 2 year warranty
We hope that this toaster buying guide was useful, and helped you make a decision on the best toaster to buy. Let us know your thoughts and questions in the comments section below.
