Gear Heads | The Toaster You Need to Get Perfect Toast Every Time

Lisa McManus and Hannah Crowley put toasters to the performance, speed, and ease of use tests to find the absolute best pick for all shapes of bread.

ABOUT US: Located in Boston’s Seaport District in the historic Innovation and Design Building, America's Test Kitchen features 15,000 square feet of kitchen space including multiple photography and video studios. It is the home of Cook’s Illustrated magazine and Cook’s Country magazine and is the workday destination for more than 60 test cooks, editors, and cookware specialists. Our mission is to test recipes over and over again until we understand how and why they work and until we arrive at the best version.

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[madmayhem]

Just a note, the winning toaster. I've owned two of them and I have to agree that when it's working, it's a fantastic toaster. Unfortunately the first one broke after a couple of months and I got a warranty replacement. The 2nd toaster lived just past the warranty and died as well. I tried to open it up to try to see what failed and these are built specifically to not be opened without being destructive. Just something to keep in mind. Upvote for visibility.

[aa]

I have the Breville. It is really perfect in every way except it does not sing Layla to me and well I can
forgive that slight as it makes perfect toast for me every time.

[cactustactics]

I dunno if it's fair to criticise the Magimix one for toasting too much on the highest setting, like y'all point out there's more than just white bread out there, some stuff (like crumpets) take longer to brown, people toast from frozen etc. Seems a bit like complaining your oven gets too hot!


$250 though, why's it so hard to find a toaster that heats evenly without shelling out premium engineering prices? It's a box where the sides get hot, is that really so difficult to make?

[BoggWeasel]

Probably the hardest "good" appliance to buy, I've had everything from "well there goes $45" to satisfactory, but never quite what I wanted, and I'm not dropping $250 for toast. Thank you ATK for another time/money saving review, you do the work so I don't have to. Might be the Dash, might be the Breville, must discuss with the exchecker .

[skarmbrust]

There is a problem with the links. Both the Winning and the Best Buy are the same, not the toaster recommended in the video.

[chrisgarcia]

Hosts: *Puts toaster on highest setting*

Toaster: *Burns toast*

Hosts: *Shocked Pikachu face*

[Paelorian]

I toast you ladies for an excellent video! Very well made and it inspires confidence in your judgement. That photograph of your intern really shows the goods. ATK does the work. I'll be returning to this video and article when it's time for a new toaster! Now I know what to look for. I didn't know what I was missing!

After reading the article, the Dash may be in my near future. Finally a toaster I don't have to struggle to get a bagel into. I wish I'd seen it a little more in the video, especially the flying toast, but to me that's a minor problem I believe I will be able to resolve to my satisfaction. I'm guessing it's a problem with lighter bread slices. I could place the toaster where the bread can fall out safely or place something above to prevent bread escape. It's definitely a flaw and major quirk that many people won't accept, but for me personally and the way I use the oven (rarely with thin square sliced sandwich bread) it's not enough to make me rule out an otherwise-excellent product that's an outstanding value. Perhaps I just need to identify which long cooking implement or object in the kitchen to lean against the toaster to stop the travel of any "high fliers".

[DoctorMikeWilson]

As someone who often toasts high moisture beads I prefer a toaster that can overtoast white bread.

Usually type tests are pretty good but I feel like this time there were some weird inconsistencies. Like wouldn't it make more sense to toast for 2 minutes and see which gets the darkest because that would be the fastest?

[gamesgeargadgets]

I’ve got a Bosch single long-slot toaster. It’s made in West Germany(to give you an idea of the age). Hasn’t failed me yet. Perfect for irregular bread sizes

[levmatta]

Wonder what they would say if they watched the Technology Connection video on that old automatic toaster

[geedoubleu]

The Breville toaster you reviewed is the longer 4-slice model which costs $97. The shorter 2-slice model is $80.

[KYoss]

I miss my grandmother's Toastmaster... Today's toasters are weak sauce next to that thing.

[debbecker]

Wish I could get a toaster from the 50’s. I haven’t had a good slice of toast since they made the slots wider for bagels, which I don’t like.

[Zelmel]

The real question nobody has asked: Why would anyone in the English-speaking world buy a toaster that has "SMEG" written on it in big bold lettering? It's British slang for some... unpleasant stuff. (See also: Red Dwarf, where it's used as an insult)

[wynkontrovich]

Almost all cheap toasters and many expensive ones do not toast evenly on both sides. What I did with my cheap toaster is set the timer on low (about 1-1/2) and run a cycle. When cycle is finished turn the bread around in each slot and toast for one more cycle using the low setting. The toast will come out evenly toasted. Let me know how this works for you.

[wtz]

Hannah is ADORABLE ! just the kind of voluptuous blond I like !

Hannah are you single ?

[geraldinefields]

Those toasters appear very large in the video. Maybe they are just little women. I still use my old toaster I bought at the grocery store costing about ten bucks. Not perfect. Good enough.

[birdsdaword]

SMEG reminds me of the toaster in Red Dwarf.

[bobby_greene]

Would the magimix burn thick hearty bread on the darkest setting? Or would it come out perfect? Would that same piece of bread need to be toasted twice in another toaster?

[runswithscissors]

Toaster oven - all bread/bagels/rolls fit.