- 2 days ago
Culinary technologist Dave Arnold tests a full lineup of slot toasters and toaster ovens, ranging from ultra-budget to luxury, to see which ones actually make the best toast. We look at edge-to-edge toast evenness, first-slice vs second-slice performance, true bagel modes, and much more to determine which toasters are worth your money and which to avoid.
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00:00My name is Dave Arnold and I develop, teach, and write about culinary technology.
00:05The toasters we're testing range from $23.99 all the way up to $400.
00:09And we're going to see if that extra money really makes better toast.
00:12Some of you might like it blonder, some of you might like it darker.
00:15And while we'll test that, we're going to...
00:17I don't know what to say.
00:18I have so many opinions on toast that it's hard for me to decide what's best.
00:22What's best?
00:24There is no best.
00:25There's just differences.
00:25That said, we're going to try to give you all the information that you need to see whether
00:31these things make the kind of toast that you want.
00:37Amazon Basics Toaster.
00:38$24.
00:39Lightweight, black plastic, basic functions.
00:43Oh, now look at that.
00:44Went down too fast and it gripped before it went all the way down.
00:48So I'm going to now be less me and more gentle and see what happens.
00:52Our standard test is going to use the medium setting with good old Wonder Bread to see
00:57how each performs as a baseline.
01:00Baseline toast should be evenly colored all the way across the bread.
01:03It should be crispy on the outside.
01:05It should still have moisture on the inside, have a good bite to it, and hopefully doesn't
01:09stale out too quickly.
01:11We're going to rate each one.
01:12The good ones are a buy.
01:14Return for the bad ones and keep your receipt for those that are somewhere in the middle.
01:19Oh, there it is.
01:20This is the toast from the middle set of elements, and that's the toasted side from the other.
01:26And I have to say they're not 100% the same.
01:30So it's a little bit darker on the interior side than on the exterior side.
01:38That's toast.
01:39For each toaster, we immediately started a second round after our first toast.
01:43The goal being to see how consistent the toasters were across multiple rounds of toast.
01:47Oh, here we go.
01:50Second round looks pretty much like the first.
01:52It's a little darker on the inside.
01:55It's not going to win any awards, but for $24, it seems to do kind of what it says it's
01:59going to do.
02:01So I think it's fine.
02:02Do I feel any great affection for it?
02:05I do not.
02:05But for the price and the fact that it made decent toast consistent across rounds, I'm
02:10going to rate it as a buy overall, a decent benchmark for the very cheapest toaster of
02:15the day.
02:17The Bella Two Slice Toaster, $25, costs the same as our previous toaster, and its unique
02:22selling proposition, aka its USP, is that it will take up less space on your counter.
02:27It's two-slot width, which means that what it can do that no other slot toaster can do
02:32is handle these kind of wider sourdough boules that are extremely popular right now.
02:37Let's see how it does with our standard Wonder Bread toast.
02:42Here we go.
02:44Oh, there it is.
02:45This section where this came from is not maybe as good as this front section, so maybe
02:50not 100% even.
02:52All right, let's do this.
02:53I'm not noticing, between this and the other toaster I've tried, any miracle of difference
03:00in the taste of the toast.
03:01The Bella was one of the only toasters that did not reduce the toasting time on the second
03:05round, resulting in a much darker toast.
03:07That means it just uses a simple timer mechanism rather than the temperature sensor.
03:11This was really shocking to me, how uneven it was, same time in the same slot from front
03:17to back.
03:17The fact that it also didn't adjust the toast time, depending on whether it had just been
03:21used, so that means your second slice of toast is going to be appreciably darker than your
03:25first slice of toast.
03:26The Bella might be the perfect solution for someone desperate for counter space, but it
03:30wasn't the toaster for me.
03:31I put it on the return shelf.
03:34Cuisinart Two Slice Toaster, $39.95.
03:37As I expected from a brand of Cuisinart's good reputation, the build quality on this model
03:41felt a little better than the previous toasters, with a nice chunky lever and a wide carriage to
03:46keep it cool touch.
03:47And I liked that the labels weren't on the buttons, which means they wouldn't wear off
03:51over time with use.
03:52One thing I didn't love was the slot size, which was too short for artisan breads, but
03:57fine for our standard Wonder Bread.
04:02Don't love this.
04:03It's not wall-to-wall.
04:04Remember, what we're looking for in life is wall-to-wall toast.
04:07Sometimes that can be difficult because the bread actually changes.
04:10Even on Wonder Bread, which is renowned for being uniform, it's always, you notice, a little
04:15bit denser around the outside, for bread that is not going to have a lot of internal difference.
04:20A Wonder is pretty good.
04:22And that's a little bit blonde around that side, a lot bit blonde around that side.
04:29Of the three toasts I've had so far, I like that one the best, taste-wise.
04:33Could this be a setting for me, though?
04:34This is slightly blonder.
04:36Second batch came out 30 seconds faster than the first.
04:40So while it was good to see that it was compensating for the warm start, it was still a pretty
04:44uneven toast.
04:45It's a little more even, but there's still some real light spots there.
04:49Once toast starts getting this level of darkness, it tends to get dark kind of exponentially faster.
04:54They go from being not brown, brown, brown, brown, brown, a little burnt.
04:58So you got to be careful.
04:59When you have this level of brown and this level of white, it's not awesome.
05:03I was already a little disappointed in the Cuisinart, but at this point, one of the producers
05:07on set who actually owned this toaster told me something that shocked me.
05:11What?
05:12Hold on, give me a bagel.
05:13Give me a bagel.
05:14Hold on.
05:16Newsflash.
05:17This is a fake bagel setting, I'm told.
05:20The bagel function on a toaster is meant to toast one side of the bread only.
05:25Only one heating element comes on, so you're meant to toast just the cut side of the bagel.
05:30But according to the Cuisinart instruction manual, all that the bagel function does is increase
05:34the toast time.
05:35Son of a...
05:35Oh my God.
05:36Yes, the outside is heating up.
05:37The outside is heating up.
05:38So if all this does is add some extra time, I already have a knob for that.
05:44I put the cut side of the bagels facing in because that's always the way you're supposed
05:47to do it.
05:48And it did look like it was slightly more toasted on the cut side, but it could just
05:52be that it is harder to toast the outside of a bagel.
05:55And I was not able to get a consistent result from test to test, so it's just really hard
05:59to tell what the point of this bagel function is.
06:01What I really want in a bagel setting is for the outside elements to never come on at all.
06:06Overall, Cuisinart with their entry-level toaster, not nearly as consistent a toast product as
06:11I would have expected out of a brand that I've trusted for a long time.
06:14Unfortunately, it went to the return shelf.
06:17Continental Electric Professional Series, $40.
06:20Our first metal body toaster, but still quite a lightweight device.
06:24Not a lot of metal in there.
06:26And this kind of stainless is a smudgetastrophe.
06:28I did like the clicky knob, although who knows about the longevity of it.
06:32And again, the slots weren't going to fit anything wider than our standard Wonder Bread.
06:37All right.
06:39We're definitely looking at not even toast all the way across.
06:44In fact, completely blonde here, completely blonde here.
06:48Not the greatest toast performance of all time.
06:50What I realized at this point was that whenever I didn't perfectly center my toast in the slot,
06:58I was getting raw outside edges.
06:59Since the same thing happened in the Amazon Basics test,
07:02I thought I'd take a look inside of that one just to compare how the heating elements were distributed in both.
07:07It was then that I made a crucial discovery.
07:09They look almost identical.
07:11Like they could have been made, and probably were, in the same factory.
07:16But like looking at them, even like the pattern of indentation in the insulator is almost identical.
07:24Both the same width relative to where the toast is.
07:28So the $40 toaster was basically the same piece of equipment as our $24 model,
07:33but it was wearing a different outfit.
07:35For that much more money, I'd choose the cheaper toaster and put this one on the return shelf.
07:39Drew Barrymore Two Slice Toaster, $49.96.
07:43This was our first model with any kind of electronic smart stuff.
07:47When I looked inside, what I saw was the exact same internal structure as the Continental Electric
07:51and the Amazon Basics toasters.
07:53Not just the same heating elements, but the same stampings, same mechanism.
07:59So it does that when it starts up.
08:01Be aware if that's going to be something that bothers you.
08:04So I'm guessing what's going to be different here, and this is important to a lot of people,
08:08so I'm not trying to poo-poo it, is the look-feel and how the controls are going to work.
08:13Let me see whether it operates with a towel.
08:16Yeah.
08:16See, it's not using pressure.
08:18It's using capacitive sense.
08:21Capacitive buttons detect touch by sensing changes in electrical charge or capacitance on their surface.
08:26They don't require pressure, just a light touch from your finger to activate.
08:30That means this toaster is actually sensing human contact, like your fingers on an iPhone.
08:34It's a highly sensitive interface, but that means it might not work well if your hands are wet,
08:39or if you're wearing an oven mitt, or if you accidentally turn everything on when you're trying to clean it with a damp towel.
08:45I also noticed that the contrast wasn't great on these lighted indicators.
08:48For those with lower vision or just on a sunny day, they might not be that visible.
08:52And lo and behold, it's more uneven here.
08:56So this toasting mechanism, which for lack of a better word is the Amazon Basics,
09:01just be aware that you need to get the toast in the center of the slot in order to get an even slice of toast.
09:06And just like the previous models, I found that the second round of Drew's toast was more even than the first.
09:11It makes sense because on the second toast, the whole toaster is hotter.
09:15There's fewer cold spots, so your piece of bread is just going to be more evenly heated overall.
09:20You know what, it's like the first pancake is always bad, so you know you're going to throw it away.
09:24Toast shouldn't be that way. First slice of toast should be perfect.
09:26This is $50, so it's roughly twice what the cheapest one that we've tested that has the same heating element has in it.
09:32It's going to come down to whether you like this kind of interface, but this is not for me.
09:36That is a design and a personal choice standpoint, not a bad, good choice.
09:41Unfortunately, I was forced to add Drew's toaster to the return pile.
09:46Hello Kitty toaster, $50.
09:48Its unique selling proposition?
09:50Singe Hello Kitty's face directly into your toast.
09:53It's lightweight and doesn't feel like a substantial thing, but I have to say I love this thing.
10:00It's got an interesting grip mechanism.
10:01I think they were trying to not have any lines go through Hello Kitty's face.
10:05It's like, just don't mess with her face.
10:07Don't mess with her face!
10:08And that's why it's $50, because you had to pay for that person customizing that thing.
10:13Here we go.
10:14Oh, yeah.
10:15Look, I love Hello Kitty, but this is woefully under-toasted, and this is over-toasted.
10:20I just think it would be easier to get Hello Kitty on the toast a different way.
10:24I truly wanted to love the Hello Kitty toaster.
10:27I don't know what I was hoping for, that this would be some sort of magical device, but alas, it was not.
10:32It was going to have to go on the return shelf.
10:35Toastmaster Four Slice, $49.99.
10:37This is the first Four Slice unit that we've tried, which might account for the jump in price.
10:41Otherwise, it didn't feel like a particularly premium unit.
10:44Oh, I really can't tolerate that.
10:47I can't, I can't, I just can't, I can't, I can't, I can't do that.
10:50I would not be able to tolerate that.
10:52Clearly not the best build quality, but let's see how it toasts.
10:57I wouldn't say it's the most even toast ever.
10:59It's not the worst that we've seen all day, but not the best either.
11:03Oh, this is darker than the first go around by a good chunk.
11:08This is definitely a better second slice toaster.
11:12It's a little dry actually.
11:14Now, with a four slice toaster, you should be able to get one half toasted very light and one half toasted dark.
11:20Otherwise, why would you be able to control these two sides separately?
11:23Let's set this one to two and a half, so that's very light, and this one to four and a half, that's on the dark side.
11:32Oh, okay.
11:35Aye!
11:35That is, uh, that's warm.
11:37But the inner slice of light toast was actually quite dark, and the outer light slice was too light.
11:43So while there are independent controls here, they don't really work to make two different styles of toast at once.
11:48Admittedly, this toaster did make relatively even toast, provided you were just trying to make one level of brown across all four slots.
11:56But for me, the knob was a real issue, a deal breaker.
11:59It was going to have to go on the return pile.
12:02Antique toaster, $60.
12:04We got this 1920s toaster off eBay from a nice lady in Colorado.
12:09She charged us $60.
12:11Clearly, this model is no longer on the market.
12:14But what's useful about this is that, much like an old car, when you look at an old toaster, all of its parts are exposed, and you can really get a feel for how they work.
12:22I can't tell you how much I love this little, this little function.
12:26I'll do it with the bread.
12:27Instead, if you are plugging in an old piece of equipment, just be a little careful.
12:32When you plug in this toaster, electricity starts flowing through these coils, which are made of a nickel-chromium alloy called nichrome that has a very specific electrical resistance.
12:42That resistance turns the electrical energy into radiant heat.
12:45Modern toasters use essentially the same technology, but with thinner strips of a cheaper alloy that degrades a lot faster than these beefy nichrome wires.
12:53That's why most modern toasters last about five years, as opposed to a century.
12:58It's starting to red up, and I think it's starting to brown up.
13:01It's probably going to look lighter than it is.
13:03Nah.
13:04Bam.
13:05So that's one level.
13:07What do you want?
13:07More?
13:07Less?
13:08It's a little uneven here.
13:09Let's see how we are on this side.
13:13And I'm going to call it.
13:15Actually, I don't mind the crisscross applesauce.
13:17I haven't ate toast yet that did something different other than make toast.
13:23This toast is as good as most of the toast I've already eaten today.
13:27For a hundred-and-change-year-old device, I like this vintage toaster.
13:31I love the cool mechanism, and also that it looked like a weird medieval torture device, so that's always a plus.
13:36It's definitely not the most practical toaster, or even the safest, but I had to put it in the buy pile.
13:41The General Electric Two-Slice Toaster, $60.
13:46The metal was still thin, but it seemed better constructed overall than the Toastmaster.
13:50Nice clickiness on the knobs, and the buttons separate from the writing.
13:54And go.
13:56That felt good.
13:57That did feel good.
13:59The toast itself, again, was toast.
14:01The middle setting on this model was quite blonde, but that might not bother you.
14:05It seems to be a common flaw with all of these toasters is not being 100% edge-to-edge, depending on where it is in the slot.
14:13As we've noticed with other toasters, the second toast is more even than the first toast.
14:18Do you want your first set of toast to not be as good as the second set of toast?
14:22Not really.
14:22I don't know that it warrants its larger size.
14:25It is quite a bit beefier than some of the other two-slices for the quality of toast.
14:29I didn't hate it.
14:30I didn't love it.
14:31For the General Electric two-slice, I'd say, meh, keep the receipt.
14:36The Hayden Dorset Toaster, $74.99.
14:39Its major selling point appeared to be its retro design.
14:43It's some sort of, uh, like, enamel on steel.
14:47The steel actually feels pretty sturdy.
14:49This knob, which is meant to look like I'm in some sort of steampunk airplane situation,
14:53I mean, it's not for me just because I think it's gonna break.
14:57It seems like a lot of design-y things, right?
14:59But is there a reason for it to, not really.
15:02It's not helping it toast.
15:03Who knows?
15:04Could be wrong.
15:04Could be God's toast coming out of this thing right now.
15:08So this is, oh, ah.
15:10This is a little darker than some of the other ones on the first toast.
15:13But it is relatively even compared to some of the other toasts that we've made.
15:19This decent toast.
15:20Second slice is more even and also darker.
15:25That's actually better toast.
15:26Again, we have a second slice problem.
15:28But I would say the difference between slice set one and set two is maybe not as bad as
15:32what we've seen in some of the other models.
15:34You get some points back, my friend.
15:36Some.
15:36The design was not for me at all.
15:38But I was relatively impressed by the actual toast.
15:41And because of that, I put it in the middle shelf.
15:44The Breville a bit more.
15:45$109.95.
15:47Our first model breaking the $100 mark.
15:49And there were signs of a more premium product here.
15:51The stainless was a lot less fingerprint-y than on the budget model we looked at.
15:55The heating elements were also more densely spaced, giving me hope for a more even toasting.
15:59Now let's make sure.
16:00Oh, whoa.
16:01It's like Battlestar Galactica.
16:02It's like a Cylon Raider back in the day.
16:04That's goofy as hell, but I kind of like it.
16:10The toast itself was on the blonde side, but fairly even.
16:13Like many of the other toasters, it was more even on the second round of toasting.
16:17But this toaster was one of the first we tried that had truly unique functions that were designed
16:21specifically to help you make better toast.
16:24First, there's the lift and look function.
16:27Oh.
16:29Most of the other toasters that we've used so far, if I lift the lever,
16:32I'd have to pop it past its down point and end the cycle.
16:36This one, you can look at it kind of midway and keep it toasting.
16:40I like that.
16:40And that makes its a bit more function also make more sense.
16:44Because I can wait until it's near the end of its cycle, check it, say nah, and then be like,
16:51you know what?
16:52Uh.
16:52The bit more button added about 20 more seconds to the cycle.
16:56And I could definitely see how this might help someone make better toast.
16:59And overall, it was the fastest toaster that we'd tested so far.
17:02I like that it had a true bagel function, toasting one side only.
17:06Downsides?
17:06It takes up a lot of room for a two-sliced toaster, and it still doesn't fit artisan breads.
17:11But overall, a good toaster.
17:13It goes on the buy shelf.
17:15The Ninja Flip, $149.95.
17:18And with that, we moved on to our first toaster oven of the day.
17:20It's called the Flip because you can flip it up when you're not using it.
17:23But we're just here to find out whether it makes good toast.
17:26When you're choosing the number of slices that you're doing,
17:28what that's going to do is change the number of heating elements that it uses.
17:32I would say always go maximum.
17:35Not just because we're doing six slices, but because I want evenness all the way across.
17:40So I always use the maximum amount, no matter what.
17:43This is also the first toaster we're looking at that uses quartz heating elements.
17:47In a quartz heating element, the resistance wire is inside of a sealed tube.
17:52And because of that, they can run it much hotter than exposed nichrome because it won't oxidize.
17:57Nichrome wire oxidizes a little bit every time you use it, which is why eventually they will break.
18:02Essentially, this is exactly how light bulbs work.
18:05So quartz elements are really long, skinny, powerful light bulbs that transmit infrared heat to whatever you're cooking.
18:11So you see this tray?
18:13This is actually part of the heating that you're going to be using.
18:17The performance of these kinds of ovens is dependent on keeping the inside relatively clean.
18:25You see a lot of condensation.
18:27Here's another thing.
18:28On a toaster oven, when you're toasting, open the damn thing as soon as it's done.
18:31Because it's going to start steaming itself to death.
18:33The top of the ninja toast looks pretty even.
18:36But when I turn them over...
18:38Ah, no.
18:39Yeah.
18:39So the bottom was way overdone.
18:41The second round had the same problem.
18:43And it also didn't adjust the timing, despite the fact that this oven was already hot.
18:47Like, this is some of the best toast we've seen all day, edge to edge.
18:52Nevertheless, the toast wasn't bad.
18:53But I wasn't sure about the general concept of the ninja flip.
18:56For that reason, it went on the middle shelf.
18:58The Our Place Wonder Oven.
19:01$185.
19:01Now, this thing is marketed as a can-do-everything kind of an oven.
19:04And I was hoping it could at least make great toast.
19:07But there were some immediate red flags.
19:08This is just one sheet of sheet metal.
19:12So that is going to get phenomenally hot.
19:15I would be careful putting this against anything that was flammable.
19:18I would keep it off of the back.
19:20So let's see what the...
19:21Here, see.
19:22Eh, decent knob.
19:24But how do I make it go vroom?
19:26Do I just set the timer?
19:28So I've got to set the timer.
19:33That's how I set how toasted it's going to get, huh?
19:3660 what?
19:3760 seconds?
19:3860 minutes?
19:38What is it 60 what?
19:40How many minutes am I supposed to set it for?
19:42Like, yeah, I can set the exact number of minutes.
19:44But 10, hopefully, is far too long for toast.
19:48We're hoping that it clocks in at, like, 4 minutes or so.
19:51And the difference between 0 and 4 is only this little thing here.
19:55So there's just not enough increments of time to adequately adjust a toast cycle, in my opinion.
20:03One of the reasons people have moved away from these click, click, click timers is that they are inherently wonky.
20:08They eventually go bad on you.
20:11They stop.
20:12They don't do the ding.
20:13They become less accurate.
20:15I set it to what I thought was dot number 4.
20:18I thought it was dot 4.
20:19Who knows?
20:20I don't know what I set it to.
20:21I'm going to call it, though, because it's getting dark.
20:24Now, I know I've been clowning on this unit.
20:26That is even.
20:27Oh, snap!
20:30Oh!
20:31Oh, no.
20:32No, no, no, no, no.
20:33No.
20:34No.
20:34Yeah.
20:35Okay.
20:36Unsurprisingly, my toast was burnt.
20:38I thought I set the thing to 4 minutes, but it actually ran for 6 minutes and 25 seconds.
20:42The toast was also woefully uneven on the top and bottom because of the different sizes of the electrical elements in the top and bottom of the oven.
20:48Since this oven has a steam function, and since steam-assisted toasting is all the rage these days, I decided to give it one more test to see if it could make wonder toast.
20:58Calling it.
20:59Ow!
21:00Calling it.
21:01That's good-looking toast.
21:02That's good-looking toast.
21:04Now, too dark.
21:06And it was a lot shorter this go-around, but I added the steam.
21:08Let's see.
21:09This does not feel like I've reached any sort of toast nirvana.
21:22Okay.
21:23My review on this thing.
21:24Don't touch the back of it.
21:26Don't touch the underside of it.
21:27Keep a stopwatch around because who knows how long that timer's going.
21:31The Our Place Wonder Oven.
21:32Not so wonderful.
21:33Straight to the return pile.
21:37$249.
21:38All right.
21:39We've now breaking the $200 mark, so I feel like I need to give it a little bit more of a fanfare.
21:45This is the Magi, Magi, Magi Mix Vision toaster for $250.
21:50This is $250 worth of toaster.
21:52Now, this toaster's unique selling proposition is that it's the first ever toaster with clear glass sides.
21:57It's also the first slot toaster we've seen that uses those quartz heating elements that you usually see in high-end toaster ovens.
22:04Oh!
22:06I'm a sucker for seeing it brown.
22:08I really am.
22:09Listen, I know it's a gimmick.
22:10I kind of like seeing the toast.
22:14That's pretty good.
22:17That's good toast.
22:19That's good toast.
22:19This is delicious toast.
22:21And I have to say, quite even.
22:22I mean, it's going to burn a big old $250 hole in your pocket.
22:25And it's quite large.
22:26I couldn't resist doing some further tests.
22:28The bagel setting worked great, and it drastically outperformed our only other long slot toaster on Toasting Artisan Breads.
22:35Post- oh wait.
22:37Oh wait.
22:37Yeah, this is going to be fun.
22:39Wait.
22:39Now.
22:40Yeah, baby.
22:41Yeah, baby.
22:42Look at that.
22:43I mean, it's a little blonde here, but that's pretty good.
22:45That's much better than our last go around.
22:47Much better.
22:48Much- ow, hot.
22:49Ow.
22:49Ow.
22:50Ow.
22:50Ow.
22:51Oh.
22:52Okay.
22:53It's hard for me to recommend such a large, expensive item, but it made really good toast.
22:58I kind of got a feel for being one with the toast because I could see it, just like I did with the 1920s toaster.
23:03Maybe it's a gimmick, but this is the kind of gimmick that I don't not enjoy.
23:07Magimix Vision goes on the top shelf.
23:09The Breville Die Cast, a four-slice toaster for $249.95.
23:14This thing is expensive, but it also appeared to be built like a tank.
23:17This thing is heavy.
23:19Like the previous Breville, it has the lift and look function as well as the bit more function.
23:24But there's no levers, which leads me to believe that this might be a motorized toasting element.
23:31Wonder Bread, Wonder Bread, Wonder Bread, Wonder Bread.
23:38That's weird.
23:39I don't know how I feel about that.
23:41Ooh.
23:42The slowness of it creeps me out like it's gonna murder me or something.
23:46Anything that you add like that is just one more thing to break.
23:49That is good toast, though.
23:50That is even toast.
23:51That is also even toast.
23:53Let's look at side two.
23:55Almost no lines.
23:56But of the non-toaster oven ones that we've tested, other than the Magimix, I'm gonna say that is even as all get out.
24:03The second round toast also looked great.
24:05But most importantly, the Breville Die Cast had the very best first slice of the day.
24:09And that's kind of what you want in a toaster.
24:11If you're only ever gonna make four slices, and you have the money, and you don't mind the motorized mechanism, this is a great toaster.
24:18I rate the Breville a buy.
24:20Breville Smart Oven.
24:22$270.
24:23Pricey for a toaster, but it is a multifunction device that is big enough to cook a whole chicken.
24:28It's two quarts units on the bottom.
24:30So just look at it, and look, it says toast.
24:32So they are good at letting you know which rack to use.
24:36I always set my Breville to have the maximum number of slices of toast.
24:40Always.
24:41All right.
24:43And as I expected, a little lighter on this side I thought, but pretty dang good job at toasting.
24:49Very even across the board.
24:51The timer tells me it's gonna take a minute and 20 seconds less for the second round of toast.
24:55So it's really accounting for the higher internal temperature of the oven, unlike the Ninja Flip.
25:00And the second round also looked really good.
25:02Like with the other toaster ovens, the toast in the center of the oven looked better than the slices around the perimeter.
25:07Of the toaster ovens that we've used so far, I mean, that's good toast.
25:12It didn't beat the best slot toasters, but the Breville Smart Oven won the toaster oven category.
25:17And I just know it's a Swiss Army knife in the kitchen.
25:20For that reason, I put it on the buy shelf.
25:22If you only had space for a toaster oven, you would not be mad at this toast.
25:26The Balmuda toaster oven.
25:28$379.
25:30That's over $100 more expensive than the previous model.
25:33And in spite of myself, I was super excited to try it for the first time since word on the street is that it is God's gift to toast.
25:39It's heated by quartz units above and below, and the rack is designed in this wavy pattern to minimize unsightly grill marks on your toast.
25:46But the Balmuda's main USP is its use of steam.
25:50So you put your toast in and you fill the chamber with one mini coffee cups worth of water.
25:55Balmuda started the steam toast trend.
25:57For those of you that don't know, the theory is that injecting a little bit of steam into the beginning of the toast cycle makes a super crispy outside, super soft inside, amazing toast that you can't get any other way.
26:10I mean, people love this toaster.
26:12Now that, that's legitimately good looking toast.
26:15Even that, I can see the lines, is good looking toast.
26:19Yeah.
26:20Yeah, I do like that more.
26:22To my horror, the Balmuda toaster was actually beginning to live up to the hype.
26:26The second round was also exceptional toast.
26:28That is good toast.
26:31Here's what I'm gonna say.
26:34Probably the best toast I've had today.
26:36Finicky, weird machine, very expensive thing that can only make max two slices of toast.
26:41If I had infinite money, I would own one, for sure.
26:44For the toast-obsessed, and for the toast-obsessed only, it goes on the top shelf.
26:50The Dualit Four Slice, $379.99.
26:53It's fancy, it's English, and it's one of the all-time classic toasters in continuous production since the 1940s.
26:59And Dualit makes their own proprietary heating elements, which are meant to be extra even.
27:04I'm gonna be gentle from now on, gently drop it down.
27:07Another thing I'll say, unlike most of the other units that we've looked at, look.
27:12Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, screws.
27:14You can replace any item on this.
27:16So, if you are a person who does not like to add to landfill, this is an anti-landfill device.
27:23They intend for you to keep this thing operating as long as you are operating, which I appreciate, frankly.
27:29Another thing about the Dualit is it doesn't auto-pop you up.
27:32It just turns off.
27:33So, this thing is sitting in here.
27:35That could be an advantage or a disadvantage.
27:37I tend to think that toast wants to be lifted out of its toaster when it's done.
27:42So, to me, that's a disadvantage.
27:44Across both tests, the side of the toast that was closer to the back of the machine was consistently less toasted than the other.
27:50Sort of a weird design flaw for $400.
27:52So, if what you want to do is launch your toast across the kitchen, this is the only toaster you should look at.
27:59No other toaster we've looked at can launch a piece of toast over a lighting rig in a studio. None.
28:05So, if that's your goal, or if you have the money, or if you need to look like a fancy old British person, this is the only toaster you can get.
28:12But you will be sacrificing one side of your toast.
28:16I really appreciate that the Dualit is built to last, but at this price, frankly, I'd expect better toast.
28:21Unfortunately, it goes in the return pile.
28:24By the way, before I start, I will say, like, this is not my jam.
28:29Like, a telephone embedded in a toaster is not my idea of a good time.
28:35The Revolution Touchscreen. $400. Our most expensive toaster.
28:41It claims to toast bread without drying it out, but there's no information specifying how or what this revolutionary technology is.
28:48Put two slices in. I'm gonna read the rest of the manual on making toast while it's toasting.
28:56And this, I guess, is gonna be another one of those motorized things. You know how I feel about that.
29:01I don't know if you know this. It's powered by Instaglow technology.
29:05We've had problems in the past with the bottom of the bread not getting fully toasted and the top being toasted.
29:10The upper ones are starting to glow more, but not nearly as much as the bottom is.
29:17Okay. To be fair, it is even down to the bottom.
29:22This is a $400 toaster with a goofy phone on the front.
29:26But this is relatively even toast.
29:29I'm not gonna lie and say it didn't make good toast.
29:31In fact, it made some of the best, if not the best, toast of the day.
29:35It even made good toast directly from cold.
29:38The folks at Revolution designed their own style of heating element,
29:41and they are doing something different with it than the other companies.
29:44At the end of the day, the folks at Revolution do have a very good toasting system.
29:48I would gladly take a more standard-looking toaster from this company with this heating technology.
29:53But in its current form, as you see it here, I'm not sure who wants this.
29:57Alright, so that was a lot of toast.
29:59I feel that most of the time, I kinda wish I hadn't eaten quite as much of the toast,
30:04but I feel you can't test units without actually tasting the toast.
30:07Here's what I feel about the upshot. What's the upshot?
30:09On the return pile, the only toaster actually incapable of making edible toast
30:13was the Hello Kitty toaster, which was unfortunate because I really wanted to love it.
30:17The others could all make good toast, but each had major issues either with build quality,
30:22consistency, user experience, or value for money.
30:26The Keep Your Receipt category contained a toaster that made okay toast, but was just middling.
30:31And a couple others that made pretty good toast, but had some weird design quirks that might really turn some people off.
30:37In fact, the Revolution toaster is in this category because even though it made my favorite toaster of the day,
30:43I just couldn't handle the iPhone screen.
30:45At the end of the day, some of my very favorite pieces of toast emerged from expensive models
30:49like the Balmuda and the Magimix Vision.
30:52And while it's clear that overall spending more money will probably get you a better toaster,
30:56the buy category included the very cheapest toaster we tried.
31:00A lot of these toasters turned out to have the same guts.
31:03So at a lower price point, I just recommend going for the least expensive option.
31:07I can't recommend that anyone actually use this in their house as their daily toaster, but I mean, come on.
31:15How do you not love that? Right? I mean, that's just, that's just cool.
31:19But again, don't burn your house down.
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