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Trouble with Toasters


5-element
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I wonder if there is a secret to toaster-buying. The last 3 or 4 that I have bought, have all ended the same way: after a while, the mecanism that holds down the piece of bread while it is being toasted, fails, you just can't keep down the bread, unless you do this manually - which is ridiculous - Those toasters I buy are all different makes, so it seems a built-in fault.

And so the toaster ends up in the little "recup" shop down the road, where someone might, or might not, know how to dismantle the toaster and repair it - I really have no idea if it is possible to fix it, or not.

My question is: is this a common problem, is this how ALL toasters end up? And if so (particularly with gite owners) do you have a solution? Or is there one brand of toaster which doesn't have that in-built fault? It does grieve me to have to chuck out something which seems otherwise, in perfectly good condition, I really don't like to add to the huge heap of debris we humans are so good at creating (mobile phones, TVs, printers, etc... and now add toasters?)[:(]

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5-e, we had two when we first came here to live that had the same problem as yours.

Fortunately, both went whilst still under guarantee.  The first was a Phillips and I can't remember what the second was.

Now we have a Morphy Richards (and, no not expensive) which has lasted us, I suppose, 4 years so far.

What you need to do, 5-e, is look inside at the lever (or levers if it's a double toaster) and see whether it is only fixed at one end or at both ends.  The first two toasters we had only had the lever fixed at one end and so when the lever got bent (which is a design fault and it will inevitably get bent), then the bread wouldn't be held in place.

Hope that explains it to you though I am not sure that I have explained it at all well [:)]

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The old light bulbs gave out a lot less light and consumed more electricity doing it. Not an expert on nylons [:$] but I bet the originals shown were heavy compared to the much thinner shear versions now available. So of course there has to be a trade off.

Toasters like so many other domestic products are rebadged and made by a few actual manufacturers (mass market end) you won't find much difference in the internals. The likes of Tesco and Asda sell them for £5 so you can't really expect a great long life. Manufacturers all use highly accelerated life test (HALT) so know just how a product is going to last. Conspiracy, I don't think so, waste of the worlds resources definitely. What do you use to keep people in an ever rapidly expanding population employed?

Look at the car market, far more sophisticated than 12y ago and really efficient and long lasting, Ford fiesta, focus and mondeo models +250,000 miles and seen adverts for selling cars and Merc vans with 480,000 miles  

Light bulbs, what ails you?

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Thanks for all the replies, they are ALL useful!

So it looks like the next one has to be a Dualit or a Morphy Richards...

Sweet, I did look inside, and it is fixed at only one end, and I was unable to see the lever. I tried to do all sorts of clever things with it, but nothing doing. That was a SEB by the way, which at the time, seemed just a cut above the LIDL kinds...

As for lightbulbs, I think there have been several threads on those, quite rightly so.  We have no end of lightsaver lightbulbs which have lasted less than the older types.  I will watch the movie, perhaps it will tell me something I could do about buying a stock of the old-type lightbulbs, both bayonet and screw on.[:'(]

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Another Dualit fan here. I coveted one for years and my lovely mum bought me one  as a gift. They are expensive, horrendously so, but the "up-down" mechanism is completely manual so much more difficult to break or fail, and the main beauty of them is that the elements are replaceable, so you'll never REALLY become 5-element..at least, not as far as your toaster is concerned!!

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[quote user="NormanH"]How many Psychiatrists  does it take to change a light bulb?

3, but it's really got to want to change ....

[/quote]

How many Microsoft employees   etc., etc..?

None: they just declare darkness as the Industry Standard.

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I have had problems with toasters and bought a bosch in this style, but stainless effect, when they first came out. http://goo.gl/crB12 I thought it looked pleasing, sadly it was not that price but around £40. It toasts well, however, isn't there always a 'but' or 'however'. The crumbs won't come out and I have a feeling that they will catch fire one of these days. In fact it is most unhygenic.

They hardly fall into the catch tray at the bottom and if I tip it up and shake, they get stuck in the curve of the thing.

 

Would I have one again, NEVER, in spite of it toasting well.

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[quote user="5-element"]

Thanks for all the replies, they are ALL useful!

So it looks like the next one has to be a Dualit or a Morphy Richards...

Sweet, I did look inside, and it is fixed at only one end, and I was unable to see the lever. I tried to do all sorts of clever things with it, but nothing doing. That was a SEB by the way, which at the time, seemed just a cut above the LIDL kinds...

As for lightbulbs, I think there have been several threads on those, quite rightly so.  We have no end of lightsaver lightbulbs which have lasted less than the older types.  I will watch the movie, perhaps it will tell me something I could do about buying a stock of the old-type lightbulbs, both bayonet and screw on.[:'(]

[/quote]

IMHO, THAT is the problem!  Fixed at one end, no ruddy good; fixed at both ends, should be fine!

Scientific, moi?  No, but I hope, imbued with loads of commonsense.....[:)]

 

 

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I no longer eat bread hence no toaster but before I gave up I found the miracle cure for 99% of discarded toasters.

There is a contact inside that operates like a latching relay when you push down on the handle, the idea is that a toaster cannot accidentally be switched on when not plugged in, i am not doing a good job of expressing myself here, another way of looking at it is that if you have some bread in it and the power goes off, maybe you are copying that d*ckh**ed Jamie Oliver and have it on its side doing cheese on toast, whatever, when the power is restored it wont heat up again until the handle is once again held down.

Anyway what happens is that the crumbs get between the contacts and insulate one from the other and you get the problem described, the solution is to clean the contacts just like we used to with car ignitions (they may even be oxidised), problem is most cheap toasters self destruct if you try to take them apart, the best thing is to hold them upside down and vigorously shake out the crumbs, use an airline if you have one, if you can access the contacts then clean them with a nail file with the machine unplugged of course.

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Chancer, my toaster problem is not with crumbs, which I have always managed to remove. (and I am afraid that your detailed description goes way over my head, even though it sounds so convincing!)

Since I got the hint from Sweet 17, I  fiddled with the springy bit (turning the toaster upside down, forcing the spring this way and that way to work out how it should operate) and I thought I'd got it licked - I got it stuck permanently so that the bread would toast, but would have to be released manually. So after that I plugged it in, nothing happened, I must have b.gg...d the resistance - or perhaps it all cut by itself as I might have made the whole thing LIVE!!! Anyway, now it is probably beyond redemption, so I have less trouble chucking it...  I'd bought ahead a replacement (!!!!) not much good either, a Silver Crest (it seemed a good deal at LIDL but I should know better). It gives me time to really look around for the ultimate toaster, as named and described in all the excellent posts above. Thank you!!!

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[quote user="NormanH"]Does anybody else remember toasting white sliced bread on a toasting fork in front of the old (suicide) gas fires in a bed-sit?

[/quote]

Yes indeed but we were poor students and used an ordinary dinner fork.[blink] For the memory add to that cooking on one gas ring which was positioned on the floor next to the bedsit gas fire and washing the dishes and pan in the hand basin. There was no fridge so milk bottle was kept on the window sill.[;-)]

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[quote user="5-element"]

It gives me time to really look around for the ultimate toaster, as named and described in all the excellent posts above. Thank you!!!

[/quote]

Won't be the Dualit then. Uneaven toasting and not really any good at toasted sandwiches. A nearly machine. Maybe a Rowlett or Kitchen Aid?

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[quote user="5-element"]

Chancer, my toaster problem is not with crumbs, which I have always managed to remove. (and I am afraid that your detailed description goes way over my head, even though it sounds so convincing!)

Since I got the hint from Sweet 17, I  fiddled with the springy bit (turning the toaster upside down, forcing the spring this way and that way to work out how it should operate) and I thought I'd got it licked - I got it stuck permanently so that the bread would toast, but would have to be released manually. So after that I plugged it in, nothing happened, I must have b.gg...d the resistance - or perhaps it all cut by itself as I might have made the whole thing LIVE!!! Anyway, now it is probably beyond redemption, so I have less trouble chucking it...  I'd bought ahead a replacement (!!!!) not much good either, a Silver Crest (it seemed a good deal at LIDL but I should know better). It gives me time to really look around for the ultimate toaster, as named and described in all the excellent posts above. Thank you!!!

[/quote]

5-e, no such thing as the ultimate toaster, helas!

But, you do see what I mean about the damn lever inside, don't you?

If you can manage to bend the lever back straight, it MIGHT work.  It's like a sort of canteliver, once bent, it's hard to get it lie straight to enable it go up and down.

I'm also not keen on the Dualit, although it looks beautiful, OH's DIL managed to have one burst into smoke and flames and her whole kitchen had to be redecorated.  Mind you, I was not too surprised when, soon afterwards, she bought a house with a kitchen roughly 3 to 4 times the size of the previous one.  Some women complain about their toasters  

 

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[quote user="5-element"]

Chancer, my toaster problem is not with crumbs, which I have always managed to remove. (and I am afraid that your detailed description goes way over my head, even though it sounds so convincing!)

Since I got the hint from Sweet 17, I  fiddled with the springy bit (turning the toaster upside down, forcing the spring this way and that way to work out how it should operate) and I thought I'd got it licked - I got it stuck permanently so that the bread would toast, but would have to be released manually. So after that I plugged it in, nothing happened, I must have b.gg...d the resistance - or perhaps it all cut by itself as I might have made the whole thing LIVE!!! Anyway, now it is probably beyond redemption, so I have less trouble chucking it...  I'd bought ahead a replacement (!!!!) not much good either, a Silver Crest (it seemed a good deal at LIDL but I should know better). It gives me time to really look around for the ultimate toaster, as named and described in all the excellent posts above. Thank you!!!

[/quote]

5-e, no such thing as the ultimate toaster, helas!

But, you do see what I mean about the damn lever inside, don't you?

If you can manage to bend the lever back straight, it MIGHT work.  It's like a sort of canteliver, once bent, it's hard to get it to lie straight to enable it go up and down.

I'm also not keen on the Dualit, although it looks beautiful.  Firstly, I don't like the price and then OH's DIL managed to have one burst into smoke and flames and her whole kitchen had to be redecorated. 

Mind you, I think she just wanted a new house and kitchen 3 to 4 times the size of the previous house and kitchen so she might well have set it on fire herself and after all I have no first-hand information on Dualit toasters. 

  

 

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After you lot have faffed around with your fancy toasters (just grill it), the real question is ................... WARM toast or COLD toast?

Personally, I'm a cold toast man.  That way you can taste the butter or whatever you put on it.  A thick slice, given 10 mins to cool off and a halfway decent Dundee marmalade.  

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