Toaster Saga

We need a new toaster. Ours has died. Just like that, stopped dead in its tracks. It hated us anyway. I know it was waiting for its future "sail through the air". You'll understand when you read the following.


Now I realize this is not the most pressing of problems that most of us will face in our life times, but our toaster owning history is one that has not been uneventful. We've gone through several types of toasters, including toaster ovens... ( The ones we had were either smashed by someone's fist OR dropped kicked down the driveway). Apparently we (meaning the technical culture we live in) can make (or buy from China, India, Taiwan, where ever) some very efficient goods BUT toasters, in our estimation have fallen far below the mark. So I am enlisting in all of you to give me an idea of what toaster you have and:

DO YOU LIKE IT?
WOULD YOU BUY IT AGAIN?
IS IT LIKELY TO TAKE THAT DROP KICK DOWN THE DRIVEWAY SOON???

We are not violent people (or at least one of us isn't) but this toaster stuff really gets to us. We've spent a whole range of prices trying to find a toaster that toasts the damned bread without:
1.setting off smoke detectors
2. bursting into flames(although when the winter wind blows it's kind of nice to warm your hands over the open toaster fire)
3. warming the bread with no color and no crispness
4.popping out a square piece of charcoal, still smoking from the fires of Hell.

So, I will wait to hear who has a good toaster. I DON'T CARE WHAT THE COST IS (and you know that's saying something coming from the mouth of a Scot). I NEED A DECENT TOASTER....(PS I know all about Consumer Reports-but my home ( and yours) is not their laboratory so I question their ratings).

Thank you everyone.....


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The final results are in





For those of you that have wondered about the final result of the toaster saga, or even if you didn't care, I'm telling you anyway.

I heard from many of you regarding your own toaster dilemma's ( apparently discussion about "toasters" can be an excellent ice breaker at cocktail parties since it seems everyone has some sort of toaster history), and armed with a loaf of bread I hot footed out to the stores.

I decided to check the stores I felt had better products, so that eliminated Wal-Mart from my initial shopping excursion. Bed, Bath and Beyond was not amused when I requested to "test" the toaster before buying it. ( I don't know what their problem was, I brought my own bread, and I was willing to share the toast with the guy). The manager told me, "Customers are not allowed to "try out" the products in the store..." (Hmmmm...something to hide perhaps?? ) So I checked out the few toasters they had there and I was not impressed. I grabbed my loaf of bread and walked next door to Best Buy. The management there was willing to let me try out the toaster but they couldn't find a plug to get electricity to the little beauty they were trying so hard to sell to me. They had two toasters on display. neither suited my needs, so I picked up my loaf of bread and went on

I gave in and went to Wally world...There in the middle of the small appliance aisle I saw a veritable plethora of toasters. There were ones with four slice slots, two slice slots, ones with slots for the bread and a teeny, tiny fry pan attached to make an egg at the same time as the toast, there were toaster ovens, even a toaster you could use in a fireplace....Finally a place with an assortment of choices. I was indeed in toaster heaven.

I found two possibilities and carried them over to an electrical plug. I placed them on a metal stool/ladder that was in the aisle and proceeded to toast the damned bread. I no sooner pushed down the lever on the toaster when a young woman came over to me and said, " WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" I explained my dilemma, and imagine my surprise when she said, "Wait right here" I was trying to decide if I should take flight, figuring she had gone to get the men from the funny farm at the very least, when she came back down the aisle with butter, paper plates and a knife! We tried out the toasters laughing the whole time.

Bottom line: I bought a Classic GE toaster. It has a few extra buttons on the side to push if you want the toaster to give you extra time ( for frozen bread, bagels that sort of stuff), but aside from that it's a normal everyday two slice little beauty. It has a one year warranty and you can bet your sweet ass I'm keeping the warranty paperwork handy for the next year.

So the saga ends.....Life is good....(so's the toast)

Suzanne