Philips Viva Collection Toaster, 950 W, 1 Liter, INOX, Black/Silver

Product Information

Before cleaning your toaster, unplug it and make sure it's completely cooled down. Then, remove the crumb tray and shake loose crumbs from the tray into a trashcan or the sink. The tray can be washed by hand if needed, and should be completely dry before returning it to the toaster. When you're done, the exterior is easy to wipe down and the 40-inch cord has concealed storage, so you can keep this statement piece on your counter. Of course, bread isn’t the only thing you can toast. Cut a bagel in two to get a delicious alternative or even toast some crumpets for a fluffy treat. The only extra features this bare-bones, slightly compact model has are seven browning settings, a high-lift lever for English muffins and the like, and a cancel button for when you don't want to wait. During testing, this did get very hot when on the hottest setting, with the bread closest to the heating element (the farthest left slot) coming out a little darker than expected. The unevenness across the four slots was consistently noted, but it does serve up golden-brown toast when you figure out the learning curve. It's also a good idea to turn the actual toaster upside down and give it a shake over the trash can or sink to dislodge any additional crumbs. If any crumbs remain, you can use a small brush to clean them from the toaster slots.

The numbers on a toaster are meant to be a guide to level of toast doneness, but they vary from toaster to toaster. Turning the dial to "2" on different toasters will likely result in very different levels of brownness.Though this looks like it belongs in a midcentury modern house, the Buydeem has all the features of a 21st-century toaster. There are bagel/muffin, reheat, and defrost options, plus seven shade settings. The two sides are independently controlled, and it comes with a high-lift lever for smaller items. This toaster performed beautifully across the board; it dependably toasted up bagels and bread to a golden brown in the medium settings, with the high setting getting very toasty but not inedible. One caveat from the tests: We enjoyed the toast popping all the way out of the toaster, though these pieces could easily end up on the floor. Anti-slip feet keep this steady on the counter, and the removable crumb tray makes it easy to clean. Sleek design and high-quality appliances are what Zwilling is known for, and we were not disappointed in its four-slice toaster. It comes with seven browning settings, plus defrost, reheat, and bagel functions, all easily viewable with LED-lit controls. When your bread is done, you have both a soft-lift and high-lift option. Perfect for smaller and solo households, the catch is that it only comes in white with a grey panel, so colour fans will have to look elsewhere.

We think timing is important too, which is why we assess how long single slices take to toast using the same setting on every model, again for testing consistency. Once all the toasting and tasting is done, we look at build quality and style, and whether these reflect a model’s price tag. Your toaster should be as functional as it is stylish, which is why our testing takes everything into consideration. Even though aluminum foil is designed to withstand heat, it's not a good idea to use it in a toaster; there isn't enough clearance in toaster slots to make sure the foil isn't touching the heating elements. Save the foil for a toaster oven or standard oven. KRUPS KH734D Breakfast Set 4-Slot Toaster: With six browning settings, a sleek design, and built-in cord storage, this Krups four-slice toaster was a favorite for a long time. That said, we found it left a lot to be desired: The shading was inconsistent and very uneven across the functions. Toasting bread skewed toward very dark browning while toasting bagels skewed very light. On top of that, it was a "fingerprint nightmare." We did find that this toaster skews a bit darker on the regular settings, so keep that in mind. It also appeared to show fingerprints, but those were easy to clean.

We’ve tested all the top models to find the best toasters that deliver the finest, most perfectly cooked toast

Different types of bread brown at different speeds. Depending on what type of bread you're toasting, you'll need to adjust the browning setting to get your favorite amount of doneness. Lighter bread, like white or potato, tends to brown faster and might require a lower browning setting than a sprouted bread that has a lot of seeds and whole grains in it. The best way to find your perfect slice is to experiment with your favorite bread and then remember that setting. These adjustable settings indicate the shade level, or how toasted your bread will be. These are either shown in numbers going up to 6 or 7, indicating the brownness of the toast (from light brown to dark brown) or in minutes counting down before the toast pops up. Features found in most four-slice toasters include a crumb tray, lift lever (allowing you to lift the finished toast higher to avoid getting burned), and width slots. Depending on how wide they are, the width slots will allow you to fit and evenly toast more than just a regular slice of toast, such as bagels, artisan bread slices, pastries, and more. Two levers each control a pair of toast slots, and each pair can operate separately, so it’s easy to toast one side lighter and the other side darker at the same time. This toaster’s display rests in standby mode when it’s not being used and wakes up at the touch of an icon, ready to help with breakfast tasks.

A bagel setting is handy for anything, like bagels or English muffins, that you want to toast on just one side. Cuisinart CPT-142 4-Slice Compact Plastic Toaster: We initially liked this Cuisinart for its space-saving design and affordability, but it skewed very hot, burning both bread and bagels, and even warping some of its plastic casing. It led us to believe that an oven broiler would work better than this. Needless to say, we don't recommend it. While a two-slice toaster will only have a single browning control (timer), on a four-slice model you may be provided with one or two such controls. A single control means the timer is set for all four slots, which is fine if you all want your toast done the same way. Two timers means you can set each pair of slots separately so you can toast, say, crumpets on one side while doing toast on the other, or have “his and hers” slots set to your personal preferences. What features should I look out for in a toaster? A reheat button usually activates a short (one-minute) cycle to heat up cold toast. Note that on some toasters, this function is marked on the timer dial instead of being a separate button. Similarly, the “a bit more” button gives your toast an extra 30 seconds.The Spruce Eats has been testing four-slice toasters for years, both at home and in our Lab’s dedicated test kitchen, where we pitted 20 of the most popular models against each other, side by side. Each was tested to see how well they toasted regular white bread, bagels, and frozen waffles on multiple settings. If special features were available, we tested those, too. We also wiped down each machine repeatedly, emptied the crumb trays, and stored them. A defrost setting is useful for frozen bread. First, it defrosts bread then switches to the toasting cycle. Each model is different: on some models, you need to press the defrost button before you push the bread carriage down, while others are pushed once you’ve activated the toaster. Similar to bagels, if toasting frozen waffles into your toaster is a frequent event in your kitchen, life will be much more enjoyable if your toaster excels at it. Whether you top yours with homemade whipped cream or need a base for a waffle sundae, the Cuisinart 4-Slice Custom Select Toaster performed the best in our tests when it came to waffles.