Dualit toaster receives my ‘toast’ of approval!

Author's Rating:

Pros: Attractive design, Excellent performance and is actually fun to use!

Cons: Full retail price is ridiculous (even for me) for a toaster!

The Bottom Line: 
The end all of toasters for heavy duty home use and light commercial use. does one thing and one thing only...very well!

Author's Review
Dualit toaster receives my ‘toast’ of approval!

I am feeling rather prolific this week so I have decided to write another review of another household appliance that I have enjoyed for a little while.

My old toaster died after about 5 years of extremely light use of maybe two slices every two weeks or so. The toaster was a Porsche Design by Toastmaster. I will, at this point, admit that I am a ‘top end’ junkie…always looking for and demanding the best of things that I buy. Most of the things I get have been researched by me to achieve optimal performance to suit my situation.

I got the Porsche toaster mainly because it looked good. I know, I know…just like a guy. But it had a few other features that I liked: ‘digital’ browning option (really just a push button time meter that lights up LED’s), ability to accept thick slice bread/bagels and a ‘soft’ eject mechanism so that the ‘POW’ sound of a traditional toaster doesn’t freak you out after your third cup of espresso to wake you up.

Complaints about the Porsche? While it does sort of kind of fit thick slice bread/bag but the fit is really tight. When you push the button down, the bread jams and she don’t want to come back up when the time is up. Second, it never really browned my bread. It has ‘quartz’ heating elements which are suppose to never burn out (mine did) and give off residual heat to keep your bread warm indirectly via rising heat from the cooling elements.

The biggest suck job of the Porsche toaster? You could not immediately toast another piece of bread after a batch. Is that insane of what? It has a temperature sensor that prevents it from locking the depression button to ‘toast’ your bread. What a hunk of insane junk!

My wife said that there is no way that I am going to get another toaster until the Porsche one breaks! Well, after five years, it finally stopped working!!! A little disappointing as I recall, the price was $125 or so!

I have been eyeing the Dualit toaster in a Williams-Sonoma catalog every time we get it in the mail or when we visit a store. What’s there not to like? The beefy hefty look to it. The retro curves. The simple one task oriented appliance that was designed to do one thing and one thing only well!

The four slice machine was profoundly overpriced at $319.00 at Williams Sonoma in store or catalog. At that price, not only was it prohibitively overpriced for my wife’s liking…in the rare occasion for me…it was overpriced for me as well! I really do not recall balking at a lot of things…but I thought even this is ridiculous for a toaster! It is an attractive toaster that is befitting to be left on your counter to be displayed. It would be a same to unplug it every time and tuck it in your cabinet somewhere.

So, I decided to look at eBay for refurbs. Hey, it just does toast, right? It is not like I am buying and using old colostomy bags! The average price on eBay ranged from $130 to $230 for the four slice model. Not bad. I tagged a few to watch.

I then get an epiphany! When my wife and I drive to Las Vegas, we pass by an outlet mall with a Williams Sonoma outlet store! I decide to call them. I ask ‘do you have Dualit toasters?’ She said ‘yes, they are refurbs.’ I go ‘how much is the four slice model?’ She said ‘they are on sale for $69 but it will cost about $11 for shipping’. I go ‘hmm, well…I’LL TAKE IT!”.

Whohoo, the day it arrives; I unpack it, plug it in and plop two pieces of toast in there. The black handle is a little counter intuitive from traditional toasters as you pull the lever up to make the toast go down and push the lever down to make it come back up! How’s that for trying to remember that before your morning coffee?

There is a red switch that doesn’t light up and its sole purpose is to select 2 or 4 slices. No brainier here, I hope! The next thing is the rotary dial to set the desired time to toast your bread. This will take a little experimentation to see where you want the dial rotated to get your bread to the right toastiness. I like mine a little on the light side so I spin it to 2. I never bothered timing it to see if 2 were for two minutes. I think I have better things to do that to time a toaster. I am too busy cooking my eggs and bacon to time a toaster!

I do not have the little cages that I have seen as a more expensive model. Really, it is just a four slice model sold with toasting cages meant for grilled cheese sandwiches etc. I don’t like grilled cheese sandwiches, so that is not a critical item for me. I have also seen warming racks which one holds over the toaster to warm a sandwich up, I can only presume, which has no practical function for me as well.

The best thing about the Dualit toaster is that when the dial dings to signal the end of energy input for toasting (my attempt to sound technical) is that you don’t have to immediately pop the toast up (by pressing the lever down, remember? Hehehe). It stays warm inside for a good few minutes until you decide to pop up the toast. In addition, you can toast multiple loads of bread (for a lack of a better description) continuously without it refusing to toast anymore. I can’t see this machine in a true commercial breakfast heavy menu restaurant like Denny’s but I could see it in a busy home with lots of hungry kids or in a light commercial setting like a bed and breakfast.

Cleaning the exterior is as simple and a slightly damp cloth (with the unit unplugged for maximum safety) or at least not in active use. I have the chrome version so clean up is a breeze! This is going to sound gross but I have yet to empty the crumb tray! Come on, who really routinely cleans out that crumb tray? Well, okay…maybe it is just me that is supremely lazy when it comes to this task!

Overall, I am very happy with the Dualit. Great consistency when you select the time you always want, is attractive on your counter and very easy to clean (the outside anyway!)