Hamilton Beach Retro Toaster with Wide Slots, Sure

Perfect toast !!!
I like the clean classic 50s look, simple but needed modern day features. Yes it makes toast perfect and works very well with bagels, waffles frozen or not. Price was good considering the quality and performance so far. Time will tell how good it really is. My Grandfathers real 1950s toaster is still toasting like new for the boomer generation. Alas my uncle won’t let it go until he passes. So I had to settle for this toaster, so far it has proved a good choice.

More 1-side toasting than 1-slice toasting. Wide slots. Toasts well.
“One slice” actually means “one side”. The outer heating elements for both slots come on, and stay on during the toasting cycle. The inner heating elements (both of them, one for each slot) turn off halfway through the toasting cycle. There is no toasting of 1 slice. There 1-side toasting in both slots (whether you use 1 or 2 slot). Bagel toasting usually has the outside (skin) of the bagel to the outside, and cut side inward. The outer elements only partially heat to prevent burning the skin on the bagel. With this toaster, you have to reverse the procedure: cut side outside, skin side inside. That’s because the so-called 1-slice mode is also the bagel mode. The instructions note the reversal of bagel position, and the decal on the toaster also shows orientation (cut side outside). First toaster I’ve had where toasting is reversed, but it probably works. I can’t see how 1-slice mode will ever work, since both slots get heated, not 1 slot, and the inner elements turn off halfway through toasting cycle, so the inside of the bread is toasted less than the outside. As for making toast, works great. Not perfectly even toasting across the bread, but no toaster does that. For 1-cycle toasting (no flipping over the bread halfway during toast cycle), it toasts just fine. A little more toasting at the top, but then even tots know heat rises. Slots are more than wide enough to accommodate bagels. Slots are 5-5/16″ long. Should work with wide-pan breads (5-1/4″), but I haven’t bought those for a long time. The old Hamilton Beach toaster was pretty much the same as this one, but with a couple extra features, and it worked okay with wide-pan bread although it was a tight fit, and the toast might not popup, but you could lift using the lever to clear the top of the slot. The lever rises up (boost) to lift the top of the bread above the top of the toaster for easy grab of toast without burning fingers on metal shroud. Don’t know why toasters nowadays have their power cords attached to the front of the toaster, and this one is the same way. I have a power strip nearby to use with the toaster, so a short cord is not a problem. Prior toaster was very slow, and often required 2 cycles to toast the bread. This one toasts in 1 cycle, and I can see the elements are hotter than in my old toaster. Instructions recommend against toasting Pop Tarts or other pastries, because the sugar coating melts onto the shroud or onto the cage holding the toast in place in the slots. Does have the 1-slice, er, 1-side/bagel setting, so you could angle a Pop Tart into the slot, so the frosting doesn’t contact the cage. 1 point deducted since 1-slice toasting in 1 slot is instead 1-side toasting in both slots.

Good choice without settling for a basic toaster
It’s been a while since I bought a toaster. I was surprised how pricey they are and I don’t want a combination toaster over. This one is sleek, classy looking, inexpensive and most importantly toasts. It stores easily and once again it toasts. Did you know that when you toast bagels it recommends to put the cut sides of the bagel toward the outside of the toaster? It even has a little stamped picture of a bagel in the metal in case you forget.

I had high hopes…..
I guess I should have read more reviews before getting this toaster. I was in search of a toaster that explicitly said that it would do 1 piece and this one did. That was the selling point for me. I don’t understand why, but most toasters, unless they specify that and are “made” to do it, toast 1 piece very unevenly. However……As many others have stated….*The toaster wobbles. It would seem that it’s missing feet on the bottom, but one review shows a reply from their inquiry to HB that actually says that’s the way it’s designed. Well it’s a very poor design. I have a folded up piece of paper under one of the front corners to prevent wobbling. Not very attractive.*The toaster barely toasts! I started out at 1/2 way on the scale and it barely toasted the bread. And only on the top half. On subsequent uses I would turn it up, and up, and up. I’m now using it on the second highest setting and it is still barely brown and still uneven – top half much darker than the bottom.It does bagels well – though I’ve not seen a toaster where you point the inside of the bagel out (maybe just me), so more than once I put it in pointing in and toasted the wrong side. User error.It does toast one piece…. when it’s toasts. But it’s not even top to bottom and as previously mentioned – you have to turn it up almost all the way to get anything besides barely toasted.I also liked that it was 2 slice as my old one was 4 and I never need 4 slices of anything with the kids gone. Now I can fit my toaster and my breadbox on the same section of countertop. I have actually started using my old, 4 slice toaster occasionally because it works fine except for doing 1 piece.Definitely do not recommend this toaster.

Toaster only grills upper half of slice of bread and have to manually raise the bread to retrieve half cooked toast

works well