Russell Hobbs23330 Stainless Steel 2 Slice Toaster, Red

Every toaster I researched on Amazon had at least one comment warning about uneven browning, so in the end I had to take a chance on this one. I ran it for one cycle with no bread in, as the instructions said, and then tried it with bread. I was dismayed to find the slice came out charred on one side and untouched on the other and thought I'd made a big mistake. Spoiler alert: I hadn't.After using the toaster a few more times, using the lift function to flip the slices around halfway through (very useful feature), I noticed that the problem seemed to be correcting itself. And indeed it seems to have gone away. Toast is now pretty even on both sides and doesn't need turning. Big relief.The slots are wide, which is lovely. My favourite sliced bread tends to have huge doorstops at either end, which this toaster accommodates without issue. I've also toasted bagels in it with no problem.Safety and points to note:-The browning dial goes from zero to charcoal very quickly, so start it on a very low setting and experiment with increasing it gradually to your preferred degree of yum. I also recommend putting a little white tack or white correction fluid on the knob to make it easier to see where it's pointing, because it's easy to knock by mistake.+Haven't tried cleaning it yet, but the crumb tray works fine and the outside can be easily wiped down.-Obviously the metal areas of the body get pretty hot. Be careful when reaching for the eject button (which isn't that easy to find, depending which way around the toaster is standing).+The lever doesn't get hot - I actually chose this toaster on that basis, being slightly motor impaired myself, because it looked as though the body of the lever was durable-seeming metal but the handle was large and made of insulating plastic. It is, and it works well.+The coloured side panels are plastic, so tend to get warm but remain safe to touch.+The toaster has a little rubber skirt around the bottom and it stands on four small legs. As a result, the counter underneath doesn't seem to get too hot.

In 1969 mankind landed on the moon in what was a celebration of science and technology. Since then we have explored space and the deepest oceans, climbed the highest mountains and discovered cures for many serious illnesses. However one thing has always eluded the human race. How to toast a piece of bread evenly using a toaster. I have had several toasters in my life, from high end expensive to supermarket cheap They have always have one thing in common, they are always awful. I have searched far and wide for one that simply toasts a large slice of bread evenly. This particular toaster has not achieved all that it could but it comes as close as I have known. It fits large slices of bread, it toasts fairly evenly and it is vey very quick. The heat level is a bit tricky to get right but other than that mankind can now move in to other things, like how to get children up for school or how to find shoes that fit just right. For now though an excellent toaster and I shall end my search.

See video - because i am severely sight impaired (registered blind) I had no idea the roast was on fire until I tried to take it from the toaster.This hasn't toasted well since getting it, and following this, definitely not a fan.(already had video/phone in hand as was videoing my little cats, it was not my first reaction to go grab a phone!!)

After a few months use of this toaster I now despair of it - it is the worst performing toaster i have ever used. The main reason for this, is the heating element wire which heats up unevenly and in areas with a ferocity that simply burns those parts of the bread nearest the wire. The heating wire seems to be noticeably thicker/heavy-dutier than in any other toaster I have used - presumably this is what is meant to result in the 50% faster claim. However, it only toasts faster because its burning more ferociously. That, in itself, wouldn't perhaps be too bad, but for the fact that the heating wires don't heat up evenly across their length - they glow almost white hot at the left & right peripheries of their length, which means the bread crust ends are 'torched' whereas the bread centre is toasted normally. Countless times now this toaster has started burning parts of the bread and filling my kitchen with smoke due to the heating elements being poorly designed. I would say its either a shockingly poor design or else cheap materials have been used. Either way, it suggests dreadful lack of product testing on Russell Hobbs part!And just to add to the woes described above, whenever this toaster 'pops' there is a very significant electrical white spark/flash from the inside of the toaster at the lever end - obviously as it disengages the electric supply to the heating elements. The electrics are either poorly designed or using cheap materials - i think it borders on dangerous! The 'flash' isn't a rare occurrence either - its a big flash EVERY time the toaster 'pops'.And the last issue I have, which is the more minor of the three, is the 'pop up' mechanism is very weak - it'll pop up normal slices of bread without too much of an issue, but you try putting something like Crumpets in the toaster and the spring loaded 'pop up' mechanism just cant raise them up after toasting. So what that means, is you have to lift the leaver up at the side manually and try to 'fish' the Crumpets out from the toaster slots, and of course because the toaster is not a 'cool wall' toaster, you can very easily burn your fingers on the metal plate around the top of the toaster slots.All-in-all, this toaster is rubbish. Its certainly not the most expensive toaster on the market, but you can buy better toasters than this Russell Hobbs for less money - and I will be!UPDATE: 1.5years after buying this toaster, I can tell you that it still works, but is EVERY BIT AS BAD AS IT WAS! It still burns everything (I was rather hoping it would die and I could justifiably put it in the bin and buy a new one, but I dont want to fill up Landfill just because Russell Hobbs have produced a rubbish toaster!)UPDATE2: WARNING! THIS TOASTER IS A FIRE HAZARD!Regrettably, I did not bin this toaster before now, and this morning, it caught fire. Fortunately for me, I was able to put out the flames with no damage done except to the toaster itself & my heart rhythm. I have now thoroughly investigated what caused the fire and have concluded whomever designed this toaster knows nothing about toasters & is clearly an idiot. In the bottom of the toaster is a piece of metal which catches & guides the crumbs down into the removable crumb tray. The piece of metal has slightly sloping edges which guide the crumbs to fall down through the two open slots & into the crumb tray. However, the sloping edges on this piece of metal are shallow enough to actually retain a build up of crumbs along the edges. To further add combustible fuel, the bottom metal bar of the 'cage' that holds the slices of bread, actually serves to hold back several millimetres of bread crumbs like a small embankment of fuel right beside the heating elements (which are too high powered for a toaster). When enough bread crumbs build up, they will catch fire. Removing & cleaning the crumb tray will NOT prevent this build up of crumbs, because the crumbs aren't in the crumb tray, they've built up around the edges of the slots without having fallen into the crumb tray. If you are not willing/able to return or bin this toaster, then please - TURN THE TOASTER UPSIDEDOWN to remove the build up of stuck crumbs, because just removing the crumb tray will NOT remove the trapped crumbs!

What I really like about this toaster is that it has long slots, so you can place the bread lengthways in it and make sure that all the bread goes down into it, in order to get toasted, which you cannot do with many other toasters! (Probably due to some European Commission regulation, I shouldn't wonder...) It also has grips in each slot which can vary in width, allowing you to toast crumpets, teacakes and bagels too, (provided, of course that bagels and teacakes are cut in half and one half is placed in each slot).