Dualit Design Series 4 Slice Toaster | Polished Stainless Steel with Black Trim | Extra-Wide Slots – Peek and Pop Function – Patented Perfect Toast Technology – Matching Kettle Available

I encouraged the missus to splurge on a quality toaster. The Dualit Classic didn’t check all her boxes—she wanted individual controls for each pair of slots and spring-loaded ejectors. Enter the Design Series. The British have a well-earned reputation for having a toast fetish, so I figured they might be onto something. Turns out, they are.She was genuinely impressed—crisp crust, great chew, evenly done. It makes our dead Cuisinart look downright embarrassing. This thing delivers toast the way toast is supposed to be. Sharp looking, too. An investment, sure—but there’s something to it.

After my 10-year-old Presto toaster died, I searched for days trying to find the right toaster for bagels and sliced bread. I read the promo blurbs, studied the specs, and scoured the reviews. Nothing satisfied. Amazon was displaying a pricey new Dualit toaster that wasn't fancy and had no reviews. I was pleased to note that it had no automatic levers or gauges that might easily malfunction. The price seemed lavish, but I decided to give it a try. The toaster arrived in two days, beautifully packaged. No loose screws or careless workmanship but a beautifully crafted toaster designed in sparkling stainless steel with black trim. A beauty. I followed the accompanying instructions to ensure that the toaster was in proper working condition by letting the toaster run through a complete toast cycle without inserting any bread before my first use.On first use, I dialed the cooking knob to 3, placed bread slices in two slots and gently pressed down to a click. The knob gave off a soft blue light. When my toast was done, the toast popped up with an audible swish. Since there is no bell or other alert sound to inform that the toast is done, you have to stay nearby to observe. The toaster levers can be lifted to check on the darkness of the toast. The cooking knobs have a dial from 1 thru 8 with audible detents. So, you can set the dial to 3.5 or 4.3 etc. to get perfect toast according to your preference. At first, it's a trial and check situation. After a couple of tries, I achieved toast to my perfection at about 3.8. I then ran out and got some bagels and found that I could toast them to perfection, too (dial set at 5.5 for me). My only "con" on this Dualit is that I wish the crumb trays were in the front instead of the back, but that is just my convenience preference. There is a button next to the cooking knob, which you tap to use when toasting frozen foods. I haven't tried that yet because that is really unimportant to me.This Dualit makes you want to toast. Worth every penny. And this beauty--which oozes with over-the-top quality--is made completely in England!

Like having two toasters! Each side is independent, meaning each side has its own controls and elements. Love the feature of raising to look a the toasting process without disrupting the toasting time. Works well with all of the breads, english muffins, etc that we use.

The toaster is well made and has the look and feel of quality. It makes toast way faster than my old Kenmore did. The knobs to set how dark you want your toast have 8 settings with detents or light clicks for each setting plus one in the middle at the halfway point so you can dial it in just how you like it...I leave it right in the middle around 4.5. You can lift the toast up to see how it's doing while it's toasting without affecting the timer. For some reason it doesn't always brown the toast all the way to the edge, but it's not that big of deal. Also as with most toasters you can lift the toast up a little once it pops up, but with this one that extra lift is minimal...my old Kenmore toaster that this one replaced did a better job with that, but it's also really not a big problem. It does not seem like a cheap toaster made in China...I thought I had read somewhere that this toaster was built in England with parts sourced from China, but it does say on the box "Made in P.R.C." (Peoples Republic of China) and on the outer shipping box it clearly says "Made In China"...that was a bit of a disappointment. I would buy it again...

I really wanted to love this (very expensive) toaster. Reality set in when I ran 4 slices through it to test how even it toasts. The toaster appears to have 8 heat settings with 8 being the highest.First slice- set on 4, or the default Medium setting. Turned the entire piece of toast into carbon and smoke.Second slice- set on 3, turned the bottom half to carbon and smoke, the upper half very burnt.Third slice- set on 2, burned the bottom half, left the top half uncooked.Fourth slice- set on 1, provided a slightly warm piece of bread with no coloring.Two other issues-The crumb tray is only about a 1/16" tall, so in essence it captures almost no crumbs. Worse, the opening the tray slides into is so narrow it will not allow crumbs to exit the bottom of the toaster when you pull it out. You'll have to turn the toaster upside down and shake it to get your crumbs out.The toast slots are so tall that a full size piece of large bread disappears into the toaster. Once popped, you cannot reach the toast without using tongs. I tried it with the largest size bread available (Orowheat) at my chain store and, unlike their photos, the toast does not extend above the top lip of the slots, even when lifting the lever as high as it allows. I tried toasting an english muffin and had to unplug the toaster and reach in with a knife blade to stab the muffin and pull it up and out.As far as toasting is concerned, my guess is turning the dial up to 8 would create a thermonuclear reaction. Upon inspecting the slots you'll see they purposely designed the lowest portion of the slots with very close spacing on the heating wires, which then progressively expand in spacing up to the top of each slot. Dualit PURPOSELY designed the toaster to cook unevenly and the thermostat does not work!There's no fixing or adjusting this shamefully bad design.

This is THEE toaster. Beautiful design and operation.