We actually have one of these, and it's absolutely brilliant. It's been in constant use since my father-in-law was growing up, and yet it still works flawlessly. I've never burnt a piece of toast with it.
It's kinda depressing that today our toasters are less useful and stop working 10x sooner.
I’m a massive fan of my classic Dualit 4 slice toaster.
(Look I’m British we like toast, alright?)
I was all ready to pooh-pooh this new fangled design from the 60s vs Dualit’s classic design from 1952; it’s the Technics SL1200 of the international toast scene.
Honestly though this design is ingenious! Video is well worth watching (assuming you like toasted bread comestibles).
Now if you’ll excuse I’m off for some afternoon crumpet.
this channel is truly excellent, strongly recommended if old electronics are even kind of interesting to you, and still worth a shot if they aren't. in particular i'd recommend this video about the sony trinitron:
I can also heartily recommend watching Alec's videos. He also has a second channel for the "DVD extra"-kind of content that doesn't quite fit into the original videos, or is cut due to time constraints; I find these also interesting (link leads to "Filming CRTs", demonstrated on the Trinitron used in parent's video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j0IC0bu3dg
Seconded. Their exploration of failed technology is particularly interesting.
This two part video on CEDs - which I didn't even know were a thing - is absolutely fascinating. The depth of research rivals any educational program on TV.
It's awesome how this toaster works, but for practical purposes, I would prefer a toaster that does not auto-start.
One of the challenges of cooking is juggling multiple things so the food is all ready at the same time. Being able to do steps in advance helps with that. This actually kind of matters for toast because freshly toasted bread is a lot better than cold toast.
So it's helpful to be able to take bread out of the package, stick it in the toaster, and put loaf of bread back where it belongs when convenient, then come back later and start the final step (actually toasting) at the exact right time.
(On a side note, in actual fact, I have never had a toaster. A toaster oven does everything a toaster does and more. You can make a hot sandwich with melted cheese, for example.)
Had a toaster that would detect when you put bread in & start. Issue: walk away & if you don't take the toast out within a dozen seconds of it finishing, it'd go on to toast toast
Terrifying! At least the Sunbeam toaster in his video had a mechanism that requires the toast be removed before the cycle can start again (~11:25 in the video).
Thinking of all the possible ways something can fail and mitigating them can be difficult but I feel like leaving the toast in should have been an obvious one.
Agree. Toasters of all kinds say not to put fingers or utensils inside the unit. Putting things into toasters could make them electrically "hot", don't rely on the lever.
Toasters warn not to stick fingers or utensils inside the unit because the heating element is essentially just exposed wiring. The danger is clear: you could easily shock yourself.
There's no obvious danger caused by putting bread in the toaster and not immediately starting it.
It's the same thing, bread isn't conductive enough to shock you that's why it's ok to put bread in the toaster. Don't put pieces of metal shaped like bread in the toaster, don't put conductive things in the toaster like the piece of bread you just dredged in salt water.
>There's no obvious danger caused by putting bread in the toaster and not immediately starting it.
I don't get this. Is it an argument against the automatic toaster? Or are you advising me to keep my toaster unplugged until I'm ready to toast my bread because a toaster can be unreliable?
Or put the bread in the unplugged toaster and plug it when you want it to start. Or, if the socket is not at comfortable reach, use a switch between the toaster plug and the socket. Not tidy, maybe, but it works.
Yeesh, looks like an antique fire hazard to me. Also, unless the video is mistaken, if that complex linkage fails or the inner heating element fails then the thermostat on it is going to be blocked by that bit on the bottom of the bread carriage that's meant to block it while the carriage is lowered. That seems like a good way to get it stuck in the on position so if someone just looked at the toaster, they might not even realize that it's still on because the bread isn't lowered. What happens if something flammable like a letter slides off of something unnoticed and falls into the toaster? Even if someone is home and awake the thing moves slowly and is downright silent when it turns on and lowers the toast. The first sign of something going wrong might very well be flames.
This thing is a burn hazard, shock hazard, and fire hazard all in one.
The standard American household with 2.3 kids has everything on the counter near the toaster.
For the "oven" style toasters there's an significant chance that there's something made out of either paper or plastic atop the metal roof ready to melt as well.
> Also why not unplug it when done?
And plug it back in every morning? That'd be unnecessarily annoying.
> The standard American household with 2.3 kids has everything on the counter near the toaster.
I always, and have always, pulled my toaster out on to a clear portion of the counter before using it, to make sure nothing is too close when it operates.
> And plug it back in every morning? That'd be unnecessarily annoying.
Again, that's how I have always done it.
Growing up, both of these things were considered Toaster Safety 101.
They are always unswitched, with the exception of some houses where a wall switch controls a receptacle on the other side of the room (for lamps).
There's no room for a switch on the receptacle, and North America has used the same plug arrangement since the 1910s (a ground prong was added later, but an ungrounded lamp from 1915 is still compatible with modern receptacles). Changing it now is not likely to happen. It is possible to buy a combination unit with a receptacle and a switch on a single yolk and wire it up so that the switch controls the receptacle, but I've never seen it done.
> And plug it back in every morning? That'd be unnecessarily annoying.
A lot less annoying than waking up to a 3-alarm fire methinks...
I still unplug kitchen stuff when not in use and it's been a long time since I was a kid in the 70's when stuff could (and probably would) "fail hard" and burn down your house.
That's the exception, not the rule in America. The only widespread use of switched outlets was back when floor lamps were much more common around the 70s. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a switched outlet on a kitchen countertop other than the one below it for a garbage disposal.
One of the advantages of the combination of 120V, ground wires and keyed plugs is that by and large electronics here have not really needed to be unplugged between uses by most people still living.
In fact the most likely vector to shock yourself is the plug on your vacuum cleaner, because it is so often plugged in and mistreated in the process. The materials and stress relievers have gotten better and it’s probably been 30 years since I’ve seen a frayed cord...
Americans don't have time for this. They barely have time in the morning to grab their hot toast, hop on their Segway, or motorcycle, or rocket-ship, or what have you, and go go go go GO!
I grew up with this toaster, and it is not anywhere near as dangerous as you make it out to be. We never had anything like the issues you describe, and personally I think your situations (leaving flammable material where it can fall on the toaster, leaving the toaster plugged in all the time) are downright dangerous regardless of the type of toaster in question.
You sir, have a very narrow cat. I grew up with one of these. Not a death trap. Any time it gets hot inside the thermostat turns off the elements. The only thing that lets it stay on is the cool, moist bread absorbing energy in front of the thermostat.
That said, my father in law was the third generation owner of a large toaster company. He was appalled any time he saw someone using a toaster under a cabinet.
I remember reading about a remote tribe of people being appalled when a writer pitched his tent under a tree. Trees fall down. Why would you take such a risk?
I'm not trying to imply that it's likely to occur, just that when talking on the scale of millions of homes with toasters in them, some of those convenient and ingenious design features would probably burn down many houses that a more modern design wouldn't have. Tons of people leave toasters plugged in all the time but you're not going to ever accidentally turn on a modern version where you have to push down a spring loaded plunger to switch it on.
We had a toaster where the side carriage broke and tilted over to the side and let the bread come into contact with the heating elements, there were some flames from the bread (and lots of smoke) but not enough to make me think the kitchen would burn down... I just yanked the cord out of the wall and pulled the toaster into the sink but in retrospect, I don't think even that was necessary, the bread was already pretty much burnt out.
Moral of the story is -- toasters are heating devices, so don't let them run unattended.
I don't think he's right that you could implement a bagel mode on that toaster by just running the center heating element. Both heating elements are necessary for the toaster to function (which he mentions!). You need to run the center element to drive the bread lifter, but you also need to run the outer element to heat the side of the bread facing the bimetallic strip. You can't put the bimetallic strip on the center side of the bread, since it needs direct exposure to the heat radiating off the bread, and the coiled center heating element would get in the way.
Additionally, there must not be a hole in the center of the bagel as that would cause the heat from one side to radiate directly to the bimetal on the other side.
There's a simple reason why this toaster was discontinued, and that's because it can't be made from commodity components which are used by all toaster manufacturers, as well as in a variety of other domestic appliances.
Plus, assembly looks quite intricate and probably highly manual.
It's beautiful, sure, but go and buy a toaster today and see how much premium people are willing to pay for a designer brand with no functional advantage.
Sadly toasters all work "well enough". This is a textbook example of great engineering being trumped by globalised economics and fickle consumers.
Except we live in a world where YouTube videos are interrupted by photogenic hipsters selling sunglasses made of titanium and hand cut, old school soap.
Recreating this toaster is exactly the kind of thing I hope that set gets around to.
Plus, there are toasters that cost more than my tablet which don’t have this feature. If you can make a toaster that infuriatingly stupidly expensive and sell it, you can sure as hell afford to make a workalike [of] this mechanism.
Even for that market, the way you make money isn't by making products that are better than the commodity alternative. It's by taking the commodity alternative and dressing it up in fancy packaging and marketing so it looks like a product that's better than the commodity alternative.
Making unique, superior products is expensive. Your profit margins are much better if you just take the same crap everyone else is selling and put a sharp suit of clothes on it.
The labels can still go on the LCD, with hardware buttons on the side. The machine at work has those, and there is definitely a language selector hiding somewhere within its menu system...
Doesn’t it also display warnings, cleaning and maintenance messages ?
All coffee machines I’ve seen with any kind of screen made extensive use of it for messaging purposes. It is a lot more useful than some led blinking twice for cleaning and three times when there’s no water in the tank.
We share a kitchenette at work with another company. They had a Keurig with a LCD display on it that didn't look like it did much of anything. A few months ago they replaced it with a newer model, and this one just has buttons.
I don't know if that's people getting some design sense and not using screens where they don't need to, or just happenstance. But it seemed relevant.
I have worked on embedded software with and without touchscreen UIs, and in some cases a touchscreen was used where it did not make sense. Peak touchscreen was around the time of the huge iPhone / iPad media sensation. Since that is over, it's probably getting better.
My building is getting new elevators right now, they just finished the first one last month. Biggest unexpected change: There's a touchscreen for selecting what floor you want. All it displays is a static list of numbers.
I would've thought maybe it's a hygiene thing, easier to clean a flat surface, except below it is a number keypad with only 0-9, where you can also pick a floor by typing in your floor number. Plus, ground floor has its own independent physical button.
I've already gotten into the habit of ignoring the touchscreen and using the physical buttons as a mini rebellion - there's a security camera in the elevator, maybe someone will pick up on it.
Well Dualit are still making them manually, and seem quite successful. Repairable and last decades.
Sage have tried for the market of "premium, but made like crap really". £120+ for a regular toaster with added LEDs, displays, etc. They sell purely as they paid a celeb chef for their adverts.
There are many kinds of great engineering. Lego making billions and billions of really cheap little plastic bricks that last forever and click together no matter when you bought them is one kind of great engineering, so is SpaceX.
Really cheap? I have a friend who is a single mother with a 7-year-old Lego addict, who also loves all things Jurassic World. The only Lego sets available in the aisles of the big box stores around us (conveniently placed at 7-year-old height) are the egregiously over-priced officially licensed movie tie-in kits. I was shocked to see some of these relatively small kits selling for over $100, the cheap ones being in the $40s to $60s. My friend's income (with food stamps) is roughly $1,000 a month... So her son has to feel constantly deprived of the cool toys he really wants. I confess I ordered a knock-off set from AliExpress for his Christmas present last year, he got dozens of Jurassic World-ish Lego-like bricks and it cost me less than $20, shipped. I had very positive feelings about Lego as a kid. Now I see them as just like any other business, engineering desires into their target market and exploiting those desires for maximum profit.
For the purpose of a discussion about engineering, each brick _is_ really cheap. The argument is that something they manufacture and retail for a dime or less is engineered to exacting tolerances.
Think about it: You buy a Tesla Model X for Unobtainium money, and there are panel gaps. But you buy a bucket of Lego bricks for $20, and each one clicks together perfectly.
Lego may be expensive for a tiny blob of plastic, but the point I'm making is that their engineering is amazing relative to the cost of each brick.
p.s. That being said, I hear you! The sets with authorized franchise tie-ins are expensive, in large part because a sizeable part of their market are adults with disposable income. There is no other explanation for a CAD800 Millennium Falcon with 7,500 pieces.
Think about it: You buy a Tesla Model X for Unobtainium money, and there are panel gaps. But you buy a bucket of Lego bricks for $20, and each one clicks together perfectly.
Automotive body panels are large and relatively flexible, hence harder to get close tolerances on. Small injection-molded parts, however, can be made to much closer tolerances and the process has been around for over half a century.
Their sets have always been expensive, though my older (late 80s through late 90s) ones were much bigger for a comparable price (with similar or smaller part counts—they love putting hundreds of tiny little pieces for really fiddly construction in modern sets, it's awful, I assume CAD or something is to blame) but a regular old box o' bricks is pretty cheap, and if you're not trying to buy complete high-demand sets they're cheap in mixed brick lots on ebay, too.
Oh yes I agree, and if some enterprising engineer wanted to buy the trademark and start producing them again I'm sure they'd use a servo and a microcontroller to achieve the same effect.
The design of the toaster reminds me of the design of the first transistor radio which ingeniously needed just four transistors to work. Nowadays that engineering effort would be a complete waste of time. It's sad in a way that that sort of craft has been lost, but it's largely redundant now.
>There's a simple reason why this toaster was discontinued, and that's because it can't be made from commodity components which are used by all toaster manufacturers, as well as in a variety of other domestic appliances.
That's definitely not the reason. We have automation robots and people do kinds of manual assembly for much less than a $200 or so this could easily command (besides, it's still being made).
We also have toasters with custom parts made today, they just aren't purely electro-mechanical like this.
That you can have one for a century and it will still work/be repairable easily is more likely the reason.
I meant mechanical toaster that strays from modern comodity designs. Not the same brand, but Dualit e.g. still makes 50s still serviceable chrome-platted long running traditional toast making machines:
Toasters do not all "work well enough". Shout if you have a toaster that you bought less than 5 years ago, that is still working. I think they're supposed to start failing after a year or two.
[Edit: if it's older than ten years, say how old - they made them better back in the olden daze]
These devices are sold for ten euros/dollars, or so. You really can't do good product design to that sort of price point. People expect to have to "recycle" them.
I bought a toaster for which you can order replacement heater elements, or a new timer. You can dismantle it and reassemble it with a normal electrician's screwdriver. The timer is clockwork. The whole thing's very steampunk.
It cost about 8 times as much as a "disposable" toaster. I don't know if it was a good deal; I'll tell you in a few decades. But if I don't have to bother with replacing it, from my POV that will be money well-spent; I'm sick of replacing stuff that should still be working. I'm sick of "hardware" that's really made of tissue-paper. And I'm sick of furniture that's made of wood-chips.
I agree with every point you made, especially the wood chips. however I am still peeved at you because you did not include a link to this toaster you bought. How do I get one?
This toaster is a Dualit. I cannot recommend it as a consumer product; the company is quite nasty to deal with, I think. Also, my Dualit toaster is only two years old; for the price I paid, I'd need something more like 10 years service to be able to recommend. HTH.
What you are saying is sadly the reality today within most product categories.
For example, go to a totally different category: clothing.
In the great age of US sports clothing, tees were slowly knitted by machines called loopwheelers. E.g. tees from Champion.
These days, they are crap. If you want a nice tee that will age well and last really long, you need to buy from some Japanese brands that try to imitate old Champion tees. The price is really high, and you'd most likely need to import or buy from a high end shop.
I try to buy good stuff that lasts ages. I don't care paying a big premium. I try to live with around 100 items. But its really hard.
I'm pretty sure a lot of the "improvements" in price attributed to international trade over the last ~4 decades have more to do with the lowest end of the current product range simply not existing before, i.e. the worst versions of a product are worse (and cheaper) than the worst version that was available decades ago. Those products take over—for reasons that may include consumers legitimately preferring them but also probably includes difficulty consumers have finding reliable information about products other than price—and the nicer version that used to be the norm might actually get more expensive as new market segments develop and production scale drops.
This is a good point - some of what we are calling cheap crap just wasn't being made before.
Besides there being more stuff of every type of buy, the purchasing power of the dollar has declined, so maybe people can't afford a toaster that's as good any more?
it depends what you are looking for.. if the only criteria is quality :
- Maison Cornichon. It is actually a french brand but Japan is by far their biggest market. They use old french machines. the resulting tee is very strong, probably heavier than what you expect. They do have a lot of shrinking when you wash them (and you can expand them again afterwards).
- Merz B. Schwanen : simple high quality german tshirts
- The Real McCoy's : japan brand specifically trying (successfully) to reproduce americana pieces.
- lots of other japanese brands make good tshirts.. it kinda depends what you are looking for. Blue blue japan pieces are often very beautiful but also indigo dyed (so they leak a LOT of pigment the first time they are wet).
- Taylor Stitch actually makes one of the heaviest tshirts I have ever seen.
- Outside of cottons tshirts, there are also tons of merino ones. Outlier would be the most well known in the USA. It is was less resistant to abrasion that a cotton one, but it absolutely does not retain smells (so you could hike 10 days with it if you wished to, it would barely smell anything).
The machines that a lot of these brands use are actually pretty interesting.
These are often very old machines. Their use had been almost completely abandoned because they are pretty slow. There are 'lots' of them in Japan in the first place because several decades ago they were pretty standard. The industry has moved to new machines with better yields but some niche brands saw an opportunity there.
With clothing, I generally find that the less I spend on clothes, the better they are. A $10 pair of Wranglers from Walmart holds up much better than the $100 pair that comes from a name-brand outlet.
Probably the best pairs of shorts I ever bought were some weird brand that cost $8 apiece at Sam's Club...
That's not the case when it comes to certain types of clothing. For instance, I'm thinking of Oxford cloth button down shirts (OCBDs). Mercer makes high quality, heavy weight shirtings and as a result of the cloth and stitching the shirts last a long time and look great: http://www.mercerandsons.com/
Perhaps far brom being the nicest shirts, but the $15 OCBDs I have bought at JCPenney's have lasted more than 10 years with barely any fading. They seem indestructible.
I received a toaster as a wedding present 7 years and about a week ago. We’ve used it almost everyday since then(when we are home). It’s a breville, we have a lot of their products and they all seem to hold up really well. I bought a breville coffee grinder 10 years ago that I still use every morning.
My mother-in-law bought Her first toaster made in China from Wal Mart circa 2000, it burned up in about a week. Since then the toasters i have seen don't burn up but they are incredibly slow and try to make up for it by having more slots. It doesn't help much because usually i want one slice or at most two.
Yes. Asbestos was everywhere at least in the first half of the 20th century. The type, amount used, and typical exposure is not really a concern, however. I'm not aware of any problems caused by using asbestos-containing toasters daily --- on the assumption that if there were, it would've been all over the news.
I had that same sunbeam toaster shown in the video. It worked great for the first year, then we had to throw the bread in with increasing amounts of force to get it to start.
Eventually we were dropping bread from high above the toaster to get just the right amount of force. It often took many attempts, would not recommend.
Right. It’s unreal how hard it is to find decent shit built to last, and don’t tell me I’m not willing to pay a premium for it, because I am willing. What I don’t like buying is shit branded as upscale high quality that is really the same garbage underneath.
I’m sure there a number of different elements at play here, but one aspect I’ve seen happen time and again is private equity buying out a company and using that strong brand to make progressively shittier and shittier goods, for the same or higher price, while still retaining enough critical mass mindshare that the brand is still “quality”.
I imagine the solution is going to be some sort of parallel to open source, that I can't quite visualize atm.
Maybe the next generation beyond 3D printing will be able to do multi-component assembly tasks, and you can get/print your own high quality components, and assemble your own high quality toaster... Maybe
The open source angle is an interesting concept. The raspberry pi seems to be doing quite alright, despite its design being completely open sourced. Can that model be tweaked a little to apply to all sorts of manufactured goods...? I’m mean, a brand name can have value.
The Raspberry Pi isn't a great example: You can't make a clone of it, because Broadcom will not sell you the SoC for it.
The parent mentioned 3D printing: I think that's the space were right now this plays out the most. Many designs are open or at least have open components, and people build and sell variations, but brands and brand loyalty are very much a thing.
This is something that really bothers me about the current market in North America (not sure if this applies to the rest of the world but I assume it does), there is no such thing as a basic well made product anymore. You either get cheap crap designed to be disposable, or you pay a whole bunch for a "smart" product that is really the same crap as the cheap thing in a nicer housing, but now you have software that works worse than a physical interface and will become a brick in a year when the company stops supporting it. To get anything worth purchasing you pretty much have to find a craftsman for your object, or find a fully private company that doesn't desire to maximize their profit.
The particularly infuriating part about it is that I work in product design, and it isn't something we can fix. If I were to start my own product company, it would absolutely be something with a significant "smart" component to it. Not only is it what the customer seems to want, but you need it to prevent someone else from copying your IP and undercutting you.
All the "buy quality stuff" people seem to ignore the fact that it's nearly impossible to recognize quality stuff.
I can spend $10 or $40 on a toaster. Both will do the job. One will maybe look slightly nicer. Maybe the $10 toaster will break after 2 years (if it breaks before that, it's still within the mandatory warranty period), then I'm out $10 at worst.
But when I get the $40 toaster, it might be higher quality, or someone just put even worse crap into a nice box and charged me a ridiculous price for it. I can't distinguish those two scenarios. It might last 10 years, or it might crap out after 2 and now I'm out $40.
And the cheap toaster might also last 10 years (mine is 5 years old, so even if it craps out now, the $40 toaster would have had to last for 20 years to be "cheaper"). In the end, it's a gamble, and I'm not convinced that paying a factor of X more increases your chance of not getting crap by that much.
In fact, I've been quite happy with most products, cheap or otherwise, and the occasional disappointment is much less of a problem when you buy cheap.
I'm just pissed off with owning stuff taking up space that doesn't work. I REALLY don't need a washing machine that doesn't work taking up space in my home.
You're quite right: price is not a good guide to quality. But I am beginning to think that "consumer" products fail much sooner than "industrial" products. So I'm thinking that my next utility room will be kitted out with industrial washers. Stuff the "consumer" stuff where it don't shine.
Yeah, they did this with all the good British bicycle brands. Raleigh, Dawes and so on; they were good bikes. Nobody makes good bikes in the UK any more. The good bike makers got bought by Chinese companies, and the results are crap. Get a USA bike. Trek are good value.
As do 99% of bicycle manufacturers producing CF frames - the expertise and manufacturing base are primarily in Taiwan, and everyone from Trek to Canyon are sourcing from the same few people. There are some boutique brands still doing lugged carbon builds that may be assembled in the USA with the AL components manufacturer here as well, but they'll be more expensive and worse performing models for the crowd who hasn't moved on from their "steel is real" phase.
Yeah, same with a lot (but not all) US bike companies. Cannondale was a family owned business, got bought by private equity, and manufacturing moved overseas. I can't say much as to the quality of their bikes, they're probably still fine, as high end bikes are all about geeking out over the tech, and you don't cut corners on that kind of market, but still.
I bought an $8 toaster from Walmart some years ago when I consider the economy better(cause I was also able to buy a $20 microwave).
It has a plastic exterior, and a metal interior. The thermal regulator was luckily designed for this, if you start more bread immediately after the first pair it will finish faster and with less cooking.
It's a very reliable toaster for $8 , and if it breaks I'm going to feel like an asshole when I throw it in the garbage.
I used it in January when I toasted some banana bread.
I have a toaster just about 6 years old now. It wasn't a spectacular one, just not the cheapest one from Walmart. It cost £50, still works as well as when I got it. The toaster in my rental property is now 10 years old and still going strong too.
Fridges on the other hand... I've had 3 die over the same period.
> Toasters do not all "work well enough". Shout if you have a toaster that you bought less than 5 years ago, that is still working. I think they're supposed to start failing after a year or two.
> [Edit: if it's older than ten years, say how old - they made them better back in the olden daze]
> These devices are sold for ten euros/dollars, or so. You really can't do good product design to that sort of price point. People expect to have to "recycle" them.
> I bought a toaster for which you can order replacement heater elements, or a new timer. You can dismantle it and reassemble it with a normal electrician's screwdriver. The timer is clockwork. The whole thing's very steampunk.
> It cost about 8 times as much as a "disposable" toaster. I don't know if it was a good deal; I'll tell you in a few decades. But if I don't have to bother with replacing it, from my POV that will be money well-spent; I'm sick of replacing stuff that should still be working. I'm sick of "hardware" that's really made of tissue-paper. And I'm sick of furniture that's made of wood-chips.
I have never seen a toaster just randomly break. I have had 2 toasters in my life. The first one broke because someone attempted to clean it and after that it would trip the ground power breaker on use. The second one has been working for about 5 years now.
We have the same toaster we got for a wedding present 13 years ago. It was not an expensive model (probably $30). I didn't realize that this was an appliance category that was prone to failures.
They aren't. The last $5 toaster I bought has been working for 12+ years. There aren't many points of failure in a cheap toaster. Add fancy features and the story changes.
> And I'm sick of furniture that's made of wood-chips.
Yeah, I learned woodworking partially because I wanted furniture I knew wasn't made from crap. It's a fun hobby that lets me step away from the computer.
Nevermind all the chemicals they use in some of this stuff. We bought a dresser and it smelled so bad we had to leave it in the garage for half a year before we used it indoors.
The Dualit toaster in my household was recommended by an appliance repairman. It is reliable so far, but it wasn't until the past year that the medium setting on the timer actually resulted in medium toasting.
>Shout if you have a toaster that you bought less than 5 years ago, that is still working. I think they're supposed to start failing after a year or two.
I bought mine in 2015 and it works. I've never had a toaster fail either. I'm not sure what you're doing with your toasters.
One of my water boilers failed (lid hinge broke). My oven recently broke after 12 years.
All in all I don't have many problems with appliances breaking.
I think it's more survivorship bias to think that old appliances were better. The ones you see surviving are the ones that didn't break a long time ago.
I assume you're not trolling; people don't troll on HN, right?
"2015"
Cool. That's four years ago.
I use toasters to toast stuff. Mainly pre-sliced bread, sometimes bread I sliced by hand. Occasionally bread I baked myself. Srsly - I'm not trying to toast building materials, or bathroom tiles, or garden waste.
And I don't know why four years is supposed to be a good lifespan for a device that has no parts that have any kind of failure-plan. I mean, a toaster should last forever.
"Survivorship bias": The "ones I see surviving" have all failed, in point of fact. They've all broken down. The only "machines" I own that are older than five years are [1] a ROTEL audio amplifier (cheap == < £120, works well), and [2] Monitor Audio bookshelf speakers (about £400 for the pair, they look nice too). Both of these are more than 20 years old.
But my beef isn't about toasters; a cheap toaster costs about EU20, who gives a shit. It's about washing machines and dishwashers. These things cost from EU300 to EU700; and as far as I can tell, it doesn't matter how much you are prepared to spend, it's going to fail within five years (and you're going to have to call out a mechanic several times during that interval).
There's no "survivorship bias" going on here; the stuff I've referred to that survived belonged to my parents. Dude, they've both died.
I think my wife and I have a toaster from when we first got married. It'll be 13 years this month. It's probably a 2009 or 2010 model, so really only about a decade or a little less old.
I went through 4 toasters in quick succession, never bothered keeping box or receipts so had no recourse. 18 months ago I bought a Tesco own brand, under a tenner, and it's still going. BUT it can't take a standard size piece of bread. Beyond the absurd, I rotate my toast daily whilst banging my forehead on the counter. (I did keep the box and receipt this time, I really must take it back)
> There's a simple reason why this toaster was discontinued, and that's because it can't be made from commodity components which are used by all toaster manufacturers, as well as in a variety of other domestic appliances.
The youtube comments include a response from a former sunbeam employee that suggests that it was discontinued because the companies CEO at the time was someone known for stripping companies and likely laid off the manufacturing staff.
> It's beautiful, sure, but go and buy a toaster today and see how much premium people are willing to pay for a designer brand with no functional advantage.
$200+ easily, just look at KitchenAid or Magimix toasters...
Well, yes, of course, bad engineering was not Juicero's biggest problem, but it was part of the issue and the reason why their DRM machine was so expensive to manufacture.
I actually had one of these for a good long while. I was too terrified of it to pull it apart and understand the mechanism, but it was a great example of UX.
Removing just the step of pushing down and fast return actually did make me appreciate it more.
But he is absolutely right when he pointed to the paper insulated wire as a truly hideous and terrifying thing. My toaster did eventually burst into flames, and that's about where I think the fire started. Hard to tell when looking at twisted metal.
I think this is a great example of the kind of things that planned obsolescence has killed. The design could probably have been improved, and the safety brought up to modern standards, through research and iteration.
However, why invest in making a better toaster when you can sell a $2 worth of toaster for $5 that will expire in less than two years?
This is the question of our Industrial Age. I think a nice example is VW (in a former life) w their beetle program. Well documented in Small Wonder[0] under Heinz Nordhoff[1]. Easy 50 years of incremental improvements and what seem like truly human- (Volks) oriented design decisions.
The Swedish company Husqvarna used to make toasters that would carefully lower your bred, close the lid, and then carefully bring it back up much like the toaster in the video.
Unfortunately, Ic an't a video of it, or even proper product descriptions (it looks like they discontinued toasters). And yeah, it wasn't as consistent :)
There is no button. You can sometimes make it abort by slamming the intensity dial all the way to the left. But yes, in general you have to unplug it, which is horribly inconvenient.
You don't need to. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but... The classic toaster sensed the temperature of the toast, and stopped when it was done. My family had one of these, and it was quite predictable. We never had to change the setting, and it handled a variety of kinds of bread.
Today's toasters, at least the cheaper ones, seem to be based solely on time, and so it's unknowable how a particular kind of bread will behave. You have to watch it and be prepared to stop it early.
Bagels were a problem if the hole lined up with the sensor. I don't think store-bought bagels were a thing in our area until long after the toaster was made.
On a slight tangent: when I saw the title I thought "I'll probably have to post a link to that Technology Connections film showing that natty old toaster".
His channel is really interesting; even if like me you find his style a little irritating at first it really grows on you when you see that he really knows what he's talking about. One of my favorite channels next to Jeff Cavaliere (Athlean-X).
As a Brit watching this video, i had to stop and google a couple of Americanisms:
"unpolarized cord" - good god, you mean you can plug most American appliances in either way round, and so random parts of them will be live? This is the worst country on earth!
"toaster strudels" - correction, this is the greatest country on earth.
The key to note, in most houses when the unpolarized stuff was new, there were alarmingly few ground sources nearby, so the fact that one side of the appliance was hot, doesn't actually matter that much - so while it's safer now, it wasn't that unsafe then. I'd also point out, these choices make more sense when you consider the lower voltage of US power distribution.
Pretty much every modern European mains powered device is double insulated so it doesn't matter which pole is live and which is neutral.
Some countries do have polarized connectors (UK, some Polish, France, Belgium, etc.) but many do not. However supposedly competent electricians sometimes connect them the wrong way round anyway or omit the earth or both as I discovered in France last year.
Could be, but we do know how to make appliances that are not dependent on which you plug them in. (Truth be told, I’m pretty sure a lot, if not most, other countries do, too.)
North American plugs also only go in one way, unless they are unpolarised, and pretty much all modern appliances have polarised plugs. The only stuff that doesn't are stuff like cell phone chargers, which is actually great, because sometimes it's more convenient to have it pointing the other way.
I'm really happy to see that a Technology Connections video made HN, this guy produces really entertaining and easy to digest videos about technology most people don't give too much thought to. While I can't say I learned anything new most of the time (This video and the one about TOSLINK are exceptions), I was entertained and can use these videos to send to someone who doesn't have a huge technical background on stuff.
There are modern toasters with the auto drop functionality but none that I'm aware of that sense the temperature of the bread like the old sunbeam does.
It's antiquated. My toaster uses machine learning to determine the "doneness" of the bread. Thereby allowing for breads of variant moisture levels to be brought to the same level of doneness, independent of surface heat.
Couple that with the fact that my toaster is also connected via 802.11g to the INTERNET where, naturally, I can view the toast progress via an iOS or Android app. A live feed of the toast progress is streamed to the app, and I can either cancel early or allow the bread to finish toasting. Upon finishing, a push notification is sent to my phone. Nice.
Lastly, and this is probably the highlight feature... I can share my toasting status to social. With the click of a button I can share a screen shot of my toast, WITH my choice of camera filter. Nothing says "ive got it better than you" than a picture of a perfectly toasted piece of toast with a christmas spirit filter.
or they make the toaster to slightly and unpredictably vary the quality of the toasting - not enough for you to notice anything specific, yet enough to make you start the day with a bit of puzzled annoyance and undermining your confidence in your perception of reality - "was the toast different yesterday or is it just me?" - and leaving you with something bugging at the back of your mind through the day making you a bit impatient, a bit more easily frustrated, distracted and having some unspecified resentment building up deep inside you more and more with every day...
Don’t forget it’s hooked up to the IoT cloud and has a digital twin for real time troubleshooting, as we are monitoring the device telemetry via MQTT and performing big data predictive maintenance analytics using RNNs! We’ve already shipped a replacement toaster coil, dispatched a technician and billed your credit card $9.95 per month, since it’s now “toaster as a service”!
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 246 ms ] threadGood video though. Pushing the toast down 3-4 times before realising the damn thing is unplugged is my signature move.
It's kinda depressing that today our toasters are less useful and stop working 10x sooner.
And it lasted a loong time - 30 years or so.
I was all ready to pooh-pooh this new fangled design from the 60s vs Dualit’s classic design from 1952; it’s the Technics SL1200 of the international toast scene.
Honestly though this design is ingenious! Video is well worth watching (assuming you like toasted bread comestibles).
Now if you’ll excuse I’m off for some afternoon crumpet.
Don't forget to bring her some of your toast ;)
Keeping this on topic, Sid probably had one of these
--- which is around $300 and still selling. I think we need to rethink the reasons that the Sunbeam was discontinued.
It's mechanically simple, easily serviceable (four screws), and spares are readily available.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aFhzGEBQlk
This two part video on CEDs - which I didn't even know were a thing - is absolutely fascinating. The depth of research rivals any educational program on TV.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnpX8d8zRIA
One of the challenges of cooking is juggling multiple things so the food is all ready at the same time. Being able to do steps in advance helps with that. This actually kind of matters for toast because freshly toasted bread is a lot better than cold toast.
So it's helpful to be able to take bread out of the package, stick it in the toaster, and put loaf of bread back where it belongs when convenient, then come back later and start the final step (actually toasting) at the exact right time.
(On a side note, in actual fact, I have never had a toaster. A toaster oven does everything a toaster does and more. You can make a hot sandwich with melted cheese, for example.)
Whilst I do agree with you, there is somewhat of a bathtub curve to toast temperature.
'hotel' cold toast, with very nearly melted butter is almost as nice as fresh hot buttered toast. Tepid toast isnt so good.
Ps a good overhead gas grill (broiler) is the best for toast, unfortunately most seem to be rubbish these days :(
It's like the retsina that tastes lovely in a Greek taverns, but take some home and it tastes awful.
There's no obvious danger caused by putting bread in the toaster and not immediately starting it.
>There's no obvious danger caused by putting bread in the toaster and not immediately starting it.
I don't get this. Is it an argument against the automatic toaster? Or are you advising me to keep my toaster unplugged until I'm ready to toast my bread because a toaster can be unreliable?
https://www.dualit.com/recipes/toastie
Or using a bag in a conventional toaster that lacks a cage:
https://www.lakeland.co.uk/10724/2-Lakeland-Toastabags---Toa...
This thing is a burn hazard, shock hazard, and fire hazard all in one.
The standard American household with 2.3 kids has everything on the counter near the toaster.
For the "oven" style toasters there's an significant chance that there's something made out of either paper or plastic atop the metal roof ready to melt as well.
> Also why not unplug it when done?
And plug it back in every morning? That'd be unnecessarily annoying.
I always, and have always, pulled my toaster out on to a clear portion of the counter before using it, to make sure nothing is too close when it operates.
> And plug it back in every morning? That'd be unnecessarily annoying.
Again, that's how I have always done it.
Growing up, both of these things were considered Toaster Safety 101.
(I don't get it - Every socket where I live has a built in switch)
There's no room for a switch on the receptacle, and North America has used the same plug arrangement since the 1910s (a ground prong was added later, but an ungrounded lamp from 1915 is still compatible with modern receptacles). Changing it now is not likely to happen. It is possible to buy a combination unit with a receptacle and a switch on a single yolk and wire it up so that the switch controls the receptacle, but I've never seen it done.
Since it has not had the cord replaced I have a switch at the outlet to turn off the power.
A lot less annoying than waking up to a 3-alarm fire methinks...
I still unplug kitchen stuff when not in use and it's been a long time since I was a kid in the 70's when stuff could (and probably would) "fail hard" and burn down your house.
In fact the most likely vector to shock yourself is the plug on your vacuum cleaner, because it is so often plugged in and mistreated in the process. The materials and stress relievers have gotten better and it’s probably been 30 years since I’ve seen a frayed cord...
Well, except for my Apple power cords. sigh
Americans don't have time for this. They barely have time in the morning to grab their hot toast, hop on their Segway, or motorcycle, or rocket-ship, or what have you, and go go go go GO!
Love me some Americans.
That said, my father in law was the third generation owner of a large toaster company. He was appalled any time he saw someone using a toaster under a cabinet.
I remember reading about a remote tribe of people being appalled when a writer pitched his tent under a tree. Trees fall down. Why would you take such a risk?
Moral of the story is -- toasters are heating devices, so don't let them run unattended.
Plus, assembly looks quite intricate and probably highly manual.
It's beautiful, sure, but go and buy a toaster today and see how much premium people are willing to pay for a designer brand with no functional advantage.
Sadly toasters all work "well enough". This is a textbook example of great engineering being trumped by globalised economics and fickle consumers.
Recreating this toaster is exactly the kind of thing I hope that set gets around to.
Plus, there are toasters that cost more than my tablet which don’t have this feature. If you can make a toaster that infuriatingly stupidly expensive and sell it, you can sure as hell afford to make a workalike [of] this mechanism.
Making unique, superior products is expensive. Your profit margins are much better if you just take the same crap everyone else is selling and put a sharp suit of clothes on it.
The coffee machine in my office has a touchscreen display. It only dispenses 4 things - lattes, cappuccinos, black coffee, and espressos.
Why does this have to be a touchscreen? It could have easily been more usable buttons.
But I guess you can't charge a $100 premium for buttons
Rather than having to do X front panels, you just put all localisation data in a config file and be done with it.
And yes, I would much prefer actual pushbuttons.
All coffee machines I’ve seen with any kind of screen made extensive use of it for messaging purposes. It is a lot more useful than some led blinking twice for cleaning and three times when there’s no water in the tank.
I don't know if that's people getting some design sense and not using screens where they don't need to, or just happenstance. But it seemed relevant.
I would've thought maybe it's a hygiene thing, easier to clean a flat surface, except below it is a number keypad with only 0-9, where you can also pick a floor by typing in your floor number. Plus, ground floor has its own independent physical button.
I've already gotten into the habit of ignoring the touchscreen and using the physical buttons as a mini rebellion - there's a security camera in the elevator, maybe someone will pick up on it.
Sage have tried for the market of "premium, but made like crap really". £120+ for a regular toaster with added LEDs, displays, etc. They sell purely as they paid a celeb chef for their adverts.
https://cupofjo.com/2008/06/british-slang-thats-pants/
Think about it: You buy a Tesla Model X for Unobtainium money, and there are panel gaps. But you buy a bucket of Lego bricks for $20, and each one clicks together perfectly.
Lego may be expensive for a tiny blob of plastic, but the point I'm making is that their engineering is amazing relative to the cost of each brick.
p.s. That being said, I hear you! The sets with authorized franchise tie-ins are expensive, in large part because a sizeable part of their market are adults with disposable income. There is no other explanation for a CAD800 Millennium Falcon with 7,500 pieces.
Automotive body panels are large and relatively flexible, hence harder to get close tolerances on. Small injection-molded parts, however, can be made to much closer tolerances and the process has been around for over half a century.
Well, like all of us who didn't grow up rich, she has to adapt and get the cheap lego sets, rather than whatever the kid wants.
> Now I see them as just like any other business
That is more on you than Lego.
LEGO sets have always been priced at a premium.
You can also do well at yard sales. I got my son a tote of mixed LEGO’s for $6 recently.
The design of the toaster reminds me of the design of the first transistor radio which ingeniously needed just four transistors to work. Nowadays that engineering effort would be a complete waste of time. It's sad in a way that that sort of craft has been lost, but it's largely redundant now.
That's definitely not the reason. We have automation robots and people do kinds of manual assembly for much less than a $200 or so this could easily command (besides, it's still being made).
We also have toasters with custom parts made today, they just aren't purely electro-mechanical like this.
That you can have one for a century and it will still work/be repairable easily is more likely the reason.
https://www.dualit.com/products/4-slice-newgen
You can still find the old Sunbeam units on ebay. And there are fan sites:
http://www.automaticbeyondbelief.org/
And even investigative pieces on them:
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/10/who-k...
[Edit: if it's older than ten years, say how old - they made them better back in the olden daze]
These devices are sold for ten euros/dollars, or so. You really can't do good product design to that sort of price point. People expect to have to "recycle" them.
I bought a toaster for which you can order replacement heater elements, or a new timer. You can dismantle it and reassemble it with a normal electrician's screwdriver. The timer is clockwork. The whole thing's very steampunk.
It cost about 8 times as much as a "disposable" toaster. I don't know if it was a good deal; I'll tell you in a few decades. But if I don't have to bother with replacing it, from my POV that will be money well-spent; I'm sick of replacing stuff that should still be working. I'm sick of "hardware" that's really made of tissue-paper. And I'm sick of furniture that's made of wood-chips.
</rant>
For example, go to a totally different category: clothing.
In the great age of US sports clothing, tees were slowly knitted by machines called loopwheelers. E.g. tees from Champion.
These days, they are crap. If you want a nice tee that will age well and last really long, you need to buy from some Japanese brands that try to imitate old Champion tees. The price is really high, and you'd most likely need to import or buy from a high end shop.
I try to buy good stuff that lasts ages. I don't care paying a big premium. I try to live with around 100 items. But its really hard.
Besides there being more stuff of every type of buy, the purchasing power of the dollar has declined, so maybe people can't afford a toaster that's as good any more?
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUUR0000SA0R
I guess you'd have to multiply this by whatever the average wage was for each year.
I don't think that's right. I think it's less expensive to make stuff that doesn't need to be replaced.
it depends what you are looking for.. if the only criteria is quality :
- Maison Cornichon. It is actually a french brand but Japan is by far their biggest market. They use old french machines. the resulting tee is very strong, probably heavier than what you expect. They do have a lot of shrinking when you wash them (and you can expand them again afterwards).
- Merz B. Schwanen : simple high quality german tshirts
- The Real McCoy's : japan brand specifically trying (successfully) to reproduce americana pieces.
- lots of other japanese brands make good tshirts.. it kinda depends what you are looking for. Blue blue japan pieces are often very beautiful but also indigo dyed (so they leak a LOT of pigment the first time they are wet).
- Taylor Stitch actually makes one of the heaviest tshirts I have ever seen.
- Outside of cottons tshirts, there are also tons of merino ones. Outlier would be the most well known in the USA. It is was less resistant to abrasion that a cotton one, but it absolutely does not retain smells (so you could hike 10 days with it if you wished to, it would barely smell anything).
The machines that a lot of these brands use are actually pretty interesting. These are often very old machines. Their use had been almost completely abandoned because they are pretty slow. There are 'lots' of them in Japan in the first place because several decades ago they were pretty standard. The industry has moved to new machines with better yields but some niche brands saw an opportunity there.
E.G. there are some Youtube videos on how a brand like Momotaro makes denim : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek5520fSymY
Probably the best pairs of shorts I ever bought were some weird brand that cost $8 apiece at Sam's Club...
Did old toasters have asbestos in them?
Yes. Asbestos was everywhere at least in the first half of the 20th century. The type, amount used, and typical exposure is not really a concern, however. I'm not aware of any problems caused by using asbestos-containing toasters daily --- on the assumption that if there were, it would've been all over the news.
Eventually we were dropping bread from high above the toaster to get just the right amount of force. It often took many attempts, would not recommend.
I’m sure there a number of different elements at play here, but one aspect I’ve seen happen time and again is private equity buying out a company and using that strong brand to make progressively shittier and shittier goods, for the same or higher price, while still retaining enough critical mass mindshare that the brand is still “quality”.
and this is how bad money drives good money out of the market. What is the general solution for this, assuming the quality level isn't illegal?
Maybe the next generation beyond 3D printing will be able to do multi-component assembly tasks, and you can get/print your own high quality components, and assemble your own high quality toaster... Maybe
The parent mentioned 3D printing: I think that's the space were right now this plays out the most. Many designs are open or at least have open components, and people build and sell variations, but brands and brand loyalty are very much a thing.
The particularly infuriating part about it is that I work in product design, and it isn't something we can fix. If I were to start my own product company, it would absolutely be something with a significant "smart" component to it. Not only is it what the customer seems to want, but you need it to prevent someone else from copying your IP and undercutting you.
I can spend $10 or $40 on a toaster. Both will do the job. One will maybe look slightly nicer. Maybe the $10 toaster will break after 2 years (if it breaks before that, it's still within the mandatory warranty period), then I'm out $10 at worst.
But when I get the $40 toaster, it might be higher quality, or someone just put even worse crap into a nice box and charged me a ridiculous price for it. I can't distinguish those two scenarios. It might last 10 years, or it might crap out after 2 and now I'm out $40.
And the cheap toaster might also last 10 years (mine is 5 years old, so even if it craps out now, the $40 toaster would have had to last for 20 years to be "cheaper"). In the end, it's a gamble, and I'm not convinced that paying a factor of X more increases your chance of not getting crap by that much.
In fact, I've been quite happy with most products, cheap or otherwise, and the occasional disappointment is much less of a problem when you buy cheap.
You're quite right: price is not a good guide to quality. But I am beginning to think that "consumer" products fail much sooner than "industrial" products. So I'm thinking that my next utility room will be kitted out with industrial washers. Stuff the "consumer" stuff where it don't shine.
It has a plastic exterior, and a metal interior. The thermal regulator was luckily designed for this, if you start more bread immediately after the first pair it will finish faster and with less cooking.
It's a very reliable toaster for $8 , and if it breaks I'm going to feel like an asshole when I throw it in the garbage.
I used it in January when I toasted some banana bread.
Fridges on the other hand... I've had 3 die over the same period.
> [Edit: if it's older than ten years, say how old - they made them better back in the olden daze]
> These devices are sold for ten euros/dollars, or so. You really can't do good product design to that sort of price point. People expect to have to "recycle" them.
> I bought a toaster for which you can order replacement heater elements, or a new timer. You can dismantle it and reassemble it with a normal electrician's screwdriver. The timer is clockwork. The whole thing's very steampunk.
> It cost about 8 times as much as a "disposable" toaster. I don't know if it was a good deal; I'll tell you in a few decades. But if I don't have to bother with replacing it, from my POV that will be money well-spent; I'm sick of replacing stuff that should still be working. I'm sick of "hardware" that's really made of tissue-paper. And I'm sick of furniture that's made of wood-chips.
> </rant>
Might I ask what brand of toaster is it?
Yeah, I learned woodworking partially because I wanted furniture I knew wasn't made from crap. It's a fun hobby that lets me step away from the computer.
Nevermind all the chemicals they use in some of this stuff. We bought a dresser and it smelled so bad we had to leave it in the garage for half a year before we used it indoors.
I bought mine in 2015 and it works. I've never had a toaster fail either. I'm not sure what you're doing with your toasters.
One of my water boilers failed (lid hinge broke). My oven recently broke after 12 years.
All in all I don't have many problems with appliances breaking.
I think it's more survivorship bias to think that old appliances were better. The ones you see surviving are the ones that didn't break a long time ago.
"2015"
Cool. That's four years ago.
I use toasters to toast stuff. Mainly pre-sliced bread, sometimes bread I sliced by hand. Occasionally bread I baked myself. Srsly - I'm not trying to toast building materials, or bathroom tiles, or garden waste.
And I don't know why four years is supposed to be a good lifespan for a device that has no parts that have any kind of failure-plan. I mean, a toaster should last forever.
"Survivorship bias": The "ones I see surviving" have all failed, in point of fact. They've all broken down. The only "machines" I own that are older than five years are [1] a ROTEL audio amplifier (cheap == < £120, works well), and [2] Monitor Audio bookshelf speakers (about £400 for the pair, they look nice too). Both of these are more than 20 years old.
But my beef isn't about toasters; a cheap toaster costs about EU20, who gives a shit. It's about washing machines and dishwashers. These things cost from EU300 to EU700; and as far as I can tell, it doesn't matter how much you are prepared to spend, it's going to fail within five years (and you're going to have to call out a mechanic several times during that interval).
There's no "survivorship bias" going on here; the stuff I've referred to that survived belonged to my parents. Dude, they've both died.
I'm even an avid baker and cook, so it's not like I underutilize my appliances.
My washing machine is currently only 4 years old.
The youtube comments include a response from a former sunbeam employee that suggests that it was discontinued because the companies CEO at the time was someone known for stripping companies and likely laid off the manufacturing staff.
$200+ easily, just look at KitchenAid or Magimix toasters...
The art of engineering is not to create a beautiful machine, it's to build something that does the job as efficiently as possible.
It's easy to build a machine that does something, it's hard to build it so it can also be manufactured cheaply. See e.g. the Juicero (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juicero#Controversies).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teasmade
Removing just the step of pushing down and fast return actually did make me appreciate it more.
But he is absolutely right when he pointed to the paper insulated wire as a truly hideous and terrifying thing. My toaster did eventually burst into flames, and that's about where I think the fire started. Hard to tell when looking at twisted metal.
I think this is a great example of the kind of things that planned obsolescence has killed. The design could probably have been improved, and the safety brought up to modern standards, through research and iteration.
However, why invest in making a better toaster when you can sell a $2 worth of toaster for $5 that will expire in less than two years?
This is the question of our Industrial Age. I think a nice example is VW (in a former life) w their beetle program. Well documented in Small Wonder[0] under Heinz Nordhoff[1]. Easy 50 years of incremental improvements and what seem like truly human- (Volks) oriented design decisions.
[0] https://www.amazon.com/Small-Wonder-Amazing-Volkswagen-Beetl...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Nordhoff
Fire is likely to be caused by bread crumbs, since otherwise there is nothing combustible in the toaster (unlike the plastic-ful modern ones.)
Unfortunately, Ic an't a video of it, or even proper product descriptions (it looks like they discontinued toasters). And yeah, it wasn't as consistent :)
Today's toasters, at least the cheaper ones, seem to be based solely on time, and so it's unknowable how a particular kind of bread will behave. You have to watch it and be prepared to stop it early.
Bagels were a problem if the hole lined up with the sensor. I don't think store-bought bagels were a thing in our area until long after the toaster was made.
His channel is really interesting; even if like me you find his style a little irritating at first it really grows on you when you see that he really knows what he's talking about. One of my favorite channels next to Jeff Cavaliere (Athlean-X).
"unpolarized cord" - good god, you mean you can plug most American appliances in either way round, and so random parts of them will be live? This is the worst country on earth!
"toaster strudels" - correction, this is the greatest country on earth.
The key to note, in most houses when the unpolarized stuff was new, there were alarmingly few ground sources nearby, so the fact that one side of the appliance was hot, doesn't actually matter that much - so while it's safer now, it wasn't that unsafe then. I'd also point out, these choices make more sense when you consider the lower voltage of US power distribution.
Some countries do have polarized connectors (UK, some Polish, France, Belgium, etc.) but many do not. However supposedly competent electricians sometimes connect them the wrong way round anyway or omit the earth or both as I discovered in France last year.
See this web page for a convenient list of mains connectors and countries that use them: https://www.worldstandards.eu/electricity/plugs-and-sockets/
Polarization and grounding enable designs that are even safer.
Why on earth would you assume that?
This is the worst country on earth!
Could be, but we do know how to make appliances that are not dependent on which you plug them in. (Truth be told, I’m pretty sure a lot, if not most, other countries do, too.)
I am sure you can get the same effect in your country by just pouring a cup of sugar on each slice of toast.
Bloomberg recently covered high-end Japanese toasters: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-16/this-japa...
https://www.toaster.org/glass-toasters/
https://www.kitchenaid.com/countertop-appliances/toasters/tw...
Couple that with the fact that my toaster is also connected via 802.11g to the INTERNET where, naturally, I can view the toast progress via an iOS or Android app. A live feed of the toast progress is streamed to the app, and I can either cancel early or allow the bread to finish toasting. Upon finishing, a push notification is sent to my phone. Nice.
Lastly, and this is probably the highlight feature... I can share my toasting status to social. With the click of a button I can share a screen shot of my toast, WITH my choice of camera filter. Nothing says "ive got it better than you" than a picture of a perfectly toasted piece of toast with a christmas spirit filter.
[0] https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/s/panini-makers
...it is satire, right?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=crc8n7D4kYg
I bought a microwave oven which has a very good UI (buttons, knobs, layout, display).
Also: why do I fear the UI of anything with a German brand name?