Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Once again, the search for fire continues. At first, I was highly impressed with this Frigidaire Professional 4-Slice Wide Slots Toaster, Model #FPTT04D7MS: nice stainless steel surface, nice wide toaster slots, nice digital darkness display with seven settings, pretty LCD when toasting, and a countdown timer. Then I started finding some things I'd prefer to be different. First, unlike our previous long and thin toaster, this one is long and wide. So, it takes up more (perhaps "different" is a better word) space on the counter. Second, the slots on this toaster are only 5-1/2 inches long, while our previous toaster's slots are 10-1/2 inches long. The slices of our regular bread (which are a bit long) fit in the slots (though barely). But, really long slices of bread won't fit. I can't really hold these things against this toaster, though: these are design choices that anyone buying it must consciously make. But, then, after some use, I started noticing other issues: - Toasting takes a long time. As noted above, there are seven darkness settings on this toaster and a handy countdown timer. Using the LCD, here's how long each setting takes to make toast (in the format of "setting - minutes:seconds"): -- 1 - 1:50, -- 2 - 2:30, -- 3 - 3:15, -- 4 - 3:40, -- 5 - 4:10, -- 6 - 4:50, -- 7 - 5:30. The setting that is closest to how we like our toast is #3 (3 minutes and 15 seconds). Our old toaster makes toast to about this level in 2 minutes and 12 seconds: slightly over a minute faster. - The toast has a cardboard-like texture. I think this is a function of the time it takes to toast. I'm guessing that this toaster makes toast with less heat and more time than our old toaster. So, the toast "cooks" through instead of mostly getting toasted on the outside. I don't know if there's a standard for what "toast" is. But, subjectively, we're not happy with this kind of toast. - Most of the darkness settings are useless. The scale runs from 1 though 7. We like it at about 3 (which is a bit dark). Anything more than that is, essentially, burnt. For lighter toast, we can go down to level 2. But, that's darn light. So, essentially, there are only two usable settings (that's the problem with digital). - The bread doesn't toast evenly from side-to-side or from top-to-bottom. The outside heating coils for each pair of slots get hotter than the inside coils (you can see this by turning on toaster and looking into the slots). So, one side of each piece of toast is significantly darker than the other side. Also, the top of each piece of toast is significantly darker than the bottom. There's some zebra striping from the coils, but it's nothing special. As I said at the start of my review, the search for fire continues. Most of the issues I have with this toaster seem to be design issues (boxiness, shorter slots, lower power and longer time = cardboard). But, the uselessness of most of the darkness settings and the unevenness of toasting could very well be "just" manufacturing defects (BTW, this toaster is made in China). I put "just" in quotes because there appears to be no consistency in what toaster manufacturers produce from unit to unit. If you follow the link to our current Oster toaster, below, you'll see that it's got a horrible rating with a lot of reviews. But, we think it's the best thing (ahem) since sliced bread. So, maybe others will have a better experience with other instances of this Frigidaire toaster. For us, though, we much prefer our old (much cheaper) toaster and are going back to it. Thus, I rate this at a Not Very Good 2 stars out of 5. And, if anyone's interested, our toaster history follows: - 03/20/10: Oster 6330 Inspire 4-Slice Toaster, Brushed Stainless Steel. After 2 years and 9 months, it's still going strong. I added it to this history area because of the Frigidaire Professional 4-Slice Wide Slots Toaster I'm reviewing. - 12/21/09: Exchanged the Delonghi Stainless Steel 4Slice Toaster (below) for another. Seven weeks later (49 days), the right set of slots again failed to lock down and turn on. - 12/05/09: Original DeLonghi CTH4003 Pro-Metal 4-Slice Toaster. After 16 days, the right set of slots failed to lock down and turn on. - 03/27/06: Dualit 4-Slice Toaster. The catch on the slots was starting to fail (i.e., they failed to lock down and turn on, occasionally -- but, it lasted over 3 years). - 11/21/04: Another Villaware 5850 (bought mistakenly). Same problem as the previous Villaware: left set of slots failed to lock down and turn on after about 1 week. - 05/01/04: Some GE toaster we bought locally. Didn't break (lasted almost two years), but was starting to take a long time to toast. - ???: There must have been at least one toaster in this gap. I can't find any records of it, though. - 12/03/01: Villaware 5850 Uno Classic 4-Slice Toaster. It lasted about a week. Then, the left set of slots failed to lock down and turn on.