'His and Her' toaster! (Breville VTT002)

Member Name: markos9

Product:	Breville VTT002
Date:	09/06/09 (103 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Four bread slots: two independant controls, makes great toast.

Disadvantages: I didn't buy one sooner!

My girlfriend and I are totally incompatible; well where toast is concerned anyway! Whilst I like mine burnt to a crisp (or nuked! as I call it), she gets anxious if the bread has been in the toaster for more than a nanosecond.

As you can imagine, this made making toast for the two of us, with our previous four piece toaster a bit of a logistical nightmare. When that toaster mysteriously expired, my girlfriend was back from Wilkinson's before the smoke had cleared (I'm not suspicious, she tells me she had nothing to do with it).

She had wisely bought the Breville VTT002 toaster. This model has four individual toasting slots, with each pair of slots having a separate control panel. This meant that we could 'nuke' my toast, and undercook hers at the same time, marvellous.

The toaster was a reasonable £25. Upon unpacking it, two impressions hit us. Firstly, it has a real quality appearance, but it was also incredibly light. Further examination showed no trace of flimsiness, it's just not heavy.

The sides and back are protected by plastic so it does not get too warm. The bread slots are reasonably sized; 14 x 3.5cm so will take a range of sizes and thicknesses of bread. My girlfriend loves bagels and these fit, too. She also has a smart little 'toaster pocket' that fits in the bread slot and can be used to make toasted sandwiches, amazing! I just use it for toast.

And it makes great toast. The toaster has a range of settings from a gently warming at '1' to an 'over-nuked' 6. As I mentioned before, the toaster has two sets of controls. This means that two people can leave their settings 'programmed' ready for use. I have mine set to '5', my girlfriend '2' (OK, I exaggerated about how she likes her toast almost uncooked!).

The VTT002 is quite powerful (1600W), so toasts reasonably quickly. The design of the heating elements and bread holders means that the bread is cooked evenly, unlike some toasters I've used.

Something I've never seen before is the 'reheat' button. If you want to reheat a piece of toast (or bagel, or toasted sandwich, you get the drift...), you pop the item into a bread slot and press this button. This gently reheats the bread without having to adjust the settings or watch it like a hawk in case it burns.

There's also a defrost function. Here you set the browning setting and press defrost before lowering the bread.

Cleaning is very simple; no holding the toaster upside down and shaking over the sink, just pull out the crumb trays from the back, empty them, clean them if necessary, then pop them back in.

The toaster also has a useful safety function: the high lift feature. This is effected by raising the loading handle above its normal setting. This brings the bread further out of the toaster meaning that you don't need to dig down to retrieve small items (like crumpets); they're lifted out for you.

Surprisingly, the manual is very useful. There are, of course, the obvious safety messages like don't poke a knife into the toaster when it's connected to the mains, but there's lots of useful information, too. I had no idea that the moisture level of the bread has an effect on the toasting times (moisture must be evaporated before toasting will start, so dry bread will cook much quicker than you might expect).

This toaster really is a superb piece of design. It looks good, and works brilliantly, with some well thought out features. I'm glad my previous toaster expired, as the Breville VTT002 makes making toast for two almost effortless. Highly recommended (even if you and your partner are toast-compatible).

Summary: An excellent toaster at a bargain price.

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