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Breville VTT214
by thehonesttruth
A few months ago, my toaster stopped working. Strangely, despite me personally hardly ever eating toast, I suddenly began having an urgent craving for peanut butter on toast. I needed a new toaster, I needed it quickly, and I needed it cheaply, as my job at the time was under threat (I'm now redundant.).
Despite not wanting to ... spend any more than £20, I really didn't want anything that was going to look cheap - I've been trying to slowly phase out my white appliances in favour of chrome or stainless steel. I found the Breville VTT214 the most - black sides, with a stainless steel finish down the middle, a slightly quirky slanted top, and some buttons that glowed blue whilst in use . This looked like a smart and stylish machine, and at the time I purchased it was £19.99, down from £49.99.
When my toaster arrived, and I got to look at it in more detail, I was a little surprised by how big this was (15.2 x 15.2 x 7.6 cm) ,although part of this was actually the aggressive silver and black styling making it stand out on the side more than everything else . The two toasting slots were good and wide, easily accommodating a crumpet or teacake, or a thick slice of fresh crust bread. They are also satisfyingly deep.
There is a lever on the side allowing you to raise the base of the toaster to bring up crumpets , so no need to poke about with forks trying to retrieve items from the innards.
There is a dial on the site for different browning settings, and various buttons for defrosting, reheating, or cancelling mid cycle. I particularly like the fact that the button and dials illuminate whilst in use, as I find the blue glow very pretty, and also think it could be a useful safety feature for those with younger children, as you can tell them to stay away from the appliance whilst the light glows. With that said, the sides of the toaster remain cool during use.
Cleaning this is easy, though it does need to be done quite often as the stainless steel part in particular does show fingerprints. However, a wipe down with a cloth and a buff with a duster do the trick . There is also a removable crumb tray which is easy to remove and empty.
I really like this toaster. In use, I find that it browns toast evenly, it doesn't take long to use, and that the slots are a convenient width and depth. It is silent, easy to clean, and stylish.The users manual (which isn't really necessary as the toaster is so simple to use) is written in clear English, with everything explained.
A great toaster - 5 stars
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Breville VTT001
by rosebud2001
I have owned my Breville VTT001 toaster for over three years now, being attracted to it because of its appearance - the toaster has a black plastic heat proof side and a highly polished stainless steel top and front. The toaster can accommodate two slices of toast which is fine for just my daughter and myself.
The toaster ... itself has only a few controls - there's a knob which gives you a choice of six browning levels, the lever you depress to start toasting, a cancel button, a defrost button and a button to keep toast warm once it's been browned.
The toaster is simplicity itself to use and I usually set the browner knob to level 4 which I find produces a nicely browned, but not burned slice of toast. When the toaster is at work a lovely blue light is illuminated so you can see at a glance that it's toasting your bread. Once it's toasted, the toast pops up and the light goes off.
The toaster is designed with a so called "extra high lift" which Breville claim makes it easier to remove smaller items from the toaster but I must admit I haven't actually found this to be the case. Smaller items, or items which don't pop up when the toasting cycle has finished, still need to be removed using either my fingers or a knife.
I do like the speed at which this toasts - the elements seem to heat up quickly and I can have a nicely browned slice of toast in a couple of minutes. The slot width can be adjusted but I actually wish they were able to go a little wider as this would enable me to make better toasted sandwiches using my Toastabags. As it is they only really work with this toaster if I use pretty thinly sliced bread.
The defrost button is a nice touch but one I rarely use however the warm setting is useful and I have found this easy and effective when I need to keep toast warm.
Cleaning the toaster is simplicity itself. The crumb tray is located at the bottom rear of the toaster and pulls out easily. It is quite small and not particularly deep so it should be emptied regularly and given a quick wash. The stainless steel just needs a quick wipe to keep shiny.
The toaster is very lightweight, coming in at just over 2 kilos and measures 29.7 cm wide x 18.6 cm deep x 23.1 cm in height. The toaster is ideal if you have small children as the feet are non slip, the black sides stay cool and the underside of the toaster enables you to store the cable safely and keep the cord short on your work surface.
Overall I can highly recommend the Breville VTT001 - for under £25 you get a toaster that is easy to use, looks good and works well.
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Breville VTT212
by ms_123
My parents toaster recently gave up the ghost and for a few weeks we all went through the process of grilling our toast. This took significantly longer than it would do in the toaster and as every second is precious in the morning when you're getting ready for school or work my mum quickly decided to invest in another one. She spotted ... the Breville VTT212 in Argos for the reasonable price of £19.99 and picked it up on her next visit to the local shopping centre.
The Breville VTT212 is described as polished stainless steel toaster, although the body consists of a central stainless steel part surrounded by black plastic. It looks sleek and well made and the polished stainless steel makes it look quite classy. The toaster would, in my opinion, blend in well in any kitchen, regardless of décor. It is fairly compact, coming in at around 15cm in width and 10 cm in height. The cord is of a decent length so you don't have to place this right next to the socket to use it. There is storage for the cord at the base of the toaster.
There is room for two slices of toast at a time. The slots are quite wide and can accommodate slices of different widths, which is useful. However, I have found that some slices of bread, particularly the Warburtons brand that I have been using recently, tends to stick out at the top as the slot is not quite high enough. This annoyingly leaves part of the bread untoasted.
On the side of the toaster there is a dial with 6 toast settings, which allows you to control the temperature depending on how brown you like your toast. Despite using this toaster for a couple of months now I have not yet got the hang of this! I like my toast to be medium brown. Trying a setting of 2 leaves my toast not quite brown enough but anything higher than this results in my toast starting to burn slightly! I usually end up for the higher setting and scrape off the slightly burnt bits or toasting my bread twice at a low setting! To be honest I have had this problem with many toasters that I have used in the past, whether they are at the top of the range or a budget buy.
There is also a cancel button should you need to get your toast out in a hurry! Beneath the cancel button there is a "reheat" button, which I have found useful to reheat bread that has already been toasted. It does this well without burning or drying out the toast. There is also a "frozen" button which lengthens the toasting cycle, allowing you to defrost your bread from frozen. I've never frozen bread so have not tried out this function. The buttons are illuminated in blue when they are in use and in my opinion look quite cool when lit up.
The toaster is supposedly a cool wall one which means that it should be safe to touch when toasting. I have found that this works well for the sides of the toaster but over the weekend I accidentally hit my hand over the top of the toaster and was surprised to find the metal bit next to the slots to be really quite hot.
There is also a removable crumb tray, which I find to be really handy, especially after one of the toasters I previously owned had to be shaken upside down over the sink, which did get a bit messy! The toaster is also very easy to clean and can simply be wiped with a damp cloth. I have found though that after just a couple of months use the polished stainless steel bit is unfortunately looking a little shabby and more like brushed steel than polished. It tends to pick up marks like fingerprints quite easily which again can simply be wiped off with a damp cloth.
Although my review has covered quite a few negative points I find this to be a decent toaster and I have encountered some of the problems highlighted with other toasters I have previously used. For the price my mum paid I think this is a reasonable buy and would quite happily recommend it.
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