I purchased this toaster from Argos a couple of months ago and now feel I've used it long enough to give it a thorough review.

The Cookworks Signature toaster is available from Argos at the price of £16.99, quite reasonable for a 4 slice toaster I though.

The toaster itself is quite stylish looking, even considering the low price. It is silver in colour with the main outer body, levers and knobs all being in a cool touch plastic, with the toaster slots being finished in a silver metal. Quite a compact square shape of toaster (only h 16cm x w 26cm x d 24cm in size) and therefore not taking up too much room on the worktop, which was just exactly what I was looking for.

Before using the toaster for the first time you should switch it on and use it as if you were toasting bread at the maximum setting, pushing the levers down into position a couple of times, this is just to burn off any oil residue left on the elements and may cause some smoke and odour but will clear.

The toaster works in 2 halves allowing you to use 2 slots at a time if need be. Each side of the toaster has its own toasting lever, its own heat selection knob and 3 buttons - cancel, reheat and defrost, each side of the toaster also has its own crumb tray underneath. The flex on the toaster isn't too long but the excess cable can be neatly wound underneath the toaster.

The toaster is very easy to operate, select the desired browning position using the browning knob, these range from 1 - 7, I found it easiest to select the middle position at first until I gauged what setting would be best for my tastes; then put the bread into the slot, lower the corresponding lever down until it clicks into a locked position and wait for the toast to pop up once it is ready. If you feel the bread has been in long enough or perhaps it is starting to burn you can then push the corresponding cancel button, which as it would suggest, cancels the toasting session making the toast pop up immediately.

I mentioned earlier that each side of the toaster had its own 3 buttons, I have explained the cancel button above. The next button is the reheat button, which as it would suggest reheats toast that has gone cold, I particularly like this function as I HATE cold toast - toast should be hot with butter dripping from it! The reheat setting just does the same at the toasting function only for a shorter period of time therefore allowing the toast to get hot again without actually toasting it any more. The final button is the defrost button, one which I personally found a bit confusing, but then perhaps if I actually read the instructions first then I might have not been so confused. I took it this button was to defrost my bread so I placed a slice of frozen bread into the toaster expecting a defrosted slice of bread to pop out but instead a piece of toast popped out! This setting is purely a slightly longer version of the normal toasting setting so it defrosts the bread first and then continues to toast it. (See these folk that don't read instructions!). All these buttons are illuminated when they are in use.

Ok so now I've told you how the toaster functions I'd better tell you my views on its performance. As I said earlier I liked the look of this toaster and also the size because it fitted quite neatly onto my worktop, but I do however feel that perhaps the slot size length wise may have been compromised slightly to accommodate the smaller design. I did find large slices of bread were difficult to fit into the slots, often having to physically push them in, therefore running the risk of the bread jamming in the slot. And pitta bread was a definite no, if I am toasting a pitta bread I have to do this standing the pitta bread on its end, toasting one end first and then turning it around to do the other end, which isn't convenient but did work. Width wise the slots were great with thick bread, bagels and muffins all fitting in perfectly. The design of the toaster was all very smooth and flush, making it very easy to keep clean and very easy to wipe over with a cloth, obviously cleaning should only be done when the toaster has cooled and is disconnected from the mains power. The crumb trays were also very easily removed, cleaned and replaced. With the metal slots all being flush with the top of the toaster I do find I sometimes burn my fingers on the metal when I'm taking the toast out, but that's really my own fault as the lever has a high lift function allowing you to lift the toast clear of the top of the slot, but I always forget to use this!

Overall I would definitely recommend this toaster, it functions well and is very easy to maintain. My only fault would be that the slots are slightly short in length for those of you who prefer large slices of bread or pitta bread.

Many thanks for reading. Posted elsewhere under the same name.

©lel1969