I make no secret of the fact I like a bargain electrical buy - I am much more interested in the functionality and cost of a product over having the latest gadget or the most modern design, especially when it comes to appliances in my small kitchen. This particular value toaster cost less than £4.50 (£4.47 I believe which is a bargain, from Tesco, which I purchased during my weekly shop .

The toaster is simple and functional - the only controls are a dial to change the toasting / heating settings, the slider which you push down to lower your toast into the grill of the toaster and an eject button. These controls do the job as is necessary - can happily report my slider hasn't jammed / gotten stuck (which is what happened on my last toaster) There is no defrost mode, however I never usually use bread straight from the freezer so this is not so much a problem to me, however may be something to take into consideration for those with a larger family who may freeze spare loaves. The toaster can toast 2 slices at a time, perfect for our smaller household who get up at various times. The slots are wide enough for most slices of bread I have used, however I think it would probably be a bit of a struggle for thicker 'toastie' loaves and slices of bread and would probably struggle with a hand cut doorstep slice of tiger bread! The toaster is a simple design - white plastic with grey control buttons. For the price the overall appearance is more attractive than you would imagine, looks fine left out on the worktop. The entire toaster is very compact, which is great for me as I am very limited on space, so anything that takes up less space but is as equally as functional is a bonus in my eyes.

I have my toast lightly done, to a lighter brown shade - any hint of burn and it goes in the bin! On this toaster I use a setting two/three, which I find takes about 45 seconds, which I think is a perfectly reasonable amount of time. I can report the higher settings do seriously cremate your bread, so be warned, do keep an eye on it! (My grandma has hers done to a black frazzled crisp, and if I don't check what setting it is on before use, can end in disaster!)

I would recommend this product to a friend especially:
· Single persons / small family
· Those with limited space
· Those on a budget