The Best Toaster

Toasters are a kitchen counter standby that make every meal a little tastier. Browned English muffins add crunch to your breakfast, a toasted bagel warms your lunchtime tuna melt, and browned buns add a “wow” factor to your burgers.

The small-but-mighty toaster is responsible for all of these creations. You might not give much thought to this little appliance, but there’s a lot going on after you hit the “Toast” button.

Toasters brown your bread by turning electricity into heat. Electricity flows from your wall’s outlet through your toaster’s power cord to the inside of the unit. 

The electric current moves through a series of slender conducting filaments. If you’ve ever looked inside your toaster while it’s working and noticed glowing, red hot wires around your slice of bread, those are the filaments doing their job. The filaments beam heat towards your bread using infrared radiation. The steady supply of heat from the filaments rapidly cooks your bread.

When your bread has reached the desired toast level you selected, the toaster either turns off automatically with a timer or pops your bread up with a spring-loaded tray. All four of our top picks have removable crumb trays built into the toaster, so you can grab your piping hot bagel without getting crumbs all over your kitchen.

Toasters all use similar internal heating mechanisms, but different models have different features and options. A standard model, like Oster’s Jelly Bean Toaster, has two slots to toast two slices of bread at once. Higher-end models, like Breville’s Long Slot Smart Toaster, has four slots, including an “Extra Long” slot for larger slices of bread.

You’ve got choices when it comes to controlling your toaster’s time and intensity levels, too. Cuisinart’s Compact Plastic Toaster has a timer that goes up to seven minutes, plus a lever so you can manually lift your toast out. It also has Bagel, Defrost and Reheat buttons. Oster’s Jelly Bean Toaster has seven toast shade settings, and it uses Advanced Toasting Technology for a consistent result every time.

Different kinds of bread may require different toasters. The Oster Jelly Bean Toaster has extra-wide slots to accommodate heartier bread, while Kitchenaid’s 2-Slice Slot Toaster has a special setting for bagels and frozen bread.

Toasters aren’t purely utilitarian — they can also add a fun edge to your kitchen’s decor. Kitchenaid’s 2-Slice Slot Toaster has a modern, rounded design with a tough gunmetal finish. Cuisinart’s Compact Plastic Toaster goes the classic route with a white body and stainless steel accents, while Oster’s Jelly Bean Toaster comes in a fresh pop of purple.

Whether you go high-tech with a modern toaster or low-key with a classic design, you’ll want to think about a few things before you choose your new appliance. Our Tips & Advice can help you make a smart decision.

• How often will you use your toaster? If you’re a big fan of toasted sandwiches and bagels, you might want to drop some extra cash for a feature-rich mode,l like the Breville Long Slot Smart Toaster. On a budget? Cuisinart’s reliable Compact Plastic Toaster works just as well without the bells and whistles.
• What kinds of bread will you be toasting? Breville’s Long Slot Smart Toaster has an extra-long slot for artisanal bread, and Oster’s Jelly Bean Toaster has a one-touch option for warming up bagels.
• How much free countertop room do you have? The Kitchenaid 2-Slice Slot Toaster takes up as much space as a standard piece of computer paper, and it has Under Base Cord Storage to keep things tidy when it’s not in use. Breville’s Smart Toaster is several inches larger and weighs twice as much, but it’s loaded with extra features.
• How particular are you about your toast’s done-ness? Oster’s Jelly Bean, Cuisinart’s Compact Plastic Toaster and Kitchenaid’s 2-Slice Slot Toaster all have seven shade settings from a little crunchy to extra crispy. The Breville Smart Toaster has 12 browning settings on an LED control slide, plus a “Lift and Look” button to make sure your toast looks perfect.