Terrible Toaster Testing

Over 20 years ago frustrated at the almost annual frequency we were buying new toasters I was entranced to find a commercial toaster in my local canteen that was made in the 1960's. I went out and bought a Dualit which has been in use now for two decades being used around 500 times a year.

Which? does not test for durability, it does not mention if you can get replacement parts, and therefore by deliberately avoiding these items loads the Best Buy criteria against the more expensive to build toasters. These toaster may save on landfill and give people the option to make a "green" choice but Which? is not interested in giving a full picture to subscribers.

In 2012 Which? actually reviewed a selection of expensive toasters and even in that environment failed to mention that for the Magimix and Dualit toasters reviewed replacement elements were available. There is a toaster brand Rutland Rowlett, made in the UK since the 1940's, that has never been mentioned by Which? though it could have been included in this expensive toaster review.

The testing criteria is 70% of the scoring is on toasting performance, ease of use 20%, fitting different sized bread 10%. The new revamped toaster site now allows you to whittle down your choice of toasters by button pressing which would actually be laudable but for the complete absence of anything relating to spare parts or expected life span of the toaster. Simple fact is that the depending on the size and quality of wire used for the elements has a large bearing on how may toasting cycles it can perform before the elements fail.

Which? has this year produced a Reliability ranking for toaster though it is not clear what reliability means which make it fairly useless  unless one sees the underlying questions:

http://www.which.co.uk/home-and-garden/small-appliances/reviews/toasters/page/reliability/

I see in a very recent email that Which? has tested two more toasters a Breville and a Dualit [38%] with highly contrasting scores, and prices. I must admit to having severe doubts as to the quality of the testing given that the comments seem totally wrong. I am not hands on familiar with either but the Dualit is meant to be a copy of an earlier design and revamped for John Lewis's 150th year of trading - it has all the same controls as mine.

In the review the tester says: " The browning control dial, which our testers found quite stiff to turn, has just three settings. The toaster doesn't pop up - there is a manual lever to remove your bread."

I have news for them; it is actually a timer and you can pick any approximate time you want up to about 4 minutes. So by eye you dial in past the 2 marker  and halfway to the three marker and that is 2 minutes and roughly 30 seconds. There seems to be a constant 10 second lag which I assume is to allow the elements to heat up to working temperature. Incredibly easy to use machine but the dialing process might be a problem for those with arthritic hands. As to the toasting quality they may be right but given the failure to understand it is not three settings but multiple times you can choose one has major doubts.

The manual lever to remove your toast referred to is actually very very simple and therefore pretty much unbreakable - a useful feature. It also allows for this wonderful functionality much admired on the Breville but not included as a benefit in the Dualit review:

" Impatient toasters will appreciate the 'Lift & Look' feature on the Breville Aurora VTT475 four-slice toaster as it means you can keep an eye on the bread browning without interrupting the toasting cycle. "

You may wonder why that with the very same functionality that the reviewer[s] did not manage to say the same thing about the Dualit. Which leads to the next point that as the toaster was so bad yet came from two highly respected retailers that perhaps there was something wrong with the review. It appears that Which? does not operate any check system to flag up oddities, or anyone with enough experience to realise something is not right and make certain before publishing.

The reviews are here:

http://www.which.co.uk/home-and-garden/small-appliances/reviews/toasters/best-buy/verdict/

AS AT 20/11/14 THAT DUALIT ONLINE REVIEW HAS NOW BEEN REMOVED.

FEBRUARY 2015 A REVISED REVIEW HAS BEEN ADDED

http://www.which.co.uk/home-and-garden/small-appliances/reviews/toasters/dualit-47355-origins/review/

The picture of it and the low low score does feature in the December 2014 Which? as a small piece top right of page 11. It also appears in January's table of toasters supporting all those rated above it.

Rowlett Rutland Ltd :

http://www.rowlettrutland.co.uk/