The Cuisinart CPT-122 2-Slice Compact Plastic Toaster and its four-slot version, the Cuisinart CPT-142 4-Slice Compact Plastic Toaster, both produced some of the finest, most evenly browned bread of all the toasters we tested (this was true in multiple rounds of testing over several years, with more than one of the same model). You may also want to consider getting a toaster oven instead-they’re far more versatile than a slot toaster, and, in our experience, they’re also more reliable. But we recommend spending only what you think is reasonable for something that may last you roughly five years (and knowing that yours could last for longer or shorter than that). There are a number of variables that can cause a toaster to fail, and it’s hard to predict an exact lifespan.
The big takeaway isn’t a huge surprise: The delicate electronics and cheaper components found in most modern toasters leave a lot of room for things to go wrong over time. A group of dedicated students disassembled two of our recommended toasters, as well as some vintage toasters, to run analyses on them. To understand why most toasters seem prone to failure, we reached out to the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at The Ohio State University. The knowledge gained from hundreds of hours of testing since 2015 has helped us identify the most promising models to test each year.
