Breville CT75XL Ikon 4-Slice Electric Toaster

Comment: After researching several 4-slice toasters, I bought the Breville CT75XL in April. After four weeks of very limited use, one of the slots came off track and the lifter stopped working, making the toaster unusable. Very disappointed in the quality of the parts. Amazon immediately sent a replacement, as I was willing to give it another try. On the plus side, when the toaster was working, I was pleased with the toasting ability (even toasting). The chime that sounds when the toasting cycle is complete is a handy feature to alert you when the toast is done. It is not nearly as noisy as some have described (much quieter than a microwave signal!) We'll see if the replacement toaster has any parts or toasting issues.

Comment: Lame! Toaster toasted fine (not miraculously, but tolerably well) for 4 weeks. Now all toast inserted into the toaster comes out charred. Returning to Amazon. The search for the perfect toaster continues.

Comment: We got this toaster as a gift, otherwise it is not very likely that we would have spent this much money on what is still just a toaster. The toaster is actually really cool, and it is one of our favorite new kitchen appliances. This toaster has several improvements over any other toaster that I have come across, some of which are more or less just cosmetic and some which actually make a difference in terms of actual toasting.

From the pure design viewpoint, this is a really well designed appliance. The body and most of the outer surface are made of stainless steel. Some of the parts and all of the buttons and handles are made out of thermo plastic that looks cool, does not get dirty easily, and gives you a good grip when handled.

The four slots are capacious enough to handle most baked goods, including bagels.

The LED monitor tells you what setting the toaster is on and how much time is left before the toasting is finished. LED is a bit of overkill if you ask me, but I have to admit that it looks pretty cool.

The power plug has a finger hole in it that makes it particularly easy to unplug. I have never seen any similar plug before and must say that it is a very neat and practical design.

Finally, the most important part: the actual toasting. I have never come across a toaster that does a better job of toasting bread and other baked goods evenly and uniformly. You will never have to eat another piece of bread where half of it is under-toasted and the other half is burnt. This toaster on the other hand performs uniformly on a consistent basis.

The materials and the design of this toaster also make it very easy to clean.

Overall this is a very well made toaster and I am really pleased with it.

Comment: I bought this toaster a few years. Admittedly I purchased it because I was attracted to the design. Unfortunately, the design was the only worthwhile thing about this toaster, and I should have returned it immediately. It was only able to toast bread, bagels, etc. on the lowest possible setting, and it would toast unevenly at this setting, and often not toast the bread enough. If I tried putting it on a slightly higher setting it would burn the toast to the point that smoke would come out of the toaster. And if I made the mistake of leaving the toaster on for more than a few minutes before putting in bread it would always burn the bread. Finally a few weeks ago, the button that pushed the bread out no longer worked and I had to retrieve my bread with chopsticks, and then a few days ago it stopped working all together. Honestly, I am grateful that it no longer works, because it would get so hot that I was always worried that I or someone else in my household would forget to remove the plug and that it would start a fire in my apartment. Frankly I am surprised at how favorable the reviews are on amazon. For comparison williams sonoma has review that are more negative with many customers that have experiences that are similar to mine.

Comment: I own other Breville products and love them. I read some of the negative reviews for this toaster, but decided to buy it anyway. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to toast on its inner heating elements. I tried different settings, as well as the bagel setting. I'm willing to always select the bagel option if it means evenly-toasted toast on both sides. But as I repeated my tests, the bread just got more burned on the "outside", and not toasted on the inside.

I hope you fare better. I returned the toaster.

A note to Breville (if you read these reports): please allow the user to turn off the beeping. I would have kept the toaster if it toasted competently, but the beeping is pretty annoying. 5 loud beeps? Make it an option, not a requirement.