Cuisinart CPT-140 Electronic Cool Touch 4-Slice Toaster, White

 (69 customer reviews)

When we started looking for a new toaster after the death of our last, we realized we needed to upgrade to a 4 slot with our growing family. We live in a small apartment however and lots of counter space was out of the question. So first we got a Dualit, after reading all the reviews. Well, it needs to be prewarmed for best results and it gets incredibly hot to the touch, not too great for little fingers. So back it went and more reviews to read. We ended up getting the Cuisinart Cool Touch and although we worried about the reviews that mentioned an uneven warming problem, it hasn't happened for us. The toaster toasts quickly and well and yes, evenly on both sides--so far both toast and bagels have been great. It's easy to use and clean, has a great "lift the toast higher" feature and doesn't get hot on the outside. Oh and yes, it doesn't take up much room on the counter. So far, the best toaster we've ever had.

I've returned two of these toasters, purchased new, in the past week. The first bread toasted fine; the next four uses produced increasingly poor results. I took that one back in hopes that it would prove an aberration! Unfortunately on the first use, the second toaster browned one side of the bread and not the other. Hoping this may have been a "break-in" issue, I toasted another two pieces of bread; they only browned around the edges. The third attempt didn't even produce enough heat to dry out the bread. Additionally in the week before I purchased these, I had to return a four slice Cuisinart Custom Control to Amazon due to malfunctioning and design defects. (Amazon was wonderful, by the way!) So after three attempts at Cuisinart, I'm giving up. It seems their products are increasing poorly made and are not worth the premium dollars. Look elsewhere...

Could the reason for all the one-sided toasting that everyone is complaining about, be because their toaster was set for bagels? The bagel setting intentionally toasts on one side only.