Cuisinart CPT-180 Metal Classic 4-Slice Toaster, Brushed Stainless

I was reluctant to spend this much for a toaster, but after trying a less expensive one (a Krups, no less) and finding that it made extremely uneven toast, I decided to spend a little more. I exchanged it for this one, and so far, this one makes perfect toast; in fact, I've never seen toast so evenly browned. The defrost works great, too -- I tried it on frozen bread, without changing the 'brown' setting, and it came out looking just like the toast from regular/thawed bread. (Sorry, I don't toast my bagels, so I can't comment on that feature.) In short, this is the best toaster I've ever used, and well worth the money.

I don't think there's a toaster made that is perfect for everyones taste. For years I'd use a toaster oven with a toast timed setting because I could not only do more than two slices, but I could usually get even browning. Now I have this, and have had it for nearly two years. I bought it here on the Zon. One of those kitchen specials they frequently have giving me a good price overall.

The problem with toasters is that not only do some of them vary because of cheaply made or defective thermostats (trust me you ain't paying for a furnace quality control here), but because of the bread. The key to toaster is know your bread. Standard Sunbeam or Wonder bread needs about a 3 on this thing, premium breads do well at 3.5, muffins using the bagel button and so on. Your's may toast a bit different. Realize the science of toasting has to do with both the moisture and fat content of the bread or bagel, or muffing being toasted.

Dry Bialy bread has little fat...Read more

Put in 4 slices of toast and each slice comes up done to a different degree. Worse, for a given piece of bread one side may be done while the other is nowhere close.

When you look down into the 4 slots and see different glow intensities on each of the faces you see why this happens. Another reviewer wrote about getting one bad one, then replacing it with one that worked just fine. I just took back my 3rd one and gave up.

Its looks alone are worth a couple of stars. But I sure wish it worked.