Home » Misc » Consumer reports on toasters

Consumer reports on toasters


Best 4 Slice Toaster Consumer Reports 2023 [Reviews for Money]

Perfectly toasted bread with the right crisp and color for breakfast. Who wouldn’t like that, right? But if you have a large family that eats breakfast together, an ordinary toaster won’t be enough for you. What you need is a 4-slice toaster that’s capable of making twice the amount at a time than usual.

While it’s true that a 4-slice toaster makes preparing breakfasts and snacks a lot easier, the best ones in the market can do the job even better. That’s why in this article, I’ll introduce you to a list of the best 4-slice toasters in the market along with a detailed buying guide to help you choose one for yourself.

So, let’s start checking out the comparison table of the top 4 slice toasters!

Cuisinart CPT-740 4-Slice Digital MemorySet...

CUSIMAX 4 Slice Toaster, Ultra-Clear LED Display &...

Proctor Silex 4 Slice Toaster with Extra Wide...

Oster Long Slot 4-Slice Toaster, Stainless Steel. ..

Buy on Amazon

Buy on Amazon

Buy on Amazon

Buy on Amazon

Cuisinart CPT-740 4-Slice Digital MemorySet...

Buy on Amazon

CUSIMAX 4 Slice Toaster, Ultra-Clear LED Display &...

Buy on Amazon

Proctor Silex 4 Slice Toaster with Extra Wide...

Buy on Amazon

Oster Long Slot 4-Slice Toaster, Stainless Steel...

Buy on Amazon

My List of the Best 4-Slice Toasters: Top 5 Performers

There are lots of 4-slice toasters out there, but all of them won’t be able to give you the anticipated results. I’ve discreetly handpicked the ones on this list based on the well-thought comparison, thorough research, and my knowledge about this kitchen appliance.

Here are the details and specifications –

1. Cuisinart CPT-740 4-Slice Digital MemorySet Toaster

Cuisinart CPT-740 4-Slice Digital MemorySet...

Cuisinart 4 Slice Toaster is one of the top-rated 4-slice toasters in the market. Besides toasting this versatile unit offers many other functions such as – defrosting, bagel, reheating, and many more. Press the stop button to stop a particular side of the toaster anytime you want.

The button control feature allows you to easily pass your command and the large display shows you the selected function and timer update. With the shade dial setting, you can customize the browning level of the bread just the way you want. This Cuisinart toaster also allows you to save a preferred setting using its ‘memory’ feature.

This 4-slice toaster comes with 1.5-inch wide slots so that you can toast any item in it. You can’t get rid of crumbs especially when you’re toasting something. That’s why this toaster has a removable crumb tray. It helps you to clean the machine easily and effortlessly.

 

Pros:

Cons:

Buy on Amazon

2.

CUSIMAX 4 Slice Toaster, Ultra-Clear LED Display

Sale

CUSIMAX 4 Slice Toaster, Ultra-Clear LED Display...

This 1650 watts 4-slice toaster machine from CUSIMAX is one of the best 4-slice toasters in 2022. It has two independent sections for toasting. Each chamber has two slots for bread, an LED display that shows countdown time and selected mode, multiple toasting functions, and browning settings.

Speaking of which, each independent section of this 4 slice toaster comes with a bagel setting, defrost function, and cancel function. The frozen function is convenient for warming frozen bread while the bagel function allows you to make bagels easily. There are also 6 shade settings for the perfect browning.

There are 4 bread slots in total, each of which is 5.5” long and 1.5” wide. You can toast pretty much any bread of any cut in these bread slots. Once the toast is done, the lever automatically pops and so does the bread. You can easily take out the bread without burning your fingers.

 

Pros:

 

Cons:

Buy on Amazon

3. Proctor Silex 4 Slice Toaster with Extra Wide Slots

Proctor Silex 4 Slice Toaster with Extra Wide...

Among all the mid-range 4-slice toaster reviews on the internet, the Proctor Silex 4 Slice Toaster with Extra Wide Slots has quite satisfactory feedback. This 1300-watt machine offers two independent chambers for toasting. So, you can simultaneously toast two different kinds of bread with this machine.

Both toast chambers have 7 toast shade options. The knob control feature allows you to easily switch between different shade levels to get the anticipated browning outcome. The knob also works as the ‘stop’ button. Stop the toaster with one press of the button whenever you want.

This machine comes with a crumb tray that’s easy to clean. The crumb tray helps you to keep the kitchen countertop clean. Toasters that don’t have crumb trays are hard to clean. So, the remaining crumbs get burnt due to the heat and often have a burning smell all over the freshly toasted bread. There is a built-in cord wrap feature at the bottom which is convenient for storing the toaster when it’s not in use.

 

Pros:

Cons:

4.

Oster Long Slot 4-Slice Toaster

Sale

Oster Long Slot 4-Slice Toaster, Stainless...

Next up we have one of the best long slot 4 slice toasters out there. It has four different functions for toasting – bagel, frozen, toast, and warm. There are four dedicated buttons for each of those functions. You can choose any setting just by pressing a single button on the side.

Press the ‘cancel’ button to stop the machine immediately. As soon as the machine stops, the lever will make the bread slices pop up so that you can easily take them out. The knob control feature offers you 7 shade settings. Rotate the knob to easily choose the browning level that you want for your bread.

This toaster has two slots for bread which are long enough to hold two small pieces of bread or one long piece of bread. The dual bread auto-adjusting feature allows you to adjust the thickness of the bread so that you can toast it evenly. The crumb tray that comes with the machine is removable and also dishwasher-safe.

Pros:

Cons:

Buy on Amazon

5. Keenstone 4 Stainless Steel Slice Toaster

Toaster 4 Slice Stainless Steel Toaster with...

This 4-slice toaster made in the USA can match the performance of some of the top 4-slice toaster ovens out there. Keenstone 4 Stainless Steel Slice Toaster comes with two independent toasting chambers with individual knobs and buttons for different functions and browning settings. So, you can toast two different types of bread at a time.

Each toasting chamber has 2x 1.5-inch extra wide and 5.5-inch long slots for bread slices. There are different functions such as – ‘defrost’ and ‘bagel’. Each side also has six browning settings so that you can get the preferred shade on your bread. The lever pops the bread when the toasting is done.

Cleaning is not an issue with this 1650-watt 4-slice toaster from Keenstone. It comes with a crumb tray at the bottom which makes it easy to get rid of the crumbs. Just pull out the tray, clean it or wash it, and insert it in the toaster again.

Pros:

Cons:

How to Choose the Best 4 Slice Toaster Consumer Reports: A Complete Buying Guide

Choosing the right 4-slice toaster out of all the brands and 100+ models is definitely an overwhelming job. However, it doesn’t have to be so difficult! You need to know which factors to take into account and how to prioritize them. Here are the things you should keep in mind –

Start with the Shade Settings of the Toaster

Shade setting, also known as browning setting, is an important factor in any kind of toaster.

The shade setting stands for the level of brownness on a bread slice. Most 4-slice toasters usually come with 3 shade settings like this – light, medium, and dark. Or else you’ll see numbers from 1 to 6.

If you set the shade setting for 1 or 2, the outcome will be light brownish. 3 to 4 will make the bread medium brown, and 5 to 6 will give it a dark color when the toasting is finished. The more shade settings you have, the more precious outcome you’ll have. So, choose one that has at least 1 to 6 shade settings.

Height Lift Carriage Is Important

When you insert bread in a slot and start the machine, the heating elements get hot and make the bread crispy and brownish. The heating elements still remain hot when the toast is finished and if you try to take the bread out at that moment, you’ll end up with burnt fingers. That’s why the high lift is important.

Make sure that the toaster slots have levers that go up when the toasting is finished and push the bread slices higher than the slot length. This will eliminate the risk of getting your fingers burnt.

Extra Functions Are Good to Have

Extra functions make a cooking appliance more versatile than it already is. Besides toasting, 4-slice toasters usually offer these extra functions – defrost, warm, and bagel. It’s better to have all these functions but among all of them, the defrost function is significantly important.

Defrost: This function allows you to toast bread straight out of the freezer

Warm: This function keeps your bread warm after the toasting is finished

Bagel: This function toasts only the top side of a bread

It Must Have a Crumb Tray

Always go for a toaster that has a crumb tray. A crumb tray makes cleaning easier. You just need to take out the crumb tray when the toasting ends, clean the crumbs & residuals, and insert the tray again. Without the crumb tray, the bottom of the toaster gets full of residuals. When you turn the heat in an unclean toaster, those residuals start burning and that adds a burnt smell to the toasted items.

Variable Width Slots for Bread Slices

Make sure that the bread slots of the toaster have the variable width feature. This means that the slots and the heating elements will be able to adjust to the thickness of the bread slice.

This feature is important to ensure that both sides of the bread are toasted evenly. Without this particular feature, you won’t get the anticipated results in terms of crispiness and brownness.

Programmable Ones Offer More Convenience

A programmable 4-slice toaster oven means that you’ll be able to adjust the time and temperature according to your own convenience. The countdown timer allows you to leave the toaster unattended. You’ll also be able to customize the functions to save your preferred setting in different slots using the ‘memory’ function.

Find One with a Display And Easy Control

Getting a toaster with a display always makes things easier. By looking at the display, you can easily tell the mode that has been selected, the remaining time, and the shade setting.

Easy control features are something that you should eye for. If you don’t understand the control of the toaster machine completely then you won’t be able to bring out its full potential.

FAQ

People often ask, what is the most reliable brand of a toaster?

Ans: To be honest, there is no particular brand of toaster that trumps all the other ones in all aspects and features. Each brand focuses on a particular aspect more than the others. Some focus on innovation, some focus on high-end technology, and some focus on quality.

However, there are some well-established brands that offer a good deal on all things combined. Different models have different specialties but altogether there is a reasonable balance. KitchenAid, Breville, Cuisinart, and Panasonic are some of the most reliable names when it comes to toasters.

Another common question is, is there a toaster that actually works?

Ans: The purpose of a toaster is to serve you a slice of bread with the perfect brown shade and the right crisp. But in many cases, the toasters fail to do either one of that or both. That’s why the question exists if there is a toaster that actually works the way it’s supposed to.

Among all the 4-slice toasters out there, the Cuisinart CPT-740 4-Slice Digital MemorySet Toaster shows satisfactory results. Its performance is pretty close to the anticipated what you anticipate from a toaster of this range.  

People also ask, are expensive toasters worth it?

Ans: If you can find the right deal then yes, expensive toasters are worth it. Expensive toasters may not offer anything extra but they actually offer the basic things of better quality. An expensive toaster is usually programmable. So, you’ll be able to adjust the time, temperature, and shade according to your convenience.

It’ll be more versatile than the usual ones that come with the toasting, bagel, and defrost functions at best. The heating elements are better and more precise in expensive toasters. And of course, their sleek look and design give off a premium vibe in your kitchen.

Final Thoughts

A 4-slice toaster makes preparing breakfast & snacks easier and faster. But in order to ensure that, you must choose the right one discreetly. There is a technique that you can follow to figure out the best one for you. It’s quite an ordinary one but it works just fine for me.

First of all, think about why you’re getting the toaster in the first place. Then figure out what factors and features matter most to serve your purpose. Once you have all that figured out, make a list of that based on your priority. The one that matches the list should be the right choice for you.

 

Hopefully, you found this article helpful!

6 Best Toasters of 2023, Tested by Experts

We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. Why Trust Us?

1

Best Overall Toaster

Cuisinart 2-Slice Digital Toaster with MemorySet

1

Best Overall Toaster

Cuisinart 2-Slice Digital Toaster with MemorySet

$102 at Amazon$50 at Walmart$70 at Home Depot

Credit: Cuisinart
Pros
Cons

We have tested many Cuisinart toasters over the years, all of which have received high testing scores. This one offers a more digitized experience by housing most of the settings on a screen on the front of the toaster. "It offers different settings for different types of bread (white, whole grain, bagel, sweet, waffles, English muffin and gluten-free), which is helpful now that people are eating more than just packaged white bread, which toasts differently than something baked with less sugar and preservatives for example," says Nicole Papantoniou, Director of the Kitchen Appliances and Innovation Lab. "In general, most of these settings are differentiated by more or less time." There is also a shade selector that allows you to choose anywhere from lightly toasted to dark (levels one through seven) and options for defrosting and toasting single slices. Clean-up is also easy with a removable crumb tray. This model comes in a four-slice option as well if you have a larger family or want a separate set of slots designated for gluten-free bread without any contamination.

Dimensions6. 9 x 11.3 x 7.2 inches
Style of toasterTwo-slice
MaterialStainless steel
SettingsWhite, whole grain, bagel, sweet, waffles, English muffin, gluten-free, defrost, single slice and shade selector

2

Best Value Toaster

Hamilton Beach Brushed Stainless Steel Toaster

2

Best Value Toaster

Hamilton Beach Brushed Stainless Steel Toaster

Now 12% Off

$36 at Walmart$30 at JCPenney$25 at Wayfair

Credit: Hamilton Beach
Pros
Cons

This Hamilton Beach is a super basic but affordable model with seven toast shade options. Papantoniou especially loves that the stainless steel exterior makes it a bit more elegant-looking than other basic toasters that are usually plastic. While this model does not feature different bread settings like the Cuisinart pick above, it does feature extra-wide slots for thick-cut Texas toast or bagels. (Take note: You may have to adjust the shade setting or for thicker or frozen pieces of bread.)

This model also features family-friendly cool-touch sides to avoid burns. There is also a handy slide-out crumb tray for easy clean-up.

Dimensions11.3 x 7.48 x 7.48 inches
Style of toasterTwo-slice
MaterialStainless steel
SettingsShade selector

3

Best long-slot toaster

Cuisinart Long-Slot Toaster

3

Best long-slot toaster

Cuisinart Long-Slot Toaster

Now 14% Off

$60 at Amazon$60 at Walmart$70 at Nordstrom Rack

Credit: Cuisinart
Pros
Cons

Whether you need to toast a long slice of sourdough bread or a long ciabatta roll, Cuisinart Long-Slot Toaster allows you to keep your bread intact – perfect for an epic avocado toast or large BLT. While we haven't tested this model in the Lab yet, many of Cuisinart's toasters have performed well in past tests. We love that this toaster features a high lift lever, removable crumb tray and cord wrap underneath the toaster for ease of use. This model comes with a shade selector featuring seven different levels of browning and preset buttons that feature toast, bagel, defrost, reheat and cancel. Take note that with a toaster that fits longer slices of bread comes a larger footprint, so it will take up more space on your countertop than other toasters on the market.

Dimensions6 x 18 x 7 inches
Style of toastLong-slot toaster
MaterialStainless steel
SettingsToast, bagel, defrost, reheat and shade selector

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

4

Best Four-Slice Toaster

Krups Savoy Four-Slice Toaster

4

Best Four-Slice Toaster

Krups Savoy Four-Slice Toaster

$80 at Amazon$100 at Sur la Table

Credit: Krups
Pros
Cons

This black and stainless steel model is consistently dependable for toasting white bread to a delicate golden color as well as rye bread to a deeper brown. It's great for entertaining too — not only can it toast up to four slices at once, but if there's a crowd at the table, it will pop up slice after slice to the same degree of doneness without burning by the second or third batch. This model features dual independent control panels so you can toast a frozen bagel on one side and a fresh piece of whole grain bread on the other and each will be cooked to the correct doneness.

Additional features include six browning settings, plus defrost, reheat and bagel. A high lift lever helps retrieve smaller pieces of toast. In our testing, we especially liked that toast and English muffins popped up high enough to grab easily.

Dimensions13.34 x 13.5 x 8.58 inches
Style of toaster Four-slice
MaterialStainless steel
SettingsDefrost, reheat, bagel and shade selector

5

Best Smart Toaster

Breville Die-Cast Two-Slice Smart Toaster

5

Best Smart Toaster

Breville Die-Cast Two-Slice Smart Toaster

$160 at Williams Sonoma

Credit: Breville
Pros
Cons

The Breville Die-Cast Two-Slice Toaster took the top spot in our test, and the only reason it’s not our best overall pick is because you probably don’t need to spend this much money on a toaster. Still, if you value consistent toast, it's a champion toaster. We made five batches of toast consecutively, and it toasted consistently from batch to batch. With the push of a button, the grates lower your toast automatically — no lever-pressing. It also features extra-wide slots for bagels and thicker slices of bread. We found the "Lift and Look" setting to be particularly convenient; it allows you to check on your toast's progress and if your toast isn't browned enough, you can use the "A Bit More" setting to add extra time.

A pull-out crumb tray on the base makes it easy to clean, although it is not dishwasher safe. Also worth noting: The sleek die-cast metal housing with brushed steel exterior makes it major eye candy for your countertop.

Dimensions6.75 x 10.25 x 7.5 inches
Style of toasterTwo-slice
MaterialBrushed steel
SettingsToast, lift & look, bagel, defrost, a bit more and shade selector

6

Best Retro Toaster

Smeg Smeg Two-Slice Toaster

6

Best Retro Toaster

Smeg Smeg Two-Slice Toaster

Now 25% Off

$180 at Williams Sonoma

Credit: Smeg
Pros
Cons

If good looks are a high priority in your kitchen, the Smeg Two-Slice Toaster is worth the price. With its bright, glossy finish (that comes in 14 colors and patterns!) and its 1950s aesthetic, this sturdy toaster is a beauty that takes up minimal counter space. When you select a setting, it locks into place so you know you've set it precisely and extra wide slots ensure that you can fit thicker cut slices of bread. In our testing, it toasted evenly and showed a good range of toast shades. It was able to toast five consecutive batches of toast consistently.

This model comes with six browning levels and a backlit chrome knob that offers reheat, defrost, cancel and bagel settings. For easy clean-up, there is a removable crumb tray. If you still want a retro toaster, but in a larger size, Smeg also has a four-slice size available.

Dimensions12.5 x 7.75 x 7.75 inches
Style of toaster2-slice
MaterialSteel with powder-coated enamel
SettingsReheat, defrost, bagel and shade selector

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

How we test toasters

At the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen Appliances Lab, we’ve tested hundreds of appliances over the years to find the best ones, including toasters and toaster ovens. On our quest to make the perfect toast and find the best toaster on the market, we left no crumb behind: We've tested nearly 60 toasters over the years to determine how quickly and evenly they toast white bread.

We lined up toasted slices side by side from light to dark to evaluate each toaster's range. After we toasted consecutive batches, we compared them for consistency from batch to batch. We reviewed the owner’s manual and evaluated the ease of using the controls. We also evaluated surface temperatures of each unit during toasting as well as cleanability (We love a removable crumb tray when cleaning a toaster oven or toaster!). We checked whether or not the slots can accommodate thick bagels, long slices of bread and small English muffins. And we noted whether slices pop up high enough for easy grabbing.

What to look for when shopping for the best toaster

✔️ Style of toaster: When choosing a toaster, consider how many slices of toast you regularly make at once and what size of bread you like to toast.

✔️ Material: The exterior material of toasters is more about looks than anything else. In our tests, we found that toast quality wasn't compromised either way.