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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 93 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
81 of 83 found the following review helpful:
 great value Jul 17, 2010
By Lawrence Devere
I've only had this toaster a short time. I looked at lots of long-slot toasters that could handle larger (wider) slices of bread. I can actually fit two large slices, overlapping them slightly, and they come out nicely and very evenly toasted.
I did find the "ready tone" to be slightly disturbing the first few times- the beeping sound is similar in tone to a smoke alarm, but much quieter. (I had a house fire from which I escaped this past year, so I am very sensitive to that sound.)
I have read many toaster reviews and on average, most toasters over $50-100 get no better ratings than those under $50. Being well under the $50 mark, I find this model to be a great value, and can find no issues so far with its performance or build quality- but if for some unforeseen reason this machine should die prematurely, I will update.
8/7/10 I just wanted to add that at first, the darkest setting wasn't really all that dark, but was accecptable; after several uses, the darkest setting is now producing darker results more to my liking. Maybe the machine needed a little break-in period? I am still very pleased with this purchase and am considering buying a second one, since it seems that every couple of years, models become discontinued, and I don't expect this one to last forever (it sees heavy use).
52 of 52 found the following review helpful:
Sourdough wonder machine Nov 30, 2009
By Gary E. Demaree
"Gary D"
Bought this toaster because of the large slot and the lift up feature. Hard to toast large sourdough slices in anything else except a toaster oven. Electricity costs are very high here and toaster ovens are too inefficient and slow. I also like my toast hot when I butter it and I sometimes forget with a pop up toaster and its cold when I get it. Not this one. Also has a loud beep to tell you when it's done! Best toaster I've ever owned.
46 of 46 found the following review helpful:
Best toaster I've EVER had! May 24, 2010
By Lynn
I bought this toaster over a year ago and I LOVE IT!! It's the most consistent at toasting the bread the same way. The one I used to have would burn the toast one time then not toast at all the next with no changes to either the bread or the controls. This one just makes the toast come out the same color every time. I love the fact that it doesn't pop up...but lets the toast stay in it's nice cozy warm cocoon to keep itself warm for me so that my butter will melt into each and every crevice. While I'm buttering one slice the second one is just keeping warm on the residual heat. No wasting electricity to keep it warm. No burning or over toasting the bread to keep it warm. It just keeps it warm by keeping the toast down in the base of the toaster. I can't find a single fault with this toaster.
31 of 31 found the following review helpful:
Great Value for a Bagel Lover Dec 29, 2010
By W. Tubbert
After our toaster oven lead to one too many burnt bagels, I decided I wanted to add a regular toaster to our list of small appliances. I had seriously considered buying a substantially more expensive toaster before I came across this little gem. Based on the consistently high reviews I chose the Hamilton Beach Keep Warm Toaster.
The single slot is perfectly sized for the large fresh bagels you get from the grocery store or a chain like Brueggers or Panera. The four buttons along the front are "Bagel," "Frozen Bagel," "Frozen Toast," and "Cancel." When the bagels were fresh, "Bagel" worked like a charm, heating the bagel through and toasting only the face. The "Bagel" and "Frozen Bagel" only heat up the front wires to toast only the one side.
If I could I would deduct half of a star because "Frozen Bagel" might be valuable only for something like the small Lender's bagels you find in the grocery store (though I have personally not tested this hypothesis).
From what I can tell, the "Frozen" settings (both for bagel and toast) generate less heat, but go for a longer cycle. The problem is that even on the highest setting using the "Frozen Bagel" feature, the fresh-then-frozen bagels did not completely defrost in the middle and required a second, albeit shorter, cycle (though, to be fair, it did not overcook the top of the bagel either).
I've found that "Frozen Toast" works perfectly for the frozen bagels using a single cycle set to your desired darkness.
Other things to note:
+ Toasting occurs quickly: even the frozen settings only take a few minutes.
+ Bagel and Frozen Toast features are very useful for Fresh and Fresh-to-Frozen bagels respectively.
- The Frozen Bagel setting requires multiple cycles to toast the larger bakery bagels and as such gets little use compared to the Frozen Toast feature.
= When the toast cycle completes the toaster beeps twice. It sounds very much like a smoke alarm, albeit a bit quieter, and can be a little jarring at first. However, once you are accustomed to the sound itself, the alert is nice to know when the toasting is complete if you've walked away to do something else.
+ The toast remains down inside the toaster when complete to "keep warm."
+ Something I hadn't seen noted in other reviews: when you pull the handle all the way up, the support appears to lock into place so you can easily grab your toast one at a time. Once the weight of the last piece of toast is removed, the handle and support return to the "start" position.
17 of 17 found the following review helpful:
Very easy to use toaster! Jun 05, 2010
By Mike
This toaster is slick, quiet, looks good on the counter, and it does not create a pile of bread crumbs under it! It truly can fit larger pieces of bread, up to 3 of them. Highly recommend this product.
See all 93 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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