T-fal TT7461002A Avante Deluxe 4-Slice Toaster with Bagle Function, Black
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of T-fal TT7461002A Avante Deluxe 4-Slice Toaster with Bagle Function, Black
Customer Review: Is It Wrong to Feel This Way About a Toaster?
Summary: 5 Stars
Yes. It's true. I never thought I could ever feel this way about a toaster, but this toaster gets me, well...kinda excited. I don't fully understand it myself. Before I was given this toaster as a gift, I never felt much about toasters either way. And then - ohhhh - I received this baby.
Here's why I love it:
1) Man this thing looks good! It is one hot-looking small appliance.
2) If the unit is unplugged, you cannot push the toaster handle down. (This is a huge plus when you have a husband loves to unplug things.) This way, you don't stand there waiting for toast that is not toasting.
3) It has a `Stop' button!! I LOVE this feature! I always felt like I was breaking my previous toaster whenever I pulled the handle up before it had popped up on it's own.
4) I keep my bread in the freezer, and when I need it thawed (without being toasted), I set the toaster to setting `1' and it thaws the bread perfectly. Any toaster I've had in the past has always toasted the bread around the edges a little, while the middle is still cold.
5) Ok, this is the best: It has a `Toast Lift' handle. I like `brick bread' - you know, the type of bread you see in the health food store that is about the size (and texture) of a brick? The slices of bread from these loaves are very small and they get lost inside a typical toaster. It used to be such a pain (literally) to get these little slices out of my previous toasters. Now, after my bread is toasted, I just push down the `Toast Lift' handle, and it boosts my toast up an extra couple of inches. No burning my fingers trying to get it out! If you eat small bread, you will love this feature.
(As an added bonus, it toasts bagels very nicely.)
Here's why you may not like it:
1) It toasts regular-sized bread unevenly when on a higher setting. When I use regular bread, I just push the (marvelous) `Stop' button half way through and then turn the toast around. I don't mind, but most people probably won't like doing that.
2) I'm not sure why it says `high speed'. It's pretty much a normal-speed toaster.
3) It has a teensy-weensy power cord. Fortunately for me, this is not a problem as the best place for it on my counter top happens to be right next to a power outlet.
I've had this marvelous toaster for just over three years now, and I've used it a lot. It still looks as clean and new as it did when I first got it. If you toast tiny bread on a regular basis, you will love this toaster as much as I do. I'd better go now. I feel the need to apologize to it for the three mean things I said.
Customer Review: My Sample Extremely Flawed
Summary: 2 Stars
My last toaster was a Presto with a single very long and wide slot. Cool to the touch. Toasted evenly. Didn't take up much space. Lasted over 25 years.
If my sample of this toaster is any guide....perhaps it is not...toasters have regressed, not improved.
First what I like. Four slots are handy,and it has a feature that perhaps
all toasters have nowadays....ya can't push down the toasting lever if the toaster is not plugged in. (a mistake I made now and then with the Presto). And personally I like the industrial look.
A word of caution.It is pretty bulky for a toaster....pay attention to the measurements. Parts of the exterior get hot. No need to touch those parts, but be careful. And as another reviewer mentioned, while the slots are wide they are also very shallow. No deeper than a standard piece of packaged bread. If you have an elongated piece to toast,either store bought or home made, you are going to have to cut it in half.
Now that very limited depth would knock it down to 3 starts for me....what sent it to two was the way mine toasts. VERY unevenly,and that is true of all four slots. To the point where for one side of a simple piece of bread to get crisp but untanned the other side gets very brown.
I do not know if I just received a bad sample, or if that is some deliberate and popular style of toasting nowadays. But I don't like it.
Should have returned it but it arrived at a very busy time and it just didn't seem worth the hassle. May donate it to the Purple Heart fairly soon and look elsewhere.
PS just read dozens of amazon reviews for many different brands of toaster....
Virtually all of them work fine for some people, very unevenly for others. WHY IN THE WORLD is it so hard to find a good basic, consistently good toaster nowadays??? Since they all work well for some, I can only assume component quality control is horrendously erratic in the industry and within each model.
Customer Review: A Disappointment
Summary: 3 Stars
We've had this toaster since May of 2008, and I've never felt that it met my expectations.
To be fair, the dimensions are provided, but I still was picturing this toaster as just a bit bigger than a regular 4-slice toaster. It's not. It's oversized and bulky. So the fact that it didn't meet that particular expectation is my own fault. I just wanted people to be aware of how huge this thing is.
However, I don't feel it met the following expectations either:
-The Bagel and Defrost buttons are only active for the left side of the toaster. What a waste to only be able to use one side at a time if you're making more than one.
-Getting bread to fit squarely into the toaster is often a royal pain. The slots are slanted and you have to place the bread in them just right or they end up crooked with some parts of the top not down all the way. So you can stick your finger in there to push them down or you can hit cancel and try again.
-Add in the above trajectory problem to the fact that the slots aren't long enough to fit most non-square or non-round breads and you can imagine the frustration of trying to manuveur Italian or whole grain breads into the slots. It usually takes a few tries of lowering the bread then hitting the cancel button before you can determine if it's an improper loading angle or the bread shape/size that's causing the problem.
-Lightweight breads tend to pop up and OUT of the toaster which can leave you picking your toast up off the floor.
-Toasting is uneven. It wasn't too bad at first, but here we are less than a year later and already we're flipping the bread around so it will get evenly browned on all sides. It's not even been used every day, more like weekends and maybe a couple of mornings during the week.
So, bottom line, would I buy this toaster again? Nope. Nice looking, unique design, but execution has problems.
Customer Review: T-Fallacy quality
Summary: 1 Stars
This is the second of this model I've used because the first one toasted unevenly which, I thought, was an anomaly. Unfortunately, it wasn't. The second one is worse than the first. This one toasts more slowly than the first, requiring two cycles of toasting the same bread at #4 setting and it burns the edges by the time the center is browned. The #5 setting, maximum, is inadequate to toast in one cycle and burns the toast in two cycles of toasting the same bread. As well, unlike most other 4 slice toasters which have 2 separate and complete sets of controls, this one only has complete control of the settings for the left side 2 slots, not the right side. I have tried other manufaturers toasters with no better luck. Why is it that no company seems to be able to make a toaster which actually properly toasts? All I am asking for is one which toasts evenly without burning part when the rest is properly toasted and which toasts properly within one cycle. I wish that toasters had timers instead of the idiotic numbered settings which are limited to a maximum which doesn't toast properly. If the "authorities" are worried about a fire hazard due to burning if a timer is used which may be set for too long, the remedy is to have a smoke detector in the toaster which will shut if off when the toast burns. Also, the use of nichrome wires mounted on an insulator so that when they are heated some stick out closer than others to the bread, and their simple-minded even distribution from top to bottom, causes uneven toasting. Designing and making inadequate products is unethical, wasteful of resources and adds to pollution when those products are discarded because they don't work and can't be fixed. The toaster "designers' should do some empirical testing of the toaster's toasting quality before finalizing the design for manufacturing and retailers should stop selling junk.Customer Review: Its big, fast, stylish and makes great toast.
Summary: 5 Stars
Ok, it makes really fine toast. And it's quick.
Its also nice looking ... esp. if you have stainless appliances or some stainless handles in your kitchen already. The slanted design really makes this toaster an original. The slanted design seems to make putting toast in and taking it out easier, esp. for kids. Even the buttons are stylish ... and I like how the outer toasting levers align with the inner levers. There are controls on either side and both sides can easily handle a bagel with ease.
There is a good feature to note. The middle push levers ... one for each side. These inner levers are stylish, but have a meaningful purpose, which is to push the toast UP and OUT of the toaster (if needed, if you want to, you don't need to) ... I've never seen a toaster that could do that before! That really is a nice safety / convienience feature ... esp. with smaller bread ... it pushes it up for enough that you don't reach into the toaster at all to retrieve the toast.
It's a big boy ... fairly wide for a toaster ... but worth it because of the quality and speed of the toasting ... and style/originality of the unit.
If I were to try and be more critical, I would say the size could be an issue for those with small kitchens or limited countertop space ... and the slanted design of the unit can on rare occasion launch some lighter toast out of the unit.
But overall, I must give this 5 stars because it does toast and bagels extremely well (no burns yet) and its stylish and original. I would warn that it toasts on a very low setting, so start out with 2 or 3 ... because its fast and powerful ... a higher setting could burn, I would think.