121–130 of 238 posts
My wife has one of these and she's crazy about it. I'm less enthusiastic, especially since it has no protection against the outside getting hot enough to melt or burn anything carelessly put next to it. Maybe an update addressing that and some of the other issues mentioned in OP would yield a toaster that would make both of us happy.
It's also live while turned off so if you ever put a fork in it, it's deadly.
Shitty blogspam article that just copies the original video by Technology Connections
Your adjective doesn't fit here.
That reminds me of this old bit of Internet humor, called "The Parable of the Toaster"[0]: Once upon a time, in a kingdom not far from here, a king summoned two of his advisors for a test. He showed them both a shiny metal box with two slots in the top, a control knob, and a lever. "What do you think this is?" One advisor, an Electrical Engineer, answered first. "It is a toaster," he said. The king asked, "How would…
An Electrical Engineer might possibly say do it without a digital embedded computer, and instead just use analog components. Like add the resistance of a thermistor touching the toast plus the resistance of a control knob potentiometer to trigger a poweroff which ejects the toast.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure it could. It'd just need a polarized, grounded plug with the ground strap tied to the body.
Just a polarized plug would do it. That would make it so the switch is before the elements and not after.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be fair, they do have gas stoves with inductive touch panels now. Only thing to clean are the grills themselves.
The knobs are part of it but the actual grill bits are by far the worst. I don't understand why gas stoves are so popular when you have to pull them to bits and scrub down after every use if you don't want them looking like crap. While induction is faster and takes a 20 second spray and wipe.
Because that literally isn't a concern for almost everyone who has one? I clean mine once a week.
The Classic Sunbeam Radiant Control Toaster (2006) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23723112 - July 2020 (47 comments)
How to design a good toaster with lessons from the 1940s [video] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23363646 - May 2020 (17 comments)
An Antique Toaster That's Better Than Today’s [video] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21164014 - Oct 2019 (232 comments)
Also slightly related:
Toaster Central: Antique and Vintage Toasters and Waffle Irons - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21432144 - Nov 2019 (7 comments)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure it could. It'd just need a polarized, grounded plug with the ground strap tied to the body.
Just a polarized plug would do it. That would make it so the switch is before the elements and not after.
Ehh main problem with this is different people like their toast toasted to different levels.
Add a knob that moves the strip closer/further from the heat source. There. Done.
I have also replaced the power cord.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've thought about this for a while. Imagine a line of "dumb" dishwashers, toasters, ovens, stoves, microwaves, etc., all well-designed and made with sturdy materials. Unfortunately, I think they'd cost 6-10x going rate as modern "smart" appliances, and also the market for them would be restricted to HN commenters.
Washing machines were one of the first applications for microcontrollers. If you have an electric motor that's supposed to speed up, slow down, reverse, spin fast etc., all on a schedule, it's a no-brainer (pun intended). It's usually the pump that fails, but the controller-cards often fail too. Pumps and controller cards are, of course, outrageously expensive. These things are supposed to fail. Back in the day, they…
Maybe it's a cultural thing? My extended family (both biological and in-laws) across my two countries (AU/NZ) frequently discuss what items lasted and what did not. This has led to a surprising commonality in the brands we all end up buying, and it's usually because someone bought something and it lasted, so others have bought similar, and when something isn't as good as expected, that gets mentioned as well.
There's a pretty wide range of age, political opinions and incomes as well - but caring more about reliability and long term value for money over shiny features is pretty consistent.