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A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today

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Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today

#151

Post by sgtnoodle »

silisili wrote: post #145
stagger87 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A quick search would have told you something like 80 percent of households own toasters.

The 80 percent figure I found was from nearly 20 years ago. It's hard to find anything more recent. Moreover, I guess what I'm most interested in is in how many people have and regularly use a toaster today, and more specifically why. The counterspace tradeoff doesn't seem worth it to me, so I'm curious about other's use cases and opinions. I apologize if my initial premise came off as condescending.

Lots of people keep their toaster hidden in a cabinet and take it out every morning then put it away.

Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today

#152

Post by silisili »

maxlybbert wrote: post #147
silisili wrote: post #134

Serious question - do most folks still own toasters today? They just seem so... specifically single function and take up counterspace. In my house, we have a sandwich press which we use for 4 or less pieces of toast at a time. And of course it doubles as a press for paninis or cubanos, too. And you never have to worry about unevenness, as it's just two hot plates basically. If cooking a lot of toast for a get togethe…

I tried to make do without a toaster when I first lived on my own, because I didn’t care enough about toast to get one. Except, originally, I didn’t get anything else that could make toast, so if I wanted toast, I used a dry frying pan. And, probably because I didn’t have a toaster, I wanted toast a lot more often than I expected I would. I eventually got a toaster oven, but I almost never used it for anything other…

> Except, originally, I didn’t get anything else that could make toast, so if I wanted toast, I used a dry frying pan

This made me laugh out loud. Ever so often my wife decides to reorganize and put everything away, and me being too lazy to dig everything out, resort to making toast that way in a dry cast iron skillet. Not sure about yours, but mine rarely turned out right. Usually burned the raised edges and left the middle underdone.

Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today

#153

Post by sgtnoodle »

AussieWog93 wrote: post #126
Gigachad wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>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. Because that literally isn't a concern for almost everyone who has one? I clean mine once a week.

Gas stoves can put out significantly more power than electric, and achieve high temperatures much more rapidly. It's very convenient compared to electric.

Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today

#154

Post by pklee »

cuddlybacon wrote: post #59

Since everyone is mentioning Technology Connections (he deserves it, great channel), I want to bring up this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiS27feX8o0 To me, this really shows the sad direction smart appliances have gone in. I would love to see that smart appliances would have continued to evolve in this direction. I don't like the current state of smart appliances, but going back to the absolute basic seems…

That was an awesome video. Thank you for sharing !!

Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today

#155

Post by 52-6F-62 »

cassepipe wrote: post #93

Ok I guess now is the time and place to complain to whomever cares about toaster design. Why is it that the metal grid that holds the bread has its bars so wide apart ? I don't toast only industrial square bread, I happen to regularly toast good state of the art european bakery bread that have very different slice sizes. It is maddenig to have your slice slip trhough the metal bars and prevent the toaster from going…

My partner and I were given one of these: https://www.dualit.com/products/classic-toasters

They're dead simple, and work excellently. The bars you're mentioning are single, wide and flat, so they'd support thin slices well.

Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today

#156

Post by hapless »

They bury the lede in the last fucking paragraph. The reason this toaster is immensely better than the toaster you have at home is very, very simple: this toaster's 1949 price would be hundreds of dollars in 2021 terms.

You can still buy really, truly excellent toasters made for industrial/commercial use, or for the homes of the very rich, and they're quite a lot better than the trash people keep in their houses. And they cost a lot more, too. Last time I checked, a commercial 2-slice toaster was in the $300-$400 range.

This is true for lots of home appliances. My favorite example is the Kitchenaid mixer. The modern mixers are very thoroughly "value engineered" to keep the price down. If you want to buy an original "Kitchenaid," like they made in the 1930s, you can call up Hobart and buy a miniature mixer. And it will cost you ~$2,000 in 2021, just as it did in 1935.

You can have the good toaster, the good mixer, etc, but it sure looks like people don't actually want that. The pattern of product offerings in your average store suggests people want something affordable, and it doesn't particularly matter whether it is good at its job.

Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today

#157

Post by agileAlligator »

blibble wrote: post #45
deeg wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, my question after reading this is why can't I buy a modern version of this toaster? Would it be too expensive? Just seems odd.

there's a lot of clever stuff in there that would make modern regulators nervous suspect making it compliant with modern electrical standards would be cost prohibitive

Lots of people still use the Sunbeam to this date. All you need to do is replace the wiring and the plug with safer modern versions so that it is up to electrocution safety standards.

Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today

#158

Post by dlgeek »

t0mas88 wrote: post #84
malleefowl wrote: post #28

If anyone is looking to buy one, I recently bought a restored Sunbeam T-20 from timstoasters.com and love it. He even replaced the plug with a polarized one.

What are polarised plugs? The article also mentions it but I have no idea what it is and why it's safer.

Polarized plugs have one of the prongs bigger than the other and will only fit one way into an outlet. This ensures that you actually know which wire is hot and which wire is neutral and can ensure the switch controls hot (the power source) rather than neutral (the power return).

Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today

#159

Post by hapless »

sgtnoodle wrote: post #153
AussieWog93 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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. Because that literally isn't a concern for almost everyone who has one? I clean mine once a week.

Gas stoves can put out significantly more power than electric, and achieve high temperatures much more rapidly. It's very convenient compared to electric.

That's not particularly true

Inductive stoves are vastly more efficient than the old fashioned resistive coil stoves, so your 3000W of input power can yield cooking heat similar to a 40,000 or 50,000 btu gas stove.

They also reach temp much, much more quickly than the old style. You can vary the output as quickly as a gas stove.

Re: A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today

#160

Post by MertsA »

throwanem wrote: post #44
maltalex wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course. The original sunbeam probably could not have been even made or sold today due to safety standards.

Sure it could. It'd just need a polarized, grounded plug with the ground strap tied to the body.

It also has a switch that's turned on by the weight of a slice of bread. A letter falling into the opening would slowly lower itself down and light on fire. Furthermore the thermostat is shielded by the carriage before it descends. If the carriage is jammed that could conceivably light the toast on fire before the ambient heat is high enough to trip the thermostat. This toaster has 3 main problems that could all be fixed relatively easily in a modern redesign:

1. Power switch that's prone to unintentional activation.

2. Poor grounding and a single pole switch with no polarization.

3. Radiant control without any upper time limit.

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