Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I thought toaster buying was simple but it's not. If you think genuine toasted San Francisco fresh sourdough bread is the best invention since the Gold Rush, I can save you some time. For the un-initiated, any sourdough bread worth it's crust is large and round. When they machine cut it, the slices are all varying length and some of them are very very long. Cutting a slice in two does not work for various practical reasons, plus it just looks wrong. You have the same problem with various artisan breads So you need a long slot toaster that is a single element so it can take a combination of very small pieces of bread (the ends) and long pieces (the middle). And everything else. As I looked around in stores I realized they are phasing this type out. I had an old Cuisinart for 10+ years and it was gradually failing and Cuisinart no longer offer this type. So after some searching I assembled a list of five models but only the Breville and Kitchen Aid had controls on the front. The rest have them on the right (at the end) and I don't think that is efficient for many counter tops especially mine and that is all that matters. Then it turns out the Breville has four elements, so your sourdough comes out with a nice stripe in the middle. Quelle horreur. Several of the end-control ones have that issue as well. So that leaves you with exactly one choice - the Kitchen Aid KMT4116CU. See I told you I would save you time. So .... you may ask ... how was the toast? The toaster works reasonably well after about four days and we've tried a number of different breads and slice sizes. One concern is that it would get too hot, the sides get warm but you won't get burned. The top is a little hotter but I touched it after a running it for a while and you won't get burned. Then there is the much cited issue of the beep that you can't turn off. Yes it beeps (only once), but it's not that loud at least on the one I got. I happen to have a Kitchen Aid kettle, and that is actually louder. It is quieter than my digital timer and the alarms on both the microwave and oven. I don't think you will wake anyone any more than walking around the house. The controls are easy to use, probably better than my last one. The element seems to have mostly even heat, the build quality is generally reasonable. It has various heat settings like defrost, bagel, reheat that seem to work. It has 7 darkness settings, and you need about a 6+ for some dense frozen breads, 3-4 for medium breads. Not like some toasters where 2 is bread and 3 is charcoal. The center of the bread does not seem to get too dried out. The only thing that would be nice is an option to turn off one side when you are only using one slot (the last one had that). But it's minor. As with all things in life your mileage may vary but I'm keeping this toaster.