I had seen this toaster and discounted it on looks (fickle I know), but then had the horror of opening a present in front of the giving family member on Christmas Day and guess what?!OK, no problem, I'd been whinging for a toaster for months so could hardly complain when somebody, thinking of me, made a gift of one.
As ocwright mentioned earlier - it's BIG. I did not have enough worksurface for it so it lived on top of the microwave - not ideal as I could then no longer see into it or retrieve lost crumpets or bagels..... I also had a problem with the lift levers.
After several incidents of losing my rag and tipping the toaster upside down to retrieve said items I vowed to stick to bread. No good either. Whether I had the Friday afternoon effort or not I cannot say, but all slots would only toast a whole slice of bread evenly if the bread was ejected and turned over (both vertically and horizontally) half way through cooking. No good when you are tired, hungry and just want a simple machine to work efficiently. I also found the right hand slots toasted darker than the left hand slots causing a lot of thrown out burnt toast.
My main critisism (having read the other more positive reports, I may have had a dud) is that the toaster did not toast. Without the turn and flip routine to ensure even toasting I found the bread would be toasted in one lower corner and only warmed at the top, toasted in the middle with only warmed edges, toasted on one side only - depending on which slot was used.
Eventually in a fit of pique I unplugged it and hurled it, without ceremony, down the garden, where it has become a postive haven for weeds... at last it has found it's niche.
That was ten months ago and I am still toasterless.
(Why 2 stars - thanks to the weeds that attract insects I now have a wonderful array of wildlife from birds to toads living near the toaster).
I've owned one of these for well over a year now, it's gets used daily and is still working fine. There aren't so many 4 slice toasters to choose from, but this one is worth trying.All the slots can cope with quite thick slices and will automatically close in on slimmer slices when the bread is lowered. The 2 pairs of slots can be used independently and have their own separate browning and cancel controls. It should be noted that only the pair of slots on the left hand side have a frozen bread setting, which seems a bit stupid. Also be aware this toaster is BIG. It is well over one third the depth of an average kitchen worktop.
The hi-lift levers in the centre work well for normal sized slices of bread. On smaller items like crumpets the hi-lift is not high enough. A gentle tap on the lever is usually enough to surprise a crumpet, causing it to jump from the slot so you can catch it mid flight. I've had over a year to perfect the jumping crumpet technique and it's far safer than using a fork.
These minor niggles aside, the Avanti 4 Slice Toaster certainly saves time in the morning. If or when it finally stops working, I will probably buy another one.
