Were the Auto Drop Toasters reliable?

Cafe Society
1

I’ve bought two modern toasters in the past five years. Each broke within three years. The last one was an expensive Krups and the bread doesn’t want to lower. I’m quite frustrated. My parents bought a toaster when they got married and it last 35 years.

I want to get a well made and reliable vintage Toaster.

Sunbeam sold a auto drop toaster for at least 15 years. No lever.
http://m.ebay.com/itm/Vtg-Retro-SUNBEAM-T35-Chrome-Bakelite-Radiant-Control-Self-Lowering-ToasterWORKS-/253081714521?hash=item3aecd87f59%3Ag%3AEbsAAOSwlcZZhznQ&_trkparms=pageci%253Aab5303ed-7af5-11e7-a131-74dbd180831e%257Cparentrq%253Ab9a40a1e15d0ab648327e273ffff8976%257Ciid%253A3

There’s several Sunbeam models that self lower.

I haven’t seen a modern toaster that has that feature. Seems pretty cool.

Did you have one? Was the self drop feature reliable?

I’m also thinking about a vintage Toastmaster. With a normal pop up lever.
http://m.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Toastmaster-Toaster-Model-1B24-VGUC-Tested-Works-VERY-NICE-/122626077705?hash=item1c8d157409%3Ag%3ALk8AAOSw5n5Zf0VT&_trkparms=pageci%253Ae4b4b190-7af6-11e7-8da1-74dbd180453f%257Cparentrq%253Ab9ac0fde15d0a990b7fc4d14ffffe7fa%257Ciid%253A6

2

My grandparents had a self-lowering toaster. Worked just fine and they had it for years.

3

I found a couple YouTube videos. It’s awesome how the toast silently lowers and raises up.

They said it uses temperature to indicate when the bread is toasted. So a piece of frozen bread toasts on the same setting as unfrozen.

Most toasters use a timer. Frozen bread never toasts properly. You have to toast it a 2nd time.

4

There’s always one make of anything that is iconic; in Britain the Rolls Royce of Toasters is Dualit.
No help to you cos they prolly don’t sell where you are and are far too expensive for something that makes bread brown, but they have that ship’s engine-room look of confidence. Not that I’ve ever had one.

The cheap ones I’ve had died the death after a few years.

5

eBay has dualit toasters for sale. Some are US sellers. The new ones are too expensive. $200 for a toaster! There are some reasonably priced used ones.

I hadn’t heard of this brand before.

The most important thing is getting a well built model that won’t break in two or three years.

6

Dualits seem to last a dozen years minimum and maybe decades since they sell replacement parts, elements and the like.
I still wouldn’t buy one new unless I was running a cafe.