My gorgeous wonderful Daisy cow...yes..I said cow...toaster officially died a few months ago and I have been in mourning ever since.
I cant believe I never reviewed her for you guys because now shes gone I miss her so much; she even mooed when you lifted the lid...sigh and best of all she made the BEST Marmite toasties...EVER!
I have been craving toasties over the last few weeks; even waking up and really wanting one...no guys Im not pregnant before one of you asks...sheesh!
So after popping into Poundstretchers for yet more wild-bird food; I saw this toaster sitting on the shelf. Did I notice the thick dust on the top...yes...but just brushed it off...did I notice the box was quite battered...er...yes!
Hyandai make cars for goodness sake they must be ok...mustn't they...so you can guess where this review is going cant you.
This was packaged in a thick cardboard box with great food images on the front making my mouth water at the thought already.
Inside is the medium sized toastie maker and an instruction manual, looks ok so far.
Description
This clean looking stainless toastie maker is 700watts and makes 2 sandwich toasties at a time; so Ive no need for the usual four as its only for me as my other half isn't that keen on them.
On top are 2 LED's one green and one red.
At the back is a large heavy duty spring coil connecting the wiring from hotplate top to hotplate bottom, or viceversa.
It also has the clever space-saving option to standup and out the way either away in a cupboard or tucked next to the kettle for emergency toasties.
Opened up; the nonstick coating hotplates have a basic no fancy toast pattern as expected. I don't need fancy toast after all do I...does it make the day better having a smiley face on your snack while your eating it?, well yes, but not by much.
The toastie area isn't too deep so I cant do any deep fill toasties...again no probs I'm a Marmite cheesy toastie kinda gal, not a Scooby snack one so its still OK for me. I really wasn't expecting much for a £9.99 sandwich toaster.
The front handle is chunky and feels really substantial and has a good locking latch. Its also cool touch so no more burnt fingers, something I did get with my Daisy...bless her soul.
Underneath it has good chunky rubberized feet and it feels really stable on my worktop.
Use
So I checkout the user leaflet and it said to clean the plates for the first time so I did.
Next Ta..Daa...I turned it on and the orange light litup, so far so good, while that was heating up I buttered some brown bread.
Finally both lights on meaning its hot enough to toastie...woohoo! I laid the first slice butter side down.
*For those who have never used a toastie maker, you need to have the butter side on the hot plate to toast. Then I spread a thin layer of Marmite and a thin slice of cheese on the bottom slice and placed the 2nd slice on top butter-side up so it once again was against the hotplate.
I did find however my slices were a bit too big for the toaster, but instead of cutting them off I just wanted to see what would happen. So it was just the wait now till it was ready; so after 5 mins I checked, not even brown, then after 10 mins....maybe very slightly browner.
After 20 mins Id had enough as I was soooo hungry; well...the big dramatic silence...well it was hot...I can say that...but the bread hadn't browned much at all.
The LED's kept going on and off saying it was plenty hot enough and I have never had to leave my toastie in for over 20 minutes in my Daisy, it was always less than 10 minutes.
As you can see the toastie maker had also shaped my bread as it was too big so I had a curve the same shape as the handle in my bread...quite amusing. I know...I could have cut it.
You can also see that it has browned a bit but didn't get any browner and I do like my toast black...okay dark brown at least. The only part that got crispy brown was the central middle all about an inch as it was next to the 2nd toastie section.
But the worst bit for me was that the middle part of the bread was SOGGY; so I had to slip it into my normal toaster to brown and dry it off. It had sealed ok so no cheese was dripping as the edges were rock hard; but strangely not browned.
So by the time I got my "quickie snack", 45 minutes had gone by with hard edges and a very soggy middle.
No-one wants a soggy middle do they...sheesh!
I put it down to being a newbie the first time; so I tried the next day for another and even though I trimmed the bread to fit, the same thing happened, I even added extra marge to the hot plates too to see if it just needed more searing but it didn't make any difference...gutted :-(
Opinion
Well after several more tries and leaving it over 30mins in the toastie maker it still didnt toast properly plus the hotplates creak and rock while they contract and expand during the heating and cooking process. Not a good sound, plus once cooled I noticed the plates dont seem to fit very well on the base and are loose with nowhere to tighten them up.
So anemic toast, soggy middles and creaking hotplates, its going back tomorrow something I very rarely do with my gadgets unless they are genuinely faulty; but I feel this is not just faulty its badly made and badly designed. The only good idea was that it stands up to put it away...okay thats it...the only good thing I can think of...sorry.
I just want to say too I have nothing against buying a bargain and nothing against Pound-stretchers as I shop their regularly for household bits and bobs and you really can get a great bargain occasionally...and I like to take a chance; but Im disappointed in such a huge company like Hyandai.
Remind me NEVER EVER to consider buying a Hyundai car...OMG! It may have a soggy middle and creaky hotplates.
Sorry for bringing you an unrecommended product its about time eh...but I'll let you know which toastie maker I get next; or if you guys have one you can recommend please send me a line. I'm craving my Moomite toastie, sorry I mean Marmite...sigh!
R.I.P Daisy -2005/2014.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar