To Find the 5 Best Toasters, We Made Over 100 Pieces of Toast (Plus Bagels and Waffles)

Toasters top the list of one-trick pony countertop appliances. They make toast…and that’s about it. Sure, they can also handle bagels and frozen waffles, but a countertop appliance that does one thing and takes up precious counter real estate had better earn its keep. And yet, not all toasters are up to the task. Some brown only part of the bread, creating a leopard print pattern that’s fun to look at but not so fun to eat. Other toasters have smaller slots that don’t accommodate long slices of bread and thick bagels. After toasting loaves of sandwich bread, dozens of bagels, countless stacks of frozen waffles, and slice after slice of sourdough, we found five models that made perfect toast, including the best long-slot toaster and the best stainless steel toaster. All five top-rated toasters earned every square inch of their countertop spots.

The Tests

• White Sandwich Bread Test: We filled each toaster slot with white sandwich bread and completed three rounds of toasting on the lightest, medium, and darkest settings. We compared how every slice came out, observing if it was evenly browned and if both sides had achieved the same toast level.
• Bagel Test: We toasted a plain bagel using the bagel button (or the medium setting if it lacked a bagel button). We checked to see if the bagels easily fit in the slot and if the bagel’s cut side toasted evenly and consistently.
• Frozen Waffles Test: We toasted plain, store-bought frozen waffles on the lightest setting, using the frozen or defrost button if the toaster had one. We repeated this process without using the button and compared the two results to see if the button made a difference.
• Sourdough Bread Test: After the first three tests, we selected the seven top-ranking toasters and toasted large center slices (seven to 7.5 inches long) of sourdough on medium in each toaster, even if they weren’t long-slot toasters. We noted whether the entire pieces would fit in the toaster, and if it was evenly browned afterward.
• Cleaning Test: We cleaned each toaster, pulling out the crumb tray and brushing it off before checking inside the toaster slots to note how many errant crumbs didn’t make it into the removable tray.

What We Learned

All of the Toasters Did a Good Job Toasting White Bread

Of our five top-rated toasters, they all passed the white sandwich bread test. In other words: If you just want a basic toaster that’ll make…toast, any one of these will work. This includes the cheaper options, like the Black+Decker 2-Slice Toaster and the Hamilton Beach 2-Slice Extra Wide Slot Toaster. Both the Black+Decker and Hamilton Beach toasters browned bread fairly evenly. There were a few splotchy lighter and darker areas, but nothing concerning. So if cheap toasters are fine, why buy an expensive one? What set the fancy toasters apart was how they tackled other items, like bagels, frozen waffles, and sourdough bread. Some of them, like the Revolution R180 Connect Plus Smart, even offer highly specialized toasting settings, like choosing “from frozen,” “fresh,” and “reheat” for waffles, pancakes, and toaster pastries.

Bagel Buttons Can Be WorthWhile

What does a bagel button do? If you’re skeptical that it’s any different than a regular toasting option, you’re not alone. But after consulting the user manuals, we learned that it’s designed to toast just the cut side of the bagel—the heating elements don’t turn on for the exterior side when the bagel button is pressed. Most toasters instruct you to orient the flat side of the bagel inward, with the center sides heating up. But some toasters, like the SMEG toaster, specify facing the flat side outward—the opposite of what you’d expect. Always read the instruction manual (but you knew that, right?).

Most toasters also come with a frozen or defrost button. Less mysterious than the bagel button, the frozen button is just a way to lengthen the cooking time. When pressed, the toasting time is extended anywhere from 20 to 40 seconds longer to accommodate thawing. It’s a nice feature, but if your toaster doesn’t have it, you can just as easily increase the browning level when preparing frozen items, like store-bought or premade waffles.

Wide Slot Toasters Were the Most Versatile

Every toaster we tested claimed to fit bagels, but not all bagels and sourdough bread slices fit into the slots. Most bagels are bulkier than sandwich bread, but we intentionally tested with thicker New York-style bagels. In testing, some toasters, like the Hamilton Beach and the SMEG, couldn’t accommodate the thicker bagel—we had to jam it into the slot. Other toasters, like the Breville “A Bit More,” the Breville Die-Cast, and the Zwilling Enfinigy Toaster (another four-slice toaster) easily accommodated the thicker bagel, sliding in and popping out without any pushing or pulling. The Revolution toaster even offered two bagel options—one for regular bagels and one for large bagels (such as New York-style bagels).

Were Fancy Toasters Worth It?

Beyond the bagel and frozen options, there’s typically a cancel button that will do exactly what you think it does: cancel the toasting cycle. Some toasters, however, go above and beyond with extra features.

Both Breville toasters that we tested, the “A Bit More” Toaster and the Die-Cast Toaster, have a button for adding a little time to a completed cycle, but not so much that your toast becomes burnt. It’s a nice-to-have feature, but by no means a necessary one. Both toasters also have a “Lift and Look” button, which allows you to check the rate the toast is browning. It’s most useful for toasting bread you’re not familiar with—say, multigrain, thick-cut, seeded, or oddly shaped bread that may brown differently than what you are used to. Of course, the cancel button works just as well, but it stops the whole toasting cycle, requiring you to start all over again if more time is desired.

Another potentially useful feature: clear toasters, like in the Dash Clear View and MagiMix toasters that function like a real-time “Lift and Look.” Those two toasters are both long-slot, an irrelevant detail if you only toast sandwich bread and bagels, but essential if you’re partial to homemade or bakery-style loaves with longer slices. So paying more for them may be worthwhile, depending on your toast preferences.

Then there are true outliers, like smart toasters. The Revolution toaster is unapologetically splashy, with a digital touchscreen and 40 toasting options—including an entire panel of gluten-free options. It’s easy to dismiss this as silly, but after months of long-term testing, we’ve found a lot to love. The amount of options makes the toaster much more versatile, especially for households that rely heavily on frozen breakfast foods. Plus, the panel automatically updates with your most frequently used options at the front, so you don’t have to go searching for what you need. But a high price doesn’t automatically equate to a better toaster. The splurgy Zwilling Enfinigy Cool-Touch 4-Slice Toaster costs over $200, but it couldn’t even make evenly toasted white bread—one corner was consistently much lighter than the rest.

The Criteria: What to Look for in a Toaster

Consider what sort of bread you plan to toast before picking a toaster. If you only toast grocery store sandwich bread, you probably don’t need a high-end toaster. But the best toasters can handle way more than just bread: Our favorites made great bagels and frozen waffles. The best toasters in our review also had wide slots that could handle thick slices of bread. Every toaster should have a few brownness settings, bagel, and frozen options. Extra features, like “A Bit More,” cancel, and preview functions, are a great upgrade.

If you have a busy or large household, consider our pick for the best four-slice toaster. If you have a smaller household or rarely make toast, the best two-slice toaster is sufficient. Finally, look at your countertop space. If you have room and eat a variety of bread products, consider a toaster with a window or one with extra features like a “Lift and Look” button. Otherwise, stick to a more compact model that gets the job done without taking up too much real estate.

Our Favorite Toasters

The Best 2-Slice Toaster

Breville BTA720XL A Bit More 2 Slice Toaster

$120 $90 at Amazon $90 at Williams Sonoma $90 at Target

What we liked: The Breville “A Bit More” has a helpful number of extra features without going over the top. A simple slider allowed us to change the darkness of toast, from barely crispy but still white, to bordering-on-black dark, with everything in between.

More importantly: Toast came out evenly brown, from top to bottom and back and front—something not all toasters achieved. The slots were wide enough to accommodate bagel halves without a need to push the lever (or fish out the bagel). Freezer waffles toasted an additional 45 seconds longer with the frozen button, thawing, then properly toasting the waffle. And long sourdough slices mostly fit into the slot diagonally, better than most other non-long-slot toasters we tested.  We liked the “A Bit More” button that toasted bread slightly longer and the “Lift and Look” lever that checked the toasting progress without canceling the cycle. 

What we didn’t like: The light and medium toast levels came out rather light, especially compared to the other toasters we tested. But this can be worked around by adjusting the darkness level to slightly higher than your desired doneness.

Key Specs

• Weight: 4 pounds, 4.25 ounces
• Capacity: 2 slices
• Dimensions: 7.5 x 11.25 x 7.75 inches
• Material: Stainless steel
• Wattage: 900 watts
• Settings: Browning 1-5 slider, “A Bit More” button, bagel button, frozen button, cancel button, lever with “Lift and Look” function
• Care and cleaning: Unplug and make sure the toaster is cool. Pull out the crumb tray and empty tray. Turn the toaster upside down and shake out any other crumbs. Wipe the outside of the toaster with a damp cloth.

The Best 4-Slice Toaster

Cuisinart CPT-142 4-Slice Compact Plastic Toaster

$50 $39 at Amazon $90 at Walmart $50 at Target

What we liked: This affordable Cuisinart toaster kept pace with most of the expensive models during testing, and it offered four slots so we could make a lot of toast at once. The Cuisinart was surprisingly compact for a four-slice toaster, which made it a great option for those with smaller kitchens or limited counter space.

Toast came out evenly colored, with a thin ring of lighter bread around the edges. Bagels fared similarly, and waffles were warm and crunchy. Long sourdough slices were a little more challenging, but they squished into the toaster, toasting up decently. If you regularly toast more than two slices of toast at once and you don't want to spend a lot of money on a toaster, the Cuisinart is an excellent choice.

What we didn’t like: The slots are narrow, which means you have to squish in bagels and thick bread. The white plastic casing felt lightweight and cheap.

Key Specs

• Weight: 4 pounds, 4.25 ounces
• Capacity: 4 slices
• Dimensions: 10.5 x 10.25 x 7 inches
• Material: Plastic
• Wattage: 825 watts
• Settings: Two individual dials for browning, 1-7, bagel button, defrost button, reheat button, cancel button, lever that also lifts up which helps you grab shorter bread pieces.
• Care and cleaning: Unplug toaster. Wipe the exterior with a damp cloth and dry thoroughly. Remove the crumb tray and discard crumbs. Turn the toaster upside down and gently shake to remove any lodged crumbs.

The Best Stainless Steel Toaster

Breville BTA820XL Die-Cast 2-Slice Smart Toaster

$150 at Amazon $150 at Williams Sonoma $220 at Walmart

What we liked: The Die-Cast Smart Toaster has all the aesthetic appeal a cook could want, plus a couple of extra cool features. With a touch of a button, our toast lowered into the slot, no lever required: utterly unnecessary and entirely cool. But even without this feature, the toaster did a great job evenly toasting bread, browning bagels, and crisping up frozen waffles.

There are wide slots on the Die Cast Smart toaster that accommodate bagels and thick slices of sourdough. The “Lift and Look” button allowed us to check on the bread without canceling the toasting cycle. The “A Bit More” button added bonus time, so we didn’t have to vigilantly monitor a second cycle. None of these features are must-haves, but once we started using them, we realized how convenient they were. The Die-Cast toaster looks mighty sleek and seamless, without any joints on the outer shell. It’s easier to clean, which is good because you’ll want to keep this handsome toaster on your counter all the time.

What we didn’t like: The bottom of the slots had very small openings for the crumbs to fall through to the collection tray. This meant crumbs got caught in the bottom of the toaster—but not into the crumb tray. The electronic lowering of the toast is fun, but one more thing that could easily break (with no easy way of fixing).

Key Specs

• Weight: 5 pounds, 9 ounces
• Capacity: 2 slices
• Dimensions: 6.75 x 10.25 x 7.5 inches
• Material: Brushed stainless steel
• Wattage: 900
• Settings: Browning 1-5 slider, “A Bit More” button, bagel button, frozen button, “Lift and Look” button, cancel button
• Care and cleaning: Unplug the toaster and make sure it is cool. Pull out the crumb tray and empty it. Turn the toaster upside down and shake out any other crumbs. Wipe the outside of the toaster with a damp cloth.

The Best Long Slot Toaster

Dash Clear View Toaster

$50 at Amazon $50 at Williams Sonoma $50 at Wayfair

What we liked: This was the only toaster that could truly accommodate longer sourdough slices without smushing or flipping around mid-cycle. The ability to watch the toast as it browned took all the guesswork out of whether it was ready. And yes, the inner glass window slid out easily, so we could clean off smudges and crumbs without hassle.

Every carb we tested came out toasted evenly and consistently. The sandwich bread, in particular, had an excellent color progression. There were no ghastly pale or carbonized slices. Waffles were also excellent; piping hot but not overdone. 

What we didn’t like: The length of the toaster means it takes up a lot of space on the countertop. And unlike other models, because of the window, you won’t want to tuck this toaster behind other appliances. That said, it is the slimmest toaster we tested. The length of this toaster also means the single metal spindle that holds toast as it gets lowered can potentially twist or jam, which happened once during testing. It resolved itself, but could be an issue during the lifespan of the toaster.

Key Specs

• Weight: 3 pounds, 12.5 ounces
• Capacity: 2 slices
• Dimensions: 15.5 x 6 x 7.5 inches
• Material: Stainless steel, glass polypropylene plastic
• Wattage: 1100 watts
• Settings: Browning 1-7 dial, bagel button, reheat button, frozen button, cancel button
• Care and cleaning: Unplug the toaster and make sure it is cool. Wipe down the outside surface with a damp cloth. Clean out the slide out crumb tray with warm water and mild soap then rinse and dry thoroughly before inserting back into the toaster. Once the tray is clean and empty, turn the toaster upside down and press the glass panel clamp under the toaster and slide the glass panel out. Carefully wash with warm soapy water, and rinse and dry thoroughly before sliding it back into the toaster.

The Best Fancy Toaster

Revolution R180 Connect Plus Smart Toaster

$400 at Amazon View on Best Buy

What we liked: The Revolution toaster is one cool cat. It lowers and raises your bread of choice with a mechanized lift, and offers a seemingly endless array of toasting options. Swipe through the onscreen display to choose your bread product (including bagel, large bagel, unfrosted or frosted toaster pastries, and protein waffles), then select a doneness level, complete with a visual representation of what each number will produce. During testing, we found every brownness level to be accurately depicted. You can even use it to make paninis or breakfast burritos with the Toastie Press accessory—of course, that costs extra. It’s the highest-wattage toaster we tested. It has a countdown timer. The bagels were great, but the toast was ethereally good: beautifully crisp on the outside, but soft and pillowy inside. That’s thanks to extra-fast heating elements, which effectively “sear” the bread. It’s also the highest-wattage toaster we recommend by 400 watts.

What we didn’t like: Friends, this high-end toaster costs $400. Only you can decide if that’s a fair price for you. Although it may move the needle to know you can set the home screen to cycle through artsy images of toast, including a sunbathing slice on the beach.

Key Specs

• Weight: 4.52 pounds
• Capacity: Two slices
• Dimensions: 11.93 x 6.87 x 7.8 inches
• Material: Stainless steel
• Wattage: 1500 watts
• Settings: 40 (including fresh, frozen, and reheat; and seven brownness levels)
• Care and cleaning: Unplug from outlet and cool before cleaning. Wipe with a damp cloth then polish with a dry cloth. Do not spray with cleaner.
  

The Competition

• Black+Decker 2-Slice Extra Wide Toaster: This budget-friendly toaster did a fine job of toasting sandwich bread evenly and had wide enough slots to handle bagels. But it couldn’t fit the sourdough—nearly half the slice stuck out of the toaster.
• Hamilton Beach 2-Slice Extra Wide Toaster: Here is another budget-friendly toaster that did an okay job at toasting bread, but bagels didn’t fit well in the narrow slots, and worse was the lack of a crumb tray. The swing-away bottom door meant we had to move the entire toaster to the sink or trash can to clean it, which was cumbersome.
• SMEG 2-Slice Toaster: This beautiful and expensive toaster has a chic retro look and an easy-to-pull-down handle. The toast came out evenly brown, but the dark setting burnt the sandwich bread. The slots were too snug for the bagels. Sourdough bread also stuck out too far, which led to uneven toasting.
• Zwilling Enfinigy Cool Touch 4-Slice Toaster: The Zwilling was a behemoth of a toaster, looking as sleek as it was expensive ($215 at the time of publishing). But unfortunately, the toast came out unevenly colored, with the bottom corner significantly lighter than the rest. Toasting time was also unpredictable, with the left side popping up earlier than the right when both were set on the medium level. Frozen waffles didn’t come out as warm as other toasters, even when using the “defrost” button. 
• KitchenAid 4-Slice Toaster: This KitchenAid four-slice toaster made an alarmingly loud sound when our toast was finished. For all the sonic fanfare, the toast came out uneven, with the top right corner being a little darker than the rest of the bread. Bagels required a tight squeeze. And there was no frozen or defrost button, which struck us as odd, as every other toaster we tested, even the budget ones, had this feature. 
• MagiMix Toaster Vision: This was the only other toaster we tested that had a long slot and a window, but it cost nearly five times as much as the Dash Clear View. The toaster was pretty aggressive with its browning: The medium setting looked darker than most other toasters’ dark settings, and the dark setting was burnt. At this price, we expect nothing less than not-charred toast.

FAQs

What’s the best slim toaster?

At six inches wide, the Dash Clear View Toaster is the slimmest toaster we tested. The Dash is also the best long slot toaster, because of its length—it is 15.5 inches long, and can easily fit a slice of bakery-style sourdough bread.

What’s the best Breville toaster?

Breville makes great toasters, but if we had to choose just one, it would be the Breville BTA720XL A Bit More 2-Slice Toaster. It offers a wide variety of brownness levels, and it has a helpful number of extra features. Plus, it looks great on a countertop.

How do you clean a toaster?

Most modern toasters have a crumb tray underneath (or a way to open the bottom of the toaster). First, unplug your toaster and make sure it’s at room temperature. Then remove the tray and brush the crumbs into your trash can or compost bin, and replace the crumb tray. If there are still crumbs at the bottom, turn the toaster upside down and shake out the remaining debris. Wipe the outside of the toaster with a damp cloth and dry thoroughly. Never submerge the toaster in water.

How do you toast bread without a toaster?

Got a toaster oven or air fryer toaster oven? You can, of course, use that. But assuming you’re totally out of small appliance toasting options, you can toast bread underneath your oven’s broiler. Set it on low and place the bread on a quarter sheet pan a few inches away from the broiler’s heating element. Check it often—it’ll be done within a minute or two, and it can go from done to “charred to oblivion” in seconds.

How many watts does a toaster use?

Most household toasters use between 800 and 1600 watts. The higher the wattage, the faster your toaster can toast!

Why We’re the Experts

• Irvin Lin is a cookbook author, recipe developer, food writer, photographer, and ceramicist. He wrote the cookbook Marbled, Swirled, and Layered, which was picked by The New York Times as one of the best baking cookbooks of 2016. Irvin also runs a blog called Eat the Love, where he’s developed, photographed, and written recipes since 2010. He’s product tested and reviewed hundreds of kitchen items, including stand mixers and digital thermometers.
• Rochelle Bilow is an editor at Serious Eats. Previously, she worked at Bon Appétit and Cooking Light magazines. For this review, Rochelle reviewed the Revolution toaster, comparing it to the current competition. 
• We tested 11 toasters, toasting grocery store white sandwich bread, New York-style bagels, frozen waffles, and local bakery sourdough bread, checking to see how evenly the toasters browned each product.