14 ms·

Why a toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today (2021)

61 points by spking 3y ago

euniceee3 3y ago
I wish people would stop talking about this sort of thing. It is driving the price up! It is truly impressive to have toast knowing that everything is being handled mechanically.
dan-g 3y ago
(2021)
a1o 3y ago
This is article is terribly useless, it's just a link to a video.
- rrr_oh_man 3y ago
  The video is absolutely worth watching, though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OfxlSG6q5Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OfxlSG6q5Y
  - jaymzcampbell 3y ago
    I had a feeling this was going to be a Technology Connections video before clicking and was happy to see that was the case. Great channel and a wonderful archive of stuff on there.
  - ajsnigrutin 3y ago
    Also a bunch of other videos by the same guy are very interesting... mostly dealing with old tech, but sometimes even some new things (like fridges, car lights, etc.)
    - brewdad 3y ago
      I've been watching his videos on a 1970s pinball machine. It goes horribly in-depth (in a good way). Fascinating how much complexity could be managed with the simplest of interfaces. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue-1JoJQaEg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue-1JoJQaEg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3p_Cv32tEo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3p_Cv32tEo
  - freitzkriesler2 3y ago
    TC is the best. Solid channel and good information.
- palmfacehn 3y ago
  I was satisfied with reader mode sans video. We need more elegant and reliable designs like this. A new toaster today might demand that I install an app on Android or iOS.
- ajsnigrutin 3y ago
  But linking directly to the video would mean less traffic to the verge and make it easier for viewers to subscribe to the video creator on youtube (who has a lot of other interesting videos, about fridges and cameras and photography, video, etc... ). Why would the verge want that? :)
- foogazi 3y ago
  Strange, I thought the article had a very thorough explanation of the mechanism: levers activated by the weight of the bread and a bimetal mechanical thermostat
kurthr 3y ago
I find this a bit bizarre. I've only taken a few toasters apart in the 90s, but they were examples of fairly complex control systems then. They didn't use timers or thermometers directly, but instead modeled the "toast" as a physical thermal element that was heated by the coil current, isolated on long wires, and cooled by ambient temperature (like little analog computer). You'll notice that the second time you toast is faster than the first, because the toaster/elements are already hot. Those thermo-mechanical elements were cheaper and more reliable than some digital IC in the 90s. Likely current super modern $200 toasters use timers and thermometers along with numerical models (some use cameras) to brown your toast, but I don't think they're dumb. The power put into the element (the voltage, current, resistance) can be measured at 2 points, along with air temperature in the toaster or even radiant heat sensors for the toast surface and can all be combined into a Kalman or StateSpace estimator for the toast surface temp and radiant power cooking it. I don't know that the toast is that much better (for the price) now and they just have different failure modes. I love the old toaster technology (especially the auto rising toast!), but they're far from perfect and were quite expensive in their own time. Be really careful when cleaning them! p.s. the video is the only interesting part of the article.
ramesh31 3y ago
Add to the list: Kirby vacuums, Craftsman tools, Kitchenaid mixers. Still using my grandparent's heirlooms from the 60s/70s for all of those. All strictly better than anything you can buy for any price today. So many things have improved since then, but basic consumer goods have almost entirely degraded to worthless crap.
- vel0city 3y ago
  How are modern Kitchenaid stand mixers worse today than before? I've taken a somewhat recent (<10yr old) mixer apart to clean and re-grease it, and it didn't seem meaningfully different from a 30+yr old one I helped a friend restore.
  - Finnucane 3y ago
    Depends somewhat on the model and when it was manufactured. After Whirlpool bought Kitchenaid from Hobart, they built a new plant to manufacture them in, though with Hobart's original tooling. Later, they introduced new models that substituted some plastic parts, and they had horrible QA problems. KA made some effort to fix these things, but their reputation took a big hit.
  - dmoy 3y ago
    There was a period of time in the middle there where they switched to non-metal gear thingy in there which would occasionally strip out and break with improper use. That was evidently intentional, to save the motor from breaking, but it does wear out faster. You can still get metal gear ones, but they're a little pricier. Besides that they seem the same to me
    - Our_Benefactors 3y ago
      it only really wears out if you are running the machine beyond what it’s supposed to, if you do this with a metal gear you will break the motor instead of the gear. Because of this there are lots of units “for parts” on eBay and will often even mention that it just needs a new worm gear. This is an easy fix and how I got KitchenAid in my kitchen for under $150
finikytou 3y ago
I have a dualit toaster still made in UK and high quality, easy to replace components and manual lever but it was pricey and def not as advanced as this old toaster but analog is best to control how you want your bread
- creeble 3y ago
  FWIW - I know two people who had their dualit toasters catch fire when the lever got stuck down. Go look for the overheat sensor. Let me know when you find it.
  - theshrike79 3y ago
    “Lever got stuck down”? The timer is fully mechanical, it doesn’t pop up automatically at all. The lever is fully mechanical and you use it to push up the bread, there is no spring mechanism
op00to 3y ago
This toaster is awesome but it really doesn’t fit anything but thin sliced bread. Modern toasters accommodate bagels (yes good bagels should not be toasted) English muffins, and so on. I really wanted one of these about a year ago but after seeing the slot size, decided to just get a new one each time my old one can’t be fixed.
paxys 3y ago
> and it’s got a mechanical thermostat inside that stops your bread toasting when it’s toasted and ready, NOT after some arbitrary amount of time What exactly does "toasted and ready" mean? Modern toasters have timers and "a bit more" buttons because people have different preferences. That isn't a design flaw.
- catapart 3y ago
  It's explained in the video but, if I remember correctly, there's a sensor that detects the temperature of the surface of the bread and it's that surface temperature that determines whether the bread is done (which is adjustable for the different preferences). It might have been a moisture sensor or an infrared sensor though? I don't really remember. Either way, the distinction is that it's reading properties of your toast to determine done-ness, rather than responding to a timer event.
  - paxys 3y ago
    My point is that there is no absolute "doneness" for bread no matter how much tech you shove in. I usually want my slice lightly browned. Some days I want it medium. With some spreads/kinds of eggs I want a more charred coating. A modern $10 toaster with a simple timer can achieve any of that while this genius $250 one cannot.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - catapart 3y ago
      And my point is that the subjective "doneness" of bread does still exist, even if an absolute one doesn't. And that subjective "doneness" is achieved using simple and repairable mechanical parts, rather than black-box electronics that need to be replaced if they have failures, and work on functions of related metrics, rather than on direct metrics of the subject, itself. If you want to use a $10 toaster, more power to you! If you want to imply that this toaster can't possibly measure and achieve "doneness" of toast, I disagree. It does so in a subjective way, based on a variable input controlled by the subjective preferences of the user, but what it measures is how closely to that subjective "doneness" it is. Nothing impractical or dishonest about that description at all.
kccqzy 3y ago
People get irrational over this kind of products where all control of the outcome has been ceded to the product designer. I don't. To me, this is the kind of product that disrespects the user by not even giving the user any (literally) knobs and controls to customize things. Especially on something as personal as food. I'm at least glad that the author describes the failings of the toaster and says it only works "most of the time".
- paxys 3y ago
  Yeah I read the whole article waiting for the eventual gotcha but it never came. The toaster cost $260 (inflation adjusted). You can't control how much you want to toast the bread. It only works for specific bread types. There is no indicator for when the bread is ready. It only works "most of the time". It is much more likely to burn down your house. What exactly makes it smarter and better than my modern $25 one other than the standard "everything was better back in the day" nostalgia?
  - noqc 3y ago
    >everything was better back in the day This exception is actually an example of how everything was better "back in the day". This toaster, which has had its controls removed, is analagous to, for example: - a personal computer which can only browse the web, or run verified software. - a coffee mug that keeps your coffee warm, but requires you to install an app in order to set a temperature - any gaming console (technically the first category) - cars which have had their buttons removed - A tv and a roku, that have been glued together for some reason
    - paxys 3y ago
      There are examples of devices released every day in each of these categories that don't have any of these restrictions.
  - alok99 3y ago
    > You can't control how much you want to toast the bread. But it does let you control that. There's a knob for it. Granted, I still wouldn't pay $260 for this, but it's a pretty cool mechanism nonetheless.
Finnucane 3y ago
I don't have a Sunbeam toaster, but I do have a Sunbeam CG-1 waffle iron, which I use routinely. I have an even older W-2, but it no longer works right. Sunbeam was once the king of the home appliance business.
Dwedit 3y ago
Today's bread got too big to fit in that toaster.
Sohcahtoa82 3y ago
> The Sunbeam T-20 reportedly retailed for over $22.50 brand new back in 1949. That’s $260 in today’s money When people talk about appliances today being built with deliberate "planned obsolescence" (ie, designed to fail within 2 years so you have to buy another one), I like to point the above out. I don't think modern cheap design is a deliberately malicious move being done to make more money. I think it's a consequence of consumers being short-sighted and VERY price-sensitive. Most consumers, when they go to Walmart to buy, say, a blender, might see the $19 Mainstays (Walmart's own brand), $30 Hamilton Beach, and $100 Ninja, and will opt for the Mainstays that will die in a year of moderate use, rather than the HB that will last 3-5 years. But back to my original point, because of price sensitivity of consumers, capitalist competition creates a race to the bottom on prices, and quality suffers as a result. I don't think it's part of a sinister plan to make you buy a new one every year. And for the people that are willing to pay for the higher quality, good brands still exist. For your blender, that's probably going to be Vitamix or Blendtec.
- hprotagonist 3y ago
  right: you can, today, absolutely buy a {fridge, freezer, oven, ... } that has a 50+ year life in the home. You're gonna buy it from a restaurant supply company, and it's gonna cost 4 figures. Just like in 1950.
- ndiddy 3y ago
  You can certainly pay $250 for a toaster nowadays, but all you'll get for your additional money is a higher quality casing and maybe a microcontroller and LCD all surrounding the same toaster guts. Similarly, you can pay $500 for a Kitchenaid mixer instead of $100 for a Walmart mixer, but both will have plastic gears that break in a few years. The issue is that there's many categories of products where high-quality, long-lasting options simply no longer exist, and where the amount of money you pay has no impact on its quality or longevity. In fact, paying more gets you more bells and whistles that can fail.
  - orwin 3y ago
    All plastic part should be replaceable, and you should be able to either buy them from the constructor, or have the plans available once you can't. At least in Europe, probably before 2030. That was in the Boost4.0 consortium document I had to read around 2019. I don't know if the law is pending or in application yet, but EU manufacturing sector know it's coming.
Our_Benefactors 3y ago
Mitsubishi makes a really incredible toaster for Japanese markets called TO-ST1-T (colloquially known as “The Toasty”). It only toasts a single piece of bread but it is adjustable for bread thickness and doneness, and is incredibly consistent in making a very thin and uniform layer of toasted bread with the inside remaining fluffy and moist. I can’t go back to making toast in a normal machine. If you decide to splurge on this toaster be aware that you also need a step down power transformer for USA that outputs 100V (domestic Japan power supply).
linuxftw 3y ago
Toasters are a waste of counter space. Just toast your bread under the broiler of your oven. Sure, you have to flip the bread, but you can do a whole bunch at one time if you're making lots of toast. You might think "Gee, that's a waste of electricity" using an entire oven to make toast. Where I live, electricity is under $0.15/kwh. It takes about 3 minutes to toast bread on both sides. That works out to about $0.0105 to make toast. If a toaster costs $20, it would take me about 1904 uses of the toaster to pay for itself, not including the electricity the toaster uses. And that's assuming I'm only make the number of slices the toaster can handle (say, 2 or 4?) and not more in the oven.
- asoneth 3y ago
  In my case the primary benefit of a toaster is that it requires minimal intervention, not energy efficiency. When I'm trying to get multiple small humans dressed and fed in the morning I prefer to put all the slices in a toaster oven and set the automatic timer. If I used the oven broiler I would have to manually set timers to remind me to run back to the kitchen and flip the bread. And of course if I forget or can't make it back to the kitchen in time then it doesn't take many burnt-on-one-side pieces of toast to equal the cost of a toaster. I agree that there are niche kitchen gadgets that are not worth the space but it depends on the person. For example, I do not have a dedicated coffee machine, but many people consider theirs indispensable.
  - linuxftw 3y ago
    I understand, but if you can't find 3 minutes to make toast, just get up 3 minutes earlier.
    - asoneth 3y ago
      I respect that you would be willing to sacrifice three minutes of sleep for toast without a toaster. However, I am working to increase my sleep back to a healthy amount including physical therapy, setting better boundaries at work, and outsourcing a lot of low-value "just a few minutes" kinds of tasks that are individually small but cumulatively add up. If I can spend $50 and half a square foot of counter space to get an extra 3 minutes of sleep every day I would do that in a heartbeat. If I could pay $1,000 and ten square feet of counter space to get an extra hour a day I'd do that in a heartbeat too. Our differing life circumstances make our tradeoffs different, though I will admit that I aspire to become time-rich enough someday to afford luxuries like spending three minutes a day making toast without a toaster.
gumballindie 3y ago
2024 will be the year when someone will make an “ai” toaster. Potentially someone will claim we risk being annihilated by it. Wouldnt be surprised if someone defended its rights.
nabilhat 3y ago
Mentioned in the video, but worth repeating. This one like many old appliances is ungrounded. What's wrong in this video is the suggestion to rely on neutral for ground. Neutral is not ground and shouldn't be relied on for electrical exposure safety. Not mentioned is the condition of the interior steel's plating. The galvanizing (at least zinc) and chrome are separating from the base metal in areas through oxidization and abrasion. The design risks have value and are worth preserving, but "this device predates safety" is a real factor to bear in mind.
haunter 3y ago
Toasters (and other small appliances) like this still exist today, buy commercial/restaurant grade products https://www.waringcommercialproducts.com/p/1j5eb/medium-duty-4-slot-toaster https://www.waringcommercialproducts.com/p/1j5eb/medium-duty... Otoh most people _don't_ want to spend $260 (and taxes) on a toaster, and there lies the problem
- out-of-ideas 3y ago
  makes me wonder if 'commercial grade' nowadays also features a repair contract where shit constantly breaks like the micky-d's ice cream machines... i would be interested if you have more url's for commercial/restaurant grade products though (quite frankly im irked at buying a toaster that is an absolute piece of trash, among other things like amazon's-cheapness-trend ect ect)
  - haunter 3y ago
    Webstaurantstore is the most popular site, basically all commercial/restaurant grade brands are available https://www.webstaurantstore.com/ https://www.webstaurantstore.com/
RockRobotRock 3y ago
Yay for Technology Connections getting featured like this!
Brian_K_White 3y ago
It's smarter in the sense that it's a more elegant design that produces a result from fewer and simpler parts, not because it has a bigger brain than one with a computer in it. The fewer & simpler parts isn't just a win for the manufacturer although all manufacturers are always striving for that. A dumb piece of wire if it does the job, is far smarter and more valuable to the end user than something unnecessarily complex and delicate that will die from something as silly as static or a leaking cap or a fall or a spill or a hot day. Companies produce new products with computers in them not because it's needed or better, but simply because it sells. In a capitalist environment, they must always be making something new and appealing, and it really doesn't matter what defines "new" or "appealing" at any given time.

61 points by spking 3y ago

I wish people would stop talking about this sort of thing. It is driving the price up! It is truly impressive to have toast knowing that everything is being handled mechanically.

dan-g 3y ago

(2021)

a1o 3y ago

This is article is terribly useless, it's just a link to a video.

rrr_oh_man 3y ago
The video is absolutely worth watching, though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OfxlSG6q5Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OfxlSG6q5Y
- jaymzcampbell 3y ago
  I had a feeling this was going to be a Technology Connections video before clicking and was happy to see that was the case. Great channel and a wonderful archive of stuff on there.
- ajsnigrutin 3y ago
  Also a bunch of other videos by the same guy are very interesting... mostly dealing with old tech, but sometimes even some new things (like fridges, car lights, etc.)
  - brewdad 3y ago
    I've been watching his videos on a 1970s pinball machine. It goes horribly in-depth (in a good way). Fascinating how much complexity could be managed with the simplest of interfaces. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue-1JoJQaEg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue-1JoJQaEg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3p_Cv32tEo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3p_Cv32tEo
- freitzkriesler2 3y ago
  TC is the best. Solid channel and good information.
palmfacehn 3y ago
I was satisfied with reader mode sans video. We need more elegant and reliable designs like this. A new toaster today might demand that I install an app on Android or iOS.
ajsnigrutin 3y ago
But linking directly to the video would mean less traffic to the verge and make it easier for viewers to subscribe to the video creator on youtube (who has a lot of other interesting videos, about fridges and cameras and photography, video, etc... ). Why would the verge want that? :)
foogazi 3y ago
Strange, I thought the article had a very thorough explanation of the mechanism: levers activated by the weight of the bread and a bimetal mechanical thermostat

kurthr 3y ago

I find this a bit bizarre. I've only taken a few toasters apart in the 90s, but they were examples of fairly complex control systems then. They didn't use timers or thermometers directly, but instead modeled the "toast" as a physical thermal element that was heated by the coil current, isolated on long wires, and cooled by ambient temperature (like little analog computer). You'll notice that the second time you toast is faster than the first, because the toaster/elements are already hot. Those thermo-mechanical elements were cheaper and more reliable than some digital IC in the 90s. Likely current super modern $200 toasters use timers and thermometers along with numerical models (some use cameras) to brown your toast, but I don't think they're dumb. The power put into the element (the voltage, current, resistance) can be measured at 2 points, along with air temperature in the toaster or even radiant heat sensors for the toast surface and can all be combined into a Kalman or StateSpace estimator for the toast surface temp and radiant power cooking it. I don't know that the toast is that much better (for the price) now and they just have different failure modes. I love the old toaster technology (especially the auto rising toast!), but they're far from perfect and were quite expensive in their own time. Be really careful when cleaning them! p.s. the video is the only interesting part of the article.

ramesh31 3y ago

Add to the list: Kirby vacuums, Craftsman tools, Kitchenaid mixers. Still using my grandparent's heirlooms from the 60s/70s for all of those. All strictly better than anything you can buy for any price today. So many things have improved since then, but basic consumer goods have almost entirely degraded to worthless crap.

vel0city 3y ago
How are modern Kitchenaid stand mixers worse today than before? I've taken a somewhat recent (<10yr old) mixer apart to clean and re-grease it, and it didn't seem meaningfully different from a 30+yr old one I helped a friend restore.
- Finnucane 3y ago
  Depends somewhat on the model and when it was manufactured. After Whirlpool bought Kitchenaid from Hobart, they built a new plant to manufacture them in, though with Hobart's original tooling. Later, they introduced new models that substituted some plastic parts, and they had horrible QA problems. KA made some effort to fix these things, but their reputation took a big hit.
- dmoy 3y ago
  There was a period of time in the middle there where they switched to non-metal gear thingy in there which would occasionally strip out and break with improper use. That was evidently intentional, to save the motor from breaking, but it does wear out faster. You can still get metal gear ones, but they're a little pricier. Besides that they seem the same to me
  - Our_Benefactors 3y ago
    it only really wears out if you are running the machine beyond what it’s supposed to, if you do this with a metal gear you will break the motor instead of the gear. Because of this there are lots of units “for parts” on eBay and will often even mention that it just needs a new worm gear. This is an easy fix and how I got KitchenAid in my kitchen for under $150

finikytou 3y ago

I have a dualit toaster still made in UK and high quality, easy to replace components and manual lever but it was pricey and def not as advanced as this old toaster but analog is best to control how you want your bread

creeble 3y ago
FWIW - I know two people who had their dualit toasters catch fire when the lever got stuck down. Go look for the overheat sensor. Let me know when you find it.
- theshrike79 3y ago
  “Lever got stuck down”? The timer is fully mechanical, it doesn’t pop up automatically at all. The lever is fully mechanical and you use it to push up the bread, there is no spring mechanism

op00to 3y ago

This toaster is awesome but it really doesn’t fit anything but thin sliced bread. Modern toasters accommodate bagels (yes good bagels should not be toasted) English muffins, and so on. I really wanted one of these about a year ago but after seeing the slot size, decided to just get a new one each time my old one can’t be fixed.

paxys 3y ago

> and it’s got a mechanical thermostat inside that stops your bread toasting when it’s toasted and ready, NOT after some arbitrary amount of time What exactly does "toasted and ready" mean? Modern toasters have timers and "a bit more" buttons because people have different preferences. That isn't a design flaw.

catapart 3y ago
It's explained in the video but, if I remember correctly, there's a sensor that detects the temperature of the surface of the bread and it's that surface temperature that determines whether the bread is done (which is adjustable for the different preferences). It might have been a moisture sensor or an infrared sensor though? I don't really remember. Either way, the distinction is that it's reading properties of your toast to determine done-ness, rather than responding to a timer event.
- paxys 3y ago
  My point is that there is no absolute "doneness" for bread no matter how much tech you shove in. I usually want my slice lightly browned. Some days I want it medium. With some spreads/kinds of eggs I want a more charred coating. A modern $10 toaster with a simple timer can achieve any of that while this genius $250 one cannot.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - catapart 3y ago
    And my point is that the subjective "doneness" of bread does still exist, even if an absolute one doesn't. And that subjective "doneness" is achieved using simple and repairable mechanical parts, rather than black-box electronics that need to be replaced if they have failures, and work on functions of related metrics, rather than on direct metrics of the subject, itself. If you want to use a $10 toaster, more power to you! If you want to imply that this toaster can't possibly measure and achieve "doneness" of toast, I disagree. It does so in a subjective way, based on a variable input controlled by the subjective preferences of the user, but what it measures is how closely to that subjective "doneness" it is. Nothing impractical or dishonest about that description at all.

kccqzy 3y ago

People get irrational over this kind of products where all control of the outcome has been ceded to the product designer. I don't. To me, this is the kind of product that disrespects the user by not even giving the user any (literally) knobs and controls to customize things. Especially on something as personal as food. I'm at least glad that the author describes the failings of the toaster and says it only works "most of the time".

paxys 3y ago
Yeah I read the whole article waiting for the eventual gotcha but it never came. The toaster cost $260 (inflation adjusted). You can't control how much you want to toast the bread. It only works for specific bread types. There is no indicator for when the bread is ready. It only works "most of the time". It is much more likely to burn down your house. What exactly makes it smarter and better than my modern $25 one other than the standard "everything was better back in the day" nostalgia?
- noqc 3y ago
  >everything was better back in the day This exception is actually an example of how everything was better "back in the day". This toaster, which has had its controls removed, is analagous to, for example: - a personal computer which can only browse the web, or run verified software. - a coffee mug that keeps your coffee warm, but requires you to install an app in order to set a temperature - any gaming console (technically the first category) - cars which have had their buttons removed - A tv and a roku, that have been glued together for some reason
  - paxys 3y ago
    There are examples of devices released every day in each of these categories that don't have any of these restrictions.
- alok99 3y ago
  > You can't control how much you want to toast the bread. But it does let you control that. There's a knob for it. Granted, I still wouldn't pay $260 for this, but it's a pretty cool mechanism nonetheless.

Finnucane 3y ago

I don't have a Sunbeam toaster, but I do have a Sunbeam CG-1 waffle iron, which I use routinely. I have an even older W-2, but it no longer works right. Sunbeam was once the king of the home appliance business.

Dwedit 3y ago

Today's bread got too big to fit in that toaster.

Sohcahtoa82 3y ago

> The Sunbeam T-20 reportedly retailed for over $22.50 brand new back in 1949. That’s $260 in today’s money When people talk about appliances today being built with deliberate "planned obsolescence" (ie, designed to fail within 2 years so you have to buy another one), I like to point the above out. I don't think modern cheap design is a deliberately malicious move being done to make more money. I think it's a consequence of consumers being short-sighted and VERY price-sensitive. Most consumers, when they go to Walmart to buy, say, a blender, might see the $19 Mainstays (Walmart's own brand), $30 Hamilton Beach, and $100 Ninja, and will opt for the Mainstays that will die in a year of moderate use, rather than the HB that will last 3-5 years. But back to my original point, because of price sensitivity of consumers, capitalist competition creates a race to the bottom on prices, and quality suffers as a result. I don't think it's part of a sinister plan to make you buy a new one every year. And for the people that are willing to pay for the higher quality, good brands still exist. For your blender, that's probably going to be Vitamix or Blendtec.

hprotagonist 3y ago
right: you can, today, absolutely buy a {fridge, freezer, oven, ... } that has a 50+ year life in the home. You're gonna buy it from a restaurant supply company, and it's gonna cost 4 figures. Just like in 1950.
ndiddy 3y ago
You can certainly pay $250 for a toaster nowadays, but all you'll get for your additional money is a higher quality casing and maybe a microcontroller and LCD all surrounding the same toaster guts. Similarly, you can pay $500 for a Kitchenaid mixer instead of $100 for a Walmart mixer, but both will have plastic gears that break in a few years. The issue is that there's many categories of products where high-quality, long-lasting options simply no longer exist, and where the amount of money you pay has no impact on its quality or longevity. In fact, paying more gets you more bells and whistles that can fail.
- orwin 3y ago
  All plastic part should be replaceable, and you should be able to either buy them from the constructor, or have the plans available once you can't. At least in Europe, probably before 2030. That was in the Boost4.0 consortium document I had to read around 2019. I don't know if the law is pending or in application yet, but EU manufacturing sector know it's coming.

Our_Benefactors 3y ago

Mitsubishi makes a really incredible toaster for Japanese markets called TO-ST1-T (colloquially known as “The Toasty”). It only toasts a single piece of bread but it is adjustable for bread thickness and doneness, and is incredibly consistent in making a very thin and uniform layer of toasted bread with the inside remaining fluffy and moist. I can’t go back to making toast in a normal machine. If you decide to splurge on this toaster be aware that you also need a step down power transformer for USA that outputs 100V (domestic Japan power supply).

linuxftw 3y ago

Toasters are a waste of counter space. Just toast your bread under the broiler of your oven. Sure, you have to flip the bread, but you can do a whole bunch at one time if you're making lots of toast. You might think "Gee, that's a waste of electricity" using an entire oven to make toast. Where I live, electricity is under $0.15/kwh. It takes about 3 minutes to toast bread on both sides. That works out to about $0.0105 to make toast. If a toaster costs $20, it would take me about 1904 uses of the toaster to pay for itself, not including the electricity the toaster uses. And that's assuming I'm only make the number of slices the toaster can handle (say, 2 or 4?) and not more in the oven.

asoneth 3y ago
In my case the primary benefit of a toaster is that it requires minimal intervention, not energy efficiency. When I'm trying to get multiple small humans dressed and fed in the morning I prefer to put all the slices in a toaster oven and set the automatic timer. If I used the oven broiler I would have to manually set timers to remind me to run back to the kitchen and flip the bread. And of course if I forget or can't make it back to the kitchen in time then it doesn't take many burnt-on-one-side pieces of toast to equal the cost of a toaster. I agree that there are niche kitchen gadgets that are not worth the space but it depends on the person. For example, I do not have a dedicated coffee machine, but many people consider theirs indispensable.
- linuxftw 3y ago
  I understand, but if you can't find 3 minutes to make toast, just get up 3 minutes earlier.
  - asoneth 3y ago
    I respect that you would be willing to sacrifice three minutes of sleep for toast without a toaster. However, I am working to increase my sleep back to a healthy amount including physical therapy, setting better boundaries at work, and outsourcing a lot of low-value "just a few minutes" kinds of tasks that are individually small but cumulatively add up. If I can spend $50 and half a square foot of counter space to get an extra 3 minutes of sleep every day I would do that in a heartbeat. If I could pay $1,000 and ten square feet of counter space to get an extra hour a day I'd do that in a heartbeat too. Our differing life circumstances make our tradeoffs different, though I will admit that I aspire to become time-rich enough someday to afford luxuries like spending three minutes a day making toast without a toaster.

gumballindie 3y ago

2024 will be the year when someone will make an “ai” toaster. Potentially someone will claim we risk being annihilated by it. Wouldnt be surprised if someone defended its rights.

nabilhat 3y ago

Mentioned in the video, but worth repeating. This one like many old appliances is ungrounded. What's wrong in this video is the suggestion to rely on neutral for ground. Neutral is not ground and shouldn't be relied on for electrical exposure safety. Not mentioned is the condition of the interior steel's plating. The galvanizing (at least zinc) and chrome are separating from the base metal in areas through oxidization and abrasion. The design risks have value and are worth preserving, but "this device predates safety" is a real factor to bear in mind.

haunter 3y ago

Toasters (and other small appliances) like this still exist today, buy commercial/restaurant grade products https://www.waringcommercialproducts.com/p/1j5eb/medium-duty-4-slot-toaster https://www.waringcommercialproducts.com/p/1j5eb/medium-duty... Otoh most people _don't_ want to spend $260 (and taxes) on a toaster, and there lies the problem

out-of-ideas 3y ago
makes me wonder if 'commercial grade' nowadays also features a repair contract where shit constantly breaks like the micky-d's ice cream machines... i would be interested if you have more url's for commercial/restaurant grade products though (quite frankly im irked at buying a toaster that is an absolute piece of trash, among other things like amazon's-cheapness-trend ect ect)
- haunter 3y ago
  Webstaurantstore is the most popular site, basically all commercial/restaurant grade brands are available https://www.webstaurantstore.com/ https://www.webstaurantstore.com/

RockRobotRock 3y ago

Yay for Technology Connections getting featured like this!

Brian_K_White 3y ago

It's smarter in the sense that it's a more elegant design that produces a result from fewer and simpler parts, not because it has a bigger brain than one with a computer in it. The fewer & simpler parts isn't just a win for the manufacturer although all manufacturers are always striving for that. A dumb piece of wire if it does the job, is far smarter and more valuable to the end user than something unnecessarily complex and delicate that will die from something as silly as static or a leaking cap or a fall or a spill or a hot day. Companies produce new products with computers in them not because it's needed or better, but simply because it sells. In a capitalist environment, they must always be making something new and appealing, and it really doesn't matter what defines "new" or "appealing" at any given time.