Maybe off-topic, but having recently repaired a cheap-ass toaster, maybe some insights: When you get a cheap toaster, they will probably have a design flaw: wh

Maybe off-topic, but having recently repaired a cheap-ass toaster, maybe some insights: When you get a cheap toaster, they will probably have a design flaw: when the toaster pops up, there will be arcing. This means that the toaster will only last a few years. My repair was in this section. The heat eventually desoldered the mains pad on the PCB. You can maybe repair it once and get another year out of it, after that the PCB will be very charred and brittle. The fact that the PCB gets toasted a little bit every time probably isn't great for your health either, so I think I wouldn't recommend repairing toasters with this flaw, unless you have some clever plan to get around this problem. My new toaster is a name-brand one. And I don't see any light when it pops up, so maybe it's fine. I've also seen other name-brand toasters that were only replaced because they got filthy -- due to improper maintenance I must add :p My toaster was mostly made of metal that was bent into the shape of a toaster, plus plastic on the outside. To disassemble it, you have to use pliers to bend some interlocking metal bits into a different shape. That should be pretty cheap to manufacture! The pop-op logic was very simple, not even sure if it used a chip or not. If it did, probably nothing digital, maybe just a 555. Single-sided cheap circuit board. I want the following functions: stop button, extra long button, short button, single slot operation. Most people are probably comfortable with a toaster that just lets you adjust the duration. But if you add sensors that can reliably(!) detect how much browner your toast or bread has become compared to when it was inserted, go for it. If that sensor goes haywire after two years, then don't bother IMO. If you can add odor or smoke sensors that react when the toast is burnt, that might be nice too. (Course they might go off when you run the toaster for the first time to burn off the lubricant(?), so that may add some complexity)