DeLonghi DTT312 2-Slice Adjustable Toaster

It pays to read the manual
If you've done your homework with the reviews on the Amazon site, you know that you can buy a very decent toaster for under $30; so I resisted buying this one because of the price. But we've now toasted enough bagels, English muffins, and bread slices with the DeLonghi DTT312 that I'm convinced the higher price was worth it. You'll get precise control over how light or dark your bagel/muffin/slice comes out, provided that you take a few minutes and read the directions in the manual. It's a pain to give up and read the manual, but it can pay off. One example: look at the photo of the DeLonghi toaster in the Amazon listing: you'll see 4 buttons in a vertical array on the front panel of the toaster. If you want to toast a slice or two of bread, push the third button from the top. If you want to toast a sliced bagel, face the sliced surfaces to the front and push the second button from the top. DeLonghi evidently feels that only a barbarian would want both sides of a bagel to be...

Good idea, poor quality.
My wife and I have been on a, to date, futile search for a toaster which actually does what it is supposed to do, properly toast bread. We have purchased and tried/tested about 10 different toasters and they have all been, more or less, disappointments as toasters. It seems that toaster manufacturers are more interested in style and fancy electronic functions than in producing a toaster which properly toasts bread to various degrees of doneness evenly. Most toasters require toasting at maximum then, when that cycle completes, immediatley continuing with an additional cycle of somewhat shorter duration because the maximum setting is inadequate to produce dark but unburnt toast in one maximum setting cycle. I ascribe this problem to two causes, underpowered and wide slots which keep the heating elements too far from the sides of the bread.

When we came upon the DeLonghi DTT312, and saw how the slot is variable and that the heating element moves with the variance of the...

Avoid
My attraction to this toaster was the adjustable width feature & that actually works pretty well. The down side is that this thing doesn't toast evenly . Each side has a band across the middle that gets toasted more than the top or bottom & it tends to burn the edges of the bread in this band. Also, one side is toasted at a much different level than the other side.

At this price level, I feel these issues make this toaster unacceptable.

On the plus side, it seems well constructed & the exterior stays cool.

I would not buy this again!

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