Toaster Rant!

Can't see why. The 555 has been around for 50 years, so why not a monostable with timing by a thermistor (in series with a resistor if necessary) operating a triac? The thermistor would detect if the toaster was cold - ie first slice - and would give a longer time constant. In fact, if it was designed properly, it would detect a partially warm toaster and give intermediate times based on the starting temperature.

I guess that if you were being really clever, you would illuminate the toast and measure its reflectance to see how brown it was. So you'd set the timer by colour rather than temperature.

Don't complicate things by bringing white/wholemeal bread into the equation! ;-)

No manufacturer ever uses its own products in real-life tests...

onsdag den 29. marts 2023 kl. 11.14.08 UTC+2 skrev Martin Brown:

Remarkable! Doesn't seem to have ever been available in the UK, though.

I have pretty good results using a Breville toaster-oven. They also make a toaster, as I recall.

But one must put the bread in upside down, of course.

Joe Gwinn

But old mechanical toasters did get it right. And they toasted both sides evenly.

The problem here is that, almost always, programmers have no instincts for the physics of the thing they are programming.

Maybe toast isn't popular in China. I recall pickled vegetables for breakfast.

The toaster I had back in the early 1990s certainly did it. It was the first electronically timed one I'd owned, and the first cycle was longer than subsequent ones. I remember opening it and tracing the circuit. A thermistor near the bread cavity reduced the toast time for an already hot unit. The timing potentiometer was a part of an RC oscillator of a CD4060 driving an SCR to hold the popup mechanism. The thermistor was part of the RC network.

It was a mid-price item not particularly expensive and lasted many years. Later toasters I had seemed to have dropped that nicety so perhaps manufacturers figured it was not worth it.

piglet

Buy an old-fashioned non-electronic toaster. So far I was always able to find one and it usually was also the cheapest. Set bi-metal thermostat, push down handle ... wait ... wait some more ... ka-kloink ... done.

For similar reasons my car has stick shift, roll-up windows and classic mechanical door locks. Oh, and I like cooking over a real wood fire (no joke).

Somehow the bi-metal thermostat toasters "know" that. The slices come out evenly browned no matter whether it was the 1st set of the umpteenth.

Yep, no fou-fou bread :-)

Most mountain bike manufacturers do. Craft brewers definitely do, all of them.

It can't work that way. First you have to call a meeting to order. Then the group has to evaluate during that meeting how much equity is in the battery and whether that white wire would be too racist. Also, the inclusivity of the bulb might be questionable.

They probably have perfected the art of building rice cookers though.

:-)

I recently had to take over cooking here and, for me, I'd rather go back to the basics. Back to cast iron pots and pans, and a real manly wood fire. Electronics? Nah!

The big black guy got it right. When asked if he could do it, he said "maybe" which was the right answer. Then he did it.

Good non-stick pots are great. Easy to use and clean.

I'm the fry guy here. Somehow I always get the time and temperature right.

I remember a piece about toasters in Scientific American (well, the translated Spanish version, here called "Investigación y Ciencia". I think it was there, it was long ago.

One of the things they mentioned was no insulation.

One of these, I guess:

Oh, the 1st is 1887 and the 2nd is 1910. So none of those.

If he were a law graduate he'd have said "I believe I can".

A friend (and client) of mine said "The best projects are those where, after saying that you can for sure do it, you hang up the phone and get a serious knot in your stomach. Asking yourself why the hell you just made that lofty promise".

I don't like them. They work for a while and then the non-stick surface becomes less non-stick, is worn and they are chucked into the trash. Bad for the environment. Cast iron cookware lasts almost forever. I have used a couple of pans from the gold rush times. Until my wife threw them out 20 years ago because she didn't like them <hurumph!>. Then I bought new ones which I still use. None of the non-stick pans has even come close in service life.

I only do when there is a wood fire underneath. In the kitchen I work in "digital mode". Burner to 100% until cast iron pan is hot, then off. If I need some more heat I turn it to 100% for a while again. A wood fire is so much easier, you move the pan a little to the side of the fire until it's just right for simmering, boiling or whatever. Spatula in the right hand, beer in the left.

The Curtis Stone stuff is great. Really tough.

This one is really good.

No need for a guess: the old Sunbeam Radiant Control is here, in my kitchen.

Sometimes we have bagels for lunch or dinner.

The toaster has a timer and makes a noise when the stuff is done. I don't have to hover over it.

We have a toaster oven too, but they have mostly different uses.

Developing and testing the toaster will cost money.

If they advertise that it won't burn toast, they'll get complaints when it does burn the toast, either because of unusual bread characteristics, or just a ham-fisted user.

Without advertising its non-burning toast qualities, they'll have a more expensive toaster that cannot compete with the cheaper alternatives.

Sylvia.