Hamilton Beach 22608Y 2-Slice Toaster

I have gone through a lot of toaster in my life so far and this is the one that I currently use today.  Although I do eat a lot of toast and bread myself, I really don’t need a 4-slice toaster.  This one caught my eye because I don’t mind Hamilton products and I really liked the price.  This is one appliance that I will not spend a lot of money on because I just don’t feel it is worth it.  As long as it gets the job done, I am satisfied.  That is what you will get with this 2-slice toaster, the basic job done with average results.


Overall:
A toaster in my home gets a lot of use and for different reasons.  Bread, bagels, English muffins, and even frozen waffles all find their way into this toaster.  It does have a warning that pastries, such as “Pop Tarts”, should not be used.  And if you do use it for such items, always use the lowest shade setting.  With that aside, another reason I purchased this is because it has “wide” slots. I have always preferred this because the wider slots lays the bread (or whatever you use) up against the heating elements more evenly.  However, that does not mean that your food will be evenly darkened when it “pops” up.  If you don’t mind one side being darker than the other, then this will not be an issue because the difference is not too extreme. However, I don’t like this myself so I constantly flip my bread around so that both sides are more even.  This is more extreme if you toast one thing and not two at the same time.  This is mainly because I have never quite found the perfect setting on the “Shade Selector”.  It has the usual settings of light, medium light, medium, medium dark, and dark.  The selector is a dial that rotates clockwise but, does not lock into place at a certain setting.  It just has 5 small indentations showing you about where that particular setting is.  This means that you are never quite sure if the dial is exactly where you want it.  You are forced to make your best guess.  If you have others in your household that like different shades make sure you check the setting before you start toasting.  When this says dark, it means dark.  The dial also rotates very easily so be careful when you’re cleaning the front in case you accidently move it around some.

Since this is a s-slice toaster there is just 1 lever in the front of the appliance that you push down to start toasting.  I do have a complaint with this because there is not an easy way of stopping the toaster if you want to check your food.  You can’t just press the lever down again and have it “pop” back up.  You have to kind of force the lever back up to check on the shade of your food.  I do this every time I use a toaster because I don’t like my food to dark no matter what I am toasting.  Even though you are basically forcing the lever back up, I have never done any visible damage to the lever and it still locks into place very firmly.  You really don’t have to put a lot of force into it to get the lever back up and check on your food.


Model:
The model is made of stainless steel with plastic sides and uses 120v, 780w of power.  It uses a 3ft-foot cord that comes out from the bottom of the toaster.  It is rather narrow in length, which I liked, so it is easier to position around your counter space. The cord can be a little bothersome since if you put the toaster up against the back of your counter.  I like the longer length in cord but, when it is not in use the cord can be a little hard to tuck away since it doesn’t pull out of the toaster.  It is not heavy at all and actually feels poorly made.  However, this is not the case as it is a well put together little toaster. 


Cleaning:
There is a crumb tray at the bottom of the toaster.  However, it does not come out so you are forced to open it, tilt to toaster over your garbage can or sink, and dump the crumbs out.  You just move a knob and open a hatch to dump the crumbs.  Then you can use a cloth to clean the inside the best you can.  I wish you could get into it and clean a little better without having to tilt it but, you can get it relatively clean and without a lot of work.  Just make sure that you try and clean after every couple of uses at least.  If you wait too long, the inside will become extremely hard to clean since you can’t take the tray out.  The crumbs will start getting into hard to reach areas.  If you clean this on a regular basis, there it is fast pretty easy.  Also, do not use metal scouring pads to clean the outside of the toaster as it could scratch and damage it.


Cost & Value:
This was what I liked about this product the most, what you get for the price.  I purchased this toaster for $14.99 at my local department store and have had it for over 2 years now.  Nothing has broke or been damaged since I have used it.  With the regularity of use, I am quite impressed that the heating elements still work like the day I purchased it.  Even though the toaster is far from perfect, and there are some minor issues that I have the toaster, it has paid for itself more than once.  Only spending $15 every couple of years for a toaster is a good deal to me.  I even still see this same toaster at my some of the stores that I shop in so it is still available to purchase.
 
 
Final Thought:
If you are looking for a basic toaster at a very reasonable price, then this maybe the best you will fine.  It has the basic issues that most mid-range toasters have but, if you don’t have to make a lot of toast at once, it is a good deal.  Even though the toaster doesn’t perfectly get both sides of your food the same shade and you have to force it to stop toasting if you want to check your food, I do like this toaster overall.  I would give this 3 ½ stars if I could because it is a good value.  However, I rounded down because it just does what you would expect from a toaster and nothing more and everything just average.  Just remember that you will get the basics here and nothing more as you are not spending a lot of money on this.


Thank you for reading.


This is my “Home & Garden” entry into the “Around Epinions In 80 Days Write-Off”