Customer Reviews

Black & Decker T2 Arize Toaster

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

On the first try, the toaster worked as advertised. Bread was crisp and golden on the outside, still moist and tender inside. But then the problems began.

The most serious was having the bread burst into flames. The toaster isn't by the sink and getting the burning bread out was a challenge. I called the 1-800 number that came with the product and customer service seemed only mildly concerned.

I do like the product, decided I was unlucky in buying one that was defective, and exchanged it for a new one.

On 2-3 occassions with the second toaster the toast has come up with small open flames on the edges. Thin bread tends to curl and at least twice the bread has curled around the support wires and jammed the toaster. On occassion, one side of the toast looks fine while the other is burnt black. Pressing the STOP button doesn't seem to abort the cycle if the toast starts to get overdone. Wisps of smoke are quite common.

I'm sure this product received thorough testing so I am at a loss to understand how I can be having so many unrelated problems. This is the most expensive toaster I ever owned and it's the first time I have experienced problems. What's more basic in the kitchen than making toast? And what's more dangerous than open flames?

I am still communicating with customer service and I am being sent yet another replacement. There is a new model coming out in a few months which Aplica is going to give me because of the problems I have been experiencing.

My advice to owners of this product is don't leave the room while toaster is in use and don't allow small children to use the toaster without supervision.

Half toaster, half spaceship. My mother gave me this toaster as an apartment warming gift. Little did she know that this little toaster would literally try to make the apartment a bit warmer. I have to admit, it was pretty entertaining watching the toast go up and down the first time. And I mean, how many times in your life do you get to see a toaster with a RESET button?! Well, it turns out you really need to hit this button if you prefer your kitchen in its current, pristine, non-burnt condition. Upon my third use of this toaster, I had "pain a la flambé" rather than toast. Did they really make this toaster just for the novelty of watching toast go up and down through a heating element. (I mean, really - what are those display window doors for? They seem to serve no purpose but to make the thing more "hip.") If you value your home, I'd suggest you pass up this gadget. Oh, and I gave the thing two stars because, well, the toasting process is rather entertaining, in a dangerous kind of way.

The control has a very fine line between raw and burned. It the toast is not perfectly vertical (say the bottom curls out a bit) that bit will be black. The last straw was the toast that got jammed. The heater element does not shut down until the carriage reaches the top so no matter how many times you push the emergency release button, the heat keeps coming. The flames were shooting out the top. Very entertaining but not very safe. Unplugging it and using a pair of tongs the flaming toast was rushed to the sink.

Stay away from this dangerous bad idea in toasters.

Thought this cool looking toaster by Black & Decker would look great in my new kitchen, which it does. The problem is, everything it toasts catches on fire!! My daughter was toasting bread and flames started shooting out of the top. We haven't found anything yet that wouldn't burn. Don't waste your money unless of course you want your house to burn down...

Bought this fancy looking machine for my husband for his birthday. If you are not cooking cardboard or steel plate, whatever is in the machine will start to burn. You must stand over it and watch to ensure a kitchen fire doesnt result. B&D should remove from the market.

In addition, the guides in the interior that keep the product from touching the heating element are easily damaged. If even the slightest bit out of alighnment, the toast or whatever will catch fire from touching the element.

Save your money.

The first thing we found out is that you can't fit two slices of bread side by side. So you have to turn one of them sideways with the wide part vertical. Then this slice droops over halfway through, so part of it is untoasted and part of it is burnt, and sometimes gets jammed. Even if you do one slice at a time, it toasts very unevenly and inconsistently. It also toasts English muffins very poorly, usually burning parts and leaving other parts untoasted. The only good thing about it is that it's easy to clean out crumbs. I regret buying this toaster, especially given its high price.

This toaster makes better toast than conventional toasters and toaster ovens. This is because instead of heating the toast under moderate heat for a few minutes, it passes the toast through a much hotter element. This leaves the toast moist on the inside and crispy on the outside.

It also looks quite nice in the kitchen if you don't mind the size.

That's the good part. The bad is that it's noisy and it can catch fire if you put in a piece of bread that isn't completely flat. If a part of the bread comes close to the elements, it can start a fire. They actually mention the possibility of fire in the instructions.

Get this toaster if you want to make very tasty toast but don't mind only feeding it flat pieces of bread. Just make sure you don't leave the room while it's toasting.

I bought this toaster thinking that it was about time somebody brought the art of toasting bread into the 21st century. It looked like a great idea.

It turns out that this is a dangerous appliance that never should have been released to the public. Don't turn your back on it for a second.

I've lost track of the number of times I've run out onto our deck with smoke pouring out of this toaster because the bread had burned so badly. I read the directions and have genuinely attempted to follow them. The design tempts you to put round bread items like bagels and hamburger buns into the machine, but these items often come into direct contact with the heating elements causing them to burn.

I thought I could work with this toaster because it looked so cool, but today when a small hamburger bun literally caught fire in the unit I decided to retire this incendiary device.

Buy this toaster at your own risk. Make sure you have a fan in your kitchen to suck out the smoke, and maybe have a few marshmallows handy for roasting.

I have had one of these toasters in an office breakroom for over a year now. Not once had any item toasted catch fire. I did watch a slice of bread get caught on one of the heating elements and begin to smolder. Pulling the power cord and later pushing the reset button continued the movement cycle, but the heating elements were powered off.

In response to other person's complaints, it should be understood that we all take the simplicity of a toaster for granted. This toaster is not of the simple design which has been around for decades.

An internal motor drives a toast carrier with lowers and raises between two heating elements. The darkness of the toast is determined by the power supplied to the heating elements and the speed at which the carrier moves down and up.

Additionally, this toaster has a preheat function. When the Toast button is pressed, the heating elements preheat to the temperature corresponding to the darkness setting. The preheat time may be a number of seconds.

The carrier begins to lower and as it does so, retaining guides close down on the toast, or bagel, or in my case, pop-tart. As the toast lowers, it receives the first pass of cooking. During this phase, it might happen that the toast will flex in one direction. Upon the carrier rising for the second pass, the flexed toast might catch a heating element and thereby begin smoldering.

Like I said, I have only seen this happen once. As the toast carrier reaches the upper/starting position, the retaining guides open. The toaster then stops. The cycle time is longer than the simple toaster, but consider this:

A simple toaster is about $10. If you just want a toaster to make plain, simple toast, that will do a fine job. But if you want to spend more for a toaster, perhaps you like the glass sides, or the technology, or you just like new gadgets, then this toaster will work.

Because it is using a new method of cooking, you would have to expect some "problems" that need to be worked out. That is what you have to consider when buying this.

If you want a good 'ol reliable toaster, buy the $10 one. If you want something different, new, and be adventurous, then try this one.

Now one review said that two slices of bread would not fit. The best I can figure is that they were using Texas Toast. For a bagel to fit, it should be sliced as close to the middle as possible. If one slice is definitely larger than the other, the larger might not fit through the opening at the top. You should never attempt to toast anything in any toaster, if you have to force it in.

Also, there is a knob setting for bagel toasting, and the bagels have to be inserted with the cut side toward the knobs. This is because the heating element on the cut side is getting more power to toast, than the heating element on the crust side.

A lot of complaints were that fires were started. Like any other device that generates heat: drier, oven, microwave, iron, heater, stove, George Foreman grill, etc. It really should not be left unattended. Again, this is where the simplicity of the older toaster is appreciated and taken for granted. Its design is so proven, that people do leave it unattended. They should not, but they do.

This toaster has a reset button. There is a sticker next to the button that says to press this button before first use. Pressing the button effectively resets the toaster to the start position.

I followed these instructions and found that the toaster needed to raise the toast carrier about 1/2 inch to reach the start position. I do not know how the toast would cook, if I had not followed the instructions.

Again, here is another deviation from the simple toaster.

If you intend to buy a press-and-forget toaster, then this is not the one. However, if you admire uniqueness and like adventure, then this toaster will give you something to watch. As that is why there are glass sides, so that you can watch it toast.

So with all of these negative reviews, its unproven design, and added cost, why would a person want one? Well, the toast is cooked fairly evenly. And unlike a simple toaster, consecutive toast slices are cooked identically.

(...)

How is it possible to make a toaster that expensive?

Regarding the 4 out of 5 rating. It is because I did see the one time toast catch.

I bought this toaster because of the Black and Decker name and I am very sorry I did. My 9 year old granddaughter was making toast on the lightest setting possible and she pulled out a FLAMING piece of toast. I have called the 800 number and was told someone would get back to me and they never did. Black and Decker should recall this toaster. Anyone who has one should stop using it since I see I see that other people consider it a fire hazard also.