Customer Reviews

Cuisinart CPT-180BCH Metal Classic 4-Slice Toaster, Black Chrome

5 star:		(79)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(36)
1 star:		(68)

 

 

I was reluctant to spend this much for a toaster, but after trying a less expensive one (a Krups, no less) and finding that it made extremely uneven toast, I decided to spend a little more. I exchanged it for this one, and so far, this one makes perfect toast; in fact, I've never seen toast so evenly browned. The defrost works great, too -- I tried it on frozen bread, without changing the 'brown' setting, and it came out looking just like the toast from regular/thawed bread. (Sorry, I don't toast my bagels, so I can't comment on that feature.) In short, this is the best toaster I've ever used, and well worth the money.

I don't think there's a toaster made that is perfect for everyones taste. For years I'd use a toaster oven with a toast timed setting because I could not only do more than two slices, but I could usually get even browning. Now I have this, and have had it for nearly two years. I bought it here on the Zon. One of those kitchen specials they frequently have giving me a good price overall.

The problem with toasters is that not only do some of them vary because of cheaply made or defective thermostats (trust me you ain't paying for a furnace quality control here), but because of the bread. The key to toaster is know your bread. Standard Sunbeam or Wonder bread needs about a 3 on this thing, premium breads do well at 3.5, muffins using the bagel button and so on. Your's may toast a bit different. Realize the science of toasting has to do with both the moisture and fat content of the bread or bagel, or muffing being toasted.

Dry Bialy bread has little fat content and little moisture but takes a 5 or six to get it toasted. Dry grocery store brand standard white will toast using a 1.5 to two setting. It has fat content and no water, probably the best combo to get a fast toast browning. You will also see a big difference in one or two slices, since the overall heat goes up in the toaster a lower setting is typically needed when doing two slices at once.

For features this has a number of simple but useful items. The slide out crumb tray in the back makes for easy cleaning. The button array contains not only the standard toast setting, but settings for defrost and reheat. This helps overcome the problem with stand alone toasters. You need to remember to dial down a little on repeated toastings. My toaster oven used to sense what temperature it was and then adjust the toast time, even though the setting never changed. I know that because it had a digital time readout. It first confused me when I did repeated toastings and the time would decline by maybe fifty percent or more. I noticed later that it always had the same time when cool and much less when it was warmed up. Toasters typically don't do that, so you must. There is also a bagel button which works well on English muffins too.

Additionally I like the feature that allows you to "pull up" on the set bar to remove "short" slices of bread after toasting. One of the old household dangers of toast was people putting in metal knives to remove toast, and getting shocked. Here you just raise it up, and then pluck it out. I toast almost daily, so this has held up two years without any complaints, so I'd say its durable. It comes in colors, but I like the all stainless model, it shines up so nice.

Put in 4 slices of toast and each slice comes up done to a different degree. Worse, for a given piece of bread one side may be done while the other is nowhere close.

When you look down into the 4 slots and see different glow intensities on each of the faces you see why this happens. Another reviewer wrote about getting one bad one, then replacing it with one that worked just fine. I just took back my 3rd one and gave up.

Its looks alone are worth a couple of stars. But I sure wish it worked.

We have toasted bread, bagels, and frozen waffles. It works just fine, toasting very evenly. This is the nicest toaster we have ever owned.

Believe what you read...the reviews don't lie...its a TERRIBLE toaster. Toasts only on one side - I mean really...in this day and age, how hard is it to make a toaster that toasts both sides of the bread??? I assumed my first one was broken, but the second one behaves just like the first one. What a waste...wish I had checked these reviews first. I just didn't think I had to for a toaster.

I wanted a good looking toaster that could reliably toast bread and bagels. Well, the toaster looks great. It just doesn't reliably toast bread. It is necessary to wait and watch as one day it burns; the next day you have to toast twice. (I now know my smoke detector works perfectly) The bagle setting appears to have no affect whatsoever. The stainless steel finish is beautiful, however is a fingerprint magnet. When clean, it is a very nice looking toaster. Looks 10, features 5, functionality 1.

This is a great toaster if you are looking for a multi-purpose appliance. A few months after purchasing this product, ours no longer just toasts. Two slots have become places to store bread, one is now a burner, and the fourth actually does toast.
This toaster has never cooked evenly. We are very disappointed in this particular Cuisinart product.

Third review - revised down to one star:
Welp, still not a great device. My recommendation is to skip it, and look for something better. As below, we returned the first one, got a second one, and it still has the same malfunction: If you're making four slices of toast, four sides are going to be half-done. Two of those sides will be very undone. It's lame. Don't bother.

Second review:
Okay, my original review below. That was toaster #1. We had it replaced by the store, and the second model seems to be working great. We really like the look and utility of the thing.

One of the nicest little features is that when toast is finished, it will stay mostly down in the slot to stay warm. But a spring handle allows you to push it up a little higher, preventing you from burning your fingertips on the machine, or electrocuting yourself when trying to dig your slice out using the butter knife. All-in-all, pretty decent.(...)This is the world's greatest 6-sided toaster.

First review:
See, you put four slices of toast in the thing, and 6 sides come out toasted to perfection instead of all 8. Two sides will come out completely untouched. It's ridiculous.

The two center slices will have the sides which faced the middle of the toaster totally unscathed. And we could see that the elements were working there, but just not hot enough.

We liked the look of this toaster, but since it doesn't work at all, it was useless. There are many $25 toasters that do a vastly better job.

We're returning ours, and seeking another better model.

I have to echo what most of the disappointed reviewers wrote. This is a beautiful toaster that has major quality issues.

I tried three of them before giving up. Should have read these reviews beforehand. The first one had a lever that wouldn't go down cleanly. It would catch every time. I didn't even get a chance to see if it would toast properly.

The next two had the exact same problem. The two inner slots wouldn't toast the bread on the inside sides.

I'm surprised this toaster is still on the market with so many of us having the exact same problem. Buyer beware and buy at your own risk.

Based on the majority of the reviews on Amazon with respect to toasters, there are not that many good toasters. The only one that looks to be a solid 4-slice model that isn't outrageously expensive is the Dualit Lite for about $110. Not what I want to spend on a toaster though, but a lot cheaper than the regular Dualit.

There's a $40 Hamilton Beach at Target which is chrome but has mixed reviews. However, most people seem to have misunderstood how to operate it, so we might give that one a shot.

In the meantime, the toaster I bought 12 years ago, a Toastmaster 4-slice, works really well. It just looks ugly and my wife wants to replace it.

I've had this toaster for close to a year now. My last toaster, which I loved, bit the dust, and b/c they no longer make the model I used to have, I decided to go for this Cuisinart toaster. We make a lot of toast in our house, so a good toaster is important to us. While this model is generally working for us, I would probably not purchase it if I had to do it over again. My main complaints with it are:

1)Uneven toasting. It seems to have a mind of its own. I always toast 2 pieces at a time, and sometimes it seems to toast fairly well and evenly, and other times it only toasts one side of the bread. It is very random and unpredictable. And since this is a "toaster" after all, the one thing I expect from it is to toast both sides of my bread.

2)The "extra-lift carriage lever". It only slightly heightens the carriage, so if you have small items, like English muffins, for example, this feature does little to help you retrieve the items from the toaster. It can be very frustrating!

I do like the slide out crumb tray, though, which makes for easy crumb cleanup, and I also like its compact size for easy storage. (I hate keeping my toasters on the counter). But for the price I paid compared to the performance I get from this toaster, I do not think this is a very good buy. What I got is a mediocre performer for a fairly high price. Cuisinart makes a fantastic food processor, but they can definitely use some improvement with their toasters.