Customer Reviews

Cuisinart CPT-70 Classic Style Toaster

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

After my old toaster, which was given to my in-laws for a wedding gift in 1950, broke recently after 50 years of daily use, we spent hours researching toasters and ended up buying this one. WHAT A MISTAKE! My old toaster, after the repairs we later made to it, will be going strong long after this one is taking up landfill space; the quality and durability just don't compare, and the old toaster is designed to be repaired if it breaks. The Cuisinart, despite its relatively good warranty (3 years), is designed to be thrown away if it breaks. With the exception of the extra-wide slots and the slightly cooler exterior of the Cuisinart "Classic", the 50 year old toaster has more advanced features (a few examples of the many I might mention: the old toaster can make soft or crunchy toast of any degree of doneness, instead of limiting you to soft white toast or crunchy black toast, the crumb tray is better-designed, the toaster will keep the toast warm until needed, and it is possible to heat just one slot, as well as just one side of each slice of bread.) The Cuisinart also takes twice as long to toast the bread. Worst of all, the toast that comes out of this thing is terrible--frequently it is white on one side and almost burnt on the other; even at its best, it makes toast with dark and light stripes (from the heating element) instead of toast that's a nice even brown like my old toaster made. The toast is inconsistent from batch to batch. The much-touted defrost function doesn't do anything except cook the toast a little longer, and the reheat function doesn't keep the heat on for long enough to make the toast any warmer than it was. I know from our research that many people love this toaster, but I can't imagine what kind of horrible toasters they must have had previously if the Cuisinart is an improvement for them! If our culture understood how to make a decent toaster 50 years ago, why doesn't anyone know how to make one anymore?

After falling in love with my Krups coffee maker, espresso machine, electric grill, and coffee grinder, I was dead-set on getting the little chrome Krups toaster. But this Cuisinart toaster just proves that a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. Unlike the Krups toaster, this Cuisinart has an extra-lift feature so you can get your bagels out without risking electrocution. Plus, unlike Mom's metal toaster, even if you cook three consecutive bagels on the highest setting, the chrome exterior stays cool. Last, the whole apparatus is quite small (about as long as most coffee makers), yet it is very stable due to an extra-heavy base. The only weak feature is the crumb tray: the apparatus doesn't smoothly glide in and out, doesn't do a great job keeping the crumbs in while removing, and is placed in the rear where it's hard to reach. This is really just a minor irritation, though--not enough to keep this great toaster from earning 5 stars.

When I purchased this toaster I expected just another utinsel with the name extention "Electronic" stuck on it. To my surprise it's like no other toaster I've had or had heard of. You are able to set the darkness control not by predetermined degrees but to any degree from light to dark that you desire. Normally when you toast a slice of bread, when finished, it has a hard texture. To my surprise with this Cuisinart Toaster the bread remains soft after toasting. The controls are simple and easy to set. The model I have is Polished Chrome. The over all appearance is one of beauty to behold and an asset to any kitchen.

The Cuisinart CPT-70 toaster looks like your mom's toaster, but bread has now officially met it's match! Solid-state electronics now govern your every toasting whim. You defrost, you reheat, and yes, you may even burn your toast with just the touch of a button. Best of all, you meant to do it! Cuisinart's well constructed chassis stays cool while inside evenly placed and heated coils turn your ordinary bread into tv-commercial quality toast. But there are limitations to your toaster excitement--you may only toast 2 slices at a time, and this toaster will not accomodate oversize or misshaped bread. But if you aren't making texas toast for 23 people every morning, this toaster will do you just great.

I've had my toaster for several months now and all the darn thing does is make great toast... and bagels... and breadsticks... and darn near anything else bread related.

I've been looking for a good looking, trouble free toaster for the last few decades and it seems that I've finally found one. Cheers to the folks at Cuisinart. Now if they'd only put their "toaster people" on their coffeemaker program. But I can only dream.

If toasting more than Wonder bread is your hope, don't buy this thing. As a matter of fact stay away from Cuisinart altogether. My wife replaced our old Cuisinart, if two-years is old, with a new Cuisinart. We threw the last one out when it started making toxic odors akin to melting plastic, and it became difficult toasting bread when the lever lowering the toast wouldn't stay down. The latest one will be returned shortly, unused, because we do not know of bread made so small that may fit in this toaster. The mouth may be wide, but it is terribly short. You can basically toast only one piece at a time because you would have to cut your bread in half to get it in the toaster.

This is a great-looking toaster--no doubt about it--but it doesn't come close to toasting evenly. And we tried three of these things--all with the same results! The bottom of the bread/muffin/bagel always toasts way faster than the rest of it. So getting the top half done to our liking ends up ALWAYS burning the bottom part! It's as if some beauty-conscious designer was the only one present at the Cuisinart toaster meeting. Was the thermal engineer caught in traffic? Or just not invited? We'll go to the Museum of Modern Art to look at this thing--it really is a beauty--but we won't be using it to actually make toast. Instead, we went with the toaster that Hammacher Schlemmer's test group named the best of the 13 widemouth toasters that they tested--the Krups at the same price as this one--and we're delighted with its performance. It even has a 'bagel button' for toasting one side of the bagel more than the other--something this Cuisinart doesn't have. Granted, we should have known better after reading the significant split in views expressed in the reviews and rankings we had read before even trying this one. A really good toaster shouldn't have that many weak/negative reviews and rankings. Lesson learned for future purchases.

Don't buy this toaster for its looks. Mine died young, approx. 1 year old it wouldn't work anymore. Worked ok for a while, but now, I have to buy a different one. I will not buy Cuisinart brand.

The browning dial has 6 settings on it. I can't imagine why, since my toast is almost burnt when it's set to 2. Perhaps it's not calibrated correctly. This toaster couldn't handle frozen waffles set at 1 and the defrost button on; it toasted them way too dark for my daughter's liking.

Another excellent product. Makes great toast or bagels. Once you read the manual and understand that not all breads are equal and require differant toasting times it's a great kitchen tool. The good old Cuisinart 3 year warranty is another reason that sold me on this. You get what you pay for and this is worth every penny.