Get the look you crave with Cafe’s distinct finish offerings that blend sophistication and performance for a kitchen this is unique as you. The same can be said for Hamilton Beach in terms of bagels, frozen waffles, and Pop-Tarts. I tested them all out, and came away more or less satisfied with the results. Nothing was ever totally even, but it wasn’t ever badly overtoasted or undertoasted, either.
Why take up valuable counter space with a toaster and an oven, when the Hamilton Beach® Toastation® Toaster and Oven combination does it all? The top slot works like a traditional toaster with two or four extra-wide slots, and the spacious oven is perfect for pizza, French fries, chicken nuggets and more. Hamilton Beach® 2 Slice Toasters are popular not only for their expert toasting performance — they also look great in your kitchen. Additionally, the nine “settings” on the rotary dial didn’t produce nine distinct levels of doneness. I could get light toast at the lowest few settings, golden-brown toast right below medium, dark toast right above medium, and burnt toast at the highest settings. In theory, the smooth selector dial should let you hone in on any preferred level of doneness, but the Hamilton Beach just wasn’t consistent enough for that sort of exacting control.
At a glance, it looked fine as far as toast goes, but compared to what the other models in this roundup were making, it seemed to skew towards dark if set to medium or above. Additionally, I wasn’t getting even results on both sides of my bread — certainly not a deal-breaker for a $30 device, but something to consider if you’re splitting hairs. The Hamilton Beach Classic Chrome Toaster sports a shiny, chrome-bodied build and a fair amount of classic appeal. BestReviews spends thousands of hours researching, analyzing and testing products to recommend the best picks for most consumers.
Easily toast artisan breads and bagels with this Hamilton Beach 2-slice toaster. Its wide slots are perfect for everything from this slices to small breads, waffles and English muffins. The Toastation® Toaster and Oven switches easily from toaster to oven — slide the lever and the toaster slot is sealed, trapping heat for baking.
As toasters go, the Classic Chrome is perfectly average — and maybe that’s all you want or need. I wondered if the chrome build would get especially hot while in use. Sleek, perfectly flat metals tend to cause burns easier than coarse, brushed metal builds. Fortunately, the Hamilton Beach keeps things at a reasonable temperature. The top third or so definitely gets hot enough to burn (it is a toaster, after all), but I was still able to touch the body of the appliance without scalding myself.
No toaster is going to wow you with its features, not this $30 Hamilton Beach, nor even a $500 model like the KitchenAid Pro Line Toaster . At the end of the day, it’s just going to toast your bread, which doesn’t leave much room for a feature-rich experience. I got the below response when I polled my colleagues to ask how I should go about putting a $30 toaster into context. Breakfast foods don’t get much more ubiquitous than toast — and that makes toasters relevant to just about all of us.
If you’re wondering if this gives Hamilton Beach an advantage, consider that nine settings doesn’t necessarily mean nine distinct, usable settings. That classic appeal only gets you so far, though, and gets undercut by ugly, black plastic trim and cheap red LEDs. It isn’t “classic” hamilton beach slow cooker in the 1950s sense, as some might hope (KitchenAid does a much better job of capturing that period’s design aesthetic). For convenient toasting, these popular 2 Slice Toasters come equipped with toast boost and automatic shutoff; the slide-out crumb tray makes cleanup a snap.