My whiny husband (“hi, Mark!”) has wanted a 4-slice toaster for some time now. He thinks we toast so much bread that we actually have the need to toast 4 slices at once as opposed to the ever so time-consuming method of toasting 2 slices at a time. So for his birthday I found the Cuisinart Electronic Cool Touch at Costco for $39.99.

The Cuisinart measures about 13” long, 6 ½” wide & stands about 7 ¼” tall. It is made of that plasticky white material (not metal). It has 2 long slots (10”), each accommodating up to 2 slices of bread. As stated earlier, it holds up to 4 slices at once but can also be used for just one slice. The slots are wide slots (1 ½”) so bagels & thick bread can fit in this toaster nicely.

Here’s what I like about the Cuisinart:

- The COOL TOUCH EXTERIOR to prevent burning of my hands.
- The CAPACITY to fit up to 4 slices of bread at once.
- The WIDE SLOTS for fitting fat breads without them jamming on the way back up after toasting!
- The DEFROST setting. Yes, I said “defrost”. I tried it out today on 3 separate pieces of Toaster Strudel. My first piece burned because I had the browning setting up too high. The second 2 turned out wonderfully. Here’s how it works: You put your frozen pastry or bread into the toaster, select the amount of browning you want on the traditional browning dial, press down on the start lever (like a “normal” toaster), & then press a defrost button on top of the Cuisinart. It will first defrost the bread & then toast it for you. With my other toaster I had to toast frozen pastries twice & still I wound up with a toasted exterior but cold filling on the inside. Or I had burned pastries. This worked like a charm providing perfectly heated & toasted Toaster Strudel!
- The REHEAT setting, allowing you to just heat a previously toasted piece of bread without having to retoast it. How many times have you put a piece of bread down, left the room, & returned to find a cold slice of toast sitting in your toaster? I have many times but now I have a solution for that.

Other Nice Features That I Really Don’t Utilize or Care About:

- A CANCEL button located on top of the toaster. This allows you to stop the toasting without having to lift up on the lever. If you press the cancel button the toaster stops toasting & the carriage pops up. This is a nice feature but nothing to write home about.
- SELF-CENTERING BREAD RACK which centers your breads in the slots for more even toasting.
- EXTRA-LIFT CONTROL LEVER that supposedly lifts the toasted bread closer to the top of the toaster so you can more easily remove smaller types of bread. I didn’t notice much of a difference between this toaster & our older toaster but maybe we had this feature on our other. Don’t really know. Again, nothing to write home about.
- You remove crumbs from this toaster using a SLIDE-OUT TRAY located on the lower left side of the unit. I think it’s just as easy to open a door on the bottom of a toaster as it is to use this tray. And I always have to tip the toaster upside down anyway to best get those crumbs out!
- There is CORD STORAGE - 4 plastic knobs - on the bottom of the toaster that can be used to wrap excess cord around so there isn’t so much lying on your counter. I slide my toaster around too much so this doesn’t do anything for me but it might for you.

Here’s What I Do NOT Like About the Cuisinart:

- It isn’t an extremely large toaster but it is larger than our other model & takes up more counter space.
- Supposedly this unit has what they call an ALWAYS EVEN SHADE CONTROL. It is supposed to “electronically monitor & adjust toaster’s internal temperature to provide consistent toasting results from one use to the next.” It goes on to say “heating elements deliver even heat for uniform browning.” I have to take serious issue with this claim. When I remove toast from the Cuisinart one side is always browned more than the other side regardless of which slot I put the bread into, how many slices are being toasted at once, or where in the slot the bread is located! I also have to lower the browning dial quite low or I wind up with burned toast.

All in all this is an ok toaster. It has a couple helpful features like the defrost & reheat functions that aren’t generally found in toasters. I’m not sure if those are worth the extra cost however. And I wish this toaster had the capability - if I was toasting one or two slices - of using just one slot at a time instead of having to use the electricity to heat the entire unit.

It’s hard to decide whether I should recommend this or not. I hope you can make your decision with the information & experience I have given. Happy toasting!




Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 40