T-fal 874600 Classic Avante 2-Slice Toaster with Bagel Function, Black

The T-fal toaster was impressive when I first laid my eyes on it. It is taller than I thought it would be! That being said, the size is perfect for me. I put the toaster through 5 cycles to get the "new" smell out of it. After that there was no more smell that I could notice.Now on to the important stuff----the toasting. It toasts GREAT! I have used it on bagels. So far, I have used the bagel setting and the bagels toast to a golden brown, on setting 3. The round side is nicely warmed. Next time, I will try it on the normal setting to see if I prefer both sides toasted. The lever to raise begels up after toasting works great.Pros: styling, size, functions, color, price, and the toasted product.Cons: Nothing

I've tried so many toasters of various brands, it's not even funny. So when I ordered this, I was very skeptical that it would live up to the hype about it. I had had a T-fal toaster once before and it was a lousy toaster. So imagine my surprise when this one was a fantastic buy in every respect. It has the slanted slots which makes it easy to retrieve toast along with the uplift button that raises it even higher. Even small things such as muffins are easy to get out without burning yourself. So far, it toasts evenly on both sides. One slot isn't different in toasting pattern than the other. Has lots of settings for darkness. Easy to clean crumbs out of the bottom, Is wide enough for even bulky bagels, and is very attractive sitting on the counter. I love my toaster. Some of the reviews say it starts giving out after several years. Heck, for the money, I don't expect it to last forever! It's cheap and when mine starts to go, I'll just buy another one. It's the best toaster I've owned and I've certainly owned a lot of them. It's a keeper in my opinion!

I really like this toaster for the most part though it does have it's flaws.What I like:- Toaster top is slanted, making it easy to insert and remove toast.- There's a BUTTON to pop the toast out.- There's another lever to push the toast up further to grab it. Perfect for english muffins that aren't as tall.- Has bagel function.What I'm not liking:- Toasts unevenly. Even brand new one side seems to work better than the other. No toaster is perfect but the heating element wasn't designed well.At the end of the day, for me toast is toast. While it doesn't toast evenly it gets the job done, it also does it in a SMART fashion. I'm really digging the eject button, the extra lever to push the toast up/out further to prevent you from inserting objects in it to retrieve your smaller items like English Muffins, and the slanted top makes it easier to get toast in and out.

I would almost give this toaster five stars on it's appearance alone as it is very chic and graceful. It toasts nicely, the feature of being able to lift up smaller pieces to facilitate removing them from the toaster is really superior. I do have a bit of problem with all toasters when trying to get an even toasting on my home made bread however, but that is just the way it is and I have learned to live with it. All in all this seems to be a great little unit particularly when considering the very affordable price point.I need to add to this review because I am extremely disappointed that the toaster has failed after only about a year and a half and also because, to buy it again is now $183.00. I can't even imagine why they changed the part number by dropping one digit and increased the price by $157.00 in this short amount of time. Does anyone have an answer for this?

i purchased this toaster 2 months ago, mostly going by Amazon positive feeds posted here. I have never been in more disagreement on, nor more disappointed with the many Amazon purchases i have made. The innovative design caught my eye. Then i delved deeper as i am a stickler when it comes to a good quality toaster that will brown/toast evenly. This in itself is a complete failure from the very first slice of bread.Pros: design? handle?Cons: when toasting rye or any elongated bread slices, you must slice bread in half and use both sides of toaster.after slicing toast in half whether i put the toast in with crust down or up, the sliced part is ALWAYS blackened or close to it.as far as toasting even-this is the worse toaster i have had as far as that feature. from the first time i used the toaster i could easily see inside that it was not going to toast evenly, as the heating wire elements were not red hot throughout. as i said-evenly or reasonably even toasted bread or bagels,etc. is what i consider the main feature in a good toaster.even when i toast a "regular" slice of bread i find i often have to use the lift feature. i would say about a quarter of the time, when using the lift feature, the toast will become jammed near the top of the slot.even with a setting of just over 2 1/2, i sometimes end up with burnt portions of toast.often the toast will pop completely free of the toaster itself. (i have seen other reviewers mention this).there is a 1/4 inch gap between the chrome top/insert and the black body of the toaster-a good place to collect crumbs,raisins, etc.the reason i listed the convenient handle under pro, is because it was convenient-for caring this disaster to the trash can! i did, however, beforehand cut the cord off so no one else gets burned by this disaster, and give me a bad conscience. i would hope an out-of-work rocket scientist can come to the rescue somewhere-somehow, and provide all Americans with a toaster that will simply toast bread evenly. we can send a man to the moon...