Our whole family is absolutely obsessed with toast and the magic creation always ends up sitting on a plate in front of us throughout the day, in some shape or form. We are a family of six and we once owned a two slice toaster, you can imagine how long it took to make the breakfast every morning so there was no doubt that we’d have to replace our good old Tesco Value toaster for something slightly bigger and nicer looking – That being the Asda TA8570 4 slice toaster at a rather reasonable cost of £15. I believe it was on offer at the time that we purchased it and that was roughly a year ago, the usual price being around £20.
*** About the Asda TA8570 toaster ***
The toaster is a rather modern looking toaster with its brushed stainless steel and black plastic finish. This is a two slot toaster that allows four slices to be cooked at one time, there are two knobs on the front for controlling the cooking time of the toast and these times range from number 1 to 7 which gives a good choice as to what colour you want your toast when she decides to ‘pop it up!’.
The toaster came in a small box and it was very easy to set up. The toaster was very well wrapped up and the hardest part of setting the toaster up was removing the plastic wrapping. There was a small instruction manual inside, it contained all of the safety tips and we followed the instructions to some extent and placed the toaster on a hard and flat surface with plenty of side space – Plugged her in and she was ready for action.
*** Using the toaster ***
Now I should think that everyone reading this review knows how to use a toaster? You simply pop the bread in without it being too thick, choose the temperature using the knob on the front and push down the handle on the side to lower the bread into the chambers of heat (as I call them). As soon as the toast lowers the toasters lights come on at the front showing that the toaster is working and I guess that this is some sort of a safety feature. To start off with, I placed the temperature know in the middle on roughly setting 4. This seemed a good place to start and that is where the settings have stayed since the first day of use as the toast comes out perfectly toasted - just the way I like it.
The toast takes roughly 3 minutes on the fourth setting that we use but the time obviously depends on what type of toast you are after….. From experience, setting one takes just under a minute and setting seven takes roughly six minutes to give you a rough idea. I have experimented with most of the time settings and they all work rather well and the top setting does not burn the toast like most toasters do on the highest setting.
*** Features ***
This is a nice looking toaster but it certainly is not some fancy ‘space age’ type of machine, this is a basic toaster with basic settings and that is just the way I like it. It has some features such as;
-Defrost setting, this is for defrosting frozen bread, usually straight from the freezer. This setting is of no use to us as we do not freeze bread and would rather buy it fresh daily however we have tried this once as an experiment.
I froze a single piece of bread and popped it in one of the slots, lowered it down and selected the defrost button on the front. After a few minutes I saw some steam coming from the toaster and I left it to do its thing, it soon popped up and it was slightly more thawed than when it went in. I popped it down for a second time and it soon popped up almost totally defrosted and ready for toasting, so it obviously works! You just have to do it twice which is no major problem as the defrost setting is very quick.
-Reheat setting, this has to be the most used setting of the two. This setting basically does exactly what it says on the tin – it reheats! How often do you pop the toaster on and forget that it’s in there to return to soggy, old toast? Probably not many of you but I certainly do and it’s a real nightmare when I’m in a rush. With this toaster I can simply pop the handle back down and select the reheat button and voila, a few seconds later and my toast is crispy and warm again without it being over cooked, a fabulous setting that I use daily!
*** Quality ***
I’m happy to say that this toaster is made pretty well without any noticeable design problems. We have had this toaster for roughly a year now and we have used it daily without any bother at all. The materials used seem to be of a very high quality but the toaster does seem very light when lifted, nothing has broken from this toaster since we have owned this so the lightness of the build can only be a good thing! Everything feels very sturdy and well made.
Usually we find that toasters do not have big enough slots for certain bread types such as thick cut loaf. This toaster has wide enough slots for the thickly cut bread and we have never managed to clog it like usual toasters. This cooks hot cross buns and muffins with ease and we have never had a problem.
*** Cleaning and maintenance ***
This toaster is very easy to clean and it has the usual pull out drawers at the bottom to remove the crumbs that have managed to escape from the bread. These drawers fill up very quickly and we find that a weekly clean is required to prevent a build up. Unfortunately some crumbs do escape from these drawers and they end up on the counter under the couter, this can make a mess but we've learnt to clean under the toaster as often as possible to keep the area clean. Other than that, cleaning is easy and there is not much maintenance needed at all to keep the toaster operational - we just wipe the outside of the toaster with a damp cloth which seems more than enough to keep the outside clean. As the toaster is finished with brushed stainless steel, it is a rare occurrence that finger prints appear on the body of the toaster but if they do, they are easily removed with a cloth.
*** Any issues? ***
The only slight issue that I have with this toaster is that the bread comes out with different colours both sides of the bread; it does not seem to toast the bread evenly. This doesn’t bother me too much but it happens while using all of the slots which makes me think that it could be a design fault – unless I have a faulty unit.
The difference is not huge on both sides of the bread but it is noticeable, say one side is light brown the other could be a shade of beige…. Not a huge problem but this little ‘design feature’, could upset some people?
The only other slight problem that I can think of is that the sides of this toaster get very hot and I have managed to melt butter on it before. I don't think it gets hot enough to actually burn yourself on but care must be taken when young children are around.
*** Overall opinion ***
We are honestly very happy with this toaster and it has served us extremely well without any nasty surprises popping up throughout its life in our house. It cooks toast perfectly and it is not overly complicated with unnecessary features, it basically toasts bread fast and efficiently just as it should. I think that this toaster is worth 100% of the asking price and I highly recommend it from our experience!
Thanks for reading,
©nickbrown60
A bargain four slice toaster - divine! 
