Bush TS281

Advantages: Hot food in minutes
Disadvantages: Plates could be bigger

***Background*** I have a confession to make - I love toasties. Whether it's a simple ham and cheese or a slightly more unusual version like banana, I'm addicted at lunchtime. I find that they are a lot more filling than just standard toast and because the filling heats up too, it tastes like you are having a proper cooked lunch. Our last toastie machine had been around in the house for years and had been constantly used but it was looking a bit ...
...wedding presents last year we decided to upgrade. This coincided with my daughter going off to university and she had already mentioned taking the old one with her. There aren't really a great many options out there these days for toastie machines so choice was a little bit limited but we were looking for something that would cook two sandwiches at the same time and also something that would blend in with our black/chrome accessories. ***The Machine*** ... Read review

Advantages: heavy duty
Disadvantages: looks ugly

I bought this from my local Argos store for £20. A bit pricy for a sandwhich toaster one may say, but i thought i needed something decent to toast my sandwhiches. In the past I have settled for cheap £5 'plastic' toasters which break whenever you try to add a double layer onto your sarnie, so now i thought i'd get one worthy of my beastly sandwhiches. First I made a measly cheese sandwhich. it was good. Then a cheese, lettuce, tomato and ham sandwhich. ...
..."Diamond Joe Diamond Sandwhich". It was really nice. the sandwhiches were made in less than 1 minute and came out piping hot. I also tried toasting other things, like waffles and crumpets, which works perfectly. The capacity is about 2 sandwhiches, or 4 waffles/crumpets, so you can easily cook breakfast in it. I don't think this is going to break in a while, so it is a very good sandwhich toaster, buy it. ... Read review

Advantages: Removable Plates
Disadvantages: Food leaks into totally uncleanable rear crevasses & around/beneath the plates. Very shallow dishes = poor filling

I purchased the Bush TS281 on line from Amazon. The appeal was the removable plates for cleaning.......WRONG !!..I not only found the dishes too small to accept a reasonable filling but when I tried to put an acceptable amount of filling into a sandwich....It leaked not only contaminating the many crevases at the rear of the machine, but ALSO leaked around beneath the lower removable plate and onto the heating element. As you can imagine this not ...
...impossible clean off the burnt on food satisfactorily...as was the contamination that had leaked over the back and 'even into the flex protecting springs'. Rather than undertaking a massive clean up which, I have no doubt, would have meant dismantling the machine, It was consigned to the bin!!!.....So £16 poorer and STILL NO SANDWICH......and a poorer device than one I had paid only £5.99p for. ... Read review