Tefal Avanti Black & Silver 4 Slice Toaster > Reviews > Toasted Delights

Author's product rating:   

Performance	Excellent
Ease of use	Very easy
Durability	Long
User's Manual	Good
Value for money	Good

Advantages:	Hi speed and easy to see if it's burning .
Disadvantages:	The crumb tray isn't as easy as it could be to use .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

***Background***

This is not the first Tefal Avanti model that I have owned. The first one lasted me over 10 years and was obtained with the help of ABC points with Safeway many years ago. Unlike this model it was only a 2 slice toaster and when it gave up on us about 3 months before our wedding, it was decided to buy a cheap Tesco value model to do us and we put this model on to our wedding list.

Luckily we received it from some family members and have been using it constantly since last summer.

***What Does It Do?***

Okay - that seems like a stupid question but toasters come in many shapes and sizes these days and they all have different functions so this needs explaining.

This toaster is pretty much a standard one really with a few special bits added on to help out. First of all, the reason we decided on a 4-slice version was because there are five of us in the house - or at least there is when my daughter is home from university - and we all love eating toast. Whether it's with our fry up on a Sunday morning or for an evening snack when we get peckish, we always seem to be fighting over it and the 4-slice version definitely helps get things moving faster.

Another reason for buying this one is that it claims to be 40% quicker at toasting than normal everyday toasters, so again we thought that this would save people waiting.

This toaster also caters for thicker or thinner slices of bread with its clamping action, ensuring the bread stays centred. You can also fit in bagels (best cut in half) or crumpets. You don't have to worry about the smaller slices or crumpets getting stuck either because this baby comes with a lift up lever, that pushes your preferred snack to the top where you can easily remove it - just try not to burn your fingers on the food.

If you are in the habit of putting the toast in, forgetting about it and coming back to find that it has cooled down then this toaster has just the thing to help. You see there is a little button that can be pressed after you put the bread back down and this will reheat your toast without burning it - clever, huh!

There is also a defrost button to help you out if you have forgotten to defrost your bread. This happens a lot in our house and there's always a shouting match to find out who has used the last of the loaf without taking on out of the freezer.

***Cleaning***

The black and chrome looks really good although does need a wipe down to keep it shiny. Drying it thoroughly helps to bring up the shine on it. This toaster also has 2 pull out crumb trays that can easily be removed from the back of it. It says that they are extra wide although I don't really think that they are that wide myself and although they are easy to remove, when you turn the toaster round, the inevitable happens and crumbs fall out all over your work surface. To be honest I think most toasters have this problem to some extent so this hasn't really put me off.

***My Thoughts***

I'm more than happy with my Avanti toaster. I had a good idea that I would because my last one lasted really well through many years of use. We are especially pleased with the updated features and although we didn't really think about this when we put this one on the list, we find them really useful. Whilst I haven't actually sat down with a stopwatch timing the toast popping up, it does seem to toast a lot quicker than the other one we had. Speaking of popping up, we find that we don't really have any problems with bread jumping out and landing in various places, like with our other toaster and they seem to have this set just right.

The defrost and re-heat functions get used quite a lot and what I also like is the way the bread is put in at an angle and you can see in to get the shade of brownness just right. The toaster is separated into two sections so when you only need to do 2 slices, only 2 areas will heat up. There are also separate browning dials for each section so this helps if one person likes there toast more well done than the other and it saves more arguments about not turning the dial back after using it. There is a button on each dial that can stop and pop up your toast should you feel that it is ready before time.

The high-lift function is very useful for smaller loaves or for crumpets, which taste lovely toasted. They are also centred well with the gripping action of the metal holder inside so the edges get crunchy because of the fast cook, but the inside of the food stays soft.

The crumb tray is a little bit of a pain but quite frankly aren't they all to be honest and this is a small price to pay considering how many other great things there are about it.

Finally, the toaster looks really good on my black worktop and goes extremely well with a lot of other new things that we received as gifts. I believe that you can find this in white and chrome too so if you still have white appliances then there is no worrying that this one won't fit in.

***Price & Availability***

This was bought from Argos for us for £39.97 but it is available slightly cheaper at £38.99 from Amazon too.