This is off-topic (sort of), but I have to ask.

The first toaster I ever owned (31 years ago) * was a classic GE
"Toast-R-Oven" -- you know, the one with the front door that swings down and
the tray that pulls out. It lasted 11 years, with one repair. (The
technician botched it and left the side panel live.) When I moved to Seattle
in 1988, I replaced it with the identical Black& Decker model. It has lasted
20.5 years, ** with no problems.

Until yesterday. It appears that the "toast" switch has become so stiff that
the electromagnet won't release it. *** The electromagnet stays on, and its
insulation starts burning. This _might_ be fixable with a cleaning and
readjustment (and I could still toast bread by using the unit as an oven),
but I think, if only for safety's sake, I need a new toaster. ("What do we
say, kids?" "We need a new toaster!")

So I started searching the Web, **** beginning with B&D, as they "inherited"
GE small appliances 25 years ago. I wasn't pleased with the reviews. I then
looked at other brands, including expensive stuff like Krups and DeLonghi.
Not many good reviews there, either.

If I'm to believe the user reviews, _all_ toasters -- including pricey
products -- are junk. They're poorly designed and/or manufactured, fail
prematurely, and service stinks badly. (DeLonghi got some very black eyes on
this.) Price is no guarantee of quality.

I looked at Consumer Reports, but their judgement is of little use, because
they don't test for reliability or longevity.

So...

I don't need a toaster "immediately", and I might be able to make toast (in
oven mode) if I stand by the toaster and keep an eye on it. ***** Does
anyone out there have any recommendations? I don't want to spend more than
$50 (and would prefer to spend less), but I'm willing to buy something
"expensive" (I consider $50 to be a lot of money for an elctro-mechanically
operated toaster) if it's likely to last until I die. (I'm 61.)

My Spanish aunt.


* My father worked for GE for many years. We owned the original
Toast-R-Oven, and a few other toasters, none of which I remember giving any
particular trouble.

** Some on-line reviewers consider 4-5 years a reasonable life for a
toaster. I don't. Ten years is on the short side, and 15-20 is to be taken
for granted.

*** This happened "overnight", as the unit was working fine Thursday.

**** You can find customer reviews for just about anything. A few minutes'
searching can save you a lot of money on a bad purchase.

***** I always stay in the house when the toaster is on. I've had several
small fires from English muffin pieces. I'm not as afraid of a fire as I am
of the sprinkler system going off. I saw it in a neighbor's condo. You don't
want it to happen.

"Meat Plow" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 25 Oct 2008 04:01:09 -0700, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:

I recently bought a B&D TRO-620 toaster oven and threw away
my Sunbeam 2-slice toaster.

I give it a 7 out of 10 for toasting bread (4 slices at a time) and
a 9 out of 10 overall for it's abilities to bake/broil/toast/reheat.

I enjoy an occasional bagel and it does them perfectly. I also like
to take a slice of sourdough bread from a Boule, cover it with hot
pepper jack cheese, and toast it until the cheese browns. It's great
for warming leftover pizza and broasted chicken. And don't forget
French bread pizza.

Ummmm.... French bread pizza... Ummmm....

When I was a kid, my mother would make bologna and melted-cheese sandwiches
in the GE Toast-R-Oven.

Thanks for the suggestion, though I'm already more or less prejudiced
towards the B&D. (S&M, I don't know about.) The issue isn't so much whether
they toast evenly (my current B&D is fairly good), but whether _any_ brand
is well-made and reliable. None seems to be.

A few minutes ago I took a second look at the B&D. No question about it...
The solenoid is jammed. It won't pull in and release the power switch. (It's
so badly jammed, I can't even force it to move.) Even if I could get a
replacement part, I'd have to weld the wiring. That's ridiculous, for a
20-year-old toaster that cost less than $25 and has given good service.

I will start looking for a new one tomorrow, mostly at Fred Meyer and the
hardware chains (Home Despot, Loewe's).

On Oct 25, 6:01*am, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:
This is off-topic (sort of), but I have to ask.

The first toaster I ever owned (31 years ago) * was a classic GE
"Toast-R-Oven" -- you know, the one with the front door that swings down and
the tray that pulls out. It lasted 11 years, with one repair. (The
technician botched it and left the side panel live.) When I moved to Seattle
in 1988, I replaced it with the identical Black& Decker model. It has lasted
20.5 years, ** with no problems.

Until yesterday. It appears that the "toast" switch has become so stiff that
the electromagnet won't release it. *** The electromagnet stays on, and its
insulation starts burning. This _might_ be fixable with a cleaning and
readjustment (and I could still toast bread by using the unit as an oven),
but I think, if only for safety's sake, I need a new toaster. ("What do we
say, kids?" "We need a new toaster!")

So I started searching the Web, **** beginning with B&D, as they "inherited"
GE small appliances 25 years ago. I wasn't pleased with the reviews. I then
looked at other brands, including expensive stuff like Krups and DeLonghi..
Not many good reviews there, either.

If I'm to believe the user reviews, _all_ toasters -- including pricey
products -- are junk. They're poorly designed and/or manufactured, fail
prematurely, and service stinks badly. (DeLonghi got some very black eyes on
this.) Price is no guarantee of quality.

I looked at Consumer Reports, but their judgement is of little use, because
they don't test for reliability or longevity.

So...

I don't need a toaster "immediately", and I might be able to make toast (in
oven mode) if I stand by the toaster and keep an eye on it. ***** Does
anyone out there have any recommendations? I don't want to spend more than
$50 (and would prefer to spend less), but I'm willing to buy something
"expensive" (I consider $50 to be a lot of money for an elctro-mechanically
operated toaster) if it's likely to last until I die. (I'm 61.)

My Spanish aunt.

* My father worked for GE for many years. We owned the original
Toast-R-Oven, and a few other toasters, none of which I remember giving any
particular trouble.

** Some on-line reviewers consider 4-5 years a reasonable life for a
toaster. I don't. Ten years is on the short side, and 15-20 is to be taken
for granted.

*** This happened "overnight", as the unit was working fine Thursday.

**** You can find customer reviews for just about anything. A few minutes'
searching can save you a lot of money on a bad purchase.

***** I always stay in the house when the toaster is on. I've had several
small fires from English muffin pieces. I'm not as afraid of a fire as I am
of the sprinkler system going off. I saw it in a neighbor's condo. You don't
want it to happen.

Before I would give up, I would try fixing it, especially since you
generally seem to know your way around things like this. What is it
that has become "Stiff"? Maybe the contacts/switch that energize the
electromagnet have become a little dirty and so the full voltage/
current is not available to energize the electromagnet. Have you
tried energizing the electromagnet directly, bypassing the contact(s)
or switch to see what happens?

Bob Hofmann

Before I would give up, I would try fixing it, especially since you
generally seem to know your way around things like this. What is it
that has become "Stiff"? Maybe the contacts/switch that energize the
electromagnet have become a little dirty and so the full voltage/
current is not available to energize the electromagnet. Have you
tried energizing the electromagnet directly, bypassing the contact(s)
or switch to see what happens?

I appreciate your confidence in my skills, but I'm pretty certain it's not
repairable in any practical sense.

Basically, the solenoid shaft is frozen. It simply won't.move (I've tried
pushing it), and therefore will not release the mechanism that opens the
line switch. As a result, what should be a brief "pulse" of AC when the coil
is energized becomes a steady current that overheats the coil and burns off
its insulation. I've actually watched the coil overheating and smoking.

The unit "went bad" literally overnight. To replace the solenoid would
require snipping away the wires, then welding in the new coil. It just isn't
worth the trouble for an inexpensive toaster-over that's lasted more than 20
years.

About a year ago I bought a new toaster at Wal Mart.Brand new out of the
box, the push down handle thingy wouldn't stay down.
cuhulin

William Sommerwerck wrote:
"Meat Plow" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 25 Oct 2008 04:01:09 -0700, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:

I recently bought a B&D TRO-620 toaster oven and threw away
my Sunbeam 2-slice toaster.

I give it a 7 out of 10 for toasting bread (4 slices at a time) and
a 9 out of 10 overall for it's abilities to bake/broil/toast/reheat.

I enjoy an occasional bagel and it does them perfectly. I also like
to take a slice of sourdough bread from a Boule, cover it with hot
pepper jack cheese, and toast it until the cheese browns. It's great
for warming leftover pizza and broasted chicken. And don't forget
French bread pizza.

Ummmm.... French bread pizza... Ummmm....

When I was a kid, my mother would make bologna and melted-cheese sandwiches
in the GE Toast-R-Oven.

Thanks for the suggestion, though I'm already more or less prejudiced
towards the B&D. (S&M, I don't know about.) The issue isn't so much whether
they toast evenly (my current B&D is fairly good), but whether _any_ brand
is well-made and reliable. None seems to be.

A few minutes ago I took a second look at the B&D. No question about it...
The solenoid is jammed. It won't pull in and release the power switch. (It's
so badly jammed, I can't even force it to move.) Even if I could get a
replacement part, I'd have to weld the wiring. That's ridiculous, for a
20-year-old toaster that cost less than $25 and has given good service.

I will start looking for a new one tomorrow, mostly at Fred Meyer and the
hardware chains (Home Despot, Loewe's).




The B+D toaster we bought a while back is a heap.
The Darkness Selector knob is..well,useless. You either get "white" or
"black" toast,depending on which broad range it's set to.It's almost
like the knob doesn't work,and it's either MIN,or MAX..with nothing in
between.

The B+D hand mixer we got is..well,It's powerful.
The lowest setting will cover the entire kitchen with cake batter,if
you're not careful. I don't think we've ever had it's speed setting
above "2".

The Panasonic microwave we got ~15? years ago is still working well.

Toaster ovens don't toast evenly because they all have protection
under the heater to preven stuff splashing up and down on them. My
B&D has them and I have thought about removing them but eventually
the quartz tubes would get contaminated from grease and crap.
I suppose that stuff could also make the tubes fail.

Yeah, by overheating.

My old B&D had Calrods. I'll keep an eye out for what you suggest.

I am about sixty eight years old/young.I have been a junk collector all
my life.I like all kinds of very old antique junk.I own a few antique
electric toasters, they all work too, hinged swing gates, that kind of
stuff.Back in those days, they built them GOOD.
cuhulin

On Oct 25, 11:37*am, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:
"Meat Plow" wrote in message

...

On Sat, 25 Oct 2008 04:01:09 -0700, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:
I recently bought a B&D TRO-620 toaster oven and threw away
my Sunbeam 2-slice toaster.
I give it a 7 out of 10 for toasting bread (4 slices at a time) and
a 9 out of 10 overall for it's abilities to bake/broil/toast/reheat.
I enjoy an occasional bagel and it does them perfectly. I also like
to take a slice of sourdough bread from a Boule, cover it with hot
pepper jack cheese, and toast it until the cheese browns. It's great
for warming leftover pizza and broasted chicken. And don't forget
French bread pizza.

Ummmm.... French bread pizza... Ummmm....

When I was a kid, my mother would make bologna and melted-cheese sandwiches
in the GE Toast-R-Oven.

Thanks for the suggestion, though I'm already more or less prejudiced
towards the B&D. (S&M, I don't know about.) The issue isn't so much whether
they toast evenly (my current B&D is fairly good), but whether _any_ brand
is well-made and reliable. None seems to be.

A few minutes ago I took a second look at the B&D. No question about it....
The solenoid is jammed. It won't pull in and release the power switch. (It's
so badly jammed, I can't even force it to move.) Even if I could get a
replacement part, I'd have to weld the wiring. That's ridiculous, for a
20-year-old toaster that cost less than $25 and has given good service.

I will start looking for a new one tomorrow, mostly at Fred Meyer and the
hardware chains (Home Despot, Loewe's).

Is the solenoid jammed with old food??? If you can get it out, you
could always pop rivet it back rather than rewelding it..

Bob Hofmann

Is the solenoid jammed with old food??? If you can get it out,
you could always pop rivet it back rather than rewelding it...

It's the electrical connections that need welding. Almost everything in this
unit is welded, not soldered.