Review on 🍞 Oster Brushed Stainless Steel 2-Slice Toaster (TSSTJC5BBK) by Jennifer Hulett

This is a 2 slice toaster with stepless (not 7 as described) dimming settings. Extra wide slots (a common feature of modern toasters) are suitable for different types of bread, and the mechanism for accommodating bread of different widths works perfectly. Sometimes it takes a few tries to get the bread out which is a problem as it has resulted in our heavy duty Black and Decker toaster being out of service - AFTER 7 years. The toast function seems to work well, although there is a pattern on the bread. The bagel function intentionally doesn't toast one side (outside) as much. The halves of the bagel must be misplaced, we had to increase the shading setting to get enough browning. Our last toaster had this feature, which we rarely used even with bagels. The freezing function seems to work but requires a higher temperature for the same toasting result. It's just a keep warm function, but you're better off just using the toast function for 30 seconds to warm up the bread. Warning: Re-toasting bread can burn. It looks like the tint setting is based on the humidity sensor that "Advanced Toasting Technology" offers. The removable crumb tray makes cleaning easy and is a must-have feature we appreciate in a vintage toaster - far more convenient and less messy than a fold-out crumb tray! We found there was less crumb in the tray, possibly due to the way the toaster holds the bread. We haven't had a traffic jam (none!) for three months, so the "anti-jam function" seems to be working. Always use the override button to stop browning and do not press the button. This extends the life of the mechanism. Toast, bagels, frozen and hot drink buttons glow light blue when on. Nice feature, but small blue LEDs would be just as effective. The cancel button is not lit but is on the opposite side of the lever. The shadow dial could definitely be bigger, and like other buyers, we lament that it's difficult to see the marking on the front of the black dial, especially as it changes between different users and for different breads. (Toast vs. a bagel). After the return period has expired, we add a white color dot to the marker. >>>>>> WE added a white color dot to the dial. That is the difference. Photo attached! <<<<< While looks weren't high on our wish list, the toaster looks good. The brushed metal sides are nice, but the manufacturer saved a few cents on the plastic handle. lever slot and shadow disk. Why didn't we just buy the same Black and Decker toaster we had? If you find one, the price doubles from under $20 to $40 and there is no easy shipping. I hope we don't regret saving $20. Compared to the 5 minutes it took to buy our old toaster at Target, we spent a lot more time researching customer reviews on Revain and comparative reviews elsewhere. We ended up choosing this toaster because it was similar in looks and function to our previous one and it's one of the few in our price range with combined 4 and 5 star ratings over 70%. Like virtually all toasters (including Black and Decker's current offerings), this Easter has a 10% to 15% rating - more than one in ten customers HATE their new toaster! It's not much better for $40 or $50 toasters, either. It seems surprising that there is such a low ratio between "like and like” and "hate” for an entire product class. As with all product and service ratings, buyers are more likely to leave a review if they are disappointed, but 5% to 10% is a star. Review ratings should be considered design and/or performance flaws. Bottom line, maybe 21st century toasters, like phones and many products, are designed NOT to last. This is a 3 star toaster compared to our previous toaster, but 4 stars if we lower our expectations for current toasters in this price range. We will update this review in the event of a toaster failure or after 18 months. THIS REVIEW WAS UPDATED AFTER 3 MONTHS. Our next update will be in June 2020.