The 4 Best Toaster Brands - Fall 2024

While some might associate Black+Decker with tools like screwdrivers and saws, they also sell budget-friendly kitchen appliances, including blenders and toasters. In our investigation into toaster performance, we found that pricier options don't necessarily offer a more versatile, more even, or more consistent toasting performance, and Black+Decker's are among the least expensive and best-performing toasters we've tested. While they lack high-end features that you might want, such as cycle countdown indicators that tell you when your toast will be ready, they offer fantastic performance and have basic convenience features, like a bagel setting, a cancel button, and a dial that allows you to fine-tune the shade setting, so you're not limited to the marked settings.

The Black+Decker 2-Slice Toaster T2569B has a superb toasting range, meaning you can get golden-brown sandwich bread or use a higher setting to properly brown denser slices of bread in one cycle. It browns bread evenly all over and on both sides and performs consistently batch after batch. We also recommend the Black+Decker 4-Slice Toaster TR4900SSD if you need more capacity. Four-slice models usually produce less even results since there are four slots that should all perform the same, but the Black+Decker 4-Slice Toaster TR4900SSD produces much more even results than the next-best model we've tested.

Breville is a higher-end kitchenware brand that makes small appliances like microwaves, blenders, and toasters. Their products usually stand out for their extra features, making the brand a good option if you're okay with paying more for quality-of-life features or a nice design. Breville toasters include cycle countdown indicators, a rare feature that lets you know when your toast will be ready, and some use buttons instead of dials for pushing down the slots. Some models also include an 'A Bit More' button, which adds some time onto a cycle without interrupting it, and 'Lift and Look,' which lets you lift the slots to check your toast without interrupting the toaster.

The Breville the 'A Bit More' 2 Slice and the Breville Die-Cast 4-Slice Smart Toaster are our recommendations for the best 2-slice and 4-slice toasters, based on a combination of toasting performance and useful extra features. They offer a fantastic toasting range, so you can easily toast denser, thicker slices in a single cycle. They toast bread evenly and consistently, batch after batch. They're also both equipped with cycle countdown indicators, A Bit More', and 'Lift and Look.'

Oster is a well-known appliance brand that started making blenders in the 1940s and now sells a big lineup of toasters. Their products are budget-friendly and offer a good overall performance. In terms of toasters, they provide simple designs but have options to fit various needs, from a 'Tall' model with deep slots and one with extra-wide slots for chunkier bagels and thicker cuts of bakery bread. Oster also sells a touchscreen model for less than $100, so you can try the latest toaster design at an affordable price.

The Oster 2-Slice Toaster with Quick-Check Level is a simple toaster with a retro look. It has an excellent performance overall, producing very even, consistent results. It also has a good toasting range, although its highest setting won't char white sandwich bread, which suggests you'll need to push your bread down more than once to brown denser slices of bread. It doesn't perform as well as the best Black+Decker toaster we've tested, but its 'Quick-Check Lever' lets you check on your toast without interrupting the cycle. We recommend it as the best 2-slice toaster for small items because its slots are very shallow when fully raised, so you can easily grab smaller items like English muffins.

Cuisinart began in the 1970s with a food processor and now makes other small appliances, including blenders, air fryers, toasters, and even air purifiers. They're a popular toaster brand with a lineup that includes straightforward 2- and 4-slice models and a motorized option whose design eliminates the need to manually push down a lever. Most Cuisinart toasters forgo extra features like Breville's 'A Little More' or Oster's 'Quick Check' lever but include defrost, reheat, and bagel settings.

The Cuisinart Long Slot Toaster is designed to accommodate two slices of sandwich bread or one longer slice per slot. It offers a good overall toasting performance (better than the much more expensive long-slot Breville Die-Cast Smart Toaster) and is very consistent batch after batch, so you don't have to adjust the dial if you're making tons of toast for brunch. However, you must manually lift the lever to retrieve regular-sized sandwich bread without burning yourself, which is annoying. Also, while they aren't bad toasters, the Cuisinart models we've tested tend not to perform quite as well as some other available options for around the same price.