Russell Hobbs 18026 2 Slice Stylis Toaster - Black

A great deal of reviews state that the toaster toasts unevenly and also the toaster is too fierce for some people. In the instructions it states that on first-time use, you should put the toaster on 6 and leave it on. My cousin didn't do this and his toaster was heating unevenly and the dial didn't work properly. So make sure you do this on first-time use! This is a great looking toaster and matches my black kettle. Every bread I have has fit in it faultlessly and also the toast tastes really good when the bread is a couple of days old as the bread has lost moisture by then. I definitely recommend this to anyone.

Makes toast! Its straightforward and easy to use and looks good. A bargain at this price. Fast delivery. Did I mention it makes toast??

I am not keen on this toaster. It needs a lot of pressure to push down the lever to start it, and it seems like it will break with the amount of pressure required to get it to stay down. I have never owned a toaster that needs such a push down, so wish I had not bought it. It makes crisp toast, but it is not evenly toasted, I am sorry to say.

The previous toaster had become unreliable, not cutting off quick enough even at low settings. The Russell Hobbs is a really attractive toaster and looks well made although it did not have as much functionality as the old one mainly lacking a warming rack above the toaster which can be useful sometimes. I have the toaster set to 2 and toast can come out almost burnt sometimes. I suggest it is a litle fierce as I only like my toast lightly brown. I am a little disappointed. Goodness knows what will happen if put to highest setting.

I brought this toaster to go in the kitchen for my very first house and it does exactly what it says on the tin. Gives the toast an all over, even brown consistancy & looks great in the process.Only 1 slight grumble is that the first one I purchased arrived with scratches on the bodywork. But Amazon sent a replacement and it arrived the very next day. Flawless customer service! Great product!

If only Roberts Radios made toasters.I bought this because a) it was described as compact b) it had fairly good reviews c) it was a Russell Hobbs and they're supposed to be a good make.Either I have been unlucky, or the first reviewer is right - it doesn't toast well at all! In our case it just burns everything. Or - it burns one half, uncooks the other half and does something completely different again on the reverse side of the piece of toast - and that's when you keep popping it up manually so it doesn't get burned! It is also very very slow (maybe because it is busy burning part of your piece of toast).Lookswise it is bulky and a bit ugly, although once against the wall it didn't show up too much and is liveable with. But there are more compact toasters on the market. The basic Breville and the Philips mentioned below are both more compact and many others are as slim as this one - some even slimmer.I haven't bought a toaster for about thirty years - I assumed these days they would all do that most basic of functions - make decent toast - and I also assumed that these days they would be fast!Mine is going back. I stuck it for a week, manually popping it up every 30 seconds or so and accepting it untoasted on one half of one side, rather than burned on the other side - but my Partner couldn't stick it any more after this morning with yet another morning of the smell of burnt toast - it drove him crazy trying to set it so it would toast - and whatever setting he tried the same thing happened - if you turn the setting up it just burned it more burned, rather than burned it quicker!I have now wasted days on toaster research, by reading the reviews on here and on the Which website.My conclusion is this. There is only one decent toaster on the market under £100 that is both speed and toasts well and that is the black glass Rusell Hobbs long slot one. I don't want that one though - because I want something more traditional looking and no more than £30. It appears that there is not a speedy toaster to be had in the under £30 bracket, except for the Philips brushed steel one, which has varying reviews as to its toasting capabilities. The basic £15 Breville in black or white seems to be no worse than the rest and still slow so I will probably go for that and carry on with the manual popping up of toast - which at least means you are doing something while you are waiting for a slow toaster, and checking the state of the toast as well. It seems guesswork is the best option!The Prestige Dakota seems very popular, but I think electronic browning settings are a bad idea - apparently they get cancelled if you switch the toaster off at the wall, and electronics pack up - give me a manual settings knob any day - plus there are two instances of these toasters failing within a month).So - my shortlist is:Basic Breville £15 in blackRussell Hobbs Classic £25 ishPrestige Traditional £30 ish (would really like something colourful) which has fairly good reviews, can't possibly be any slower than the others and looks good in a traditional kitchen.Having said that, Prestige toasters do seem to have a reputation for failing, according to Amazon reviewers, whereas the Russell Hobbs classic goes on for years and years apparently. I guess that is why it is so popular. I think I might just look for a second hand one - or write to Roberts Radios and ask them to make a toaster.UPDATE: 3 days later - Well I opted for the Prestige Traditional, which arrived yesterday. It also doesn't toast! Now don't get me wrong, I'm not being overly picky - it doesn't have to be perfect - just toasted - without being burned one side and underdone the other! The Prestige Traditional is a gorgeous looking toaster, solid, works like a dream, fairly speedy (1 mins 50 secs to 2 mins 5 secs depending on level of 'browing' - but see below on it's lack of ability to make toast!) aesthetically pleasing shape and has a two year guarantee - but it is no good as a toaster (unless I have been unlucky again!) It overcooks one side of the bread to the point of being slightly burned, while the other side is not browned at all. If you turn the setting down so it doesn't burn one side, you get a piece of warm dried out bread. Whatever setting or level of burning or browning, it seems to dry out the bread a lot producing hot dry bread, rather than crunchy toast. Not nice - even the russell hobbs classic produced crunchy toast (if burned). So the Prestige Traditional is also going back (bought from another site for less than £30).I am back to the drawing board - and the reason I am putting all my research in this review, is to assist others looking for a toaster!One last try with the Russell Hobbs Stylis Compact before sending it back. On the lowest possible setting (ie it won't go any lower - setting 1) - and the toast just burned. The only way to use this toaster is manually - ie keep popping it up to check on it - then the toast is passable. But if I was going to do that, I'd use the grill!So my shortlist is now down to:Russell Hobbs classicBreville basicRussell Hobbs black glass at £44 ishand a new option - the Tefal AvantiThe Tefal Avanti seems to have gone out of fashion - few reviews and almost dismissed by Which - but reviews elsewhere rave about it, from many people - to the point that some say they are buying the same model again because it is so good (so does this mean it doesn't last long?! Or they have been making it for a very long time .....)Anyway - its supposed to be speedy and toast ok - just what I'm looking for - don't like the look and it's inconvenient to my worktop space to have the forward shaped style with it's extra depth - but - I can put up with that if it's speedy and makes half decent toast.I have decided that 3 minutes to make a piece of toast is unacceptable, which rules out the Brevill and the Russell Hobbs classic. And still don't really want the modern looking Russell Hobbs black glass or to pay £44 for it. So will try the Tefal Avanti - and report back! Such a shame about the Prestige Traditional - I fell in love with it's looks - metal casing - great to have a colour rather than black or silver and perfect size and shape - more classic than the Russell Hobbs Classic! But back it goes.UPDATE 8th FebWell the Tefal Avanti goes back tomorrow. It was certainly speedy - just over a minute to toast bread - but it just didn't toast all of it! In fact just a circular bit in the middle. On inspection some of the elements weren't working.That's three toasters I've tried and not found one acceptable enough just for half decent toast. That leaves me with two options that do good toast (according to many reviews and Which) - the Prestige Dakota and the Russell Hobbs black glass. I still find 3 minutes unacceptably long to wait for toast, so ruled out the Prestige Dakota and given in and ordered the Russell Hobbs 14356 black glass toaster - it's supposed to be the best sub £50 toaster for making toast speedily. It hurt spending £44 (I ordered it elsewhere as not available from Amazon at the moment) and had to shop around to get it for less than £60. It's not the look I wanted for a cottagy kitchen, but what the heck - if it toasts well and quickly and can be fairly unobtrusive, it might be worth it. But £44 for a toaster! We just bought a dvd player for only £26!Final thought - I am tempted to invent my own toaster - surely there is a better way than those cheap looking, uneven elements that heat up inconsistently on the average toaster. The technology doesn't seem to have changed much since toasters were invented - they've just got fancier looking, slower and ridiculously expensive.

Its a toaster, it makes slices of bread go darker and crispier, marvelous invention.Also good for Naans if you can't be bothered to warm up the oven.

Toaster looks nice and feels more expensive than what it is. Only fault is the toasting is not the same on each side. Oddly one side is medium toasted and the other is almost burnt.Also the silver metal on top gets extremely hot. So be careful of that.Slots not as long as I thought they would be but should be okay for most slices of bread, its better than my old one anyway.However the slots are nice and thick so should take thicker styles of bread easily.