De'Longhi Ballerina Electric Kettle, 360° Swivel Base, Water Level Indicator, Cord Storage, KBD3001.GR, 3000 W, UK PLUG, Green

Product Information

Hand-built in the UK since 1945, this is the toaster to buy if you don't want to fork out for another one for many years to come. It's a steep investment, yes, but the price reflects the fact that its makers believe it’s a toaster that will last a lifetime. It browned faster and more evenly than most other models on test, producing perfectly browned bread in a little over a minute and a half. Most others took more than two minutes and while 30 seconds might not seem much, if you’re rushing to get the kids to school, that could make all the difference. The two wide toasting slots were more than big enough to cope with doorstop slices carved from a whole farmhouse loaf, as well as standard supermarket medium pre-cut bread. For a gorgeous-looking toaster if your budget is a bit bigger, look no further.

There’s no automatic pop-up, although it does have lovely wide slots, you just lower your toast in manually using the lever at the front then turn the browning control to the desired setting and it starts to count down. It’s also easy to clean, but it’s better suited to standard-sized loaves, so probably not your best bet if you use homemade bread. And the shiny look shows up every mark.

You work at BID, what a legend.

If there’s just one or two of you and you’re not a fan of fancy loaves then we’d say a simple two-slot model with just a couple of functions will probably suffice. Two slot models are also better if you’re a bit tight on space as it’s a product that usually has a permanent, easy-to-access home on your worktop.

You heard that right - the technology within this toaster is automatically monitoring the toasting time of your slice, so that it never overdoes it. And once you've got to optimal toastiness, you can save your settings for the next round. A bagel setting is handy for anything, like bagels or English muffins, that you want to toast on just one side. Combining style and sophistication, the new De’Longhi Ballerina Toaster and Kettle Collection is just the thing to brighten up your kitchen. A defrost setting is useful for frozen bread. First, it defrosts bread then switches to the toasting cycle. Each model is different: on some models, you need to press the defrost button before you push the bread carriage down, while others are pushed once you’ve activated the toaster.A reheat button usually activates a short (one-minute) cycle to heat up cold toast. Note that on some toasters, this function is marked on the timer dial instead of being a separate button. Similarly, the “a bit more” button gives your toast an extra 30 seconds.

During testing we were sold by the touch screen panel that you use for controls, and we loved the long, wide slots on offer too. How we test toasters For couples and families, a four-slot or four-slice model is a better option – ensuring preparing toast for your brood at breakfast-time or simply serving up eggs on toast for two is an altogether speedier affair. If you’re fixated on a particular look, don’t despair, many brands produce two- and four-slot toaster models that look the same. Why do I need a toaster? The white version works perfectly in my kitchen (see above) and helps to dress up the room and give what can be the most forgotten yet functional part of your home; when it comes to decorating, the lift it needs to make it look smart and feel special. It’s also available as a four-slice model, which should perform similarly to this one and has the advantage of two great big slots (rather than the more common four smaller slots) so that you can toast longer items with ease.It also has a defrost button so there aren’t any ‘Oh no, I forgot to take the bread out of the freezer’ moments, while the one side toasting function is good for bagels and the reheat perfect for those of us that sometimes get distracted and leave the toast to cool.