How to design a good toaster with lessons from the 1940s [video] | Hacker News Reader

How to design a good toaster with lessons from the 1940s [video]

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This classic toaster design was not without it's deficiencies. The raising mechanism was far too slow and the bimetallic strip had a tendency to get blocked with crumbs, etc., causing unexpectedly variable toasting. There is certainly some elegant engineering on display, but most people would probably not want to deal with this toaster on a daily basis.

That being said, today's toasters have their own problems. Most simply aren't built to last. My previous toaster had a mechanical lever to lower the toast and engage the heating elements, latched down with a timed release with a nice digital display. The timer was, unfortunately, a relatively cheap part that was fried one day, likely by heat or a voltage spike. After that happened, the toaster would only toast if you held the lever down.

I do get the feeling that a lot of people are starting to place more and more value on reliability. Most of us don't want appliances that randomly fail after a year or two. The trouble is that it's bloody hard to tell if a given "premium" toaster with "excellent build quality" has an Achilles heel like the timer in my departed toaster. You just can't tell if a toaster will last based on its price, marketing buzz-words, heft, etc..

To manufacturer's, the trick seems to be to keep customers coming back without taking them out of the market with a product that simply lasts. Their ideal toaster is one that reviewers will say is "built like a tank" and "should last generations", but has a hidden flaw that bricks it after a couple of years.

For a lot of appliances, there are brands that are known to last for years. The only problem is that you get what you pay for, so they tend to be rather expensive.

Give us some examples. OK, I'll start... Vacuums: Miele. I don't think Miele vacuums are quite as reliable as they used to be, but they are still (with some success) being marketed that way. What other brands for appliances ("white goods")..?

Vitamix blenders seem to be the real deal. I have one that's seen nearly daily use for about 15 years and is still going strong. I have tripped it's overheat sensor on some things (e.g. hummus), but it just shuts down and forces you to wait for it to cool instead of burning out.

Vitamix, kitchenaid (their stand mixers at least), magimix come to mind for appliances at least. If you take them apart you can see how high-quality all the components are. The only thing I’m skeptical about are the new wifi blenders, I’m sure they’ll prove to be less reliable than the one button + one dial models.

Our Dualit two slice toaster is ~15 years old. It has a touch of Trigger's Broom because I've replaced the central heating elements once, and will do the same with the side elements soon. I know Dualit sell replacements for the timer mechanism though ours has been fine so far.

I would like a toaster that could handle thicker slices. But I quite like having a toaster that has survived three house moves, two children, a lot of floating cat hair, and generally rough treatment, and doesn't have a visible scratch. I think they must make them from old battleship armor.

> most people would probably not want to deal with this toaster on a daily basis.

I used this model of toaster every day from the age of about 5 until I joined the Air Force. I dispute your claim.

Besides, any bad things about this toaster are not required in order to have the good things.

Given that the video linked by this HN discussion is about designing a new toaster based on the technology used in the classic Sunbeam toaster, you seem dangerously close to claiming that "the bad things about this toaster model make any desire to use it's technology in a new toaster something of a bad idea" and I would strenuously argue against that, if that is indeed what you're saying.

If a thing has problems, then fix the problems -- don't abandon the whole thing because it is imperfect as it is today. A toaster is a construct, and it can be constructed well.

No. I once owned one of those toasters. That automatic up-and-down bread feature worked for maybe a day. The it gets stuck and I have to extract the break with a fork. Maybe it works for wonderbread slices in the studio. It doesn't work for my bagel in my kitchen.

Really care about toast? Don't let the machine do the thinking for you. Pop the toast up when YOU know it's done. But to do that you will need any other toaster than those with the automatic up-and-down feature. Half the time I ended up unplugging the thing and shaking the toast out.

It's true they don't work so well with bagels, as bagels are thick, but there is an adjustment screw on the bottom which can normally solve any problem with regular toast not coming back up again.

In their defense toasting bagels was not a feature in wide spread demand at the time these were made.

No. You didn’t watch the video. He specifically mentioned that this doesn’t work on bagels.

The point of this machine is that there’s no thinking involved: it turns brown = it’s done.

The previous video on this got a big discussion last year: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21164014

> Toast has become my jam, and jam is what I put on toast

I love this guy. Probably my favorite tech YouTuber

His cheesy joke delivery has gotten fantastic over the years. It was a bit rough in his early videos but it just goes to show how anything can be improved with practice.

I grew up with one of these, and then lived for several years with another (by way of a roommate). These things inevitably revert to one of two failure modes:

1) The toast does not go down, despite banging the toast up and down like a basketball.

2) The toast does not come up, so you have to dig it out with a knife or a fork.

There's an adjuster screw for #1, but it's a finicky analog adjustment. I already pick banjo, I don't want to have to retune my toaster on the same schedule.

#2 is probably just due to the undersized holes and necessarily weak spring action.

This guy makes great videos on tech. Look at his video on the RCA CED system, because RCA actually made a flux capacitor.

Side note: if you get a new cheap toaster from the shop it will have an integrated toaster controller IC. And the functions defrost/reheat which are sold at premium are in all ICs, only the buttons are missing in the cheap ones.

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