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Comment by silisili | Hacker News Reader

Serious question - do most folks still own toasters today? They just seem so... specifically single function and take up counterspace. In my house, we have a sandwich press which we use for 4 or less pieces of toast at a time. And of course it doubles as a press for paninis or cubanos, too. And you never have to worry about unevenness, as it's just two hot plates basically.

If cooking a lot of toast for a get together or really large meal, just throw them in the oven.

I haven't owned a toaster as an adult, so I'm really curious how popular they are these days.

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I've had the same toaster for the better part of 15 years now I don't think its any weirder than owning a dedicated sandwich press. It's usually a set it and forget it kinda of item that doesn't take long to do its job.

I don't think it's weird at all, it was really a question out of curiosity and not meant as an insult or anything.

A quick search would have told you something like 80 percent of households own toasters.

But that would leave one lonely person with an answer, and rob us all of a scintillating discussion on a (gasp) discussion forum.

The post made me reflect on the fact that I have a toaster at all; I've used it vanishingly few times, and I only really own one because my parents have one.

Questions are seeds of a discussion; it's better to nurture them than to stomp them out.

The 80 percent figure I found was from nearly 20 years ago. It's hard to find anything more recent. Moreover, I guess what I'm most interested in is in how many people have and regularly use a toaster today, and more specifically why. The counterspace tradeoff doesn't seem worth it to me, so I'm curious about other's use cases and opinions. I apologize if my initial premise came off as condescending.

Lots of people keep their toaster hidden in a cabinet and take it out every morning then put it away.

I am struggling to think of anyone I know who does not own a toaster.

The no name toaster I own falls into the good-enough category where I have never considered that an alternative technology could offer X% improvement that it would make transitioning worthwhile. Toaster oven could potentially provide more utility (pizzas, garlic bread, etc) at a higher initial investment, more counter space, and potentially less good at toasting bagels.

Toaster oven FTW, it's probably our most used appliance. Get one with the convection setting and it'll beat any air fryer too [1].

[1] Wirecutter review: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-air-fryer/

Funnily enough, convection toaster ovens are rebranding their same old models as being air friers now. Because of course an air fryer is just a weirdly shaped convection toaster oven in the first place.

See that I understand, very versatile choice. Would you day it works better than a fullsize convection oven, or about the same?

I didn't even know there were full size convection ovens! We've got the toaster oven and a gas oven, I would say they work about the same, it's just so much more efficient to use the electric toaster oven (assuming what you're trying to cook fits in there).

I tried to make do without a toaster when I first lived on my own, because I didn’t care enough about toast to get one.

Except, originally, I didn’t get anything else that could make toast, so if I wanted toast, I used a dry frying pan. And, probably because I didn’t have a toaster, I wanted toast a lot more often than I expected I would.

I eventually got a toaster oven, but I almost never used it for anything other than toast. I have a toaster now, twenty years later, and while I realize it’s silly from one point of view, I know it’s not the silliest thing I own.

> Except, originally, I didn’t get anything else that could make toast, so if I wanted toast, I used a dry frying pan

This made me laugh out loud. Ever so often my wife decides to reorganize and put everything away, and me being too lazy to dig everything out, resort to making toast that way in a dry cast iron skillet. Not sure about yours, but mine rarely turned out right. Usually burned the raised edges and left the middle underdone.

Not to mention that that method uses many times as much energy as just using a toaster.

I never got the hang of it. If there’s a trick, I didn’t stumble across it.

I recently bought a toaster for the first time as an adult and started eating a lot more bread as a result.

Other toasting methods work, but they could take longer to set up and you have to monitor the progress along the way.

With a toaster, it is set it and forget with a single button press.

We have a toaster oven. It accommodates any size bread, and works well for frozen meals that aren't worth heating up the main oven for. I also make sourdough bread, and those slices would be hard to fit into a toaster.

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