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Comment by dylan604 | Hacker News Reader

> I think you are greatly over-estimating how many people would be willing to pay the cost of a North American made toaster.

Who wants a $75+ toaster just because it was "Made In USA"? Is it going to make toast better than a $15 toaster "Hecho In Mexico" or whatever other country? Even making the infrastructure to make a toaster would not do much in the way of increasing the manufacturing abilities in the US. What could it do if the War Powers Act were invoked?

Or, am I just way too much of a simpleton to be able to see potential?

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Dualit toasters are over £100 in the UK and are pretty popular. We have one that is over 15 years old and still working.

I would by a $75+ toaster that:

- was made in a free Democratic country

- is of quality

I often pay a premium for such items.

I think a Dualit is what you want.

I have a 4 slice Dualit[1] I bought in 2004 and it still works perfectly.

It's an unchanging point of reliability in our kitchen.

The Classic model is basically an old catering toaster design from the 1950s. So it has "anti-features" that make it suitable for a commercial setting where you're making lots of toast to order. e.g. you can pop the bread to check it without resetting the timer and there's no spring to wear out.

As far as I'm concerned the high quality toaster, made in a free democratic country, is a solved problem.

1. https://www.dualit.com/collections/classic-range

very cool, will probably patronize them next I'm looking for a toaster. Might even make for a nice wedding gift.

I am sure you can do this in Taiwan, Korea, Japan. There must some high end makers onshore.

> was made in a free Democratic country

Why is this important to you? If civilians are oppressed by a government, I'm all the MORE willing to support the civilians to do what they want to be doing, and if making the world's best toaster is what they want to be doing I will more than happily pay them for it and help them live the life they want in spite of whatever regime they are in.

It wasn't their fault they were born into a political mess and while I understand the desire to financially hurt oppressive regimes, I'm not in favor of doing so in ways that also punish civilians who are just trying to live a happy life.

People pay hundreds of dollars for toasters already. This is another entry in that market with a marketing angle of being made in the U.S.A. which is important to a lot of U.S. consumers.

I much rather buy something American generally, and certainly from the perspective of a higher quality product designed to last.

Id pay hundreds for a toaster built like a tank

Not because I need that, I just enjoy overly heavy things

The thing about heavy things is their sheer size. There's only so much counter space and cabinet storage. Then again, if you have the disposable cash to spend that kind of money on a toaster, you probably have a kitchen larger than the majority of people's apartment

My espresso machine would like a word. It's pretty compact yet weighs 17 kgs / 37.5 lbs due to essentially being a dense block of stainless steel, copper and brass.

Why not but one of these? Ours has been going strong for 7 years now https://www.dualit.com/products/2-slice-newgen

Great machine, my parents have it, they love it and I love it. Still, I pondered about buying one too, but at 160€ it was a tough sell because we barely make 2 toasts a week. In the end I took a Russel Hobbes made in china for half the price. I kinda regret it because it's bad quality, but for our use it's ok.

I’ve used my Dualit almost daily since 1992. Still in tip-top condition, though it has had two sets of new heating elements at a cost of about £30 each time.

Do I have the product for you!

https://www.amazon.com/Tungsten-Cube-1-5-One-Kilo/dp/B00XZBI...

This thing is amazing: https://www.breville.com/us/en/products/toasters/bta735.html...

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