On the subject of toasters, if you want one that lasts then grab an old toastmaster or Sunbeam (the kind with the chrome sides) and spend a weekend doing a deep clean. They are held together with screws, not bent over tabs. You might be up against decades of baked on grease, so you'll have to break out the sodium hydroxide. You should probably replace the asbestos cord with a rubber one too. The toaster will then last the remainder of your life.
The main downside is that the slots are usually to narrow for bagels.
There aren't any infinite number of old toasters out there, but there's enough out there for everyone who wants to do the above.
I bought my Sunbeam in 2022 for $44, brand new. The secret is to buy them in Japan off the flea market sites. Apparently in my case the owner bought it have around as a piece of Americana. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Have you ever had one fail? Mine is the $10 plastic special from 20 years ago still toasting it's heart out.
The simpler a toaster is, the more likely it is to have eternal life. If you can buy a modern toaster that's just the knob and levers (no digital controls or whatever) then there's really no reason it won't last decades.
Tempting fate here but I don’t see any reason why my cheapo spring loaded toaster won’t give me another 10 years of life. There’s nothing to go wrong if used correctly.
Back when I was a kid in the 80s toasters would break because we shoved in hacked up pieces of bread or bagels where the food touched the elements and caught fire. And knives were poked inside to extract burnt remains from the heating elements.
I was shocked to see there are toasters with motorized lifting mechanisms. Is there any practical reason why this is better than a spring?
Actually toasters need to be able to switch off a huge current, which causes arcing. This arcing may slowly burn the PCB and desolder the metal contact mounted on the PCB. At least that's what happened with my last toaster after >5 years. Repaired it once, then after a year it broke again, but this time the PCB through hole was severely burned and it wasn't trivially fixable anymore.
Motorized mechanisms... hmm. Well, sometimes toasters pop up toasts too hard making them land on the floor.
This isn't really true. The heating elements are pretty much entirely a resistive load, which do not cause arcing when switched off. What desoldered your PCB might be the heat itself.
There was visible arcing every time the toaster popped up the toasts though. Now that you mention it, I'm kinda curious what exactly was causing it. (Too late of course.) It's not the first toaster I've seen that produced a flash of light every time it was done though.
> there any practical reason why this is better than a spring?
Depends what you mean by “practical”. Motorised avoid the jump scare and don’t risk launching light pieces out of the toaster.
I’d also assume (but don’t know as I’ve never been much of a toaster person) they can have a longer movement range and limit crumbing through lower acceleration stress.
I bought one from 1965 last year. Got it cheap on eBay. Seller said it didn't work. Seller just didn't know how to turn the knob on the side. I have to buy bread that isn't as wide as I was getting but it's totally worth it. Perfect toast every time.
got a 1930s toastmaster single slice for $30 on eBay. new carbon switch contacts, new nichrome wire, new cord. functions great and really looks nice. there are a lot of broken toasters in the world.
Even other more complex appliances get tossed too easily. My spouse’s desire to get rid of our 15yo microwave was replaced a while ago by the satisfaction of being able to keep it going. I’ve fixed it twice with a few bucks of parts (waveguide cover, door switch).
The main downside is that the slots are usually to narrow for bagels.
There aren't any infinite number of old toasters out there, but there's enough out there for everyone who wants to do the above.