A bagel setting is handy for anything, like bagels or English muffins, that you want to toast on just one side. Mollyis the Ecommerce Editor for Ideal Homeand is always on the lookout for the next must-buy product for your home. Covering all things appliance related, she regularly heads to Future's Test Facility in Reading to thoroughly put products through their paces. During testing, the Elegancy performed well. We were able to achieve a nice even brownness using all the settings for the most part, although sometimes the level of browness did vary – something we see a lot on mid-price toasters. The defrost setting works best on a lower setting and doesn’t dry out bread too much. What’s more, we found it very easy to clean thanks to crumb trays that are easy to remove. All in all, this is a nifty little toaster with some great functions at a decent price. Although it’s not huge, it does everything you need it to, and it does it all well. There are six browning functions; we opted for mid-way but noticed that once the toaster was warmed up, we could dial it down a bit. The Cuisinart Style Collection 4 Slot Toaster is the perfect choice for bagel lovers. It's a more common feature in American toasters to have a bagel setting, which will toast the inside of the bagel while leaving the outside nice and chewy, but because Cuisinart is an American classic brand, we got to experience the joys of a bagel setting for ourselves. One thing to note is that you should place the bagel with the outside facing in if you want the inside to be toasted on the bagel setting.

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. 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.While a two-slice toaster will only have a single browning control (timer), on a four-slice model you may be provided with one or two such controls. A single control means the timer is set for all four slots, which is fine if you all want your toast done the same way. Two timers means you can set each pair of slots separately so you can toast, say, crumpets on one side while doing toast on the other, or have “his and hers” slots set to your personal preferences. What features should I look out for in a toaster? We think timing is important too, which is why we assess how long single slices take to toast using the same setting on every model, again for testing consistency. Once all the toasting and tasting is done, we look at build quality and style, and whether these reflect a model’s price tag. Your toaster should be as functional as it is stylish, which is why our testing takes everything into consideration. 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.

Now it’s time to clean the outside. Using a damp sponge or microfiber cloth with some dish soap, give the outside a scrub. This will shift any unsightly fingerprints or splatters. Then rinse away the soap with a damp microfiber cloth and buff.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