At some time or another, you’ve probably had a run-in with a cheap toaster that was only built to break.
The kind of price point you can expect for a toaster now is seriously astounding. At the time of writing, Argos is selling a two-slot toaster on its website for just £9.99. But as we all know, the true cost lies in these shoddily-made items using up resources, before being sent straight to landfill after a matter of months.
Toasters, by nature, can be prone to breaking. They have many moving parts, draw a lot of energy and are subject to all sorts of things being jammed into them (namely irregular chunks of bread or a risky butter knife). The failure points are familiar: the lever won’t stay down, one side won’t toast, the eject button stops working. Repair is out of the question, as the unit hasn’t been built for disassembly - and at such a low price point, why bother?
So, in the bin it goes. Certainly, a tenner for a toaster sounds like great value, but the environmental implications are quite chilling. Whatever happened to well-made things?
Made to last
British engineering legends Dualit are one of those rare companies proving to us that the old adage ‘they don’t make ‘em like they used to’ isn’t always the case. They’ve been around since 1945, and the toasters and kettles in their Classic range are designed for durability and repair. The toasters are still handbuilt in West Sussex - each one has the name of the person who assembled it on its underside.
This father and son company believes firmly in well-made products that are made to last, and they have a slough of awards to prove it. That, and endless testimonials from people who have had their products for years - generations even - whilst still using them every day.
Originally designed for the catering industry, Dualit classic toasters have been made to withstand the demands of a commercial kitchen. However, their performance and longevity, combined with a beautiful utilitarian design, has caused them to become incredibly popular as a domestic product too. To this day, the Dualit Classic Toaster is considered a design icon - and half of all Dualit products are still bought by commercial restaurants and hotels.
Fully repairable
In stark contrast to the prevailing trend of planned obsolescence we’re seeing in all sorts of appliances, items from Dualit's Classic range are made to be repaired, not thrown away. Because the toasters are hand-built by people and not machines, each part is held together with visible screws. This system not only makes the toaster robust, it’s also easy to disassemble and repair - a service Dualit provides for a very fair fee. Spare parts are also readily available on Dualit’s website, so if you’re handy, you can even do it yourself.
The mechanical nature of a Dualit toaster helps give it a long life. Contemporary electronically-controlled toasters contain a circuit board, with an automatic ‘pop-up’ mechanism. The Dualit Classic toasters, on the other hand, employ a mechanical timer and manual lever to lift the toast from the slots. This means simpler repairs, less to go wrong and a satisfying clunky feel that you just can’t replicate by other means.
Dualit's Classic Kettle, too, is built for repair. Its revolutionary replaceable element can be changed again and again, greatly extending the kettle's lifetime. Instead of being glued together, like many appliances are today, this multi-patented kettle is designed to be taken apart and put back together again.
The ProHeat element
The crowning achievement of Dualit’s toaster innovations is their patented ProHeat element, which has earned the company a Millenium award. It has a high density of heating wires in the element, which creates speedy and even toasting. Unlike a regular heating element, which is left exposed, Dualit’s are armour-plated with a layer of mica, protecting the heating wire from damage.
Features
Beyond repairability and next-level heating elements, Dualit have managed to pack a whole load of features into their classic toasters, without resorting to bells and whistles.
- An energy-efficient slot-selector control knob allows you to only toast what you need
- Manually operated ejector lever lets you check bread whilst toasting
- Bagel setting warms on one side and toasts the other
- Defrost setting gently warms frozen bread ready for toasting
- An adjustable rear foot compensates for uneven surfaces, so your toaster always sits level
- High lift mechanism to remove small items easily, such as English muffins
- The extra wide slots (28mm) accommodate large items
- Removable crumb tray for easy cleaning
The Dualit Classic Kettle
Although best-known for their toasting expertise, Dualit have a whole range of products which they’ve applied their engineering principles to. From kettles to coffee machines, every Dualit product has been made with function and longevity in mind.
The multi-patented Classic Kettle, features a replaceable heating element that means you could feasibly have your kettle for decades. It’s quiet too - Dualit’s Whisper Boil™ function has been awarded the Quiet Mark by the Noise Abatement Society. Combined with superfast heating, a precision-engineered non-drip spout, extra-durable hinged lid and double measuring windows (for cups or litres), it seems as if Dualit have thought of everything.
An increasingly rare breed
“No frills. No gimmicks. No compromise.” That’s the Dualit ethos. Dualit’s hard-won reputation in the catering industry has resulted in products that are built to last, where performance comes first and reliability is an integral part of their design. Perhaps this freedom from consumer trends is how the company has managed to stay independent, family-owned and UK-based.
Finding a Buy Me Once electrical appliance is a challenge, and companies like Dualit are becoming rarer than ever. When you can buy a toaster for a tenner, it’s not hard to understand why consumers have stopped thinking about long-term value. However, it’s not just about saving money across the decades you could have your Dualit Classic toaster for. It’s about having a product that performs exceptionally well, that you look after and cherish, that you know isn’t destined for the bin.
