When hunger strikes and you’re cooking breakfast, you want to get food on your plate as quickly as possible. A four-slice toaster should get the job done in no time, but with so many on the market, it can be tricky to find the perfect one for your kitchen.
The KitchenAid four-slice toaster is quicker and easier to use than a toaster oven or broiler, so you won't have to wait long. Some toasters don't perform as well as we'd like them to, but KitchenAid claims their toaster always toasts bread to the shade you want and toasts bagels and other thicker bread products precisely.
We wanted to find out how well these claims hold up, so we tested the KitchenAid KMT4115OB Toaster in the real world. Here’s what we found.
To determine how products really perform beyond a quick initial test, we like to try them over time and in everyday situations. We test out the claims manufacturers make to see if they're true or exaggerated.
We gave this KitchenAid toaster to one of our testers who used it in their home over the course of two weeks, toasting bread and bagels and using various settings to test its performance. They wanted to see if it lived up to its promises, especially compared to other toasters they’ve used in the past,
The KitchenAid KMT4115OB is a four-slice bread toaster designed to easily toast slices of bread, bagels and other bread products. Like other similar toasters, it has dial controls to set the shade, and although it features four slots for toasting bread, it is still small enough to fit easily on your countertop.
We were impressed with the contemporary take on a vintage look, making it a stylish addition to the kitchen. It's available in all-over stainless steel or stainless steel with accents in one of four hues: contour silver, empire red, onyx black and liquid graphite.
This KitchenAid toaster is available from Amazon, where it costs roughly $80-$100, depending on the color you choose.
We found this toaster extremely easy to use. It's ready to go right out of the box — just plug it into the outlet, choose your desired shade setting and you're ready to toast. It works just as well as any other toaster we've used before, giving even and consistent results. It's also simpler to use than a toaster oven: all you need to do is push down the lever with bread in the slots and wait for it to pop.
Users can control each pair of toaster slots separately. We liked that we were able to control the shade and other settings separately when making toast for people with different preferences. This way it's no problem if one person likes their toast well-done and the other lightly toasted, or if one person wants to toast regular bread and the other wants a bagel.
You can choose from five shade settings with a simple dial control. Setting 1 gives you lightly toasted bread, while setting 5 gives you heavily toasted bread, on the verge of being burnt. Most people will want something in between these two extremes, but it's nice to have the option.
A special setting makes this toaster excellent for toasting bagels. When activated, the bagel setting reduces the heat output on one side of the slot by 50%, so the inside of your bagel is well-toasted, while the outside has a lighter finish. This is especially good for seeded or onion bagels since too much heat can burn the toppings.
With this stainless steel KitchenAid toaster, you have a choice of red, black, silver and gray accents, or you can select the all-over stainless steel option. We tried out the onyx black version, which looked great, but the red toaster is another popular choice. While the color options are nice, there are fewer colors than you'd find with some other KitchenAid appliances.
We liked how easy the crumb trays were to remove and clean. There are two trays, one for each pair of slots, and you can remove both independently. To remove the trays, you simply push them in slightly and they easily pop out. You then empty the trays and replace them, but if they ever need a more thorough cleaning, they're dishwasher-safe.
While the slot size is fine for standard slices of bread or bagels, it doesn't quite fit taller rectangular loaves and non-standard loaves, such as wider boules or longer sourdough slices. This means you'll either be left with some parts completely untoasted, or you'll need to rotate the bread part of the way through toasting, but you'll still be left with the center more toasted than either end.
We found this toaster easily picked up fingerprints and smudges. They weren't as noticeable as they might be on a toaster with a more polished stainless steel finish, but they were still noticeable enough to be bothersome. Leaving a cloth by the toaster to buff the marks away when they appeared worked well for us, but we'd still rather it had a fingerprint-resistant finish.
While we appreciate the bagel function, it lacks a defrost setting that other brands offer. You can still use it to defrost bread by toasting it for slightly longer, but since KitchenAid claims the toaster defrosts with ease, this seems like an oversight. Other similar toasters on the market feature a reheat setting, which this model lacks.
Some people who left customer reviews for this toaster said their toast ended up burned or overdone on the higher settings, but we didn't find this to be the case. On the highest setting, the toast was too well-done for our liking, but this is down to personal preference, so it's good to have both lower and higher settings to provide a variety of options.
All factors considered, this is a quality toaster. It will look good on your kitchen counter and is easy to use — just choose a shade setting, put bread in the slot and push down the lever. It's a great choice for people who regularly eat bagels, English muffins and other thick bread products, and as long as you adjust the settings, it should perfectly toast bread and bagels to your preference every time.
On the downside, it isn't so good for tall loaves of bread or wide boules, as the slices don't fit in the slots well. It's also prone to fingerprint smudges, which some users may find frustrating.
Breville A-Bit-More 4-Slice Toaster
The extra-long slots on this toaster let it accommodate four regular slices of bread or two large slices from boules and other non-standard loaves. It has a button to add just "a bit more" toasting time if your toast isn't quite there yet.
Sold by Sur La Table and Amazon
Cuisinart Classic Metal 4-Slice Toaster
This versatile toaster offers bagel, defrost and reheat settings. We love the extra-lift lever and the slide-out crumb trays.
Sold by Amazon and Sur La Table
Zwilling Enfinigy 2-Slot Long Toaster
With two extra-long slots instead of four standard slots, this is an excellent choice for specialty and non-standard breads. It has sleek good looks in matte black or stainless steel finishes.
Sold by Amazon and Sur La Table
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Lauren Corona writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
