Russell Hobbs 24381 Inspire four-slice toaster review
We armed ourselves with sliced bread and artisan loaves to test four-slice toasters. Read our review to find out what we thought of the budget-friendly Russell Hobbs Inspire toaster.
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Russell Hobbs 24381 Inspire four-slice toaster
Pros: great price, even browning, lift and look function
Cons: one set of controls, slots quite shallow
Overall rating: 4/5
Read our full review of the best toasters to buy.
This chunky but stylish-looking model gets the job done for a great price. Although it’s fairly basic, with no warming or bagel functions and only one browning knob, we’re willing to compromise for this price.
It impressed more than the other budget options we tested thanks to its even browning, producing some of the most evenly toasted bread of all the models we tested.
Although the top inch of taller slices will stay untoasted, this toaster handles regular and thicker sliced bread with aplomb, making it a good option for those who like an artisan loaf.
Toasting takes a little longer than average at over two and a half minutes, but we’d prefer our toast perfectly crisp and golden rather than on our plates a few seconds faster.
A welcome 'lift and look' function means you can check on your toast’s progress without hitting cancel, while the reheat function works well, and the machine toasts frozen bread evenly – something few of the models managed. It also includes a lever for each side, saving energy if you’re only making one round.
On the downside, the body of the toaster can get quite hot (although not as hot as the all-metal models we tested) and it isn’t particularly compact, but the cable tucks away nicely, and individual crumb trays make it easy to clean. Overall, we were suitably impressed with performance versus price.
Specifications:
Cancel button: yes
Browning settings: six
Extra features: reheat, defrosting, lift and look
Wattage: 1800w
Dimensions: 29.5 x29.8 x 19.5cm
Weight: 2.73kg
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This review was last updated in July 2019. If you have any questions, suggestions for future reviews or spot anything that has changed in price or availability, please get in touch at goodfoodwebsite@immediate.co.uk.
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