The Swan Fearne 2-Slice Toaster is an affordable Swan toaster designed in collaboration with TV presenter Fearne Cotton. Despite its low price, this toaster looks great and performs well. Beneath the lever, there’s a 6-level browning dial split into two increments, allowing you to toast your bread at 2.5 or 3.5 if you wish. There’s also a reheat button on the dial, meaning you don’t need to guess which level the dial should be at before hitting reheat. The slots are 140cm long and are deep enough that you shouldn’t need to lay standard supermarket bread on its side to get an even browning. The toaster also produces some of the best toast we’ve ever eaten, with the large slots ensuring bread is toasted all the way to the edge. However, as mentioned, these times will vary according to what’s in the toaster and whether the toaster has been used recently. The browning levels are associated with reaching certain temperatures, so the toasting time is self-regulated by the toaster.

The browning controls range from 1 to 6 with halfway points marked on the dial. This means you can fine-tune your toast level, though we didn’t find the slight increments always made a big difference.There are a number of factors you need to consider when choosing a toaster. These include the cooking features, design, controls and size of the device. The latter is especially important if you have a large family to feed or are looking for a toaster to use in more professional settings, as in these scenarios two slots might not cut it. To test the defrost function, I toasted some “best of both” white/wholemeal bread straight from the freezer. At setting 3, it took roughly 2mins 50secs. When it comes to actually using the toaster, we found the results to be exceedingly even, with few stripes whether the bread was toasted horizontally or vertically. Both sides popped up after 2 minutes and 15 seconds. We’ve thoroughly tested every single toaster on this list to help you find only the best for your bread.

The Evoke 4-Slice toaster produced pretty even and crunchy results. I started by toasting some medium white bread, placing two slices vertically on setting 4 and two slices horizontally on setting 3. In need of a new toaster? You’ve come to the right place. We’ve gathered all the best toasters together in this guide to make it easier to find the right one for you. However, when I tried toasting a single, thin slice of bread from the end of the loaf, the toaster threw it in the air so it landed loosely on top. So be mindful when toasting single pieces, particularly if they’re on the thin side.Each pair of slots has its own lever and step-free rotary browning control marked from 1 to 6, along with buttons to reheat, defrost and toast bagels. There are no single-slot options, so you’ll need to heat an empty slot if you only want one (or three) slices. The Dualit Domus Four-Slice Toaster has some of the biggest slots you’ll find, making it perfect for toasting almost any bread you might have in your kitchen. For my liking, the 4 was a little overdone and 3 perhaps a little pale, so I’d say 3.5 is the sweet spot – provided you toast at least two slices at a time and start with a cold toaster.