The Best 2-Slice Toasters for Delicious Breakfasts

By Forrest •  Updated: 12/28/17 •  11 min read

Because of its overall performance, reputation and popularity as one of the highest-rated toasters, we chose the Cuisinart CPT-420 as our Editor’s Choice for 2020. Here’s why.

The palate has evolved over the years, and people naturally keen on changing their preferences for meals.

But one thing has refused to leave the breakfast nook: toast! You see, for most people breakfast without some crunchy toast is a total waste.

Luckily, we have some of the best 2 Slice Toasters on the market to make you the ideal toast that will start your morning on a good note. What is a 2-slice toaster, though?

A 2-slice toaster is basically a small appliance that you will find in several homes. It has two slots where you insert your bagel or toast, and they pop put after achieving the desired crunchiness. These toasters are popular for their efficiency and ease of operation.

These little toasters are designed for simple meals and single users as well. They have small footprints, and so you will find the perfect spot for it if you have a small kitchen.

best 2 slice toaster reviews

What to Look for When Buying a 2 Slice Toaster

Features

Most of these toasters are pretty simple, and so you may not have an array of fancy features to choose. However, simple aspects such as the cancel button could be deal breakers. You also want it to have a crumb tray for easy cleaning.

It should also have a self-adjusting guide so that heat distributes evenly on all parts of the toast. We all know and love that pop sound that toast makes when it is done. That setting is important if you are to be able to multitask.

Ease of Use

Most 2-slice toasters are simple with minimalist features, but not all of them. If you only need yours to make some yummy toast, then go for simple pop-up toasters, which are coincidentally likely to be cheap.

Cost and Brand

The market is flooded with new brands these days. You can choose to stick with household names such as Cuisinart or Hamilton Beach, or you could test one of the newer ones. Reviews will be your best friend here, and especially from people known to you personally.

A steep price does not always equal quality. The popular brands will undoubtedly cost more, but they are tried and tested, and so you know what to expect. We deem it best to work with a budget. Most 2-slice toasters cost less than $30, but others with sophisticated features will go for as much as $80 or $100.

Ease of Cleaning

Seeing as you cannot open up your toaster to clean it, the process will be a tad bit complicated. Features such as a tray for crumb collection and non-stick interiors will help speed things up when cleaning it, so be sure to look out for them.

Settings

Maybe you like your toast a little browner on one side than the other, but your sibling or partner wants it light brown on both sides. You want a toaster that gives you enough options to keep as many members of the family (if not all) happy at the breakfast table.

The top 5 of 2 Slice Toasters of 2020

1. Cuisinart CPT-420 Touch to Toast Leverless 2-Slice Toaster

Cuisinart is a well-known brand, and it has been responsible for some of the best toasters on the market. This elegantly designed 2-slice toaster is no different.

The exterior of this toaster is stainless steel, and the color is silver. It retains the crisp look from the time you buy it. This toaster weighs 3.5lbs, and its dimensions are 7”*6.5”*10.5” for height, width, and depth, so it does not need to much storage space.

It is a standard 2-slice toaster, but the slots are large enough to handle a bagel. It has built-in cord storage, so you will not be tripping on the cord, and it has an array of settings.

This Cuisinart toaster has a bagel setting, a cancel button, and a crumb tray. You have the option to brown your toast darker on one side or toast it equally in both sides. As we noted earlier, the wide slots (4.75 x 5.25 x 1.75) enable you to pop your bagels in for a toast.

It has a digital display at the front to show you how much time you have left, and a motorized lift that is housed in the stainless steel. The display is backlit to show you the behind-the-scenes even at night. The countdown timer also ensures that your toast does not burn.

This Cuisinart two-slice toaster has both defrost and reheat functions too. The reheating function works without browning or burning the bread. The crumb tray makes it clean to use as the non-stick interior. Its multiple settings make it easy to use.

This toaster is not entirely cheap, but that makes sense seeing all the functions and its brand. The manufacturer gives a 3-year warranty on all the parts and labor.

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2. Cuisinart CPT-160 Metal Classic 2-Slice Toaster

This toaster from Cuisinart comes with a 3-year warranty, on parts as well as labor. It is shiny silver, and the exterior is made of steel.

On the outlook, it is no different from any other 2-slice toaster. It is square, measuring 11.4 x 8.1 x 8.1 inches and weighing 4.2lbs. It has two slots measuring 1.5 inches each, both with the capacity to handle a bagel.

The entire toaster heats up evenly, and so you can expect perfectly toasted bread or bagel. With the bagel setting, it not only heats up the edges but the entire piece to satisfaction.

It has a reheat function that does not brown your bread or cook it but merely heats it up.

This toaster is cheaper than most, and so it only has six settings. The defrost setting allows you to defrost anything from pastries to pancakes and frozen waffles. It has a hi-lift lever that lets you manipulate the slot to accommodate thicker slices.

On the face of the toaster, you will have all the buttons you need from reheating to a bagel, canceling, and defrosting. There is also the shade control setting that gives you browning options from light browning on both sides to dark brown on one side of the toast. The setting dial is easy to turn.

This toaster does not have a display on the face of it, and so you will have to rely on the pop from the settings to know when your toast is done.  It will not beep, though. With all its settings, this toaster is good value for money.

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THING WE DIDN’T LIKE

3. Hamilton Beach 22623 Cool Wall 2-Slice Toaster

Hamilton Beach is famous for coming up with home appliances that are not only functional but beautifully designed too.

The elegance is seen even on this toaster that is red at the front but a chrome exterior on the rest of the parts.

The sides do not conduct heat, and so they will not hurt the hands if you touch them accidentally. The entire square-shaped toaster measures 12.6 x 7.1 x 8.4 inches and weighs 1.4lbs.

It also has a 30-inch electrical cord with an inbuilt storage that leaves most of it coiled in unless you need to unravel all of it.

The slots are wide enough for bagels, and they measure 5 ¼” long, x 1 ¼ “wide. They are also about 4 inches deep each and so breads taller than that will not fit in well. Nonetheless, they accommodate standard slices ideally.

It has a lever to bring smaller pieces of bread to the surface, and it makes the popping noise when the toast is ready.

The seven controls are on the face of the toaster. You can brown your food to the level you want using the settings on the dial, from light browning to selective toasting on either side of your loaf. The defrost function for bread, pastries, waffles, bagels, and any other thing that will fit in the slot.

Time taken to toast your bread to perfection depends on your personal choice, but it generally takes anything from 1.5 to 2 minutes.

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THING WE DIDN’T LIKE

4. KRUPS KH732D Breakfast Set 2-Slot Toaster

This 3-slice toaster from KRUPS has a beautiful design. It is all chrome and brushed stainless steel, with two slots wide enough to hold a bagel.

The entire toaster measures 13.2 x 8.5 x 8.6 inches, and it weighs just below 3lbs. This size fits ideally in homes with limited space on the counter.

The slots measure 1.5 inches wide by 5.75 inches long each, and they have a manual lever for lifting the smaller pieces of bread or pastry from the toaster. It also has a crumb tray that makes cleaning blissful.

It has six browning settings so that every user can have their toast how they want it, from light to dark brown. You can do all that using the dial on the face of the toaster.

As for the settings, the bagel option heats and browns the cut side of bagels, while the defrost function will handle anything that fits into the slots. It simply defrosts them without browning them so that nothing is ruined. The same happens with the reheat function.

The 30-foot cord has a storage compartment so that your counter stays tidy. The cancel button ends the toasting session at your will.

The blue LED indicator is active whether during the day or in the night to show you your food’s progress.

THING WE LIKED

 

THING WE DIDN’T LIKE

5. Breville BTA820XL Die-Cast 2-Slice Smart Toaster

Breville is a great brand known for some of the most technologically advanced kitchen appliances.  This 2-slice toaster is priced highly, but it is worth every penny, as you will see from this review.

It measures and weighs 13.2 x 8.2 x 9 inches and 2lbs respectively, and it has a brushed die-cast metal housing. This toaster is not only beautiful on your kitchen counter, but it also has some fantastic settings.

It runs on 900 watts, to ensure even distribution of heat for toasting your bread or reheating it, and it has a smart invention for lifting the toast when the pieces are too small to remove. The two internally built crumb trays make cleaning swift.

It has two wide slots and a cord storage unit. The browning settings turn the toast from brown to a deep brown in less than 2 minutes. The auto lift will raise the bread during toasting without interfering with the process, to ensure that it browns evenly.

You have bagel, reheat, defrost, and cancel options on the machine. It beeps when the toast is done, and to have the “A Bit More” button if you are not satisfied with the results.

THING WE LIKED

 

THING WE DIDN’T LIKE

Conclusion

Toast, bagels, and waffles are breakfast staples for most families all over the world. They are good enough as is, but toasting them makes them even better.

From our review of the best 2-slice toaster, we find the Cuisinart CPT-420 Touch to be the best buy, seeing as has all the settings you would need in a toaster. Change the face of breakfast with this Cuisinart baby.

Forrest