KitchenAid Toaster with High-Lift Lever KMT4116CU 4-Slice Long Slot, DAA

We are very fortunate to have a fresh bakery less than 2 miles from my house and they make a bread called "Old World Bread" that is easily one of the best sandwich breads, or toasting breads, that I have ever come across. I put it right up there with the sourdough bread you can get from really high end deli's. You can either have it sliced there as they have a machine that slices it in a matter of seconds, or they will give it to you whole and you can slice it at home if that is how you prefer to do it. The problem is, the loafs of bread are much wider overall than your standard store bought loafs of bread so in order to toast it with our previous toaster, you literally had to pop the toaster up halfway through and rotate the bread 180 degrees. Otherwise you would get a piece of bread that was basically like 50-60% toasted and the other 40-50% wouldn't get toasted. It was just very inconvenient and rarely ever did the bread come out perfectly toasted.So when we decided to buy a new toaster, our biggest priority was a toaster that was large enough to accommodate large slices of bread and this toaster certainly doesn't disappoint in that regard. The slices of bread we get from the bakery easily fit in this toaster, with room to spare. And if your toasting regular sized bread, you can actually put 2 pieces on each side thus toasting 4 pieces at the same time. Design wise, our Kitchen is largely marble and stainless steel. Both our refrigerator and stove are stainless steel, our Kitchen Aid Blender is the dark grey model, my juicer is stainless steel etc. We even switched over to using the POP containers with the stainless steel lids. So the silver color was just a perfect match for our kitchen design wise. And it does a fantastic job at toasting. It has a small dial right in the middle that allows you to very easily change the toasting time. For the bread we buy at the bakery, the middle setting is absolutely perfect. It has a lift level that allows you to push the toast up far enough to be able to easily grab it without burning yourself on the toaster itself. And one of the most unique aspects of the toaster is the 7 different settings you can use which include Bagel, defrost, reheat, and keep warm. I have never had a toaster in all my years that had a keep warm option. Its great if you get pulled away for some reason while toasting only to come back to find the bread isn't hot enough to melt butter anymore. You just put the toast on the keep warm option and it will warm it back up for you without toasting it any further than it already is. Thats honestly one of my favorite options with this toaster as what I used to have to do if I got pulled away and didn't get back to my toast in time is butter the toast and then stick it in the toaster for a few seconds to melt the butter. Thats not a very smart thing to do as you ultimately get butter that drips down into the bottom of the toaster. Well, with this option I no longer have to worry about that sort of thing.Be waned tho, this is not a small toaster so if you don't have a lot of counter space and your looking for something smaller that will just toast regular grocery store sized bread, this is definitely not the option you want to go with. Its basically 8 inches high x 8 inches deep by 16 inches long. So its not the height or the depth that is a problem if you have a small amount of space, its the length. 16 inches is basically just under a foot and a half long. On the other hand, if your like my family and you buy bread from bakeries that bake loafs that are much larger than your average store bought bread, this toaster will become your favorite toaster of all time. And another really nice feature is it has a cord wrap at the very bottom of the toaster so you don't have to worry about 3 to 4 feet of cord just lying on your kitchen counter. You can pull out just enough to get it to the socket and keep the rest of the cord hidden underneath the unit. We have now had this toaster for roughly 3 months now and its by far the nicest toaster I have ever owned. At Roughly $80, its definitely a bit more pricey than your average toaster, but then again this is not your average toaster. This is an oversized toaster designed specifically for large slices of bread, even tho you can just as easily use it with smaller pieces of bread.Bottom line, toasting using our old toaster was just a total pain. You had to rotate the toast half way through the toasting cycle or you would wind up with bread that was unevenly toasted, dramatically so depending on just how long you waited to flip the bread around. I can't tell you how many times I got distracted while toasting and wound up with bread that was literally half toasted and half not toasted. To go from that to this....well, there is just no comparison. I am a big fan of KitchenAid as I think they produce some of the highest quality kitchen appliances on the market. We own a KitchenAid Professional 600 Series Stand Mixer (with most of the pasta attachments), a KitchenAid 5 speed hand blender, a KitchedAid 5 speed hand mixer, a KitchenAid 5 speed pitcher blender, a KitchenAid mini food processor, a KitchenAid coffee grinder, and most of our kitchen gadgets like our ice cream scoop, pizza cutter, can opener, sink brush etc. are all KitchenAid. Even our pasta drying rack is from KitchenAid. I have been using KitchenAid products for well over 20 years and have never been disappointed. This toaster is just the latest edition to our ever growing selection of KicthenAid kitchen products and believe me, if your toasting large bread, this is without question one of the best options on the market. Again, it is a big toaster so you need some space on your counter if your going to go with this model, but if you do have the space it is oh so worth it.As long as KitchenAid continues producing this model, I would rebuy it in a heartbeat if or when our current model goes down. As I have written in many of my other kitchen related reviews, the quality of the items you use to cook with can play a large role in just how much enjoyment you get out of cooking. Having quality measuring cups, quality knives, quality pots and pans, and quality kitchen appliances....well, it really does make cooking all the more enjoyable and in a day and age where people would rather just go out and get something to eat as opposed to cooking home cooked meals themselves, that become far more important than its ever been.If your looking for a quality toaster that can toast large pieces of bread, look no further. This is without question the model you should go with. I couldn't be happier with my purchase and like all of KitchenAid's other items, they looks really nice on your countertop. KitchenAid products not only work amazingly well, they also help to make you kitchen look really nice when your not cooking. IMO, you really can't go wrong with KitchenAid and that includes this toaster. I for one couldn't be happier with the purchase.5 Stars and then some!!!!

I gave myself this for my birthday, and it was a very good choice.First, the red is a perfect match for my Blue Star stove and the red tiles in my kitchen backsplash, so I'm happy they have colors available.Second, it works really well. The bread toasted as desired.Third, it's versatile. I even put a folded flour tortilla in it, and was happy with the results - crisp around the edges, chewy in the middle, and it blistered up nicely. Then I took half of a small baguette, sliced it lengthwise into planks, and toasted the planks - best garlic bread ever (put melted garlic butter on AFTER it comes out of the toaster!).Fourth, the crumb tray works great.Fifth, the lifter - you can push up the toast to look at it without interrupting the toasting cycle.Sixth, and this is my favorite feature, there's a 3-minute "keep warm" setting. Ridiculously easy to use - just push a button if you want it - this lets the toast finish giving off steam, like putting it in a toast rack, so it doesn't get soggy, and the toaster keeps giving it a low level of heat so it doesn't cool off. No more soggy toast, I love it. It isn't scalding hot when it comes out after 3 minutes, but it's still really warm.I found that the toasting was most even if I put bread in both slots. If you put bread in only one side, I think the heat from the empty second side adds to the middle side of your toast and overcooks it. So I always toast at least two pieces. (that's my story and I'm sticking to it)This is the best toaster I have ever had. I absolutely love it. Worth every cent, and I didn't get it on sale.

As far as I can tell, KitchenAid put 100% of their product "design" effort into giving this toaster a retro-feeling, sort-of-solid look, and ZERO effort into basic function, let alone user desires.My short list of complaints:(1) It doesn't toast. Sort of a deal breaker for a toaster.I like my toast very light ("warm bread" per my spouse). He likes his bread burnt to a crisp ("toasted", he would say). Set on the HIGHEST possible setting ("Dark") the toast comes out perfect for me, perpetual disappointment and frustration for him.(2) Long slots, that hide your toastWhile the toaster has long slots that accommodate "artisan" bread (normal, hand-made non-industrial bread) , the riser won't allow you to raise the bread any higher than it "pops" when the toast is done, which is not high enough for some slices. So, if you have a wide but short slice (like the kind you get when starting on a round loaf), the slice is still tucked completely down inside the toaster *after* it "pops". You have to yank and yank on the riser knob and try to flip your toast high enough to grab it in mid-air, or rummage around for the chopsticks and play "operation" to retrieve it.(3) Lingering "new appliance" toxic reekI had to run this toaster (no exaggeration here) through TWENTY FIVE cycles, under my kitchen vent, before the melting plastic probably-carcinogenic aroma finally wore off. This would be a minor if unnerving point if the toaster actually toasted. As it is....My two cents? Buy a cheap imported toaster -- you 'll get the same or better performance at a fraction of the cost.Or, shell out serious money for a seriously excellent toaster(I recommend Dualit -- my last one lasted 17 years with constant use and perfectly toasted the insane range of baked goods we stuffed into it -- which made it a bargain compared to this piece of junk, which I'm about to donate, with a guilty conscience, to Good Will).