CONGRATULATIONS: I like that the body doesn’t heat up at all. Large enough width of the toast compartment 40 mm allows you to fry even quite thick slices of bread. The prize of editorial sympathy went to the BEST IN TEST pan for warming up buns – no one was indifferent to it.
Disadvantages: The scale with temperature settings is not very convenient. If you have to make small toasts, pulling them out is a bit of a problem, so it’s better to buy standard toast bread.
Technical options
Toaster
MANUFACTURING: Germany/assembly – Slovenia.
POWER: 860 Watt.
NUMBER OF CASES: 2 compartments for 2 slices of bread up to 34mm thick and 150mm long. Width of 1 compartment – 40mm.
FUNCTIONS: 9 cooking levels, buns warming up.
ACCESSORIES: bread holder, bun tray, crumb tray, wire length – 1.4 m.
CONTROL: automatic shutoff including toast tipping over and jamming, “stop” button emergency shutoff to interrupt making toast, “plus” and “minus” buttons to set the toasting degree, toasting degree indicator. The last degree of frying set is stored in the memory.
COLOR: stainless steel/dark blue.
DIMENSIONS: 180x130x170 mm.
WARRANTY: 1 year.
Test results
DESIGN: The compact toaster is traditionally shaped and made of brushed stainless steel that leaves practically no fingerprints. Part of the Solitaire designer series that also includes a kettle and a coffee maker and is distinguished by its original color scheme and combination of clean straight lines and smooth shapes.
The plastic color of the device we received is very dark, while the color of the kettle in the series is much brighter. The control panel is located on the top, which is very convenient. On one side, there is a slider to extend the warming pad and a handle to remove the crumb tray on the other side, there is a slider to turn the appliance on. The device stands on non-slip feet, the bottom has a device for winding the cable.
CONTROL PANEL: contains buttons for adjusting and canceling modes and a mode indicator. Toast is toasted by pressing the minus or plus buttons, and the mode is indicated by the ruler indicator between the two buttons. It lights up red and the light moves as the appliance heats up, reflecting the degree of browning.
It should be mentioned that the ruler itself looks like this: 1*2*3*4*5, that is, the last digit “5” corresponds to the maximum mode “9”, which is not very convenient and confusing. For example, our employee, knowing that there are 9 modes, decided to choose the medium mode 5, and changed the controller to the position indicated by the corresponding number. The result – super crispy and crispy croutons – liked it, but it was unexpected.
FIRST TEAK: cooked on medium mode 6 out of possible 9 for 2 minutes and 12 seconds. This is an ambiguous result of the dough, although it is certainly fast, but we do not recommend it: neither uniformity nor crispness was observed.
On one side, the croutons were just pale. Also, the butter that was afterwards put on them didn’t want to melt and smudge, and no wonder: they were just warm, but not hot at all.
We fried a second batch of toasties in mode 8, the penultimate of the available ones. And finally, you have the desired result: 2 toasts that are crispy and evenly crispy without being overcooked. The slightly overcooked edge we found only on one of them, but it was so small that it didn’t affect the overall good impression.
TREATMENT MODE: none.
HEATING: toasts that have cooled down are not heated in a separate mode, but they can be heated in two ways: on the bread rack or in the bread carrier with the minimum toasting mode.
WINDING BUNNERS: it can be pulled out with a special lever and is used to heat up all kinds of morning specialties like croissants, croissants and buns. The manufacturer warns that you can’t heat up and cook toast at the same time. The maximum mode for heating – 2. I would like to note that the bun tray is wide enough 10 cm ! and is very handy, as it consists of four parts. It ergonomically pops out from the casing and unfolds like the petals of a flower. Thanks to its size it is possible to heat up to 4 small buns at the same time.
TOUCH FROM ONE SIDE: there is no mode.
DETAILS: The body of this model is thermally insulated, so it doesn’t get hot – just a little warm.
No device for removing the toasts, but taking them out is not a problem: the device holds them up high enough.
INSTRUCTIONS: it is a booklet of 48 pages, in different languages. The American text takes up 2 pages, the translation is laconic and clear. All important points are in bold, the presentation is consistent and clear.
To the manufacturer’s credit, the booklet has a table of contents to quickly find the instructions in the language you want, and there is a clear instruction “in pictures” – that is, in pictures. The good quality of the photos and the paper in general and the readable fonts make a good impression – perfect!
Is the Bosch Solitaire TAT8SL toaster recommended? How does it perform in terms of toasting quality and durability?