Mecity 4 Slice Toaster, Long Slot Toaster With Countdown Timer, Bagel / Defrost / Reheat / Cancel Functions,Warming Rack, removable Crumb Tray, 6 Browning Settings, Extra Wide…

Does a beautiful job on regular bread but when you only want to toast one side like English muffins or bagels or hamburger and hotdog buns it does a perfect job. I should have bought this one, spent a few more bucks as I like my muffins toasted on 1 side.

We like this unit and it works well. The hard thing to get used to was the timer. We are used to the old fashioned “color chart” for a doneness setting. How dark is 90 seconds vs 60? Trial and error.

After my trusty retro KitchenAid toaster quit unceremoniously in the middle of a toast cycle, I went online to look for a replacement.

First, I checked the stock of local stores with good appliance prices, notably P.C. Richards, Best Buy, and Bed Bath and Beyond, but I didn’t see anything I liked.

So I came here to Amazon — there’s nothing better than the testimonials of fellow reviewers — and scoped out the usual suspects: Cuisinart, Black and Decker, Proctor Silex, Hamilton Beach, etc.

Imagine my dismay to find many recent negative accounts of the products of these household names, including toasters catching on fire, failing to toast evenly, and the like…

Then I happened upon this toaster from an unknown brand called Mecity. (The box photo I have attached omits even that name, as you can see…)

I liked the sleek design of it, and I liked the features, which were almost identical to those of the KitchenAid, but with some interesting enhancements, notably:

1) Warming rack. I’m not sure how often I’ll use this, but it’s nice to have, and it deploys very neatly: the back of the toaster has a lever that looks just like the toasting lever on the front, but this one raises and lowers the warming rack with great precision. Neat!
2) Digital countdown timer. The KA counted down in symbolic whole numbers, but this timer counts down in actual minutes and seconds so you know exactly how long you have to wait for your toast. And as other reviewers have mentioned, the toaster comes with a page of photos showing exactly how dark each of the 6 toaster settings will get your bread. Even more amazing, these photos are dead-on accurate!

Otherwise, I appreciate the toaster’s other modern conveniences, including the bagel function, defrost, re-warm, and cancel. All the buttons light up (or turn off, in the case of the cancel function) when you touch them, to confirm your selection.

And let me return to the subject of precision. The controls on this toaster have a refined feel that even the mighty KitchenAid lacked: the darkness knob turns with a slight ratcheting motion that somehow inspires confidence, and the two levers for toasting and warming rack deployment also click into place with a grace Steve Jobs would have approved of.

Finally, Mecity includes a one-year warranty and an email address where you can get support. I should mention as well that the instructions included are well written in good English, suggesting that Mecity might be a firm that knows what it’s doing.

So folks tired of disappointing products from brand names might want to give this generic toaster a try.

PROS:

* Handsome stainless steel design.
* Digital minutes-and-seconds countdown timer.
* Warming rack.
* Bagel, defrost, re-warm, cancel functions.
* Easily removable crumb tray.
* One-year warranty.
* Reasonably priced for a full-featured toaster.

CONS:

* “Mecity” not a household name.

UPDATE (9/22/2022): I just discovered another clever trick this toaster has up its, uh, slots: if you make more than one pair of toast in quick succession, the timer will automatically start at a lower time to compensate for the heating elements being pre-heated. For example, your first pair of toast will take 2 minutes, and the next pair will take around 1 minute and 40 seconds. So your toast always comes out at the right level of “doneness.” Neat, huh?

Working pretty good so far and it toast the bread evenly however if you turn it up to three or four for a regular piece of toast it will burn. Also I noticed that the new metal smell is still slightly there after 2 or 3 uses. Yes I did follow the instructions to get the smell to subside prior to use but it’s still there a bit so I’m hoping after a month use it subsides if not then I will be writing another review or returning the item. But so far so good

After returning two toasters to Amazon, I did some outside research and found this was highly recommended. I am not disappointed. The sides are cool to the touch; there is a countdown timer which let’s you know when toast will be done; a “Reheat” selection; and, it us also attractive! The only downside is that when toasting only one piece of bread, the toast gets a little too dark. Obviously, you can adjust the knob downward to compensate for this. All in all, very pleased!