Fixing a toaster

My lovely expensive (if I hadn't bought it on Ebay) Graef toaster has gone pop after about a year of light use. They cost about £85 full price so i'm not pleased.

Now I know you're all gonna say it's what i can expect buying cheap goods on Ebay but it started off new, and worked perfectly for some time, soI'm not sure what to make of it, really. I think an £85 toaster should last longer than that.

It was in the middle of toasting something when there was a small *puff* and that was that. I can't remember what was in it, I might have been toasting an overly thick and uneven slice of bread, but not sure.

I've tried changing the fuse, checked for a reset button, and tried to check if any of the internal elements seem damaged but can't see anything obvious.

So any ideas for fixing it? Is it worth taking to a mender of some sort? My sis says to complain to Graef and see what they say.

 

Definitely complain, but it is probably only guaranteed for a year!

Val

 

Yes, it looks like a continuous wire element. I have contacted Graef UK.

 

Sorry, my posts keep appearing in the wrong order for some reason.

 

I know this is a negative question (and please forgive me) ... but pray tell if a piece of toast from an £85 toaster tastes better than from a £10 toaster ... or from under a grill or on a firefork by the fire or ... ???

 

This is my toaster

 

The only thing I can think of is that something has got caught between the wall and the filament? My old one started to really smoke sometimes and it turned out there was a VERY toasted chunk of bread caught up, out of view

 

Forgiven, says Ms Half-Empty.

It doesn't taste any better, but the toaster looks a dream, lovely minimal lines. I'm a bit of a design fascist, but if a £10 toaster looked as good I'd have it. Could have bought several of them for the same money, humph. I assumed that an expensive toaster would last a lot longer but I did buy it mainly for its looks and suitability. It is a single long-slot toaster, perfect for a single person pitta-eating household.

Ideally I'd prefer a nice slice of Hovis done on a Raeburn using a coat-hanger toasting fork like my grandma did, but I haven't got a Raeburn. Or an open fire and if I did it might not be lit just when I fancied some toast. I was toasting using a grill but I would imagine a toaster is much more economical on fuel, it's certainly a lot quicker. My grill takes 5-6 mins to produce a few bits of toast.

 

Yes I wondered if that had happened. I hoped it had just blown the fuse but have tried several different fuses with no luck.

 

Is it still under warranty? At that price - it should be,
Jenny

 

Don't be tempted to poke all metal knives into dodgy toasters - ouch!!

 

Try hoovering it out, with it switched off of course

 

Yes, some toasters have a safety auto-cut out linked to the level of crumbs inside them. Clean them out and they'll get going again. There might be a removable tray to empty that would save sticking a vacuum cleaner spout into it.