The guard on the top of this “Executive Edition” toaster from Siemens—for that upwardly mobile middle manager for whom only the finest toasts will do—allows it to push bread up farther than normal toasters, preventing those awful times when you have to reach in to the grill to fetch an errant piece. Single-slot, but it’s a big one.
Germany-only for now; it runs about €35.
Product Page (German) [Siemens-Hausgeraete.de via Appliancist.com]
That’s one thing that has always bugged me about toasters, and I find it amazing that we have all this wonderfull technology but yet still cannot make a toaster where the bread doesn’t get stuck… I’ve owned numerous toasters, cheap to rather expensive and they all have gotten bread stuck in them many times…
Thank the non-existent lord – I’ve been waiting for years for a blog-based toaster discussion to bring to light a model with Integrierter Edelstahl-Brötchenaufsatz. Life is complete.
I believe the “guard” actually is the Integrierter Edelstahl-Brötchenaufsatz, or “integrated high-grade steel bread roll attachment”, mentioned in the product page. Germans eat a lot of bread rolls, and in my experience it seems all toasters in Germany come with some sort of mechanism to allow rolls to be toasted on top of them.
‘Bout damn time. I have been waiting for a toaster that allows me to slice my bread lengthwise forever. Finally I can have heels that are at least a foot long.
Andreas is right: If you look closely, you discover that the thing can be flipped up or down, so I don’t think the toaster pushes up the bread so far that it would fall out with the ‘guard’ down. The feature list does mention “Hi-lift”; I guess this means you can pull the slider upwards beyond its idle position in order to push the bread out further. Not that you’d need a ‘guard’ for that, you just snatch the toast with your other hand as it comes out, but it does what Joel said.
My cheap no-name toaster also has flip-up rails (I think on my double-slot model they’re more useful, too), but no idea how ubiquitous that feature is here in Austria or over in Germany. I’ll do some research next time I’m in an electronics store with an appliances department
Bread sliced lengthwise? Hardly, but face it: no “regular” toaster in the U.S. will do justice to a slice of round or oblong rye bread while taking up a minimum width of precious counter space.
I just ruined a 20-year-old toaster with a very similar design but without a warming rack. How? By trying to warm buns on the top. The old “cool touch” (read, “plastic”) case melted and gave way a little; now it’s just a matter of time before the whole thing goes.
If Siemens ever makes this for the States, I hope to be first on the list!