1951 Sunbeam radiant control toaster

My toaster is automatic! The marvel of 1950s "the future is now" technology. These toasters are fully automatic and produce excellent toast due to the fact that they sense the temperature of the toast, and not the temperature of the toaster to determine doneness. Also, despite their automatic nature, they are actually very simple devices and don't tend to wear out due the slow moving of the mechanism. At almost 60 years of age this toaster only required a minor adjustment to bring it back to perfect working order. I use it every day and it's never let me down.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Toaster

[chrometoaster]

a lovely specimen! And so nicely maintained. love the "retro diner" sugar dispenser, too. I sure wish you'd gotten a reflection of your face in the toaster...

don't you love how LONG the toaster cords used to be?

[GNick42]

I have one just like this. Is was my grandfather's back in the day. The cord is bad on mine also. Need to get it repaired someday

[itsalljustaride]

I have one of these. bought it at a garage sale for like $5. It's the best thing ever, and I dread the day it fails on me. I actually had to replace the old braided fabric cord with a new one. $5 in maintenance costs in 60 years isn't too shabby at all though. Mine isn't as shiny as your though.

[vintageappliguy]

This toaster was made until 1996 with just a few minor changes over the years. To answer your question as to why toasters are not made like this today it is because the mechanism this toaster uses is considered more expensive than what they use in modern toasters. Cost as a matter of fact is what made Sunbeam kill this model off 1996. No one wanted to pay the $85 dollars this toaster cost in the mid 90's when they could pick up the $9.99 special at Wal-Mart or Target...PAT COFFEY