Slot machines: toasters are generally better bets for browning bread than toaster-oven/broilers.(Buyers Guide)

Microchip "brains." Heat sensors. Precision shade control. Many toaster makers are touting such build-a-better-mousetrap features. But does browning bread really require "smart" technology?

No. We tested 15 toasters priced from $10 to $100 and found that even the simplest made decent toast. Yet most, including those that made claims about brains, had shortcomings. Toast came out darker on one side than the other, for example, or successive batches were inconsistently browned.

We also tested 11 toaster-oven/broilers priced from $33 to $205. As in the past, we found that as a group they're not as good as their simpler cousins at making toast, though their ability to bake and broil makes them more versatile.

Our tests also show that spending more bread doesn't get you notably better toast. While our highest-scoring toaster cost $100, our $20 CR Best Buy was almost as good.

Two cautionary notes: We rated the Toastmaster 357 toaster-oven/broiler Not Acceptable because three of seven samples tested produced charcoal-like toast and heavy smoke during several test runs. That model, which has a removable nonstick liner, has been discontinued. The manufacturer said it should be out of distribution by December; thus it does not appear in our Ratings. A successor, the 357S, has a removable stainless-steel liner. We couldn't buy it in time to test it for this story, but we plan to report on it in the future.

Two toasters, the Sunbeam 6225 and Oster 6322, did not perform in accordance with a new Underwriters Laboratories safety standard. Though the standard did not go into effect until Nov. 30 of this year, we tested only toasters that were already in compliance, according to their manufacturers. (Our toaster Ratings do not include some well-known brands because they did not have models that complied when we did our testing.) The standard requires that toasters shut off at the end of the toasting cycle even if a piece of bread jams the carriage. We tested two samples each of the Sunbeam and Oster; none shut off when we simulated a jam, even though the manufacturer told us they complied. All the other toasters we tested did. The Sunbeam and Oster also failed to shut off when we tried a "real-life" version of the test, using thick bagels that jammed the carriage. We've downrated those models accordingly.

EARNING BROWNIE POINTS