I love the look of this toaster and since it was ...
937991
I love the look of this toaster and since it was a Krups, I decided to buy it despite some negative reviews. It doesn't toast the bread evenly. One side of the toast gets toasted more than the other. Threw the box out so I kept it. I guess I can live with unevenly toasted bread.
1092729
Bought this for my brother.  It really is a great looking little toaster.  Love the tongs that came with it and the color is beautiful.
4052589
The toaster has a very nice exterior but unfortunately it produces an uneven browning.
4818597
This is a beautiful toaster. The design is lovely, and it looks great in my kitchen. It probably works well for certain things, like bagels and frozen waffles. What it can't do is make regular toast.

Actually, it'll toast all but the top inch of the bread I use, so if I want to have the whole slice toasted I have to set the toaster to a medium setting, wait until it pops, turn the toast upside down, and repeat. That's more work than I want to do at breakfast time.

In case you're wondering, the bread I use is the smallest size I can get from my bread machine. The slices are five inches tall, which doesn't strike me as being very large. I'm pretty sure most supermarket bread is about the same size. But the bread simply doesn't go down far enough in the toaster when the handle's depressed.

The thing that struck me as weird was that this toaster is the same height, externally, as my previous one, which worked perfectly. When I looked inside, I could see that there's about an inch and a half of unused space at the bottom of the toaster when it's in use. Why? It's anyone's guess. Maybe it's a safety feature, allowing extra space for toast crumbs to build up without causing a fire. I just don't know.

Oddly, I just returned a toaster that I picked up at my local Sears for exactly the same reason. Maybe this is some new thing with toasters.

Anyway, this one's going back too.
4640341
use it daily but the toaster feature needs to be done twice in order for your toast to be done well
2446557
Update: I've changed my review from 1 star to 4 for two reasons:
1) Black and Decker customer service responded VERY quickly to my original negative review and offered me a replacement.  Upon receiving that offer, I decided to examine the toaster more closely and realized that...
2) A small polished rock (my kid's) had gotten into the toaster, preventing the bread from getting toasted properly.

===============
I received this at the beginning of August. 3 months later, it ceased to toast well. For some reason, it only toasts a little portion of the bread near the back of the slots.  Having read through the troubelshooting and cleaning tips, and having performed those steps, I find the toaster un-improved.  I'm very disappointed, especially because this item is listed as a Best Seller. I suppose at under twenty dollars, it might be considered disposable.

Hope this helps!
3380228
Looks great, toasts poorly.  Leaves about a quarter inch of bread untoasted at the bottom every time.
2851280
This matches my kitchen accessories -- very nice, candy-apple red, shiny, classy-looking toaster.  Nice wide slots.  I'm a little concerned that in order to get an actual toasted product I have to set it on the highest setting of 5.  If I don't, it's just sort of crispy whiteness.  However, once on the highest setting it does a beautiful job of toasting.  Hopefully it'll last for a decent amount of time as toasters seem to be constructed sub par, and just die after a while.  Very nice looking.
3728475
I have owned TWO of these toasters. In the first one, a plastic part broke off a supposedly "all metal" toaster. With reluctance, Hamilton Beach provided a replacement. Now that one doesn't work! This has all taken place since July 2007! I have a Russell Hobbs toaster that has been a workhorse for years...we moved it to our summer home because a four slot toaster made more sense there. I fully intend to replace this piece of H B junk with another Russell Hobbs.
4482897
Positive - The toaster if very attractive.

Negative - After using the toaster 1 time the left side handle would not lock into place whenever it was lowered to toast pop tarts.
3669508
This toaster had lots of bells and whistles unfortunately within a month the toaster stoped working; I tried using it one morning and after pressing one of the roasting options all of the lights started to blink and now the toaster can not be used! Each time it is plugged in it goes back to blinking lights with no ability to toast. How can I return this defective toaster and get something else? I missed the return deadline.
1511760
this toaster does not toast correctly.  It only toasts the top half of regular bread and does not toast the bottom half. I like the appearance of item but I do not like that fact it only toasts the top half and if I want to toast the bottom half I must take out the bread and turn it upside down and then the top half gets burned.
640882
This is the second toaster of this model I purchased. I purchased this one after the first one broke after a few months of daily use. I liked the toaster so tried another.  I bought this one three months ago this week, and it broke in exactly the same way as the first one. From what I can tell, if you have a thick item (such as a bagel) in the toaster and it gets stuck on the side of the slot, a floating wire in the toast slot jams out of position, and the toaster is no longer usable. Since we have had other toasters in the past and used them with the same frequency and in the same manner, all of which have lasted for years, I believe this toaster has a design defect. My recommendation: don't buy this toaster if you are going to toast bagels or thick slices of bread.
1675167
I was very happy with this toaster...for a month....the heating elements on the right side are already not functioning resulting in toast that is brown on one side only. So essentially have a two slice toaster...until the other side breaks...not impressed at all and would really like a refund!
4636093
*Sigh*  We can put a man on the moon but we still cannot manage to make a toaster that toasts both sides of the bread evenly. Some of the other complaints I see here are valid as well, the slots are just a little too small for a bakery bagel (which tend to be thicker than the packaged ones in the bread aisle.) Wider bread loaves have to be cut because the slices won't fit - we end up putting sourdough slices in the toaster oven (which also doesn't toast both sides evenly...you just can't seem to win.)

From a general use perspective, we find the knob that adjusts toast darkness is a little too easy to bump/turn when wiping down counters, resulting in your desired setting getting lost. The toaster does get really hot to the touch, also.  As mentioned, the color is really a dark chrome/brushed nickel -- nothing remotely black about it.

But it sure is a gorgeous design. I also have the blender that matches and have some functionality issues with that as well, so I think Cuisinart is spending too much effort on aesthetics and not enough time making their stuff WORK flawlessly.  Just looking good sitting in the counter isn't enough.
721498
I love this toaster! It works well, looks beautiful, and has all the features I could need and more (bagel setting, defrost, reheat, cancel). It has a pretty broad range--I've never gone higher than 4 out of 7 on the darkness scale, but I don't like really dark toast. I was a little curious/skeptical about the defrost feature, but it's been great.  The crumb tray is easy to pull out and clean, too.  My one complaint is that the cord is a little short and there's no cord storage, but otherwise I absolutely love it.  I've not been much impressed by toasters in the past, but this one has me actually eating breakfast every morning.
3530048
I bought this toaster 3 years ago because I was so pleased with my Breville toaster oven. When I first used the toaster I noticed that the heating elements did not all heat up.  They were in random patterns.  I called Breville and the customer service rep replied that they had the same toaster in the office and all the segments didn"t heat up on theirs either. She didn't think it was a problem.  I was concerned that this was caused by poor quality control on the heating filaments.  As time wore on the segments began dropping out in a way that led to uneven toasting even on the same side of the bread. The bells and whistles such as "a bit more" or "lift and look" worked great and were a really nice feature. Unfortunately the one thing this over engineered and under quality checked toaster does not do is TOAST well. If the heating elements were even I would really like it. Now it is bad enough that it will need to be replaced. How I miss my parents Toastmaster that was all manual and did a great job for 50 years!