Breville The Power Toastie Maker

We are a big family, with 5 kids. We all love our toasted sandwiches. However our machine which is not very old has a broken clip. This makes it impossible to make good toasties. We expected it would last longer than a few months 😞

Like most children of the 80's, I grew up with fond memories of the Breville toastie maker. It's presence in most homes was so ubiquitous that for most of my generation, there was no concept of 'jaffles', only 'Brevilles'.A cheese and baked bean Breville was a thing of joy, especially on a cold afternoon after sport!What set the Breville apart was the 'slice and seal' action, which kept any runny elements inside and not all over the place. An unfortunate side effect of this was a volcanic effect - I have lost count of how many times I burnt the roof off of my mouth due to the cheesy lava inside. Small price to pay, and a good way to teach patience...Which leads me to the current product I am reviewing. At first glance it seems to tick all the boxes - larger ... MoreLike most children of the 80's, I grew up with fond memories of the Breville toastie maker. It's presence in most homes was so ubiquitous that for most of my generation, there was no concept of 'jaffles', only 'Brevilles'.A cheese and baked bean Breville was a thing of joy, especially on a cold afternoon after sport!What set the Breville apart was the 'slice and seal' action, which kept any runny elements inside and not all over the place. An unfortunate side effect of this was a volcanic effect - I have lost count of how many times I burnt the roof off of my mouth due to the cheesy lava inside. Small price to pay, and a good way to teach patience...Which leads me to the current product I am reviewing. At first glance it seems to tick all the boxes - larger capacity (4 v 2); automatic countdown timer; super power (2000watts v 1000watts of the original); cut and seal.However, the results are not consistent with expectations. Using plain white bread (the gold standard when making jaffles), I encountered 2 issues. Firstly, the outside did not crisp up as much as it should. This was despite using a small amount of butter on the outside (as all good jaffles require). The result of this can be seen when removing the jaffle - when levering up the jaffle from an outside corner ( the preferred method), it would bend due to the degree of sogginess. Second, once removed, a jaffle should be able to be separated into its 2 halves by bending across the slice and seal line - at which the crisp line should snap easily. With the Power Toastie, this is not possible - I have had to use a knife each time to halve them cleanly.I am unsure as to whether this is an issue with the slice and seal action itself, a temperature issue (not hot enough to crisp up properly), or both. I know that this is not an issue with the smaller Original or Original '74, as I have one if these also, so am tempted to buy another Original so that I can make 4 at once (as I have 3 kids under 7...)So for those new to Jaffles, this may be sufficient for your needs, however if this will be a little bit of nostalgia for the Gen X'ers out there, I would recommend the Original'74

The last Breville Toastie maker we had lasted over 20yrs! We only threw it out because the lock broke. I bought this machine believing it will be the same as the last, especially because it is the same brand... BOY WAS I WRONG! In the year i have had it not once has it come out crunchy, all the crusts glued together & the 2 halves snap apart... INSTEAD it is soggy, takes forever to cook, the crusts come apart (all contents throughout the machine & my counter top) & you have to cut it in half with a knife! VERY disappointed family here! I read through the other reviews below & i can see i am not the only one having these same issues! SORT IT!