Black & Decker 2-Slice Toaster

I put this Black & Decker two-slice toaster into my morning rotation for a few weeks, swapping it in for my usual daily driver. It’s compact, straightforward, and pitched as a “do-everything” toaster with wide slots, a bagel mode, and a retractable cord. Here’s how it held up across bread, bagels, English muffins, and frozen items.

Design and build

The stainless exterior looks clean on the counter and doesn’t scream for attention. At 11.4 x 7.3 x 6.5 inches, it’s easy to tuck under a cabinet, and the 3.7-pound weight gives it enough heft that it doesn’t skid around when you push the lever down. The two slots are genuinely wide, with self-centering guides that grab everything from thin sandwich bread to thick-cut sourdough without skewing it to one side.

Controls are dead simple: a shade dial, and three one-touch buttons (Bagel, Defrost, Cancel) with blue LED indicators. There’s a small countdown indicator tied to the LED array—nothing fancy, but helpful when you’re trying to time eggs or coffee. The lever includes an extra lift for smaller slices, and the slide-out crumb tray is easy to remove and clean. The retractable cord is a welcome touch if you care about a tidy counter.

Overall, fit and finish are better than I expected at this price point. The shell resists fingerprints reasonably well, the buttons have a positive click, and the lever mechanism feels sturdy rather than spongy.

Setup and controls

There’s no learning curve here. The shade dial tracks from very light to quite dark with a good usable range. For typical white or wheat bread, I landed between the 3 and 4 settings for a light golden result; 5–6 approaches a deep brown. Cancel works immediately, and the toaster doesn’t punish you for interruptions—if you pop mid-cycle and resume, it doesn’t overshoot more than you’d expect.

The blue LEDs are bright enough to see across the kitchen without being obnoxious. The countdown is approximate but accurate enough to gauge when you can step away and return without babysitting.

Toasting performance (bread)

For straight bread toasting, this toaster is solid. Evenness is good end-to-end and top-to-bottom with standard sandwich slices; I didn’t see the pale corners or zebra-striping that cheaper nichrome layouts can produce. The self-centering guides help a ton with thinner slices that can otherwise end up leaning against a coil.

Cycle times are on the quick side for an 850-watt unit: you’re looking at roughly two to three minutes for light-to-medium toast, which keeps pace with morning rushes. Back-to-back cycles do run a touch hotter—as with most toasters—so if you’re toasting multiple rounds, back the dial off a half-step after the first batch.

One limitation you should expect (and this is typical, not unique): very tall artisanal slices can extend above the slot and come out lighter at the top edge. I got the best results by trimming the shade down slightly and running a second short cycle to finish the top, rather than pushing the initial setting too high and risking darkening the lower section.

Bagels and English muffins

This is where the toaster’s ambitions slightly outpace its execution. The bagel mode does not behave like a “true” single-sided bagel setting that deactivates one side completely. Instead, it seems to bias heat toward the cut face while still warming the exterior. In practice, on thicker bagels and English muffins, the cut sides can get a little dry before the outside is just warm, and the top can edge toward over-browned if you’re not careful.

My workaround: use a lower shade setting than you would for bread (about one full notch down), and pull a little earlier on the first attempt. For English muffins, I got better results skipping bagel mode entirely and toasting at a medium-low shade, then giving a brief second pass if needed. If you’re particular about a bagel that’s crisp on the cut face and barely warmed on the outside, this toaster won’t replace a dedicated single-sided bagel machine.

Frozen items and defrost

Defrost mode works as advertised. Frozen bread slices came back to life evenly without scorched edges, and frozen waffles were crisp without becoming brittle. Compared with running a full-power cycle from frozen, defrost smooths out the temperature ramp, which helps preserve texture. Expect a modest time increase versus fresh bread, not an eternity.

Slot size and handling

The extra-wide slots take thick country loaves, Texas toast, and bagels without compressing the crumb. The self-centering guides hold thin slices well and didn’t snag softer breads in my testing. The lift assist gets smaller items high enough that I didn’t need tongs for most slices; that said, very short ends of a baguette still sat a little low, so keep wooden tongs handy if you toast small pieces.

The lever travel is smooth, and the pop at the end of a cycle is assertive enough to clear the slots without ejecting toast onto the counter. Noise is minimal beyond the standard spring pop.

Cleaning and maintenance

The slide-out crumb tray spans the full width and has enough depth that crumbs don’t immediately spill when you move it. A quick weekly emptying kept things tidy. The stainless exterior wipes down easily with a damp cloth; if you care about spotless surfaces, a microfiber cloth keeps smudges at bay.

The retractable cord is a small but meaningful convenience. It winds in cleanly and reduces counter clutter, especially if you only bring the toaster out on weekends. The mechanism on my unit retracted smoothly without binding.

Heat, safety, and day-to-day use

Like most metal-bodied toasters, the sides get warm during extended use. They didn’t get dangerously hot in my testing, but I’d still give it a little space under low cabinets. The base stayed put thanks to its weight and feet, and I never felt like I had to chase it around the counter.

Day to day, the combination of shade dial, LED countdown, and cancel button made it easy to hit repeatable results without a lot of fiddling. If your mornings are chaotic, being able to glance at the LEDs and know whether you have time to pour coffee is more useful than it sounds.

Durability impressions

Short of long-term wear testing, all I can say is that the mechanicals feel solid: the lever action is consistent, the buttons don’t wiggle, and the shade dial has reassuring resistance. The crumb tray slides in and out without scraping. Nothing about the construction suggests it’s a “replace in six months” appliance.

Value

In its price class, this toaster gives you a lot: wide slots, a real countdown indicator, an auto-lift lever, and a retractable cord—features you often have to trade off at this level. The only real caveat in the feature set is the bagel mode not being truly single-sided. If you’re primarily a bread toaster who occasionally heats a bagel, that’s a minor compromise. If bagels are a daily ritual, it’s more consequential.

Who it’s for (and who it’s not for)

• Great for: households that mostly toast sandwich bread, sourdough, and frozen items; anyone who wants compact dimensions and an uncluttered counter; users who appreciate simple controls with a visual countdown.
• Not ideal for: bagel purists who want the outside barely warmed; people who routinely toast oversized, tall slices and expect the top edge to brown evenly in one pass; those who need four slices at a time.

Recommendation

I recommend this toaster for everyday bread and frozen-toasting duties. It’s compact, consistent, and easy to live with, and the mix of a usable shade range, even heating, and quality-of-life touches (countdown LEDs, lift assist, retractable cord, crumb tray) makes it a dependable addition to a busy kitchen. Just be aware of the bagel limitation: the bagel mode doesn’t deliver a true single-sided toast, so you’ll want to dial the shade back and babysit a bit, or consider a different model if bagels are your mainstay. For most people who want reliable toast without fuss, this Black & Decker two-slice is a smart, reasonably priced choice.