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jenniepepsi · Jun 25, 2009, 11:51 AM

Hello. Nothing is WRONG with my toaster. I am just so very curious about this.

How does a toaster know when the toast is done. It doesn't seem to be a timer at all. Is it weight? A sensor?

Thanks in advance :)

justcurious55 · Jun 25, 2009, 12:13 PM

Hmm. Well, for my toaster's, all but one had a dial thingy and depending on how toasted you wanted something, you would adjust the dial. So I guess that worked as a timer. For my one toaster that didn't have an adjustment, well, it never seemed to know when things were done. Things always seemed to stay in for about the same amount of time, unless I unplugged it. Bagels I always had to toast twice. Thinner pieces of bread sometimes started to burn before it popped up. My asumption was that there was some sort of internal timer or something.

jenniepepsi · Jun 25, 2009, 12:18 PM

Mine has a dial on it. But like, when I'm toasting more than one piece of bread, I take the toasted one out, and put a new one in, and it pops up right away.

justcurious55 · Jun 25, 2009, 12:53 PM

Maybe there's a temperature gauge. My aunt used to have this electric tea kettle. And if you boiled water, and then tried to boil more before it had cooled down, it would turn itself off.

ZoeMarie · Jun 25, 2009, 01:06 PM

Originally Posted by justcurious55

maybe there's a temperature gauge. my aunt used to have this electric tea kettle. and if you boiled water, and then tried to boil more before it had cooled down, it would turn itself off.

You're probably right. Ever made so much toast that the toaster wouldn't let you toast anything else? You know, you have to wait until it cools down a bit?

jenniepepsi · Jun 25, 2009, 01:07 PM

Exactly zoemarie! If I'm making a huge stack of toast for everyone it will stop until it cools. Hehe.

Thanks everyone for trying to help me figur ethis out.

Perito · Jun 25, 2009, 01:09 PM

There's a bimetallic button or strip, or another temperature sensor inside the toaster -- a thermostat. The moisture in the bread keeps the temperature low until the toast is the set level of "toasted". When that happens, the bimetallic button, strip, or temperature sensor action triggers the pop-up and the toaster shut-down.

One of the problems you'll run into is that if you're making many pieces of toast, the latter pieces aren't as well done as the early pieces. That's because the toaster, as a whole, is hotter and triggers the sensor earlier.

ZoeMarie · Jun 25, 2009, 01:09 PM

I think we're onto something LOL

jenniepepsi · Jun 25, 2009, 01:14 PM

Wow thanks perito! No more confusion!