“Can I make myself a grilled cheese toast by turning the toaster sideways?” That’s the most likely question going through your mind when you think of turning the toaster sideways.
Honestly, it’s a bad idea. It can cause a fire. There have been cases of fire starting in people’s houses due to turning their toaster sideways. Here is why it’s a bad idea.
Have you ever asked how a toaster works? A toaster works through the elements called nichrome and chromium, where they convert the electricity into heat.
The two elements burn red hot, and that’s the reason the toaster turns the bread brown. Now, assuming it’s a verticle toaster you want to turn sideways.
A verticle toaster can work well without starting a fire as they use the bread slots as vents to take off the excess heat. When the toaster is upright, it doesn’t come into contact with the red hot element as the element is on the side and heats the bread from a distance.
When you turn the toaster sideways, some of the bread cramps can come into contact with the red hot element. Here they burn and end up starting a fire.
Also, when the microwave is working in a sideways position, the excess heat has no place to go out. Due to the excess heat trapped in the toaster, the bread will burn faster than the normal rate. If you don’t get the bread out, the bread will turn into fire.
If by any case, you were trying to make a grilled cheese toast, the cheese will melt into fat then drip to the red hot element.
Fat burns at high temperatures, and at that position, the temperature in the toaster is enough to burn the fat. Instead of going through all that trouble, it’s advisable to get a sandwich maker as it will work perfectly.
Other ways we use the toaster wrongly are:
- Using the same settings all the time: How often do you change the settings on your toaster? Different bread requires different settings. For example, if you get bread today when it’s still fresh, and toast it, setting three will give you the best toast. Tomorrow when using the same bread, you will need to change the setting as the bread has lost some moisture and may need a shorter time to toast. Apart from that, white bread will take less time to toast as compared to gingerbread.
- You end the cycle wrongly So, it’s in the morning, and you are late for work or even school. You feel the toaster is taking long, so you end the cycle, but then the bread is not yet toasted. You take it back, but this time you keep yourself busy so that you can stop getting impatient. This time around, you let it go a full cycle. By the time you get the toast, it gets burnt. This is because before you cut the first cycle short, the bread had started toasting only that it had not browned. By taking it back for a whole cycle, it will get burnt as it had already started.
- You are not using toast bags Most people assume the work of toast bags. Some don’t even know what they are. Toast bags are papers that don’t burn. You can use them by putting your bread with butter in it as the butter will not melt and go to the hot element. With a toasting bag, you can toast your bread with cheese easily as the cheese will remain in the bag. Apart from that, you can use it to warm your leftover food as they won’t get soggy like in the microwave. Instead, they will be crispy
Conclusion on sideways Toaster
To most of us, toast is dear to us, and we need to get the toasting right. Otherwise, when you keep burning the toast or not toasting evenly, it can be frustrating. Always make sure you use the toaster in the right way.
It won’t hurt if you go through the manual to understand how it works so you can get the right setting for different loaves of bread. Going through the manual can save you from starting a fire or a lot of other frustrations.
Agnes is a kitchen and cooking enthusiast as well as a fitness fanatic. She loves to help readers upgrade and furnish their kitchen with the best available products! She is the primary writer behind SmartKitchenImprovement.com and hopes to share little tidbits of knowledge she’s picked up over her years as a mom and wife.