Best sandwich toasters

Cook up a toastie in less than 10 minutes with this steal of a runner-up. Heating in just over two minutes, turn it on while you prepare your filling and then wait just four-and-a-half minutes to cook your sarnie to a crisp finish.

Nothing oozed out of the compact design, thanks to its reliable seal, but it didn’t brown or heat up as evenly as we’d expect, leaving one side of the sandwich slightly hotter than the other. That said, it was easy to clean and store, making it a snack time game-changer for busy kitchens.

If you fancy getting experimental with your toasties, this is the maker for you, thanks to its deep-fill design and accompanying recipe booklet that’s filled with inspiration for everything from savoury flatbreads to sweet desserts. It performed the basics well too, crisping and browning our sandwiches evenly.

This model also boasts variable temperature control, allowing you to set the best heat for your sandwich – or pastry – of choice and avoid burning. It cleans easily, thanks to removable plates, but the outer casing can get very hot. It’s not the cheapest toastie maker on our list, but this high-scoring device holds the key to many toasted goodies.

This deep-fill toaster has got plenty of room for your favourite fillings. It preheats quickly so you don’t have to wait around too long to dig in, and the results hit the spot; it makes crisp and nicely browned sandwiches.

The casing did get very hot, so be careful while you’re using it. The filling also leaked a little, but it comes with a great selection of recipes if you’re looking to mix things up, and you can buy waffle plates as a separate accessory to make it even more versatile.

Students, this one’s for you. Simple, easy to use, and one of the cheapest toastie makers we tested, it’s a steal that speedily turns out crisp toasties, which are cooked evenly throughout. They were invitingly golden too, with oozing melted cheese.

During testing, the top plates pushed some of the sandwich edges out a tad, resulting in undercooked crusts, but we can forgive this small niggle. This simple toastie maker would make a great go-to for easy meals and snacks, whatever the time of day.

A real family-feeder, this will cook four sandwiches at once. Our toasties proved easy to make, thanks to instructive diagrams in the otherwise slightly vague instructions. They came out golden and well-sealed, losing none of their filling.

The non-stick coating came good, making cleaning a breeze, and built-in storage means the cord packs away neatly. Its non-slip feet lack grip and its ready light is slightly confusing – like our winner, it turns off when the machine is hot enough to toast. That said, the delicious results make these qualms easy to set aside, especially if you’ve got a lot of hungry mouths to feed.

Breville claims the plates on this machine are the deepest in its sandwich toaster range, meaning you can cram as much filling into your toastie as you’d like. For us, it delivered, producing perfectly golden sandwiches with beautifully melted cheese and no leaky filling.

The slick design is compact and easy to clean, thanks to dishwasher-safe, removable cooking plates. The first time you use it, it has a slightly plastic smell, but the instructions warn of this and by the end of our first batch of toasties, it had gone. We also found that the casing reached over 80C during cooking, so be careful

This toastie maker is sleek and compact, but it’s still got room for serious amounts of ham and cheese. It heated up quickly without reaching high temperatures externally, but one of our sandwiches was a scorching 99C when we took it out, so make sure you let them cool down before eating!

The sandwiches browned and crisped up well and the bread fitted nicely within the plate. The cut and seal function didn’t quite close all the edges, leading to some spilt filling, but this is a sturdy toastie maker that gets the job done without taking up too much precious kitchen space.

If you want to make a statement in your kitchen, then this handbag-inspired design complete with rose gold accents will do just that. It won’t be a look for everyone, but what will please universally is the speed with which it heats up (under two minutes) and cooks sandwiches (under six minutes).

It’s compact, but with ample room for two sandwiches, and it closed easily in testing. It left no edges sticking out from the plates when shut, but it didn’t brown evenly, leaving different shades on the top and bottom slices. On the plus side, it’s easy to clean and its unique aesthetic makes for a fun talking point if you’re hosting.