Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Toasters
Raised as a usability problem by 8 people on Hacker News over 18 years (2008–2025), in 8 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Simple toasting made complex by too many options at onceUnreviewed
20082026- Toaster is nearly impossible to take apart for repair without breaking it2025-03-04
- Has to mentally estimate toasting time for each bread type and temperature2024-01-04
- Modern toasters have worse usability than older designs like the Sunbeam Radiant2020-10-05
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 8 complaints
- Toaster is nearly impossible to take apart for repair without breaking it2025-03-04
- Changing the timer mid-toast does nothing until the next cycle, and little shows time left2024-01-16
- Has to mentally estimate toasting time for each bread type and temperature2024-01-04
- Browser locks up for minutes when loading the snowman model2023-05-22
- Modern toasters have worse usability than older designs like the Sunbeam Radiant2020-10-05
- Toaster is finicky to engage, and there's no easy way to eject bread in a hurry2019-06-13
- Toast comes out uneven, untoasted or charred, and cheap toasters fail quickly2010-07-30
- Simple toasting made complex by too many options presented at once2008-03-20