One person's trash and all that.

One person’s trash and all that. Dumped @dualit_ltd toaster find. It took a few hours to strip and clean, some lessons learnt, but it’s a more or less working toaster now. Dualit are a legacy UK brand who build their toasters to be repaired, maintained and to last a lifetime. Funnily enough, they are assembled just up from me in Crawley. I knew that if this wasn’t working, it wouldn’t take much to figure out why as only a few parts can break. There was no cable, and loads of gunk and crumbs everywhere. Next step, disassemble and clean. Lots of photos!

Lesson 1: aluminium and oxyclean aren’t friends (tarnish), a lot of barkeepers friend, metal polishing and scrubbing latter, it’s looking pretty swanky. Lesson 2: secure the element properly, don’t let it touch the case. Loud bang and some sparks as soon as I turned it on. Fortunately, I wasn’t touching the case, the electricity tripped out, the fuse blew and a little while later it was up and running. Don’t try this at home kids… I secured it correctly, and it’s working. Unfortunately, the mechanical timer stops while counting down, so I’ve ordered one from eBay, £13. The plastic knob is a bit manky and the crumb tray handles are gone (melted!), but otherwise, it seems pretty good.

A few hours work, and I have an appliance for life. I could just buy a new one of course, but it feels great to push against modern consumer throwaway culture.