7 hours ago
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Cheese, beans, ham, tomato, leftover lasagne: whatever your favourite filling, a toasted sandwich is somehow so much more than its constituent parts. And having a toastie maker on hand to produce this golden, crisp, steaming deliciousness certainly makes things neater and more efficient than negotiating an unsealed, melting sandwich in a pan.
Autumn is surely the ultimate toastie season, so I spent all summer hovering over hot machines to compile this list of the best sandwich toasters available right now.
At a glance
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Best toastie maker overall:
Breville Deep Fill VST082
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Best budget toastie maker:
George Home textured deep-fill sandwich toaster
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Best for the ultimate toastie experience:
Dualit double contact toaster
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Best microwave toastie maker:
Morphy Richards Mico toastie maker
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Best stovetop toastie maker:
ProCook stovetop sandwich toaster
Why you should trust me
I’ve been writing about food and all things kitchen for a decade, so I’ve tested many appliances in that time (including many sandwich toasters). I cook every day at home and know that any culinary gadget you buy needs to earn its place in the kitchen.
How I tested
I tested 15 toastie makers, including my own (and no longer available) Tefal model, which didn’t really cut the mustard. The machines were selected to include various styles and budgets; I also looked at popular models.
As with so many culinary questions, I turned to Felicity Cloake for guidance on how to build the best toastie for testing. Thus, hefty slices of Jason’s White Ciabattin Sourdough were loaded with two varieties of grated cheese: mozzarella and mature cheddar. I’m afraid I also stirred tuna into the mixture to make it a little healthier, although I know this will upset many (including How to Eat). For each toastie, I spread 100g of the mix between two mayo-coated slices of bread before cooking.
I tested how long it took each sandwich toaster to heat up and show an indicator light, and then to cook the toastie – and I measured the power consumption during this time. Once the toastie had cooked to my liking, I used an IR thermometer to record the temperature of the handle and exterior of each machine, and inserted a digital food thermometer probe into the centre of the sandwich to establish how well the middle had been cooked. I also assessed how easy the cleanup was for each machine. Some models not included in this list almost made me lose the will to live, such was the cheesy mess they left behind.
After testing, all the machines were either returned to the brands or donated to Gratitude Upcycle in Barnet, which will pass them on to support people in the community.
The best sandwich toasters in 2025
Best toastie maker overall:
Breville Deep Fill VST082
Breville is practically synonymous with toasties, and this is one of the brand’s standard machines. It’s a two-portion model with deep-fill, non-stick cooking plates that can be removed for easier cleaning. Breville claims the mouldings in the plates will neatly cut and seal your sandwich, and the machine has a cool-to-the-touch locking handle to close it properly, plus a light to indicate when it’s ready to cook. It can also be stored vertically when not in use to save space.
Why we love it
It was a relief to encounter an affordable sandwich toaster with removable plates – most other machines I tested didn’t, which makes for a much longer cleanup.
This Breville also gave the most even cook of all the machines, other than the more expensive Dualit below. After nine minutes of impatient checking, the reward was two sandwiches with perfectly toasted exteriors and none of the burnt, crusty-edge bits you sometimes come across. The vertical storing is useful too – I can’t work out why more brands don’t do this – and the removable plates proved valuable when dealing with runaway molten tuna and cheese.
It’s a shame that … although it’s called deep fill, it only just managed to contain the sandwich I was testing – it was really tough to lock the handle. It did a better job than other models at this price, though.
Since Breville has gone to the trouble of making the plates removable, it’s also a shame that there are no other plates to choose from. Breville has other toastie makers that are compatible with a multitude of plates, so it seems like an oversight not to offer them here, even if they had to be bought separately.
Removable plates: yes
Dimensions: 27.6 x 23.5 x 9.4cm (WDH)
Time to heat up: 4mins 14secs
Time to cook: 9mins
Handle temperature: 30C
Exterior machine temperature: 64C
Inside toastie temperature: 97C
Easy-to-clean rating: 7/10
Material: metal and plastic
Power used: 0.093kWh
Best budget toastie maker:
George Home textured deep-fill sandwich toaster
Made by George at Asda, this traditional, basic sandwich toaster has what the brand calls “large extra deep-fill plates”. It’s made from the usual mix of non-stick metal plates with a plastic case that has ready-to-cook indicator lights and a handle with a locking clip.
Why we love it
Asda’s toastie maker put many similar models to shame, even those that cost significantly more. For a start, it feels far sturdier than others in its price category, with a more solid build. It also heated up in just two minutes and was able to accommodate the very deeply filled sandwich I used to test all the machines.
There was no problem clicking its lock shut, which other basic deep-fill models struggled with, and the non-slip feet managed to cling tightly to my shiny quartz worktop. The manual suggests toasties should be cooked in two to four minutes, but in practice, mine took eight each time – fine as long as you’re not needing to serve several at once.
Best of all, very little mess was made despite the generously filled toastie. Indeed, no cheese was left oozing down the back or out the sides, and the plates merely needed a good wipe-down once the machine had cooled. A brilliant budget sandwich toaster.
It’s a shame that … the cooking time is longer than suggested. But if this machine banged out two bronzed, melting toasties every two minutes for the price of £15 – and with such low power draw – it would be a serious feat of engineering.
Removable plates: no
Dimensions: 31.5 x 29.5 x 11.5cm (WDH)
Time to heat up: 2mins 9secs
Time to cook: 8mins
Handle temperature: 25C
Exterior machine temperature: 75C
Inside toastie temperature: 81C
Easy-to-clean rating: 7/10
Material: metal and plastic
Power used: 0.056kWh
This toastie maker from premium kitchen brand Dualit is a serious piece of kit. At 6kg and with two individual non-stick plates that heat up and cook quickly, it’s practically catering-level equipment. Each circular plate features deep mouldings with traditional toasted sandwich markings for an effective seal. Dualit claims the design allows for extremely generous fillings, and the hotplates can also be used individually to conserve energy.
Why we love it
I felt like a professional toastie chef using this, churning out perfect toasted sandwiches almost every 90 seconds (yes, really). Burnished golden, deep filled, bubbling inside and nicely pressed for easy separation, the toasties this machine produces are everything you could ask for (as you’d expect from the eye-watering cost).
My sandwiches cooked evenly and made no mess whatsoever; all that was required in terms of cleanup was a wipe over the hotplates with a hot, soapy cloth – a very welcome change considering the sticky, claggy situations I had encountered with other machines during testing.
If you’re considering this toastie maker, you’ll need to be extremely invested in the making and eating of toasted sandwiches, however, because it has a large footprint and can’t be stored away easily. If I had this sitting on my worktop, I’d certainly make good use of it; it made the toasties faster than my family could eat them – a result.
It’s a shame that … it’s very big, heavy and very expensive, and you might even begin entertaining notions of starting your own toastie truck.
Removable plates: no
Dimensions: 40 x 22 x 19cm (WDH)
Time to heat up: 8mins
Time to cook: 1min 35secs
Handle temperature: 33C
Exterior machine temperature: 90C
Inside toastie temperature: 60C
Easy-to-clean rating: 10/10
Material: cast aluminium
Power used (one plate): 0.197kWh
Best microwave toastie maker:
Morphy Richards Mico toastie maker
Toasted sandwiches in a microwave? Why not. There are a few of these mini microwave sandwich-making devices doing the rounds at the moment, and they all use the same fundamental design: two removable, non-stick-coated metal plates slot inside a silicone case that locks a sandwich snugly inside for “toasting” in the microwave. There’s no preheating, and Morphy Richards says it’s suitable to cook anything, from croissants and bagels to traditional toasted sandwiches, in no more than five minutes.
Why we love it
I was sceptical about a microwave toastie maker, suspecting any resulting sandwich would be undercooked and soggy, with the bread being steamed rather than crispy and golden. However, I’m happy to eat my hat. The Mico produces toasted sandwiches as good as any decent traditional sandwich toaster and significantly better than many of the models I tested.
I have a slightly tired 800W microwave, which took five minutes to cook my deep-fill sourdough toastie to my liking, but if you have a higher-powered microwave or a less substantial sandwich, this could be much quicker. The design allows for a generous fill and, while it can’t seal the edges of the toastie, any escaped filling is contained within the plates and not lost.
In terms of cleaning, it’s unlikely your sandwich will cause any great mess unless the contents are particularly sloppy, and even then, the plates can easily be removed from the casing and the whole thing put in the dishwasher. It’s a great bit of kit for smaller kitchens because it can be easily stored in a drawer. And it’s ideal for taking away too, whether that’s to the office or to a holiday let.
It’s a shame that … it makes only one sandwich at a time. As such, the Mico is best suited to solo diners. It’s also worth noting that the silicone becomes very hot during cooking. My five-minute cooking spells resulted in an exterior temperature of 70C, which is a bit too hot to handle, and this increases with each cook if you’re making several toasties. Have an oven mitt handy.
Removable plates: yes
Dimensions: 17.5 x 14.5 x 4.5cm (WDH)
Time to heat up: not applicable
Time to cook: 5mins (dependent on microwave power)
Handle temperature: 70C
Exterior machine temperature: 70C
Inside toastie temperature: 96C
Easy-to-clean rating: 10/10
Material: metal and silicone
Power used: dependent on microwave power (for me, it was 0.105kWh)
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Best stovetop toastie maker:
ProCook stovetop sandwich toaster
This lightweight cast-aluminium toastie press from ProCook is designed to be used on your hob. With two non-stick ceramic sections, you simply add your buttered sandwich and lock the whole assembly in place to contain the toastie and its fillings. It takes about four minutes to cook a toastie, flipping the press halfway with the handle, which stays cool to the touch. The plates aren’t removable, so the whole thing needs washing by hand after use (and it’s not suitable for use on induction hobs).
Why we love it
A stovetop toastie maker is new to me and, much like the microwave toastie maker, I’m sold. Getting an appliance out of hibernation for occasional use shouldn’t feel like a hassle, but it does, whereas this can be stored in a (relatively large) drawer and used whenever the urge for a toasted sandwich strikes.
ProCook suggests preheating the press, but in practice, this makes it harder to handle and doesn’t save any time. I recommend placing it on the heat from cold – mine took just over five minutes on a medium gas burner. It produced a lovely golden toastie and, while it was unsealed, there was no seepage, making for a very satisfying sandwich experience and an even more satisfying cleanup.
Cleaning the press itself wasn’t the easiest, though, because the plates can’t be detached. This means you have to wrangle the width and length of the thing in the washing-up bowl. Similarly, it would be nice if it were dishwasher-friendly – but we can’t have it all: I’d still rather clean 10 of these than any one standard machine. This would be a brilliant buy for camping trips and firepits, where you could have the sandwiches made up in advance for ease.
It’s a shame that … there’s no clever storage solution. It’s not huge, but it would be much easier to stick in a drawer if it could fold.
Removable plates: no
Dimensions: 25 x 36 x 3cm (WDH)
Time to heat up: not applicable
Time to cook: 5mins 22secs (dependent on heat)
Handle temperature: 27C
Exterior machine temperature: 230C
Inside toastie temperature: 52C
Easy-to-clean rating: 9/10
Material: cast aluminium and Bakelite
Power used: not applicable
The best of the rest
Quest 35630 deep-fill toastie maker
Best for: larger sandwiches
This and the Asda machine were a close-run thing. Both are sturdy, despite being well priced, and they produce evenly cooked, deep-filled toasties. The deep-fill plates make for minimal mess, so it’s fine to clean afterwards and store vertically. This one is easy enough that teens and supervised kids could use it, too.
It didn’t make the final cut because … the indicator lights kept clicking on and off nonsensically, and the non-slip feet did slip.
Removable plates: no; dimensions: 30 x 25 x 10cm (WDH); time to heat up: 2mins 4secs; time to cook: 8mins 8secs; handle temperature: 25C; exterior machine temperature: 71C; inside toastie temperature: 81C; easy-to-clean rating: 7/10; material: stainless steel and plastic; power used: 0.055kWh
George Foreman five-portion steel grill
Best for: versatility
Why did we stop using George Foreman grills? I found this fun to use, and it reminded me of how versatile these grills are. It’s a larger version than the original, which means it was possible to cook at least four toasties at a time, and while it doesn’t seal the sandwich, the result was still delicious. In fact, my family preferred this style to the sealed toastie (no escaping boiling steam). For its price, it’s a good appliance for all sorts of cooking, and it also negates the need for a separate sandwich press.
It didn’t make the final cut because … the sloping design leads to a lack of full contact with the bread, meaning it’s not the best for cooking toasted sandwiches. Essentially, you get some undercooked bits and some burnt bits. It’s also a bit of a power guzzler due to its size.
Removable plates: no; dimensions: 31.8 x 34.8 x 10.9cm (WDH); time to heat up: 1min 53secs; time to cook: 5mins 7secs; handle temperature: 30C; exterior machine temperature: 81C; inside toastie temperature: 84C; easy-to-clean rating: 9/10; material: stainless steel, coated aluminium and plastic; power used: 0.197kWh
Salter handbag toastie maker
Best for: novelty
Salter has inexplicably made this sandwich toastie maker in the shape of a handbag and added rose gold and diamante accents for good measure. This aside, it’s a decent toastie maker, with two truly deep-fill, non-stick plates (which aren’t removable) and temperature control indicator lights. It was the quickest of the affordable machines to cook the toasties – the manual says two to four minutes, but it was actually about six.
It didn’t make the final cut because … it’s a bit of a faff to clean. You need large pieces of bread to seal the filling properly, or you’ll get leakage around the plates, which is hard to clean since you can’t remove or submerge the grills.
Removable plates: no; dimensions: 25 x 24 x 9cm (WDH); time to heat up: 2mins 48secs; time to cook: 6mins 38secs; handle temperature: 28C; exterior machine temperature: 77C; inside toastie temperature: 93C; easy-to-clean rating: 6/10; material: aluminium and Bakelite; power used: 0.057kWh
Tower 3-in-1 deep sandwich maker
Best for: interchangeable plates
This rose gold sandwich toaster from Tower has three differently moulded plates for different uses: waffles, sandwiches and panini. Why don’t more brands do this? It cooked the sandwiches well, although it struggled a bit with the deep fillings.
It didn’t make the final cut because … the deep-fill aspect wasn’t deep enough, which caused a lot of mess. It also took a relatively long time to heat and cook compared with other models.
Removable plates: yes; dimensions: 29.5 x 24.5 x 11.5cm (WDH); time to heat up: 4mins; time to cook: 13mins; handle temperature: 32C; exterior machine temperature: 55C; inside toastie temperature: 101C; easy-to-clean rating: 8/10; material: stainless steel and plastic; power used: 0.078kWh
Ninja Foodi 3-in-1 toaster, grill & panini press
Best for: saving space
This is essentially a two-slice toaster that you flip on its side, insert a grill press and use it to cook sandwiches and panini. As an upright toaster, it’s brilliant, with an even cook and seven settings that toast the bread uniformly edge to edge. The removable panini press means it’s easy to clean and saves the need for two appliances.
It didn’t make the final cut because … it took a long time to toast the sandwiches, and it did so unevenly, with some bits burnt and some raw. Inside was barely melted, while the exterior was overdone.
Removable plates: yes; dimensions: 42 x 23 x 16cm (WDH); time to heat up: not applicable; time to cook: 10mins; handle temperature: 26C; exterior machine temperature: 85C; inside toastie temperature: 35C; easy-to-clean rating: 9/10; material: stainless steel; power used: 0.129kWh
What you need to know
How much do I need to spend?
You can expect to find a good toastie maker for less than £30, as demonstrated by this list. Indeed, there’s no need to overspend if you want something that can make a decent toasted sandwich for one. You will, of course, pay much more for high-end or multifunctional machines, such as the professional-standard Dualit contact sandwich toaster.
What features should I look for?
Consider how many toasties you’ll usually be making in one sitting and buy accordingly. You don’t want to be waiting for 15 minutes for two more toasties to cook if you’re feeding four people at once, for example. I’d generally advise looking for removable plates, or cleaning the machine can take longer than the entire assembly and cook – though there are decent exceptions in this list.
Consider, too, whether you need an electronic toastie maker or whether an alternative suits you better; the Mico microwave device is amazing, as is the ProCook stovetop if you’re eating solo.
Joanne Gould is a food, drink and lifestyle writer with a decade of experience. She has a great appreciation for a good toasted sandwich, and after eating about 40 tuna and cheese versions this summer, is now in her green chilli and spinach cheese toastie era
For more, read the Filter’s guides to the best toasters and the best blenders
