As you may expect, toasters can get quite hot, reaching temperatures of up to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 176 degrees Celsius. This level of heat is necessary to cook the bread and to enable the toasting of the outside in order to reach the perfect level of crispiness. The amount of time a toaster takes to reach this high temperature depends on the wattage of the toaster. The higher the wattage, the more powerful the toaster is and the less time it takes to produce the tasty end result.
More powerful toasters will reach cooking temperature faster than less powerful ones. However, all toasters will eventually reach the desired temperature to properly toast bread. The wattage of toasters tends to range between 800Wh (Watts per hour) and 1500Wh. The average tends to be around 1200Wh and this is more than suitable for most people to get the balance between price and power, allowing for quick and efficient toasting.
Although the air inside a toaster can reach 350 degrees Fahrenheit, the actual elements inside the toaster can reach temperatures of 1000 to 1200 degrees Fahrenheit. Thankfully, the elements tend to be out of reach for most humans and it should not be possible for them to be touched by accident. It is important to be careful when using a toaster, as the high temperatures can cause blisters and burns if you touch a part that is still hot. Burns can be extremely painful and all due care should be taken to avoid injury.
The high heat output of the elements may make it sound worrying to have a toaster in your house but they are very safe and common appliances.
The outside of a toaster should be largely insulated against the heat, even with metal toasters and should be relatively safe even when it is in action making your toast. This is a key safety feature and applies to most makes and models of toasters.
It is recommended that you should always use oven mitts to remove items from a toaster to ensure you don’t sustain a burn. Although this is a safety recommendation, some people choose to ignore it and take their toast directly from the toaster with their bare hands. If this is how you prefer to do things, we would suggest that you wait a few minutes until the toaster has cooled significantly before removing the toast. It should still be lovely and warm at this point, and burns are far less likely, though not impossible.
So, there we have it, the air inside toasters (which is what actually toasts the bread) can reach 350F and the heating elements which cause the air to reach this temperature can go up to 1000 – 1200F, depending on toaster model. The wattage of the toaster, which can vary between 800Wh and 1500Wh (the average is 1200Wh) determines how quickly the toast is made, and this is a primary consideration when making the decision to purchase a new toaster.
