The Antique Toaster that's Better than Yours
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN returns to it again and again as a favorite example of elegant, chip-free mechanical engineering that beats modern toasters.
What it is
Technology Connections takes apart a 1940s Sunbeam Radiant Control toaster. It senses the toast's own browning and lowers and raises it automatically using purely mechanical parts and no electronics.
Recommended by 12 HN commenters across 11 different months, 2019 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec adfm · 2019-11 · on “Smart Toaster Can’t Hold a Candle to the Apollo Computer”
The Sunbeam Radiant Control Toaster predates both and seems worth mentioning here for it’s superior user experience and unique analog technology. Technology Connections produced a fantastic teardown video of it a while back. [this video]
Strong rec tpoacher · 2025-04 · on “The hidden cost of AI coding”
A related thought, just leaving this here. There's something great about old technology (though obviously one must be aware of survivorship bias when citing such technology), despite the fact that, logically speaking, new technology should have obviously been better. Perhaps it's some variant of Jevons' paradox. The better / more efficient things get, the more of an impetus there is to use them in truly crappy ways. And this is how I'm starting to feel about programming with vs without an AI: you can either program manually to create truly creative, functional, elegant stuff, or use AI to produce garbage more efficiently. There just doesn't seem to be an in-between category, at least in term
Recommends chiph · 2019-12 · on “How to Make Toast: Electrical Engineering vs. Computer Science (2001)”
But then how could you make toast when you're not home, like at a conference, or driving in your car? /s This is a pretty cool toaster: [this video]
Recommends Jaepa · 2020-07 · on “The Classic Sunbeam Radiant Control Toaster (2006)”
I’d technology connections did a 20 minute long episode on the mechanical design of this toaster. I’d recommend it if you haven’t see it. [this video]
Recommends spappal · 2020-08 · on “Ask and Show HN: Ever coded for love? Willing to share?”
Since toast is discussed on HN: I remember this video [0] nicely explaining some nice engineering of an interesting toaster. [0]: [this video]
Recommends modeless · 2021-03 · on “Overnight Pizza and the Consistent Unreliability of Expert Guidelines”
The reason is that old toaster designs had unpolarized plugs and therefore a good chance of uninsulated live wires inside, even when off. Modern toasters don't anymore, but folk wisdom lasts forever. Although you make a good point that if your outlet polarity is reversed, you might still have a problem. I don't know if modern designs are robust to that... I learned this from a video about old Sunbeam toasters that was unexpectedly fascinating: [this video]
Recommends CRConrad · 2021-05 · on “The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences”
YouTuber Technology Connections was featured in the recent discussion on diswashing machines and detergents. He's done a video on a lovely ancient toaster, too: [this video] Fully automatic brownness selection, and hands-free insertion and pop-up -- all without any electronic chips at all.
Recommends thatguy0900 · 2022-05 · on “Most Expensive vs. Cheapest Toaster”
[this video] a interesting video on a similar subject, a antique mechanical toaster that works better than many modern ones