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For delicious cheese toasties every time

Crisp, toasted bread on the outside and hot melted cheese on the inside, what’s not to love?

There’s more to toastie makers than gooey cheese sandwiches, though – from paninis to waffles, owning the right appliance can unlock a culinary world of scrumptious sweet and savoury meals.

The Good Housekeeping Institute has tested 43 sandwich toasters, creating batch after batch of cheese, ham and tomato toasties – and yes, we ate them all! – to find the best toastie makers for gourmet results every lunchtime:

There’s more that makes a good sandwich toaster than you might think. The appliance should heat up quickly and form a tight seal, so that no filling escapes. The toasties themselves should cook evenly, resulting in crisp bread that has a uniform golden brown colour, melted cheese throughout and ingredients that reach the same temperature.

It also helps if the toaster maker is easy to clean and maintain, making the whole process fuss-free and enjoyable.

While there isn’t a single best toastie maker brand, Breville is probably most well-known for the appliance, which is why we've featured several of its models on our list.

The main thing to consider is the features you’d like your toastie maker to have. Here are the factors we recommend you take into account:

Toastie makers can get very hot, so it’s important to be careful when you’re cooking with one – ideally the exterior should be around 40C or cooler. A good toastie maker will have non-slip feet to keep it stable and indicator lights to let you know when it's hot. It should seal the sandwich to stop any fillings leaking, else things may get messy!

Some toastie makers come with a range of plates that can easily be swapped in and out. This allows you to create other appliances such as a waffle maker or grill, saving you both money and kitchen cupboard space.

With lots of ingredients at play, toastie makers can be fiddly to clean. Look for models with removable plates that are dishwasher-safe.

We always eat well during toastie maker testing! We use each machine to make several toasties, timing how long it takes to heat up and cook the sandwiches. We then take the temperature of every toastie to check its consistency, before taking the temperature of the outside of the toastie maker to ensure that it’s safe to touch.

We measure the consistency of the sandwiches’ colour and note the evenness of toasting. Finally, we test how easy each appliance is to clean.

Ready to shop? Here are the toastie makers to add to your trolley:

For ultimate toastie goodness, look no further. This compact, affordable sandwich toaster comes with clear instructions, heats up in just over two minutes and is easy to clean. Our sandwiches were a resounding success, cooking evenly with a golden exterior and oozing centre in around five minutes, with paninis taking just two for equally scrumptious results.

There’s room for generously filled toasties, but our edges didn’t always seal well, so watch out for escaping filling. Note also that, somewhat counterintuitively, when the green light turns off, this means it’s ready to toast. That minor niggle aside, this is a robust snack machine that will get a lot of use.

Key specifications Size (cm): 29 x 28 x 8 Plates: Fixed Temperature settings: Automatic

If you like having options, then this versatile grill-meets-toaster is a no-brainer; two sets of cooking plates mean you can alternate according to what’s on your menu. The sandwich plates accommodate medium slices of bread, and their depth allows you to pack your sarnies full of all the good stuff. Ours emerged evenly toasted, with perfectly melted dairy and vegan cheese and no runaway filling to mop up.

It cooked paninis well but was a tad too small for them, pushing some of the bread out of the machine. It's quite bulky, too, but it has a premium feel and cleaned easily, so if you’ve got the cupboard space, it’s an excellent multi-tasking investment.

Key specifications Size (cm): 32 x 26 x 15 Plates: Removable Temperature settings: Variable dial

Cook up a toastie in less than 10 minutes with this steal of a runner-up. Heating in just over two minutes, turn it on while you prepare your filling and then wait just four-and-a-half minutes to cook your sarnie crisply.

Nothing oozed out of the compact design, thanks to its reliable seal, but it didn’t brown or heat up as evenly as we’d expect, leaving one side of the sandwich slightly hotter than the other. That said, it was easy to clean and store, making it a snack time game-changer for busy kitchens.

Key specifications Size (cm): 23.5 x 24 x 9.6 Plates: Fixed Temperature settings: Automatic

If you fancy getting experimental with your toasties, this is the maker for you, thanks to its deep-fill design and accompanying recipe booklet that’s filled with inspiration for everything from savoury flatbreads to sweet desserts. It performed the basics well too, crisping and browning our sandwiches evenly.

This model also boasts variable temperature control, allowing you to set the best heat for your sandwich – or pastry – of choice and avoid burning. It cleans easily, thanks to removable plates, but the outer casing can get very hot. It’s not the cheapest toastie maker on our list, but this high-scoring device holds the key to many toasted goodies.

Key specifications Size (cm): 28 x 24 x 12 Plates: Removable Temperature settings: Variable dial

This deep-fill toaster has got plenty of room for your favourite fillings. It preheats quickly so you don’t have to wait around too long to dig in, and the results hit the spot; it makes crisp and nicely browned sandwiches.

The casing did get very hot, so be careful while you’re using it. The filling also leaked a little, but it comes with a great selection of recipes if you’re looking to mix things up, and you can buy waffle plates as a separate accessory to make it even more versatile.

Key specifications Size (cm): 30 x 26.5 x 12.8 Plates: Removable Temperature settings: Automatic

Students, this one’s for you. Available for just £14.99, it’s a steal that speedily turns out crisp toasties that are cooked evenly throughout. They were invitingly golden too, with oozing melted cheese.

During testing, the top plates pushed some of the sandwich edges out a tad, resulting in undercooked crusts, but we can forgive this niggle at such a reasonable price. This simple toastie maker would make a great go-to for easy meals and snacks, whatever the time of day.

Key specifications Size (cm): 8.2 x 22.8 x 21.4 Plates: Fixed Temperature settings: Automatic

A real family-feeder, this will cook four sandwiches at once. Our toasties proved easy to make, thanks to instructive diagrams in the otherwise vague instructions. They came out golden and well-sealed, losing none of their filling.

The non-stick coating came good, making cleaning a breeze, and built-in storage means the cord packs away neatly. Its non-slip feet lack grip and its ready light is slightly confusing – like our winner, it turns off when the machine is hot enough to toast. That all said, the delicious results make these qualms easy to set aside, especially if you’ve got a lot of hungry mouths to feed.

Key specifications Size (cm): 28 x 38 x 12 Plates: Fixed Temperature settings: Automatic

Breville claims the plates on this machine are the deepest in its sandwich toaster range, meaning you can cram as much filling into your toastie as you’d like. For us, it delivered, producing perfectly golden sandwiches with beautifully melted cheese and no leaky filling.

The slick design is compact and easy to clean, thanks to dishwasher-safe, removable cooking plates. You can also swap these out and buy waffle plates, if you have a sweet tooth. The first time you use it, it has a slightly plastic smell, but the instructions warn of this and by the end of our first batch of toasties, it had gone. We also found that the casing reached over 80C during cooking, so be careful.

Key specifications Size (cm): 13.46 x 31.75 x 26.67 Plates: Removable Temperature settings: Automatic

If you want to make a statement in your kitchen, then this handbag-inspired design complete with rose gold accents will do just that. It won’t be a look for everyone, but what will please universally is the speed with which it heats up (under two minutes) and cooks sandwiches (under six minutes).

It’s compact, but with ample room for two sandwiches, and it closed easily in testing. It left no edges sticking out from the plates when shut, but it didn’t brown evenly, leaving different shades on the top and bottom slices. On the plus side, it’s easy to clean and its unique aesthetic makes for a fun talking point if you’re hosting.

Key specifications Size (cm): 9 x 24 x 25 Plates: Fixed Temperature settings: Automatic

This toastie maker is sleek, but it’s also got room for serious amounts of ham and cheese. It heated up quickly without reaching high temperatures externally, but one of our sandwiches was a scorching 99C when we took it out, so make sure you let them cool down before eating!

The sandwiches browned and crisped up well and the bread fitted nicely within the plate. The cut and seal function didn’t quite close all the edges, leading to some spilt filling, but this is a sturdy toastie maker that gets the job done without taking up too much precious kitchen space.

Key specifications Size (cm): 24 x 10 x 29 Plates: Fixed Temperature settings: Automatic

This toastie maker turns out the sandwiches dreams are made of – evenly cooked, consistently golden and stuffed with plenty of filling thanks to its deep plates.

It got very hot by the handle, so don’t accidentally touch it during cooking, and we found that the cooking time took longer than advertised – seven-and-a-half minutes as opposed to between two and four. The instructions also lack detail, but it seals the sandwiches excellently and generally performed well.

Key specifications Size (cm): 27 x 12 x 31.5 Plates: Fixed Temperature settings: Automatic