The Jesus Toaster Review

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(More customer reviews)This toaster is NOT just a gag gift. It is a working toaster which just happens to imprint a stylized picture of Jesus. There are instructions enclosed with it recommending to cycle it without toast initially, I suppose to get rid of funny odors from manufacture. Also one should plan on having to cycle and adjust it a couple of times with their toast before they get the color right, as with any toaster. The primary control is an analog dial and I ignore the buttons. (I have no idea why manufacturers insist on complicating common-use appliances with lots of buttons.)
I'd love it if they would also make them for world religious figures, particularly The Buddha, and members of the Hindu pantheon, but realize there's probably not so much of a market for such icons in the US. There might however be markets for other figures such as Einstein or Elvis, so the makers should consider them. They already make a peace symbol toaster and a marijuana leaf symbol toaster but those just don't have the appeal of the Jesus toaster.

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Creates Image of Jesus Christ on your daily bread. Great Christmas Gift

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Crock-Pot 38501-W 5-Quart Round Smart-Pot Slow Cooker, White Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm an engineer, not a cook, hence the appeal of a crockpot (I can't boil water without burning it...)
I had an old Rival crockpot that worked well for many years (manual, round, and small). It broke, so I bought a 5-quart Smart-Pot at Costco this past weekend. I noticed it ran very hot (top of outside WILL burn your hands if touched!), so decided to test it.
I filled the unit 3/4 full of water and placed it on the high setting (4 hours) and measured the temperature after several hours with a thermometer. Water temperture was about 215 to 220 degrees F. I then repeated the process for the low temperature setting, but the temperature was about the same!
This disturbed me, so I placed a Kill-A-Watt (very handy device to measure electrical power consumption and wattage for electrical devices) between the pot and the outlet. Sure enough the unit draws the same power on the low and high settings (about 245W). Occasionally on the low settings the unit would pulse the power (this is probably how they get the lower temperature; by modulating the power, rather than using separate, and more expensive, heating elements in the manual units). The problem is that sometimes the low setting does pulse the power, and sometimes it does not. Even on the warm setting I found that occasionally the device will draw the maximum power without pulsing. It is apparent to me that they have a controller problem with the SmartPots that is overdriving the temperature. The units themselves run very hot, and I wonder if the excessive temperature causes controller problems.
I am going to return and try another one, but I suspect I will get precisely the same results, in which case I'll avoid the Rival brand entirely. This is an obvious problem that many people have complained about over the past year or so (viz. the comments), so they have either a major defect, or severe quality control problems, both of which shoudl warrant some kind of response from them. I am disappointed. If the second unit works correctly, I'll post on my success.
Interestingly, Rival makes a separate controller for an older crockpot to allow timing and temperature control (same idea of pulsing the heater current, and varying the duty cycle to change the effective heating capability --a perfectly legitimate approach), and it is inexpensive ($13-$15 on the street).

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Rival's Smart-Pot 5-quart white oval crock-pot

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