Kmart is well-known for its seemingly never-ending range of gadgets and knick-knacks that you never knew you needed. And, with a fan base of shoppers who love to share their finds with fellow customers, it’s not surprising that certain products hit cult status online.
No item fits into this category more perfectly than the Microwave Toastie Maker, which became the talk of the town last year. Loved by everyone from caravanners to young adults living on their own for the first time, the $15 kitchen must-have was on everyone’s lips.
Fiona Mair is a home economist at CHOICE, so she’d heard all the hype. Given that ‘microwave’ and ‘toast’ don’t often go in a sentence together, she, like many naysayers before her, did not expect much.
“I thought that it would fail,” she admitted to Yahoo Lifestyle. “I thought it was another gimmick and it wouldn’t work.”
The $15 Kmart toastie makers went viral in 2024, with shoppers raving about the affordable kitchen item. Credit: Kmart Australia
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CHOICE experts conduct three tests on Kmart toastie maker
In the CHOICE test kitchen, Mair got to work doing three tests with the Kmart gadget.
The toastie maker, which looks more like a packed lunch box, consists of two non-stick coated plates with a soft silicone exterior.
To make your sandwich, you place it inside the toastie maker, close the two halves, clamp the silicone latches together and pop it in the microwave.
“First, I put it in for 2 and a half minutes with no turning, and it failed. It wasn’t cooked on one side,” Mair said.
The instructions say you need to turn the toastie maker over during cooking time, but she explained: “a lot of people don’t read the instructions, so I tested for worst case scenario.”
Next, she tried following the instructions and went for 2 and a half minutes on one side and then flipped for a minute on the other.
This was “ok,” she conceded, but her best result was an equal 2 minutes on each side, which saw the bread evenly toasted with a slightly crunchy texture and oozing centre.
Her only caveat was that you’d need to eat the toastie straight away because, as it starts to cool down, bread heated in a microwave gets chewy.
Pros and cons of microwave toastie maker
Muir was suitably impressed by the resulting toastie and the CHOICE testing showed the Kmart product scored well on other criteria too. It’s compact, quick and easy to use and doesn’t require any preheating.
Compared with bulky sandwich presses it’s also easy to clean (it all goes in the dishwasher) and small enough to store in the most cramped kitchens.
The $15 price tag is hard to ignore too.
In fact its only downsides are the fact it only works for standard sliced bread, not the fancier stuff and you might not get quite the crispy crunchy results you’d get from a sandwich press.
“Depending on the wattage of your microwave and what filling you put in you might need to play around a bit with times,” Muir said. “I’d recommend it for anyone on their own who likes a toastie now and then. You could take it to work or on holiday.”
“For a larger family it might be better to invest in a larger press that can do up to four toasties at a time but, having said that, the Kmart one is cheap enough that you could buy two,” she added.
Kmart customers love the toastie makers for making all sorts of kitchen creations. Credit: TikTok/@dedikatedlifestyle/stuffmumslike
Kmart shoppers rave about viral $15 item
The Kmart gadget has long been feeling the love online with scores of videos showing toastie connoisseurs shocked by how good it is.
“Actually stunning,” said one Aussie in a video liked nearly 570,000 times. Her ham and cheese toastie is crispy crunchy on the outside and oozing cheese on the inside. “I’m going in for a taste test. That is so good. That’s so quick and so easy, ok, I’m very impressed.”
“I just went straight online and bought one,” wrote one follower.
There is also an abundance of videos showing people experimenting with other things in their Kmart toastie makers.
One woman uses folded wraps to make quesadillas, someone else makes s’mores by heating up marshmallows encased in chocolate digestives, and a super popular video shows someone making a giant cookie.
“Gamechanger! Perfect when you want just one cookie,” she wrote alongside the video of her successfully popping some cookie dough into the Kmart machine.
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The adoration is equally strong in the caravanning community, with happy campers recommending the toastie maker to each other.
“Finally got my hands on the microwave toastie maker!,” one excited customer shared in a popular caravan group. “4 minutes in the microwave and I’ve got myself a crisp cheese toastie! And there’s no toastie maker MESS to clean #dishwashersafe Thanks Kmart!”
“I finally got mine they are awesome I also bought one for our van,” someone replied.
“Aren’t they just the best,” another added.
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