Sandwich toaster wanted

[413x]

Was looking to get a sandwich toaster as like my parents have

looking around on the net i have found 2 quite different candidates

Breville VST025 Sandwich Press

and/or

Russell Hobbs 18023 Four Portion Sandwich Toaster

the second one is the design i am used to.
the breville seems more of a multi purpose tool but i am concerned the actual normal bread cheese toastie in that:
-the plate is flat
-the sandwich isnt sealed
but it can obviously do a lot more than just sandwiches

any recommendations?

 

[413x]

Thanks for the replies

I am leaning to the grill design more now. Just maybe due to the scope of it
So you have the design I linked with flat bed or ridged grill

Again my parents had the ridged grill and I do remember it being a PITA to clean but I would expect it produces better results?

 

[413x]

im adding the george forman to the mix as its come up

 

[413x]

I've got the Breville.

Personally, I like it. It does normal toasties ok, but is superb at panini's, which I prefer. Cooks a mean bit of bacon as well.

The sealing toasters really owe their design to the fact that everyone used to use ordinary sliced bread which is uniform in shape. Nowadays with supermarket bakeries, breadmakers and all else, loads of different breads are used regularly like bloomer, farmhouse, tiger, baguette. A lot of the time when using these breads the old sealing toaster becomes redundant and a press or grill is by far the better choice.

thats i guess what i was trying to think of, if i would use normal sliced bread or other bread products.
not having one means i dont really know what im missing