Most times this is caused by a build up of crumbs in the bottom of the toaster. There is a small electo magnet that holds the lever down, if it gets covered in crumbs it won't work. Take it outside turn it upside down and bang the heck out of it till everything comes out. If this does not work then check and make sure the magnet is still attatched inside. Other than that, this toaster gets terrible reviews from folks with issues just like yours. I can only assume the electronics are failing on these units far to quickly. It can be repaired if yuou send it in to the manufacture but that is really not economical. I hope the upside down banging cures the problem.
I used a variety of 'solutions' which kind folks provided...and IT WORKED!!! I just saved myself the expense of buying a new toaster.
This is what I did: Firstly, I tried to find the manual for my toaster online. Did not find it, however, I did find one similar to it. Read it thoroughly. It suggested to 'depress the toaster lever(s) WHILE turning the unit upside down and shaking all the contents free...unplugged of course. WOW!!! I had never cleaned a toaster out so thoroughly. Huge crumbs kept falling out after several minutes of shaking the toaster, even after I thought the toaster had been adequately cleared of all bread crumbs.
Secondly, I plugged it into a different outlet that had a GFI (Ground Fault Indicator) and voila...the levers remained down. Be sure to try different outlets, as oftentimes when one GFI gets tripped, several outlets on the same circuit will also trip.
I hope this helps in some way.
:-)
I have a similiar problem with the chinese piece of garbage. I took the toaster apart. Tested the solenoid mechanism and had no problem what so ever...also removed any crumbs.. Put the toaster back together and had the same problem.. There is some sort of mechanical binding. I advise all to throw this high end Kitchen Aid in the low end of your garbage can.
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On my KitchenAid KMTT200
toaster I had the same problem: toast carrier would not stay down, and the
elements did not heat up if I held the down the lever. After taking it
apart, I found that the there is an arm-type lever on a power switch that was
sticky and was not being fully pushed down when the toaster's outside lever was
pressed down. To fix it, I just pushed the inside switch lever down past the
sticky point manually several times (toaster unplugged!) until it was working
freely. I will give a lot of details to help the novice, but it is really
very simple. To open this toaster, you
first need to unplug it so as not to electrocute yourself, then remove the
crumb tray (it hides a screw), then remove 5 phillips-head screws from the
bottom (4 in each corner and 1 in the rear), pull off the round knob on the
front panel and remove the black plastic insert behind this knob. To
remove this plastic insert, you need to gently pry the three clips on the
plastic insert away from the metal toaster wall (I used little eyeglass
screwdrivers for this) and at the same time gently pry the plastic insert
outward (with a second eyeglass screwdriver). Careful, don't scratch up
your toaster. Do one clip at a time until the insert is free to remove.
Note the rotational orientation of this insert, so that you can replace
it correctly. The rectangular plastic knob on the toaster's lever is very
difficult to remove - it is not necessary to remove this knob and it costs
about $12 for a new one, so I left it on. Once the screws, round knob and
plastic insert are removed, you should be able to wiggle the toaster's housing
forward and up slightly off of the base/internals. It is helpful at this
point to slightly pry apart (about 1/8 inch or so) the sides of the toaster at
the rear so that the black plastic panel on the rear side of the toaster can be
removed, allowing you to move the toaster housing farther forward. Very
carefully raise the front end of the toaster housing while pushing it gently
toward the front of the toaster. There is a clear plastic shield covering
the circuit board in the front of the toaster, so you need to gently lift the
front of the housing forward and up over this plastic shield. You just
need to raise it high enough to be able to peek in through the left side (that
is, left as you face the toaster).
A picture of the toaster with the housing raised is attached. The
black plastic switch and its black plastic lever will be visible and is located
on the right-hand side of the toaster. The lever will be pointed toward
you with a paper clip-like wire on the end of it, as in the pictures. I
pushed the lever down using the flat handle end of a small kitchen spatula
(blue item in two of the pictures, looking in from the left side), which I
fished through the round opening in the front of the housing where the round
knob and insert were removed. I had to use a fair amount of force the
first few times in order for it to be pushed to its lower limits, which is
where it will turn on the power to the heating elements and to the
electromagnet that keeps the bread carriage down. You may also be able to
do this from the side you are peeking in through, but I got better leverage by
pushing down from above. In one of the pictures you can see me pressing down
the lever to a nearly horizontal position with the blue spatula handle. All
pictures were taken from the toaster's left side. Reassemble in the
opposite order, ensuring that the 4 vertical metal tabs (located inside the
bread slots on the housing) slide into their slots in the top of the heater
element assembly. This fixed my problem. Hope
it fixes yours too.
My problem was similar but involved a 4 slice toaster, otherwise the same brand etc. In contrast to your experience, the two rectangular handles to depress the levers on the front popped off with little resistance. One side of the toaster was working and the other side was not. The side that was not working had a broken "wire that looks like a paper clip". The round part of it was snapped off. I am going to try to bend the remaining piece or get a replacement.
My problem cropped up again recently, about 2 years after my earlier answer above (my former fixya name is "pacific8”). This time I worked the arm lever of the power switch up and down as I described above, but it only partially helped this time (ie, the toast carrier would only intermittently stay down). I decided to go deeper into the repair to try to repair it better. Bottom line… I found that the contact points in the power switch unit were becoming pitted (perhaps with some corrosion) such that electrical contact was not being made even though the points were apparently touching each other. To fix it this time, with toaster unplugged, I removed the knobs (this time I was able to remove the toast carrier’s rectagular plastic outer knob with a lot of force) and removed the outer stainless steel housing as I described above (also remove the screw holding the housing grounding straps on the rear side of the internal unit after the plastic back panel is removed). After getting into it and working with the arm lever of the power switch, it definitely seemed like a power switch problem. Then I removed the black plastic cover to the power switch unit, which can be done by removing two screws, one on the rear of the plastic cover and one on the right side of the plastic cover (‘rear’ and ‘right’ as you face the front of the toaster). This enabled me to manipulate the power switch better and see the two pairs of side-by-side copper strips and their contact points. You’ll understand this better when you see it. I then did two things: (1) I sanded the contact points with sandpaper (a 2-sided nail file would work well between the contacts) and (2) I very slightly bent the upper copper strips (which are the more flexible strips) outward toward the other copper strips such that there would be more pressure on the contact points when the toast carrier lever was depressed. After reassembly, the toaster is now working great every time, and I can see that the toaster is turning on and the electromagnets activated earlier than ever before when pushing down the toast carrier lever. Other than this occasional power switch contact problem, I love the toaster, so I personally will just repeat this simple procedure if the problem ever returns.
Great disassembly instructions. Thanks. Helped me a bunch. I worked the switch a bit but could not tell if there was a problem. The magnet surface was a bit dirty so blew overly thing out and wiped. A shot of deoxit on the contacts and switch and appears to be working. Your latest post leaves me thinking I am going to have to take a closer look at the switch also. Next time you are in there if you could post a few photos I would love that. Thanks again.
Correction, my fix didn't last long.
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How hard did you push it downward? Did it end up at a lower angle when pushed? I still don't understand what you actually did to fix it?
After cleaning real well.. I took the 4 screws off the bottom and the handle.. then I just lubricated the slider pole on the side.. and the springs.. now it goes up and down freely.. didn't have to take off the circuit panel after all.. God bless!
After cleaning real well.. I took the 4 screws off the bottom and the handle.. then I just lubricated the slider pole on the side.. and the springs.. now it goes up and down freely.. didn't have to take off the circuit panel after all.. God bless!
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