Sonifer Sandwich Maker - SF-6079

The Sonifer SF-6079 is a straightforward contact sandwich maker: two hinged ribbed plates, 750 watts behind them, and a thermostat that decides when they are hot. It is the kind of appliance that earns its counter space by being ready in a couple of minutes and washing up in a wipe, not by doing six jobs badly.

Heat management is handled for you. The thermostat cycles the element to hold the plates at cooking temperature, and two pilot lights on the front report what is happening – one for power, one that tells you the plates are up to heat and ready to load. That second light is what stops the guesswork: put the sandwich in when it says so and the bread browns evenly instead of sitting on plates that are still climbing.

The plates are grill plates rather than flat ones, which is what gives a pressed sandwich its striped, slightly crisped face instead of a flat squashed one. They carry a PFOA-free non-stick coating, so a buttered sandwich lifts out of the grooves cleanly and a melted-cheese edge does not become a scraping job. The shell is steel with plastic trim, finished in black, and the cool-touch handle means the part you actually hold stays comfortable while the plates are hot. Anti-skid feet stop the whole thing travelling when you lean on the lid.

Worth knowing before you buy: the plates are fixed, not detachable. This is the single grill-plate version of the SF-6079, not a multi-plate system with waffle and sandwich inserts, so cleaning is done on the unit with a damp cloth once it has cooled rather than by lifting plates out into the sink. In exchange you get an appliance with nothing to lose, misplace or clip back in wrong.

At 1.2 kg it is genuinely light. It goes into a cupboard with one hand, comes out for a five-minute breakfast, and does not demand a permanent home on the worktop the way a heavier press does.