If you love toasted bread, you must be wondering whether you can place your toaster on your quartz countertops. After all, you don’t want to damage your countertops, right?
Well, you shouldn’t place your toaster directly on your countertops without a protective barrier such as a trivet, glass cutting board, or ceramic tile to prevent the heat from transferring from the toaster to the countertops.
What happens when you place the toaster directly on the countertops?
Placing the toaster on the countertops without any form of precaution will bring about a number of issues such as:
Heat from the toaster will damage the polyester resin on the quartz
Quartz is an engineered stone created largely from tough minerals, usually consisting of 90% quartz stone and 10% polyester resin. The polyester resins hold or bind the quartz together, helping quartz to be one of the most durable materials on the market.
Unfortunately, the polyester resin in quartz can be easily damaged by heat from the toaster oven, electric frying pan, oven, crock pot, or any other appliance that produces a lot of heat.
The heat weakens the polyester resins when you place the toaster unprotected on the countertops. In the long term, the resins swell or even swell.
The toaster oven harms indoor air quality.
As you use your toaster, the heat produced by the appliance gets transmitted onto the countertop’s surface, where it emits harmful pollutants into the air.
This happens due to synthetic polyester resins releasing chemicals into the atmosphere.
The pollution from these chemicals can be anything from carbon monoxide to hydrocarbons that can cause respiratory problems, especially for people with asthma, pregnant, and infants, still in their growing stages.
The toaster dulls the countertops.
In most cases, when you use the toaster directly on the countertops, it makes the countertops duller. In some cases, the countertop begins to form stains, which, as you can guess, isn’t a good look.
How can you protect the countertops?
To prevent the dangers of placing the toaster directly on the countertops, you should protect the countertops from damage. How do you do it? Here is how to go about it:
Trivets
Trivets are an excellent way to avoid direct contact with your countertops with the toaster. Trivets are made from steel, ceramic, and even silicone.
The best and most affordable trivets you should go for are silicone trivets. They can tolerate the same high heat as the other trivets made from ceramics and cork.
At the same time, they stay cool, and you can leave your toaster on them for a long time without worrying that they will get too hot to the extent they damage your countertops.
When buying the trivets, ensure that you buy them from a reputable store. This way, you have peace of mind that they are high quality and will give you a long service.
Ceramic tile
Ceramic tiles come with an in-built protective coating that enables the tiles to withstand daily use without showing signs of damage.
The beauty of the tiles is you don’t need any special tools to install them, which makes them an excellent and cost-effective solution to the hot toaster. All you need to do is to align the tile around your appliance, and once you complete the four sides, you are good to go.
Cardboard or wood
You can always use cardboard if you don’t want to invest in a trivet or ceramic tile. Be cautious of your safety when using a board, as the plastic board can melt fast.
As much as a wooden board won’t melt, it is risky to staining, especially when exposed to high temperatures.
Steel baking sheet
Steel baking sheets don’t scratch or damage the surfaces and, at the same time, remain durable enough to withstand heat from different appliances, including toasters.
When buying the sheets for your quartz kitchen countertops Durham, pay close attention to how wide and deep the coaster is. As a rule, ensure that the sheets perfectly fit your appliance.