You need to clean out the crumbs tray before you do this, and then wash it after. Make sure that the inner grating does not have anything stuck after too.

Toasters are only intended for dry bread. Inside they are usually just a very simple timer chip and a small 2 piece transformer. When the lever is pulled, part of that transformer is connected using a piece of steel. There is a momentary switch that powers the timer circuit which then connects the transformer holding the steel in place due to the magnetism. When the timer stops powering the transformer, it releases the steel when the magnetic field collapses.

When the circuit is connected, the power through this small transformer is traveling through a nickel-chromium ribbon wire on both sides of the slots for bread. This wire is just wound around some mica sheets that can handle high temperatures. As far as the mica and nicrome wire, this construction style is used in most consumer quality devices. You’ll find this in hotplates, hair driers, curling irons, and toasters.

Note that, the transformers used in the timing circuit of toasters are not the isolated type. The nichrome wire is connected to the live mains circuit when powered.

I say all of this to make the statement: fundamentally, it is just a heating element. The fact that the element is inside a form factor is rather irrelevant. The relevant part is that the wiener likely contains fat and liquids that will come out with heat. If these were to squirt onto the mica or nichome wire it would be a problem that must be remedied with a tremendous amount of work or it could leave traces that might cause a fire later. If these juices got into the circuitry, it will likely destroy them and ruin the toaster. The placement of this circuitry is likely somewhere where an issue is unlikely, but all I can do is speculate. The engineers that designed the thing likely were not given a if-wiener-insertion constraint, and I don’t think that is a UL listed thing.

Ultimately, you have to play the engineer and determine the cost to risk given the known and potential factors; it is just a simple heating element. This is only slightly more complex of a situation as a cave person’s if-campfire wiener insertion conundrum. The plastic molding and appliance form factor aesthetics are irrelevant.

Would it be more effective to sabotage your own work in such a place?

Amazon’s pricing I not deterministic. You were likely tracked and information collected to know this was a key item for you. Amazon will market loss leaders to you in an attempt to get you to default to buying on Amazon.

As a former Buyer for a chain of retail stores, the loss leader is effective marketing. I sell you a popular item at or below my typical cost because statistically, a large percentage of customers are making a special trip to my store to buy that product and will make additional purchases at margin. On the wholesale Buying side, these are tools to get past bulk buying tier discounts for seasonal ordering with smaller scale retail.

Amazon is using a convoluted front end system of overlapping product categories and a supposed multi seller listings (despite collectivized logistics and warehousing) on the website you see. This is how they perform price fixing where you do not see honest or straight forward determinism. When you repurchase that same item later without making comparisons, the seller will shuffle so that a higher price is presented.

If you have a well isolated network where device history for social media and internet browsing is totally partitioned from e-commerce you’ll likely see even more of the scam. If you see anyone online show the search results and pricing on Amazon, then try to replicate those search results and product price on a device that is totally partitioned from your viewing of the item/price elsewhere, you’re likely to find it is not possible. If you then go back to the original device and do the same, you’ll magically find the same product and lower price. It is a scam market. This is why they are collecting and paying for all that data about you. We are in an age when automated individual targeting and manipulation is possible and happening. This is why data mining stalkerware is insidious. Scam markets are only the tip of the iceberg and what can be uncovered if you go looking for it. Anyone that has done database or logistics management should have major red flags flying when looking at how Amazon’s website is setup. The front end is absolutely untenable garbage for effective logistics. The only reason it is convoluted and search results are terrible is because it is a price fixing scam. The logistical efficiency proves that there is no connection between the front and back end of the site.