Customer Reviews

Black & Decker CTO4500S 6-Slice CounterTop Convection Oven with Pizza Bump, Stainless Steel

5 star:		(60)
4 star:		(45)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

We bought this toaster about two months ago, after much research. Our old one was a simple, cheap one from Sunbeam, which lasted about ten years until the lever for toast broke.
I never really wanted a "convection" toaster, but I decided to give it a try because I thought it might save energy when baking. It actually does a very fast job at that, much more efficient than the regular oven we used before.
I used the broiler just once so far and it works well.
Toast is very good: crunchy on the outside, moist inside (but that depends on taste). One gripe is with the knobs, which are hard to grab. The design of the knob is especially annoying in the timer, because it just sort of slides to the desired time, there's no way of precisely selecting the position, like a good stereo knob would. We haven't quite found the best spot on the timer for the perfect toast, I'm having to rely on visual clues and often just take the toast out before the timer rings.
The tray is easy to clean and slides out conveniently.
The hooks on the door hinges that make the rack slide out make it difficult to close the door completely - we decided to fold ours in and not use them, so the door closes correctly.
Be diligent when shopping for this item, prices vary widely from place to place and you may overpay.

*P.S.: after about 15 months of using this toaster, we decided to purchase a simple toaster for bread slices and use the B&D as a small oven for other dishes. The bread toaster is faster and the results more reliable. As an oven, the B&D does a great job.

Like most reviewers, I have had many toaster ovens over the years. I typically do not make time for reviews, but thought I had some unique insights on this model.

The good: Looks beautiful, and matches my stainless kitchen. The quartz heating tubes throw a lot of infrared light, much like B&D's Infrawave product. The heating element protectors do a good job of keeping food off, but still letting the light shine through. I like the funky metal arms that pull the tray out. Yes, they look silly, but they pull the tray out when it is hot, yet don't prevent you from grabbing it and pulling it all the way out, and they work in all positions. I have tried all cooking modes, and it does a fantastic job.

The bad: Basically, no new toaster ovens can match the ones that used to be built, and I assume this is due to liability concerns and pricing pressures. My previous toaster ovens had a temperature sensor in toaster mode, while this one only uses time. Toaster mode in this model is just oven at 450 with convection fan off. The toast comes out great, but you do not have the fine level of control that older temperature sensor control dial had, so you can't just walk away and come back when it dings. Also, this toaster oven only heats to 450 degrees, while my previous ones went to 500, and I could trick them to be even hotter for steaks (press toast button when in oven mode). This is probably due to the nonstick coating of the oven interior, which is only good to 450. My older ovens had the self-clean interior good for 800+ degrees.

One note - some reviewers lamented that the convection fan is not on in toast mode. Toast mode and oven mode is the same thing, so just use oven set to 450 if you want the fan on when toasting.

So my conclusion? This one is a keeper. Food comes out great, in all modes. The huge amount of infrared light thrown by the quartz tubes in such a small shiny oven yields great browning, searing, and flavor. In the end, it is all about the food, and food comes out very tasty in this little gem.

I've been using this oven for over 2 months now,so far so good. For a 6 slice oven its a good size, not too big.The crumb tray slides out completely, that makes it easy to keep the oven clean.
Please take the time to read the manual. It has a couple of good tips about using the oven.
The toast function is fast. It does not use convection feature for toasting.
I've baked eggplant and butternut squash in it. It takes almost the same time as a normal sized oven, but saves a lot of energy and does a good job. The broil feature works well too.
I'm looking forward to baking pizza in it.

I have the exact same toaster oven except it is not stainless steel, but in black at a substantially lower price. A correction on the info, the timer goes to 60 minutes not 120.

I do NOT use mine to make toast. I have a standard upright toaster for that purpose. Anyone who buys a toaster oven to make toast can expect poor results.

This product is meant to be used for baking and broiling. I have used it only for broiling so far and found it to do as good a job as my big range.

Chicken, steaks, burgers broil up great and at about the same time it would take it a regular oven.

When broiling use the top position with the rack facing upwards, getting the food as close to the heating elements as possible without actually touching them. This will insure thorough broiling and quicker cooking. Again, this all depends on what your broiling.

I did use once for cooking a frozen pizza and the convection feature seemed to make the cooking of the pizza more even.

Highly recommended. A good value for the price.

It caught fire while toasting. One minute it was underdone, the next the oven is on fire. Luckily we were right there and had a fire extinguisher in the kitchen. Looking around a bit on consumer sites and I see this is not uncommon. If it had been used more than a few times, I could say it must have been due to debris, but this thing was spotless.

After using my old Black & Decker Toaster Oven for 11 years, I purchased this Black & Decker brand again. Yes, this is a totally good brand and it works as I expected. I now stopped using my regular big oven and use this small but powerful oven for almost everything.

I've had a much smaller, very simple B & D toaster oven for over a dozen years and it still works fine. I really wanted something larger, this one had very good reviews and has features that appealed to me. The removeable crumb tray is great. I also love the simple twist knobs--and really like the fact that the unit can be set to turn off automatically (with a bell to signal completion) or to remain on until I turn it off.

The circular bump out into the back helps accommodate pans a little larger than would fit otherwise, just don't expect to cook a pizza larger than Kroger's ready made crust (about 11.5 inch). The baking rack can be used in two different positions and flipped over for versatility. With a little soaking in detergent and perhaps a nylon pad at most, I've had no problem cleaning the tray or pans. My uses so far: toasing various types of bread, baked one loaf of bread, have made cornbread twice and cooked various types of meat and fish.

I'm very pleased with the results and highly recommend this stove after a few weeks of use. I hope (and expect) that it will last as long as the original.

The convection oven does a fine job of heating items that occupy much of the interior space. Toasting is very uneven, however. It helps to put the bread to be toasted in the middle of the oven (especially from front to back) and to turn the bread over (when halfway done with toasting). Even then, the toast can have parts that are burned and other part that are not adequately done. I've yet to find a convection oven that toasts bread nearly as well or as evenly as an actual toaster.

Great size, visual, shape and functions. The only parts I am not crazy about are the broiler tray and solid tray that came with this toaster oven. They are very flimsy and will dent or bend easily. I preferred the enamel coated metal ones that came with a previous model.

My mother-in-law had a B & D toaster oven for 10 years and it finally gave in. We purchased this one and returned it after having her try it. The toaster/timer requires one to turn the dial clockwise past 20 and then counter clockwise to the desired toast setting. The spring on the dial unit was very tight and the knob so poorly designed that she was unable to do it. I am younger and I had difficulty doing this maneuver. Hand/finger strength is very diminished in the elderly and arthritis is a common problem. Obviously, design for the elderly is not a priority for this company; nor is product testing.