Customer Reviews

Black & Decker FC150BR InfraWave Speed-Cooking Countertop Oven, Black

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

As I read some of the other reviews of the Infrawave I am pretty shocked. Some people do nothing but dump on this little marvel, but I love the darn thing! I got the Infrawave about nine months or so ago, and I have never once regretted it. This thing works as well (or better) than my conventional oven for practically anything in a single serving size, which is nice for a single guy who likes to cook.

I'll admit I was a little nervous about trusting it do everything it has preset, like broiling burgers or chicken, but it really does deliver. I must use this thing at least three or four times a week as a replacement for the microwave or the oven. Probably more. Without preheating I can have good burgers in about ten minutes of turning it on, and that is fine by me. My personal favorite is having grilled hot dogs in eight minutes without actually firing up my gas grill. It isn't replacing my outdoor grill, but it's strong enough to completely cook through a stuffed pork chop without turning it into charcoal first. Another perk: it does not heat up the room at all, unlike my conventional oven.

All of that being said, it is not idiot-proof or perfect, but what is? When you are cooking with it you have to use your common sense--Am I using this thing as an oven or a toaster? If you cover your food in aluminum foil you are TOTALLY CHANGING THE EQUATION! Once you cover the food in something reflective you are more or less turning your back on most effective heating source the oven has, and the cooking time will increase. It still will work, but you can't trust the recommended times the oven wants you to use, you have to start thinking more like conventional oven cooking times.

In one other review someone mentioned that the outside of it gets very hot. It does! That is my only real gripe with this item. I would be really aware of this if I had a little one running around while I was using it. That being said, I have it sitting on a baking stand about 3 inches from the wall and I have felt the wall while it was cooking and was very comfortable that there was no danger of anything spontaneously combusting. As a matter fact I have cotton apron that is touching it most of the time while it is cooking and it's perfectly fine. As a final gripe, they could have given a ceramic or glass dish that was fitted to the inside of it, but with some shopping I found one of my own. (Works much better for baking than the metal tray given.)

So there it is; the Infrawave is a fine cooking tool. It is by no means perfect, but it is a great little oven/broiler/toaster.

A month ago, I posted a 4-star review of this product. I thought it worked pretty well. It was fast and easy to use and required no pre-heating.

Tonight, I woke up to an apartment full of smoke. The unit turned itself on and it was baking itself. The way the unit turns on, I know that it couldn't have been activated by user error -- no careless brush against the control panel would turn it on, as you actually need to press several buttons in order to turn it on. In fact, I hadn't used the oven in about a week -- Yet, there it was, tonight, glowing in the dark kitchen. I pulled the plug. There's a bit of a scorch mark on the wall behind it, but aside from the acrid smoke, I caught it before it did any more damage. I just now did a search on the web, and I've seen several accounts similar to mine.

I would feel awful if someone bought the oven on my advice and suffered a fate worse than mine. Please don't buy this oven, or, if you do, keep it unplugged when not in use.

I've had my infrawave for a few months now...having read reviews from all over and getting the good, the bad and the ugly I chose to purchase it anyway. I'm not sorry I have.
I never saw the infomercial, but please remember when you use this oven that the preset times are guideline and nothing more, if you start there you won't burn anything but you may need to add more time. There is definitely a learning curve involved here. Is this oven as quick as a microwave...not in your life...is it quicker and more effective than a large oven for smaller jobs...you betcha!
I love reheating foods in this oven, more time than the microwave but much better results and about half the time of the oven. No rubbery cassaroles, soggy pizza and the like. Very nice results in a fraction of the time.
What don't I like about it? The outside of the unit gets dangerously hot, not a problem for most adults but I worry about my dog's curiosity and worry he may burn himself...he hasn't but I don't leave the oven unsupervised when he's in the house. Parents of small children beware...
My other issue is cooking pies or cassaroles with a crust top...you must cover the top with foil for the majority of the cooking or it will burn, and burn quickly it will...funny enough the same cassarole that I needed to cover to do the original cooking, did not need to be covered when I reheated it for 20 minutes...hmmm...like I said, there's a learning curve. I've read the review of the one guy (who posted twice)complaining about it being a fire hazard...no problem, I just unplug it when not in use...no rocket science there.
All in all I am very pleased with the oven and would recommend it to others.

Black & Decker FC150 InfraWave Speed-Cooking Countertop Oven, Stainless
I purchased this oven one month ago and have used it quite often. It is almost as good as advertised but there are a few problems that require modification. I have broiled steak and chicken, baked roast beef, meat loaf and chicken. Everything I have cooked has turned out quite tasty; that said this oven needs options that are more specific: for example, you do not have a choice of inputting the size of the item you are cooking and whether or not you are cooking it frozen or fresh. The main menu allows you to alter the temperature and cooking time, but the bake or broil menu only allows you to change the cooking time. It takes some experimentation, but overall I am quite pleased with the quality of the food I have cooked.

In addition, it is easy to clean and customer service is quite helpful. Unfortunalty nobody can tell me what the default temperature is if I select from the bake menu. I have never cooked frozen beef or chicken in my life,so pretty much it is guesswork.
I seem to have figured out everything by trial and error and I highly recommend this product.In reality the intelligence factor should take into consideration if you are cooking frozen food. Overall, I highly recommend this product. JUST REMEMBER, YOU HAVE TO USE COMMON SENSE AND FIGURE OUT WHAT TIME AND TEMPERATURE YOU WISH TO COOK AT.Once you get the hang of it you will be able to cook anything you want and the food will come out cooked to your liking.
Enjoy!

After buying this oven I decided to test it against a Black and Decker 17 dollar toaster oven. To do this I first toasted three pieces of bread one after the other. This was to allow the oven to "burn in" since it was new. I then attempted to cook two equal weight potatoes, one in each oven. I did use the default settings since the potato was small. After the default time of 35 minutes this is what I found. The potato in the 17 dollar oven was done and all went well. However the potato in the oven being tested was no where done. Further the outside of the oven was hot enough to burn, this is not acceptable considering that the other toaster over was fairly cool. Also there was a heavy electrical smell that caused the kitchen to need venting as was very detectible in smelling the potato. Final conclusions are that for toast this unit does well but for anything else the claims of speed and ease of use are not well founded. It is a very high priced toaster and there are many cheaper and better choices.

This isn't quite as easy as the infomercial seems to say. I am still on the learning curve. The buttons have small print and I almost need the book at hand to identify what I need to do. Toast is really nice and fast. Chops come out really very juicy, if not seared. I like that it stops cooking at a set time. If I am away from the kitchen things don't get over done.

The broiler pan and rack are very flimsey and tweek in cooking. The pan is aluminum and stains easily. If it will fit, I might just keep the pan from my older toaster oven.

I haven't yet had occasion to reheat any pizza. There is a seperate button for that. I hope it does perform as advertized.

Impressed. I bought this from a local source (sorry amazon, but I live in the islands...) and I am 100% satisfied. 4 Stars because it isn't perfect in it's 'predictive' conversion. I've only had the oven for about 3 weeks now, and I use it daily (multiple times daily). Toast = perfect. Reheating leftovers = perfect. Cooking from frozen to delicious = almost perfect (you need to tweak it to your tastes)...

My only complaint is that I can't seem to find a manual option - it all has to go through their system of picking the food type, temp, time & then have it convert. Mind you, it does a great job at this, but I would prefer to be able to plug in what I want from the get go vs. use the menu system. Obviously I am so incredibly busy that these extra 10 seconds have a huge impact on me & what I can get done in a day :)

Great Product - does what it says it will do. Oh & by the way, it is HOT where I live, so not having to heat up the entire house is a HUGE plus.

We purchased this Infrawave oven about a week ago. I was skeptical, but hopeful, based on the user reviews that I read prior to purchase. When we took the oven out of the box, I sat down and read the instructions and perused the sample foods list for each of the settings. I have tried heating frozen chili, reheating cold Bolognese sauce, cooking frozen chicken tenders, french fries and pizza rolls, made toast, bagels, frozen pastries, baked homemade sausage rolls, heated garlic bread and roasted sweet potatoes and butternut squash. It performed each of these tasks perfectly! I have not turned on my "big" oven since we took this out of the box. It cooks all of the items listed in half the time, or less, than the traditional oven and there is NO preheating time. I am totally impressed. I have not found the tray difficult to clean, thus far. I do recommend that you read the directions and keep the cooking guide close at hand. I can't wait to get my electric bill at the end of the month and see the savings!! I am buying one of these for my parents for Christmas. It is FANTASTIC!

I have had the InfraWave for the better part of a year,and in general like it.

If you happen to be looking for a small pizza oven (fresh, frozen or to re heat) you cant go wrong- really great results. Same for chicken,and some cuts of steak. Cooking from frozen (IN A DISH, not included) seems to work well.

Some things do not cook well- potato's in particular! On the other hand, great for home made mac and cheese ,and similar baked foods.

(Never EVER put a plastic microwave container in this unit, even if some have 'baking instructions' on the box! I DID, once and was sorry)

Very nice for garlic bread too! Slice Italian/french bred , add toppings and you are done in a minute or two.

One should keep in mind that this is an OVEN/Broiler, and not so much of a toaster in my opinion. I have had nice results with bagels, not so hot with plain toast.

The unit does get very hot on top, which is a concern. Instructions suggest that the unit ALWAYS be un-plugged when not in use.

This can cause one to have those moments of leaving for work in the AM and having the "did I, or did I not unlplug this thing" feeling when it is too late to turn around! ( you KNOW that kind of feeling).

This is a great product! I had a regular toaster oven which was only used for toast. Now I can no so much more with the Infrawave Oven. I baked cookies that turned out beautiful. The reheat feature is wonderful, makes leftovers as good as new!