Customer Reviews

Black & Decker TRO620 4-Slice Toaster Oven

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am reading toaster oven reviews because this B&D TR0620 is the oven I want to replace. It still works, but life is too short to endure the aggravation factors.

As the previous reviewer reported accurately, the oven stays on after I believe I have turned it off (and after I have tried my best to turn it off and failed). This is unacceptable. So for safety reasons, I try to remember to keep the oven unplugged at all times when I am not actually using it. But here is the "Gotcha!:" The ON count-down knob with the timer works -- LOUD tick-tick-tick-tick -- without power! More times than I want to admit, I have inserted bread, twisted the ON knob to "Medium," and turned my attention to other parts of the meal while the toaster oven tick-tick-ticks away and then, DING! turns itself off. But when I finish the other preparations and return to the toaster oven, I find plain untoasted bread because all the knobs and noises worked even though the oven was not plugged in. That was a funny practical joke maybe once. If the oven were not too dangerous to leave plugged in when not in use, the trick timer ON knob would not be such an issue.

The other constant annoyance on my oven is the inability to close the oven door with one hand after removing the toast or food tray with the other hand. The door gets jammed in the wide open position and I have to put the food down somewhere else and come back with pot holders to fool around with the hot oven, jiggling the door hinges into position to work with the retractable oven rack.

The toast is unevenly browned, and brown only on one side.

All I want is a little countertop device that will toast odd sizes of bread evenly and quickly, and also allow me to melt cheese on open sandwiches. I realize I am describing the original Black and Decker toaster oven from the 1970's, and I wish I could find one.

I see from the photo that TRO620 has been re-designed since we bought it a bit over 2 years ago... there is an extra knob, which I hope helps it work better than ours has. We chose it because our previous toaster over was a Black and Decker and worked the best of any we'd ever owned, and for its size and sleek appearance (always a mistake). From the outset it was a lousy toaster -- burned some parts before other areas had begun to brown. As an oven or broiler, similar problem: a hot spot in the upper element always scorched the top of the food before the rest was done. And from the outset, the toaster controls were difficult to use: you had to twist the very stiff timer knob past 10 minutes, then twist it back to the toast setting area on the timer (approx. 2-5 minutes, corresponding to light-dark), remembering also to set the oven temp control to 450/toast. At the end of the toast cycle, the unit would ding and turn itself off, but if you noticed that the hot spot was burning the toast and twisted the knob to "off," there was always the danger of twisting a little too hard, and unknowingly turning the knob to the "Stay On" setting at the end of the range, where "off" should logically be.

This unit has been the cause of much profanity in this household, but now it is dangerous as well. Now the timer does not ding or shut off when the toast is finished. If you manually turn the knob to "off", the element does turn off, but the timer keeps ticking and turning until it reaches "Stay on." So that after you've removed the toast (and possibly even left the house) the timer knob reaches "Stay on" and the elements resume glowing...at 450 degrees! This happened several times before we diagnosed the problem. Luckily, the house is still here. Now we plug and unplug to toast, and are here shopping for a new toaster oven. Perhaps the redesigned model works better and is safer, but I'm not taking the chance!