Customer Reviews

Black & Decker TRO962 Dining In 4-Slice Toaster Oven

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(26)

 

 

This is the worst toaster oven I have ever encountered. First off, when you use it to toast something, there is no audible indication (no "pop") when the toasting is done... the oven simple shuts off. So, you get distracted making some other component of your breakfast, and when you remember the toast, it's long since finished and has grown cold. Sure, there is a light that indicates when the toaster is working, but the light is its own disappointment: many toasters have a light with two different brightnesses (or have have two different lights) so you know when the oven has reached the desired temperature in oven mode. This toaster oven has no such thing... set it for 400 degrees and then you just have to guess when it'll get there. A third irritation: the rack inside is connected to the door, in such a way that it slides forward an inch or so when the door is opened. I guess the genius that came up with this thought it would be helpful to bring your toast an inch closer to you (maybe reaching that extra inch is very difficult for the sort of people who built this toaster). The main result of this foolhardy design is that there is a one inch gap at the back of the rack whenever the door is open, making it all too easy to knock your toast off the back of the rack, so that it falls down next to the heating element and instantly produces noxious black smoke, ruining your breakfast and your mood.

Much more frustrating than those minor design flaws, however, is the overall poor construction of the device. The door sticks, both when opening and closing it (perhaps because of the connection to the rack). I actually bent the handle trying to pull the door open this morning. As in many toaster ovens, the bottom can be opened in order to clean out crumbs, but with this model, you will need pliers in order to get the bottom closed again. The knobs (darkness/lightness and oven temperature) are such cheap plastic that they cracked and broke within a month of purchase, and the darkness/lightness knob has the most exquisitely maddening sensitivity: half the range is much too dark and half the range is much too light, so that in order to have your toast come out right, the knob must be set incredibly precisely. Once you get the right setting, you must never ever ever adjust this knob again or it will take you hours of experimentation (and the sacrifice of a loaf and a half of bread) to find your desired equilibrium again. Then, be careful not to breath, or you may lose the correct setting and have to eat either raw bread or characoal. And don't even think about trying to put bread in for a second try if the first try didn't work (or trying to make a second batch for someone else) without first waiting for the toaster oven to cool completely to room temperature. Otherwise this infernal contraption will ignore your darkness/lightness setting altogether and make up its own mind about what duration of toasting will be worst for your blood pressure.

In summary, I recommend against purchasing this toaster, or even visiting friends or family members that own one.

I was in the kitchen and the piece of bread I put in to toast blew up in flames. This item is made very cheaply. Why would they even make a toaster oven where there is no indication or bell when the toasting is complete? Or else a safety feature that turns itself off if it overheats?
I agree with the other reviews that it is nearly impossible to open or close without reaching in and moving the rack and the tray doesn't come out very far.
When I turned it on the entire chrome top of the oven became dangerously hot. Even 5 minutes after it's done and turned off, I still couldn't leave it alone and I would never ever have my kids use it.

I've had a black & toaster before for sixteen years without any problems that worked great. This one cooks much too fast and burns the food and in my situation almost my kitchen. I am sure I got a defective one.

What more can I say - there is no indication when the toasting is complete, and it is nearly impossible to open or close without reaching in and (ouch) moving the rack a bit.

What junk!

Pros:
It does what I expect it to do.
I had no problems opening the door or tray.

Cons:
The tray doesn't come out very far and if you're grabbing your toast by hand, then please DON'T! The entire chrome casing of the oven becomes untouchably hot. My knuckle grazed it once while I was grabbing some toast and I got burnt pretty badly considering the amount of contact I made. I don't know if I'm the only one with this problem, but even 5 minutes after it's done, I still can't touch the outside. It's ok now, but I have to make sure guests and kids don't use it.

I have difficulty opening and closing the door, no bell when toast cycle is complete, AND it takes several minutes to make a piece of toast! It seems like this was the result of a great effort to engineer the most aggravating toaster oven ever.

I have had nothing but trouble with this from the beginning. I wish I had returned it. The door does not open smoothly and never has. Now the handle on the door has popped off. Pick something else.

I've had a black & toaster before similar to this one that worked great as an oven but this one tends to cook to fast and burns the food so you cant turn it on over 150 degrees. I probably got a defective one. But for the price its a great toaster and thats what I mainly bought it for. I hate regular toasters because even if you get the wide ones, bagels and waffles just never seem to fight right. With a toaster oven you can use it for these and a lot more. And by the way who needs a bell to know if its done, just look at it and pull it out. ( it also has a little light that will turn off when its done)

I am in the middle of toaster over hell ... trying to replace the Black & Decker model we got 10 years ago for a wedding gift. It was basic like this one but about $45 10 years ago. I wish B&D still made it. This one is the only one that is about the same size, no crazy frills (who really needs convection ... I roast chickens in a real oven). This is for toast, cheese toast, chicken nuggests/fish sticks, reheating a slice of pizza, a small batch of nachos etc... I just want QUALITY. I bought this one and before using it realized that the door is connected to the slide out shelf by a cheap thin metal hook and it catches about 60% of the time (annoying). I miss the lever to toast vs. the small button you hit now. What got me was it was just cheap feeling compared to my old one. The pull out tray no longer has a little raised handle (minor but could only have save 5 cents in manufacturing). MOST ALARMING however, I ran toaster to "break in" the elements and burn off the factory coating before making toast to actaully eat and the 1) The elements never turned off and 2) the unit made an electrical popping sound underneath and I saw a spark or two. WHAT's GREAT is how fast it heats up (all the others I have tried are so slow ... 6 minutes to taost???) and my old B&D did it in two. I returned this one and have since tried 4 others and returned them. Can't anyone make a decent toaster over for $50. This one should be beefed up in terms of quality and I would gladly pay $50 vs the $30 this one costs. HELP B&D, PLEASE!!!

Our main purpose in having a toaster oven is to make toast. We seldom use the bake or broil features. We prefer a toaster oven to a stand-up toaster because we like to melt cheese, butter, and other goodies on the bread, tortillas, etc. while toasting. This oven had very disappointing performance while making toast, because....We had trouble with the "toast-on" switch. It malfunctioned more than one third of the time.
Button wouldn't switch on, when pushed repeatedly; button hard to push...doesn't click securely when switching on; toaster slides on counter when "on" button is pushed. Bottom line: the push-button is poorly designed. I don't believe it's dependable.
Other minus features: no warning bell when toast is finished; doesn't have an easy-clean, non-stick interior; swing-down crumb tray not removable for cleaning. I was willing to live with all of this if only the push-button had worked.
On the plus side: made evenly-browned toast, both sides, and the toasting time for "medium" took only 3 minutes (many toaster ovens take far longer to make a piece of toast and do not brown evenly); appearance is attractive; nice, brushed-chrome exterior; small footprint.

We buy one of these toasters about every 6 to 18 months. We have never had one last longer than just shy of 2 years. What can you say, this particular model is not built to last, but it does heat up faster than any other model or brand that we have tried. At about $50 with shipping, it's not a huge amount of money. I wished B&D built them better (ie. to last longer), but the newer models have only one heating element on top and bottom, this one has two, the newer models have radiant elements which look really cool (they have a glass like finish), but they take much longer to heat up. Overall, this is a decent toaster, but I can not refute the general disappointment reflected in other reviews that I have read. If you have limited expectations with respect to longevity, this toaster is going to work quite well, until it breaks! That's why we keep on buying it, we haven't found anything that works as well in a similarly small package.