Customer Reviews

Black & Decker TROS1500B SpaceMaker Traditional Toaster Oven, Black

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(65)
3 star:		(53)
2 star:		(36)
1 star:		(66)

 

 

I purchased our toaster earlier this week before having read any reviews about it here. I reviewed many, many other toasters/ovens on Amazon, then went to Target with a couple in mind that were in stock. In general, I'm extremely disappointed in the quality of all toasters/toaster ovens out there right now. They felt like cheap aluminum boxes mass produced in China. Our Krups toaster oven has been with us for 10 or 15 years and was wonderful. In any case, while getting disgusted at what Target did have available, around the corner in the aisle with all the Black and Decker SpaceMaker items I found this toaster and with a good sale price.

I get it home, quickly come here and see horror story after horror story. I'm wondering if I should even open the box or just take it back to Target immediately. Well, luckily I ignored the reviews here. Our SpaceMaker can opener has been wonderful and I was going to give this toaster a shot.

Having been forewarned about all the problems and headaches others have had with installation, I read all the instructions, took my time, laid everything out, checked, double checked and even triple checked before drilling any holes. Everything installed fine - no problems whatsoever. I didn't need 4 hands, extra spacers, longer screws, and didn't have any issues which others bring up. The instructions are fairly clear, and for anything which wasn't, anyone with some spacial acumen can figure out how things need to fit together. The instruction booklet was also very clear that if you needed additional spacers, to simply call them and they'd send them free of charge.

So, the toaster was installed a few days ago and looks beautiful in the location of our old toaster oven, but we now find ourselves with more counter space - just wonderful. A couple days go by and finally someone wants a toasted bagel for breakfast. Instead of blindly setting the knob for how long to toast and walking away, we did the unthinkable - we watched it toast to get an idea of how long it takes. The reason people are saying it burns their toast is because the heating elements are powerful and it toasts quickly. What's the big deal with that? Our Krups toaster oven had two heating elements on the top and two on the bottom. I was slightly concerned because this one has only one on the top and one on the bottom - however, these are thicker, they heat up extremely quickly, and they are more powerful. So, we made a guess how long we should set the timer, watched, and turned it off when done - just a tad shorter than we estimated. It also toasted evenly - no complaints.

Long story short - ignore the reviews here that do nothing but complain.

1. Read all the instructions when installing
2. Double and triple check location of holes and hood before drilling
3. First few times cooking with it, watch how long things take before being bold enough to set the timer and walk away. It's powerful - that's a good thing.

I'm not sure what the other reviewers were installing, but I had no problems. Tape up the template, drill the holes, add spacers and attach. Pretty straight forward. By the way, I'm a single woman and not in the construction or home improvement business. I have no complaints about the install, so please don't let some of the other reviews sway your decision. The unit looks great and works good. Different controls than my last toaster oven, but its not rocket science so within a few minutes you should have it down. Black & Decker TROS1500B SpaceMaker Traditional Toaster Oven, Black

Paid: $65 including tax

PRO: Good looking

CON: Difficult, if not impossible, to install; hazardous to use; Inconvenient controls; no way to broil; no tray provided; uneven toasting pattern

If it ain't broke, don't fix it! Many years ago, B & D invented an under-the-cabinet toaster-oven, of which I have owned at least two. It became a classic. With one-button operation it was easy to operate and it shut off automatically, for safety, when the door was opened. When the heating element burned out, it was a simple matter to buy a new one for $30 and slip it into the slots.

When our toaster heating element burned out we discovered that B & D had replaced the successful model for a Toaster from Hell. To start with, it costs double what the simple old toaster did. To operate the toaster, each time one wants toast, one has to decide how long it takes and set the control to the estimated time (gauge is marked in 5 minute increments.) If you overestimate and the toast starts to burn, you have to open the door and quickly extract the semi-burned toast while filling the kitchen with a blast of hot air and smoke. The oven continues to heat until you shut if off manually, created a hazard, especially if there are curious young children present.

But before you are ready to burn toast, you have the fun of installing the toaster under your cabinets. You've seen those 3-dimensional Chinese puzzles. If you like playing with those, while blindfolded, you'll love installing this toaster! It took me 10 or 12 hours over a period of three days; depending upon the shape of your existing cabinets, it may be easier for you....or it may be impossible.

Everything reviewer Spice of Life said is true and his advice was a big help to me.

Although I give this toaster a low rating, I'm going out and buy another of the same model, as a backup. After the heating element fails on this one, I don't want to have to install another "new and improved" model later.

P S: At least it's handsome and matches the color of our other appliances. It looks even better after I removed the redundant legs.

Cost of electricity to toast 1 to 4 slices: less than one cent

Dimensions: width 16.5" height 8" depth 13"

May 27 2010
PS Shortly after we installed this oven the adjustment knob broke. Thus we have to use a table knife to adjust the toaster each time. In addition to all of the defects, add this nuisance. Grrr!

I had owned a B&D under the counter toaster oven for 15 years. The heating elements started to go, so it was time to get a new one. After a long hiatus without an under the counter toaster oven, B&D recently came out with the TROS1500. The first time I purchased it, I had to return it because one of the heating elements was broken. I returned it to the store at got another one. Everything looked good out of the box. However, the installation proved fruitless. Here are the problems:

1. As mentioned in a previous review, the instructions for cabinets with overhangs are worthless. The enclosed template has dashed lines depending on the thickness of the overhang. These marking are supposed to be labeled with the appropriate thickness. However, there are no labels on the dashed lines.

2. It is extremely difficult to use the spacers that are enclosed with the unit. They don't stay on screws. Combined with the lip on the hood itself, this makes it impossible to attach the screw to the hood (one can be done with assistance, but not the other one). I ended up using the spacers from the old hood that I had. These stay on the screws. It would be much easier if they had included spacers that would stay on the screws. It appears that they used the same spacers from the other Spacemaker appliances. I have the can opener which I was able to install without a problem. However, the toaster is fundamentally different because of the hood. It does not appear that the manufacturer has taken this into account.

3. The installations requires a cabinet with a minimum depth of 12". I calculate this based on the 4" clearance requirement that the manual states plus 8" between the front and back screw holes in the hood. This is excluding the thickness of any overhang/lip. Although you could probably cut into the 4" clearance, at least 1-2" of clearance are required in the rear due to the cord hook which jut back from the rear of the unit. The way that the unit attaches into the hood requires that the bottom swing out so the 1-2" clearance is required. My cabinet had a depth of only about 11" so I am returning the unit.

The hood probrably installs fine if you have a cabinet with no overhang/lip and a depth of at least 12". After multiple attempts and drilling eight holes into my cabinet, I am returning this appliance. It appears that the Black and Decker home appliances have been sold to a company called Applica. The quality and design is not what it used to be. It is exteremly disappointing.

As its name implies, this device functions as a toaster and as an oven. It's not very good at either activity. Its name also includes "Spacemaker", and it does this pretty well.

Good points:
It is nicely styled. It saves space by being mountable under a kitchen counter, as well as not being very large. It does make toast and it does serve as an oven.

Bad points as a toaster:
There is a single heating element across the top of the oven interior, which is baffled from the rack by a metallic diffuser strip. A mirror image of this assembly exists on the bottom. In the toaster function, this results in uneven brownness across the piece of bread, even when the bread is carefully centered. The precision with which the timer can be set (a resolution of 5 minutes!) is not adequate to get repeatable results from one piece of bread to another.

Bad points as an oven:
The temperature can be set in 50 degree intervals. I checked the temperature using an oven thermometer of the type you can buy in the hardware aisle in a supermarket. Even though it's a non-precision device I think it's pretty accurate because it reads within a few degrees of the set point in my conventional oven. With 150 degrees selected, it settled down at 240 degrees; with 250 degrees selected it settled down at 320 degrees.

Installation instructions: These are so screwed up they're hilarious (after you recover your temper from having your time wasted). The principal problem is that the drilling template provided differs from the mounting hole pattern of the toaster oven by inches. Just remember that the function of the curved front portion of the heat shield is to deflect heat and moisture away from the front of the cabinet. The line at which the curve starts downward should be about a quarter inch in front of the cabinet front, then figure out your front-to-back mounting dimensions from that.

Product was exactly what I expected. It installed easily, is easy to read, toasts quickly and of course saves space. Even if it wasn't an under the cabinet model, I would want it because it is easier to use and works better than the more high end models of both this and other brands. I know this isn't 75 words but I think I've said it all.

Let me start by saying that I haven't had the opportunity to cook something in this toaster oven yet. This is because the installation is a nightmare. I have owned SpaceMaker products in the past. In fact, this is replacing my previous SpaceMaker toaster oven because the door springs broke on it. I had installed the previous model in at least 3 different locations. I've also installed one for my mother in multiple locations and installed the SpaceMaker coffee maker and can opener multiple times.

Now, the toaster oven was always the biggest pain of all of the SpaceMaker items simply because it is hard to hold the spacers in place while you line up the screws. However, this new model is ridiculous. Let me just list the problems I have had.

1) On page 9 of the manual it tells you to measure the thickness of the overhang lip of your cabinet in step 2. Then in step 3 it says, "Once you have the overhang thickness, look at the dashed line on the mounting template; each line has a measurement next to it that indicates the height of thelip used with that line. For example, if your cabinet has an overhang thickness of 1/2", you will use the 1/2" dashed line on the template." Well, there are no such measurements on the template. They simply aren't there. The dashed lines are there but you need to break our your tape measure to figure out which line represents which measurement.

2) Then, the dashed lines only account for a possible 1/2" lip. My cabinet has a 3/4" lip. So I had to measure, draw my own lines, and then fold the paper.

3) The instructions are completely unclear as to wear you are supposed to place the template before you tape it. I literally put the instructions aside and just figured it out myself based on the size of my cabinets lip.

4) In step 10 it tells you that if your overhang measure down 1" then you should use 2, 1/2" spacers when mounting the hood. This doesn't make ANY SENSE. The hood has its own lip that drops the screw holes down an additional 3/4". Therefore, you really need to add your overhand size to the 3/4" and then you will know how many spacers you need. If you don't add the extra 3/4" of spacers then your spacers will simply be floating. They make it sound as if (and look as if in the pictures in the manual) the hood has a flat top where it mounts against the cabinet. It does not. It has four side walls that measure 3/4".

5) Here is the best part. Because of the 3/4" walls on the hood, when combined with my 3/4" overhang you get 1 1/2" which is more than the total of all the included spacers. Add in my 3/4" cabinet bottom thickness you have a total of 2 1/4". This is the length of the longest screw, which means that there is nothing left of the screw to actually screw into the hood.

The moral of the story is: make sure that your cabinet overhang is no more than 1/2" before buying this product.

As a loyal Black & Decker customer, I am extremely disappointed in this product.

I've had it for a couple of months. The bottom knob broke off. The door doesn't close properly. It burns more than it cooks. Feels like junk, and that's what it is. Once a great product line, now sold down the road to China. Wake up Black and Decker.

I agree on all counts with the other reviewers.

-- Not enough spacers! Luckily, I kept the generous quantity of spacers from my old unit to add to the pile.
-- You have to have ultra deep cabinets to meet their distance requirement from the wall. I don't know anyone with cabinets this deep.
-- Many cabinet overhangs will be too large for the number of spacers and the longest screw included. Mine was and it sounds like others were too. Again, thankfully, I had the old spacers from my old unit to reach the length necessary.
-- The screw was barely long enough. I had to forgo using the washer in order to get enough length to reach the hood screw hole.
-- The instructions don't clarify which round plastic things are the washers versus small spacers.
-- The instructions are STILL missing the measurements, as mentioned in other reviews. In general, the instructions are terrible!
-- The spacers don't stay on the screws and fall down before you can install the hood...and there's no way to hold them up...even if you had four hands and could, the hood gets in the way. This was the worst part. Why can't they use the same mold they used years ago. The old screws were snug and held onto the screws. Thankfully I had the old ones and used them to hold on the new spacers.
-- The fact you have to force the timer backwards to toast feels like it's going to break or wear out quickly. The toasting function is so bizzare. A guest in my house will never be able to figure it out how to make toast! I had to read the instructions to have a clue.

If you don't have spacers from an old unit, (and you have a lip hanging down on the front of your cabinet) think hard before buying this. All I can say is this better work well after all the hassle installing it! This used to be such a great product, this is a shame. Someone else should come out with one to compete, as I'd love to have another option.

Thank goodness we read the review from "Life of Spice" while we were trying to install. There are now 8 holes instead of necessary 4 in the underside of our upper cabinet because the template was so far off. Thanks a bunch B&D! Life of Spice was right on the money with the nightmare installation. Buyer Beware!!!