Customer Reviews

Delonghi AD1079B Retro Convection Oven with Rotisserie

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

 

 

This purchase has settled in as an extremely expensive pizza oven and / or breadbox. As previously stated by another reviewer, no mention of oven size - now that the unit has been purchased, I find none of my bakeware - other than loaf pans and 9"x9" cake /pie pans will fit inside! Interior is approx 13"x13"x12" giving approx 1.1 cu ft. Cookie sheets, jelly roll pans, standard size sheet cake pans will not fit inside.

Cleaning the inside of the enamel surface is a challenge, and in many cases requires scouring powder - yuck. Cooking on the spitt can cause the item being cooked to spray the interior with juices as the cooked piece of meat heats up and expells moisture and steam, so interior cleaning will be routine.

The unit comes with a glass door - great for viewing what is happening inside - but poorly fitted / slightly warped window or unit case allowing a great deal of heat to escape during the cooking process - in addition, the exterior of the unit gets EXCEEDINGLY HOT as to present a fire hazzard to anything close which may be combustible - be extremely careful with this unit regarding this safety / lack of safety feature. Put absolutely nothing on top of this unit! The manufactured even suggest moving the unit three to four inches away from the back wall! I have solved this problem by putting the unit on a set of wire shelving - pretty much away from everything else. I was melting choclate chips in the closed cuboard a good foot above this unit, when it was on the countertop!

Cooking time using the convection feature is not deminished - if anything, I find I must add cooking time to whatever I am doing. Manufacturer suggests lowering cooking temp by 25 degrees - don't listen - cook at the receipe temp and adjust (add) time as necessary.

Controls are cumbersome to add baking time - you need to be a bit of a contorsionist - as two buttons must be pushed simutaniously - holding one button in, while "tapping" the time button +/- - extremely difficult to get your desired result as the "minutes" added is exceedingly quick - sometimes one minute is added, sometimes two minutes is added, sometimes 3 minutes is added per "tap" - can be very frustrating. Kind of like tapping your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time...

The solid state control logic is a bit wacky - this thing beeps intermitently, during cooking, for no apparent reason - I think the unit has completed its task, only to find as much as six minutes still on the clock, with the unit happily beeping away... then when the unit does finish - many time nothing - no beeps - the unit just shuts down. Very strange.

I am really trying to be objective here, and I really want to like this unit (who wants to admit a three hundred dollar buying error??) but try as I might, I cannot recommend this unit, based on my useage. But who knows - you may love it - many others here are gushing..

So, will this be the "Fiat" ("Fix it again, Tony") of toaster / convection ovens? Time will tell - will keep you posted.

Update - Mid June 2003 - The enamel interior surface is starting to chip away in several places. Though the manual indicates 2 level baking, the lower level must be moved up to the upper level when the upper level baked goods are done (per recipe baking time - this is the ONLY batch you can use suggested bake time). The items from the lower level then must continue to bake half again as much time as originally indicated in the recipe. The new baking sheet added to the lower level can then be moved up - sound confusing? Makes it hard to keep track of baking times causing the baked goods (in this case cookies) to continually be monitored. Forcing you to constantly rotate the pans - never to remove the 2 pans at the same time. With this small oven, you need to use 2 pans, as I can only get 6 cookies on a pan - if you were only to use the one pan it will take you forever to get through a batch of cookie dough!

Received this oven yesterday (8-30-02). Used it to broil rib steaks for dinner (2). My husband and I were delighted with the results. Steak cooked perfectly and extremely tender - worth it just for the broil results. Also baked sausage and roasted peppers today with very good results.

Very convenient and easy to use controls, easy to clean, and fits nicely on top level of microwave cart. Haven't baked with it yet but, based on the broiling and roasting results thus far, I can't imagine being dissapointed with this oven. Attractive and very well built oven that does what the manufacturer says it will. Totally pleased and recommed it highly.
UPDATE: 9/10 -- have now used oven to bake cake and cookies...
the more I use this appliance the more I like it... want a small oven that works great.. don't hesitate to buy it!

I have been using this oven for about four months now, and I wish I had never purchased it. The fan is very noisy, the interior is terrible to clean, and the darn thing doesn't bake very well at all. It certainly isn't any faster than a conventional oven. In fact, I have to bake things longer than usual.
August,2003.....The timer on my convention oven has now been broken for a couple months, and because I dislike the unit so much, I will not pay the postage to have it shipped and repaired. Most likely, the motor will go on it before too long as it is very noisy. I have to agree 100% with the review the Amazon customer from Wisconsin gave. I have owned two other convection ovens, the first of which lasted 20+ years, the second not too much better than this one. So, I have experience with convection ovens, and this one just doesn't make the grade!

My home is 40 years old with 40 year old ovens. In the 5 years I have lived here I haven't been able to bake one cake, souffle, or anything else that has turned out decently. EVERYTHING is either burnt on the bottom of falls. Since I haven't been able to remodel the kitchen and buy new appliances, I finally decided to buy this convection oven hoping that I could again bake. I CAN!!! I just made a perfect cheesecake!!!! I haven't been able to do this in FIVE YEARS! This oven is really wonderful. The results and eveness of the baking rivals my very good oven in my previous home. Thank you DeLonghi!!!

My oven functions perfectly and I love it. I read the reviews with trepidation as I awaited the arrival of my own DeLonghi AD 1079. Anyone who has a kitchen appliance that overheats as badly as one person claimed, and still does not cook food, has a defective oven that could endanger their household with an electrical fire. I would encourage anyone who has a defective electrical appliance to take care of it before voiding the warranty by scrubbing the surface with abrasive powder. Most manufacturers turn out an occasional lemon. However, reputable companies will repair or replace the unit and most states have consumer laws that protect the customer. I would not hesitate to return a defective appliance immediately.

I think a lot of changes have been made to the oven, since mine does not function as described in other reviews. On my oven, you select the function and then adjust it using the plus or minus button. You don't have to hold anything down. The settings do change rapidly, but the consumer can easily adapt to the functions on the oven I have.

After setting the clock, the first thing I did was to heat the empty oven for 20 minutes with the kitchen fan on to remove those noxious fumes. This procedure should have been included in the instructions, because you don't know what kind of chemicals could be on the finish, and you certainly don't want fumes going into food.

As to size, I have a set of small Pyrex baking dishes I intend to use, and the unit comes with a baking pan, a broiling pan, and a pizza sheet, which can also be used as a cookie sheet. The dimensions are clearly shown in all of the descriptions, the advertising, and the box, so the size of the oven should come as a surprise to no one. It fits comfortably on my countertop, but is taller, heavier (39 lbs), and sturdier than my previous convection oven.

I was a little disappointed with the non-stick finish until I realized it is the same as my Ecco cookware. You wouldn't use a cookie sheet or a muffin tin without putting some kind of lubricant on it. So I washed the roasting pan well by hand without abrasives the first time and now I spray Pam on the pans and sheet before use.

What a difference Pam makes!! Anything left on the baking pan wipes off with a soapy sponge. I would highly recommend the use of Pam on the pizza sheet and pans. Also, if you take a damp sponge and quickly wipe the inside of the oven out after use, you'll have fewer problems with baked-on grease, and this is such a nicely-designed unit, it takes about a minute. Wording to that effect should be placed in the instructions. I am having trouble removing the floor of the oven over the elements. It's a very tight fit and there is difficulty in sliding it over the door of the oven.

I did not have spattering problems. I have not used the rotisserie yet, and I do anticipate spattering with it. From my youth, I remember that we used to wrap the poultry in aluminum foil before using a rotisserie. On a chicken, we increased the roasting time to two or two and a half hours, drained the grease and then removed the foil for another 20 minutes to brown the bird. The good news and bad news about a rotisserie is that it releases a lot of grease. That means you get food with less fat, but the drippings have to go somewhere. I'm hoping by following this procedure to reduce the burned-on grease, but I have to try it and see.

I experienced shorter cooking times on fan/bake than those stated in the book. One-half pound of baby back ribs took 22 minutes. Flank steak took 16 minutes at 400 degrees, including preheat. I did not have excessive heat leaking from the oven. The food was cooked all the way through. I did not vary the times for the ribs as suggested in the book, and will try that next time, as they were a little dry set on a constant temperature of 400 degrees.

The book has a warning about the door of the oven. It does get extremely hot, and I recommend positioning the oven so that children cannot reach it. Obviously, your cat takes his or her chances, although I would guess one hop to the top of the oven will be enough.

After reading the earlier review, I can say that the exterior of the oven does not get that hot in the current model. My new oven is a great improvement over the model (Toastmaster) that I had been using for two years. It does not drip grease all over the element (what a bad idea!) and leak onto the kitchen counter. In the old oven, the non-stick surface began to peel from the drip pan and rack after two washings. Within two months, the plastic skin on the heat-sensitive buttons on the Toastmaster began to peel. The buttons on the DeLonghi are regular push buttons. I will have to see how the Durastone finish compares over time.

The cooking times have been comparable in both the new and the old ovens, and the texture and taste of the food similar. However, the Toastmaster oven was a bear to clean, and after a certain point in time, no one could remove the burned-on grease. I'm happy to report that I have extremely positive experiences thus far with the DeLonghi. If the complaints in the other reviews are valid, I can honestly say that DeLonghi has made sufficient improvements in the current model to warrant the purchase. I was very happy with the performance of my new oven.

Compact yet loaded with features, the oven does well without hot spots or burning. The oven is large enough to accomodate pies, cakes, and pizzas and consumes less energy than the kitchen stove.
On the other hand, the rotisserie motor strains under a full load such as a chicken, and an off-center load causes the motor gearing to move unevenly. It also takes some patience to get the digital controls on the time and temperature settings to respond to the input buttons. Otherwise, the oven is a welcome addition to a small kitchen, and is quite handy for small scale recipe experiments.

Have used convection ovens for years and this is absolutely the best I have ever used! Mine has the electronic controls and they are very user friendly. It is top of the line quality in every way. The fan is quiet, it browns evenly, has a signal for when the correct temp is reached, an end of cycle signal and is easy to clean. I have recommended this to my hard to please mother-in-law. (nuff sed) I LOVE IT!!!

This oven does everything perfectly! Perfect pizza (fresh or frozen), rotisserie chicken done to juicy perfection, broiling, baking and so on. So easy to clean up - pretty much just rinse off! I highly reccommend this oven, well worth the cost.

not a review, but an (I think) important request - none of the ovens you list give dimensions, cubic foot capacity, color - all important bits of information