Customer Reviews

Krups FBC4-13 6-Slice Convection Digital Toaster Oven with Preset Cooking Functions

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

This is my first ever online product review but I am so impressed with this product I want to share my positive experience with others.

Having owned cheaper toaster ovens over the years, I was always disappointed with the product quality, reliability and performance. While they all did an OK job of toasting a bagel or reheating a slice of pizza their use was limited, poorly constructed, flimsy and lacking features.

This time I was determined to purchase a quality high end, well constructed unit that not only offered more features but superior performance.

After much research on the web, reading customer/product reviews and doing in-store comparisions between various toaster ovens, I narrowed it down between the Krups FBC2 or FBC4 and the Cuisinart TOB-175C convection taster oven. In the end I decided to purchase and try out the Krups FBC2 toaster oven for the following reasons:

1 - The overall design, sleek appearance and most importantly, solid high quality contruction. Just compare product weight. The Krups appears to be more solid and better built, which may account for its added weight.
2 - The illuminated LCD digital controls are very intuitive and easy to use. The temperature adjusts in 25 degree increments proving to be a very fast and convenient feature. While some people might prefer 1 degree adjustments, I don't miss not being able to set it to odd settings such as 314 or 438 degress. 275, 300, 325, 350, 400, 425, 450 etc work fine for me.
3 - The offset grille provides more heating positions for more accurate heating and cooking.
4 - Even with its compact design, it has a slightly larger interior cooking area.
5 - Last and definately not least, I read only positive reviews about the quartz convection heating eliments, and having now used it, I can see why. This oven seems like it heats up almost instantanously with nice and even heat distribution. What an incredible improvement over the much cheaper units I have owned in the past.

I was so impressed with the Krups KBC2 toaster oven, I decided to return it and purchase the more expensive FBC4 model from Amazon because it offered even more features. Believe me, I am not disappointed. While the Krups FBC2 is an equally excellent product, the FBC4 also has:

1 - A stainless steel exterior finish which I really like because of its quality, appearance and durability, especially after reading reviews indicating there were issues with the Cuisinart exterior finish flaking.
2 - The convection oven feature significantly reduces cooking/reheating time.
3 - It has a Bagel toasting setting not available on the FB2 where it toasts bagels on the sliced side while only heating up the crust side. Like other units on the market, the FB2 toasts both sides. While this does a decent job of toasting bagels, the FB4 Bagel toasting feature results in a perfectly toasted bagel every time.
4 - While I have not yet used the defrost feature, I am looking forward to using it since I am not a big fan of microwaves.

In conclusion, I could not be happier with my decision to purchase a Krups toaster oven. The FB4 has definately exceeded my expectations and I look forward to using it for many years to come.

Obviously a high quality and attractive appliance. The quartz elements seem to heat almost instantly and evenly. The digital controls are very easy to use, with an illuminated display. The oven is simple to clean, with a pull-out crumb tray. An audible beep signals that cooking time is done. However the rear panel gets so hot that I pull it out from the wall several inches to protect the wallpaper. The soft rubber "feet" sometimes come out of their sockets when lifting the oven. (my counters are clean) The pre-programmed toast setting is 4, but must be raised to 6 in order to toast properly. It toasts very well, but takes approx. 4 minutes to do the job because of large size of the oven. Being large though, it will cook items that wouldn't fit in a lesser oven. Made in China, but well built.

**UPDATE***

I did get a replacement as described below. My review remains unchanged. We have used this oven for 3 years now, and it has functioned adequately-- but I didn't pay over $200 for "adequate." Here are some of the problems.

1> The pans included are of the cheapest quality. After only a month or so, the non-stick coating began to wear off, and now tiny bits of the coating flake off after each use. Not healthy. And, yes, I am a professional chef and know how to clean and handle non-stick surfaces properly.

2> The buttons for adjusting Time and Temperature have worn out. I have to press a button 3-4 times for the digital display to accept the input. A very minor additional complaint is that the paint labels on the buttons completely disappeared after about 1 year of use.

3> The oven heats unevenly, especially when the convection bake is turned on. The back right corner gets a lot hotter than the rest of the oven. So, anything in that corner overcooks or burns, while every other area in the oven is done or undercooked.

4> My other complaints in the previous review are still valid.

5> You'll be hard-pressed to actually get 6 slices of bread in this oven.


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When I opened this appliance, I was initially impressed. The digital display is clear and easy to read, the controls are simple, the design is sharp, and the construction seemed to be decent.

The directions say that before using the oven for food, you should first turn it on and heat it at 450 degrees for 15 minutes to burn of any manufacturing residue. I did this. It took over an hour (not the 15 minutes described), but it now finally heats up without making the entire house smell like a paint and chemical factory.

I heated it in increments. After the first 15 minutes the door was melted shut. Seriously. I heated it for 15 minutes on 450 degrees, and I could not open the door because it stuck to the oven along the metal strip on the top of the door. There was no film or anything on it to cause this--it looks like it's the black paint. I had to wait for the oven to cool completely before the door would open. In addition, the burned off residue ended up on the interior glass of the door. Lots of elbow grease and windex were required to make the glass clear again.

After repeated efforts of "burning off the manufacturing residue", the door did stop sticking as hard--but it still sticks, and the paint along the top metal edge of the oven and the door has peeled away.

Other gripes: The exterior surface gets extremely hot--it's not insulated at all, and WILL burn you if you touch it. Not safe if you have children (or clumsy adults).

The rubber feet will mark up your counter top.

The door handle is flimsy.

Over all, I'm not impressed. For $200, I expected much, much more. I'll give Krups a chance to replace this oven with another one. After I do that, I'll update this review, pending the outcome.

Over all I like this toster works great. What I don't like is the non stick tray that came with this unit. The first time I used it the teflon coating came off. I am going to call and see if they have a replacement. Other wise I think it is a great unit. The reason I am not giving it 5 stars is the poor quality of the trays.

Krups FBC4-13 6-Slice Convection Digital Toaster Oven with Preset Cooking Functions

A heating rod popped the first week I owned this oven. Repair involved 120 miles of driving to drop off and pick up the appliance, a long delay (over 6 weeks to have it repaired). My emails and phone calls to both Krups and their authorized repair facility were ignored. The oven's finally back and toasting away, but I don't really trust it. It might be a good product in the long run, but Krups' service was abysmal.

After reading a million internet reviews on toaster ovens, I decided on this one because of the high ratings, cooking area and the color scheme. The oven is well built, cooks perfectly on any setting and does everything everyone else is raving about. A few pieces of information that may be helpful are as follows:

1)In my opinion, an interior light is not necessary. Seeing the food cooking is easy just by the light of the heating elements. Besides, the oven cooks so well on its recommended settings, there really is no need to watch whatever you are cooking like a hawk anyway.

2)The oven is large enough to cook any large size, frozen, rising crust pizza sold at the grocery store (most of these are just under 12 inches in diameter). However, if you make your own 12 inch pizza using a premade 12 inch crust or your own crust, it may be a little tight if the pizza isn't perfectly round. Anything larger than 12 inches will not fit.

3)Yes, the non-stick coating on the included pan is terrible. The coating came off of ours by just hand washing the pan with a "scrunge" type plastic scrubbing pad after the first use, which we use on all of our other non-stick cookware without a problem. The actual pan is well made, but unfortunately useless after the non-stick begins to come off.

4)The 6 quartz, alternating heating elements heat so quickly, there is no need for a timer to gauge appropriate preheating times. The oven can heat to a temperature of 450 degrees in about a minute or two. If you turn the oven on just before you complete the preparation of whatever you are making, the temperature will be fine when you start cooking.

5)I would classify this appliance as a countertop oven that toasts, not a toaster oven due to the overall size. While the larger than normal cooking area is nice, the oven does take up some valuable counter space. We have always had ovens only a bit smaller than this, so we were used to it. If you have had normal size toaster ovens, you may want to consider the sacrifice in counter space before purchasing.

6)The excessively loud beeping others have noted doesn't seem loud at all to me (yes, my hearing is good). It is just loud enough to hear the oven when upstairs doing something else while cooking, but not loud enough to wake up anyone sleeping upstairs. The beep also is not irritating while standing right next to it. All of our previous ovens beeped about equally as loud, if not louder. Maybe I am just used to it.

7)The oven door handle does not get hot and the door design includes plenty of protection in the handle area to prevent burns, even though the handle has a hot surface warning label on it.

These are just some answers to a few questions I had while conducting my research that didn't seem to come up in other reviews. This is our third high quality oven and definitely the best so far.

The first unit I received wouldn't turn off. I returned it and the second unit I received wouldn't turn off either. I had to unplug them to get them to turn off. I returned them both and bought a Cuisinart brand toaster oven instead. It's too bad because I liked the features of this Krups unit, but I wasn't going to take a third chance with them.

I have had a Black & Decker toaster oven for years. It has never been good at anything other than toasting bread. Then that function started to get erratic. So, I spent hours trying to find the right toaster oven for me. Once I accepted that getting a quality oven was going to cost a little more than a B&D, I narrowed in on the Krups and the Cuisinart TOB-175. I nearly went for the Cuisinart due to the number of positive reviews posted on Amazon. However, while walking thru a store I found one that I could look over in person. The quality just didn't seem to be as good as the Krups.

I LOVE the way the Krups FBC4 works. I have used it daily for toast, baked cookies and brownies, roasted sweet potatoes and prepared dinner entrees.

Everything except the brownies has turned out great. The brownies were underbaked on the bottom layer and now that I'm more familiar with the oven, I know that lowering the shelf position and bumping the temp a few degrees will produce great results.

The toaster oven looks great, is easy to use, easy to clean...in short, it's a keeper!

After four or five months of shopping for a convection oven that actually performed the way the publicity said it would, buying several, and returning each one, I read a recent article in Cook's magazine which recommended the Krups convection oven. So far, I've used all the functions successfully, much to my pleasure and also, I might add, my wife's.

Even though this was the first toaster oven we bought, we decided to spend rather more money and buy a quality item. The oven warms up very fast, seems to hold the temperature steady and bakes evenly (altough the body gets quite hot). It also looks nice and would not hesitate to give it 5 stars, if it wasn't for the same problem a previous reviewer experienced - the paint on the door melted and it was almost impossible to open the door. We tried to use it for some period, hoping the paint would stabilize and harden, but finally called Krups customer service. They suggested to send it to their repair center, where they replaced the door and frame. The paint on the replacement parts seems to have higher melting point. The door no longer gets stuck to the body even at the highest temperature setting.