Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
49 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but not as advertised., September 30, 2005
This appliance works quite well both as an oven as well as a toaster but does not really cut cooking times by 40%. For example, the manual states 50 minutes for a baked potato. In actual experience that's about how long it took but it's also about the same amount of time as it takes in my conventional oven. That option uses more electricity, however, so it's a better value to use this one for small meals. The same thing goes for taquitos, pies, and similar snacks. They take a little less time than a conventional oven but nowhere near 40% less, though the convection cooking does make things a bit crisper when you're looking for that feature.
The smaller oven gets up to heat much faster than a full size one does, of course, saving some electricity that way too. It seems to have a cold spot near the glass door which is particularly noticable when cooking pies (which, by the way, are the only thing that seems to cook ~30% faster than normal). Rotating them about halfway through the cooking process resolves that problem for the most part.
The advertising states that it comes with a non-stick bake pan and a non-stick broil tray. The pan and tray are included but they are not non-stick. The interior coating, however, is except for the crumb tray. The variable temperature goes up to 450 which is sufficient for most applications. It broils well, toasts okay, and has a very quite and efficient convection motor.
The dial controls are cheap plastic so I'm not sure how long they'll last. I've only had it for a few weeks at this point and they're doing okay but I'm conscious about delicacy in handling them. It comes with two racks yet it's so small inside I've yet to find a combination of anything other than toast that allows me to use both of them. The advertising/picture makes it look much larger than it really is.
All in all I'm happy with the unit and at the Amazon discount/free shipping with the price too. There's no way I'd pay full "retail" price though... I'm also a little disappointed about the accuracy of the product descrition and the overall speed of cooking however. It is, without a doubt, a huge improvement over a conventional toaster oven.
|
|
|
29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pricey yet a great performer, December 23, 2005
First, let's get the bad out of the way. This is a bit pricey for a countertop toaster/convection oven. Second is that the interior dimensions listed previously were wrong! The maximum width is 12 inches. Thus a standard muffin pan or 13x9" pan WILL NOT FIT!
Now for all the good news. This is a great performer in all modes. Have toasted 4 slices of bread or 2 bagels perfectly. Have used the convection mode for macaroni and cheese. Used the slow bake mode for a Dutch apple bundt cake and then switched to convection mode for the final 5 minutes and the cake was perfectly browned and cooked in 5-10 minutes less then my full size oven.
The build quality appears to be very good. The elements are installed flush with the bottom and top of the oven and they cover most of the area. The crumb tray is easily removed for cleaning and has a coating that is slick (not non-stick). The sides are a black plastic composite, but the rest of the oven is metal with an easy-to-clean coating. It also has that silver and black thing going and looks cool on the countertop.
Conclusion: this is a serious convection/slow-bake/toaster oven that will fit right in with a gourmet kitchen. Just remember that although it lists .5 cubic feet of space, the maximum usable width is only 12 inches. I am now on the lookout for muffin tins and cookie sheets that will fit...
|
|
|
40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great 'til it died suddenly after 2 years, November 28, 2005
Update, Oct. 2007: The oven continued to be joy until this morning. It suddenly refused to turn on. It was perfect last night when I cooked duck in it. I don't know if the grease did soemthing. I wish I could lower the number of stars I've given because lack of durability makes this less of a value.
As for complaints that the thing gets hot: It's a toaster oven. Logically, it should be opened by the handle and you shouldn't be touching the glass door. Below is my original review:
____________________
Before I list the things I adore about this little oven, I want to clarify what "40% faster" means. A previous reviewer stated that the convection oven does not cook in 40% less *time*, but the product description never made that claim. It said that the oven cooks 40% *faster*. "Faster" refers to speed (like MPH); that's different from time.
My bottom line on the oven's speed: This oven consistently cooks 50% faster for me than my gas oven does. Concrete example: a squash dish that takes 1 hour to cook in my gas oven cooks in 40 minutes when I use the toaster oven's Bake & Fan. So, I've gone from a cooking speed of 1 dish per hour to 1.5 dishes per hour. That's 50% faster. (If we talk time change instead, 20 minutes off of a 60 minute time would be a 33% reduction in time.) When we look at what the product description actually says, this toaster oven has performed better than advertised for me.
_______
Okay, pardon the math lesson! Here's what I really like about this oven: I took this easy-to-carry oven to my brother's house to heat up the Squash Madeira I made for Thanksgiving. Ahhh! The dish tasted much better than it had in previous years when I had warmed it up in the microwave after baking it at home. The Bake & Fan created a more comforting kind of heat and made a nice thin crusty toast on top. My signature dish went from good to awesome, and I'm not really a cook. I've had similar results in re-heating frozen rice and beans. The Bake & Fan (convection) heat brought out the flavors in a wonderful way and again added that nice toasty texture on top. If you need to cook from the bottom up and avoid browning the top of a dish, the Slow Bake and the Bake settings work well for that. BTW, with the Bake & Fan, I can cook a frozen pizza, start to finish, no pre-heating, in 10 minutes. I don't preheat unless I'm making a fussy dish that truly requires it; pre-heating just adds an extra step, plus I try to do the right thing and be mindful about conserving energy these days.
The oven is the size that is advertised in the product description, so it is exactly what I expected. The oven temperature is cooler near the glass door (no surprise), but since the back of the oven bulges out to make room for a 12" pizza, it's easy to push most dishes toward the back of the oven so they are not right up against the door. Otherwise, one half-rotation of larger dishes part way through cooking seems to do the trick.
One of the oven racks is shaped like three sides of a rectangle, so it turns out that three different rack heights are possible. It would be possible to bake at two different levels if you were making cookies, brownies, or something else that doesn't have a lot of height. (I haven't tried that, though, so I can't report on the results.) The racks glide out easily with the tine of a fork even when a heavy casserole is on one of the racks. Inverted metal "U's" at the front and back of each rack prevent lighter trays of food from sliding off the rack when the rack is moved.
As an added bonus, the thing is pretty darn cute. At Thanksgiving, family members even commented on its cuteness. I'd thought I wanted an ivory toaster oven to go with my decor, but I read that the plastic on those tends to discolor. The brushed silver with black trim looks really good. The knobs are easy to read, look great, and turn smoothly and easily.
I am pleased with the trays and broiler dish that are included, although they may not stay pretty with the passage of time. They are not scrubbable (nor are they Teflon), but so far they've cleaned up fairly easily. I could not find anything that says what they are made out of, but I would call it "brushed aluminum."
I wasn't really sure that I even wanted a toaster oven, but I am very glad that I decided to get this one.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
