T-Fal Avante Elite 6 Slice Convection & Toaster Oven with Separate Warming Compartment

place was a little too long, but in any case you should experiment with this feature before relying on it. Some people have complained about getting things fixed in the warmer parts, but I guess that would not happen if you used the free non-stick pan that T-FAL provides that section. They also include two shelves for frying or baking, a rear carrier and another non-stick frying pan for use in the oven.

One must be careful when removing hot items, always have two oven mitts on. The baking plates glide very easily on their tracks, so when you think you just remove the pot, you could end up with a hot baking rack to shoot against yourself, too - and there is nothing to prevent it from coming all the way out. The sliding rack can be a handy feature, but not when you do not expect it!

I saw one review that complained about the fan is very loud. When I first got in, it was also very high and I was annoyed and disappointed. But later that day, according to new toy for the rest of the family, I could not hear the growling sound anymore. You hear the convection fan, but it is not higher than one would expect - probably a lot quieter than our old microwave. I have no idea why it was so loud the first time, but it is good now. Maybe just had to get used to running.

List price is probably around $ 140, but it would not be worth it for us. Amazon had it at different discount rates - sometimes less than the non-convection model, which is really confusing for shoppers. It is listed at about $ 80 on the day I write this review and I think that's about the best rate you can find anywhere, and definitely a good value.

I find the controls easy to use and relatively intuitive. I did the scan manually, but I did not use it for cooking activities. When you toast, say "bowl" and so on, and displays the temperature you set it, and when you do it. Very clever. What is amazing is that the same piece of electronics that provide all these wonderful buttons and displays, is also responsible for the design of the goofy clock.

I'm not sure you really need a clock on a toaster - surely you have other clocks in the kitchen! - But if they go to put a clock on it, they should make the darn thing visible at all times, not only when you stand next to it under bright light.

The warmer the function does not seem to be completely thought out or implemented. Maybe one day I need it, but right now it seems like a waste of space to be used very carefully.

While the oven is actually cool to the touch on the sides, but NOT back! The manual warns about this, but I accidentally touched the back of the unit when cooking, and luckily it was only a fraction of a second, but it was close to giving me a great burn. I'm pretty sure that * all * Toaster Oven with similar problems. But very good insulation of the pages in this unit makes a little less careful about the parts that are not insulated well, I guess.

In these times, it is very useful to have a small oven that can do jobs that would waste energy on a full-sized oven. The compact kitchen is to have the same drive makes toast and do other tasks a plus. It is the first time we have taken one, so I can not say where it stands relative. So I gave it 4 out of 5 stars to make the most of what it claims to be able to do, with good controls and features, and with only a few small weaknesses, which are described here.

Breville BOV650XL Compact 4-Slice Smart Oven with Element IQ

Like almost everyone else in the free world, I grew up with a GE Toast-R-oven. I've cooked everything from toast (of course) pizza bagels (an important discovery as early as the 70th century) to TV dinners, and even baked fish in it. When I received as a gift when I bought my first house finely gave up the ghost, I replaced it with a $ 100 Hamilton Beach countertop convection oven can bake a whole bread, two pies, or a meatloaf. It also had a rotisserie with a spit you can impale a chicken, although I never tested this feature. I used it for years and did everything one would expect a compact Toaster Oven, except to make toast. The burners were too far apart.

Enter the Breville. Instead of mechanical timer and temperature control of the Hamilton Beach (and GE before that), this unit has full electronic control, which promises to be more precise in both functions. It can handle (say) a 12 "pizza, 4 slices of toast. So how does all this mean in practice?

As a toaster, it's fantastic. It toasts evenly than my $ 20 Target toaster and pull out crumb tray makes cleaning easy. Repeatability of excellent and you can obviously see the bread / bagel / what the bowls, watch out for burning. It compensates for the heat when you toast several items in a row, a big help. Still, for close to $ 200 you expect more than just toast from a machine like this.

I have not tried to bake a pie yet, but I did a little mini-muffins and they came out great. I have not done anything other than bread because it is far too small to handle a standard loaves of the size I bake. Maybe I can make some buns or rolls in it.

The timer function is a bit annoying in how it works. You set the time and temperature, and when it comes up to temperature, it begins the countdown. This is good for frozen pizzas and TV dinners, but less good for bakers trying to control the baking environment. I would prefer something that would come up to temperature and then wait for me to start the timer.

Half of the features on the main button is preset cooking programs such as microwave ovens in the lunchroom, which has buttons "Soup", "sandwich" and so on. There is a "cookies" feature but I have lots of different cookie recipes with different time and temperature settings. This program is worthless to me.

So: A great toaster and a good oven to bake very small objects. There is something deeper than the old Toast-R-oven, but still not large enough to handle more than a quarter sheet cake or a small pie. Useful for what it is, but given the price, it's getting close to a luxury single oven. I think the Breville BOV800XL Smart Oven 1800 Watts Convection Toaster Oven with Element IQ, resulting in convection and a larger furnace is a better deal overall, and if you really want a useful secondary furnace, as my Hamilton Beach 31197R Countertop Oven with Convection and Rotisserie is much more flexible.

Follow-up:

After just over three months using this oven, I am more convinced than ever that this is a great (if pricey) toaster. Unlike the pop-up toaster on my desk, you can set exactly the actual roasting time very practical and you can see until you get the right shade of Browning looking for.

I have also become more sympathetic to its use as an oven, too. There is still a bit small for most baking uses, but it is big enough to roast peppers or bake a few potatoes or even a small batch of cookies. I still think the larger version is a better all-around device, but for a small apartment kitchen, this may be a good choice.

Six-month update:

I think I've used this stove more and more for all of my toast and small baking needs, it also takes over some of the tasks I used to do in my microwave. It is still reliable, easy to maintain, and the precise electronic timer is a great improvement over the mechanical timers in cheaper ovens in both accuracy and reliability.