Instead, they’ll ask you to cut the cord and send them a picture of it, then send you an entirely new unit. They’ll even do this if the lightbulb burns out, which is the downside to this otherwise excellent warranty. For certain issues, you may have to choose between living with a broken minor part and sending an otherwise functional hamilton beach toaster oven machine to the landfill. If something goes wrong with the oven after the warranty expires, Cuisinart will offer you 20% off the retail price of a new oven and provide free shipping. This Cuisinart model provides impressively even cooking, a whopping nine-slice toast capacity, a three-year warranty, and some useful accessories.
The top elements are at the very front and back of the oven, so I was surprised at how evenly my open-faced grilled cheese sandwiches cooked when I set the oven to broil. I was also pleased when I used the broil setting to sauce and broil some ribs I had cooked the previous day. The broiler isn’t super-fast or powerful, though, so it’s not the perfect replacement for the broiler in a standard oven. The oven’s door has a large, thick, wide handle that helps to keep hands away from the glass when the glass becomes hot from use, with enough space to wear an oven mitt when opening it.
However, I’m accustomed to precise digital controls and presets and wished for those as I turned the dials. We appreciated the compact size of the Breville Compact Smart Oven (BOV650XL), but it didn’t do well in many of our tests. It also costs more than the Panasonic FlashXpress, which we like better overall. The Zojirushi ET-WMC22 toasted so unevenly that the bread looked like someone with terrible aim had zapped it with a laser.
It comes with two oven racks so you can cook more food at once—an addition we appreciate with the Cuisinart too. It also comes with an air fry/dehydrate basket rack and a broiling rack that fits inside its enamel roasting pan. But we still prefer the Cuisinart’s ceramic pizza stone over the Breville’s nonstick pizza pan (though hamilton beach toaster Breville does sell a pizza stone separately for around $30). As in other toaster oven air fryers, a shallow basket is provided for air frying food in a single layer. We were very happy with the browning and crisping on breaded chicken breasts. Brussels sprouts and frozen crinkle fries came out lightly browned and crisped.
If your kitchen is so active that the oven is often full, you can use the toaster oven as Martha Rose Shulman—chef and author of The Simple Art of Vegetarian Cooking—does. When she runs out of room, she told us, she turns to the toaster oven to make gratins, lasagna, and sandwiches. The majority of Hamilton Beach toaster ovens have simple dial controls, but some high-end models have touchpad controls with a digital display. Although dials might seem a little outdated, they’re extremely simple to use and little can go wrong with them. Of course, touchpad controls have their benefits too, such as giving you more precise temperature control and being quick to use once you get the hang of them.
When the oven is operating, the glass door becomes excessively hot, reaching temperatures as high as 339.2°F. The Hamilton Beach is the only toaster oven we tested with a door handle that becomes very hot to the touch at a temperature of 146.8 °F. The oven is extremely quiet as it operates with a dBA reading of 50.4; we virtually couldn’t hear it when it was running. Toaster ovens by Hamilton Beach only take up a small amount of counter space and have a variety of uses. This countertop oven is available in several different variations. For example, some of these ovens have doors that roll back and open upward instead of downward, making it easier to take food in and out.
We found its performance and features to be comparable to those of larger and pricier toaster ovens. If you get a toaster oven with a convection setting, you can also use it for air frying (air frying is, after all, just convection baking). While the fan isn’t quite as powerful as the ones in most pod-shaped air fryers or air fryer toaster ovens, it produces similar results. That’s because a toaster oven can fit more food at once, and in our experience it cooks more evenly.
You’ll save lots of cooking time—the convection mode in this toaster oven cooks food up to 25% faster by circulating heated air evenly around food as it cooks. When compared to all of our other cooking and baking tests, we feel the Easy Reach 4-Slice is best at toasting. However, the back-left side of the oven routinely toasted a little lighter than the rest of the oven. Should you encounter any problems with the FlashXpress under its one-year warranty, contact Panasonic.