Breville Compact Smart Oven

I researched toaster ovens for quite some time and found a few that met my requirements. I did not want a convection capability because it was just something else to break. I was also space constrained by the location on our kitchen counter where we place the toaster oven. You get a lot of Toaster oven in a small space, check out the dimensions. Previously we had a DeLonghi unit for about 15 years and it was great. For the longest time I wanted to purchase a new one to match our other appliances and my wife thought that one was just fine; I had to wait until she thought there might be a problem.

The day finally came and I looked for a good counter top oven with the capability to toast, bake, broil, etc. There were a number of units that most likely would have lasted a long long time. And, knowing I’d have to live with it for all of that and more I looked and looked. Understanding that background and that I read all the reviews on all the products here goes.

We got this unit, opened the packag and put it together in 3 minutes. I didn’t even read the instructions at first. I plugged it in, reset it and went through the functions one at a time. (My wife was reading the instructions at that time). She said, “you have to preheat it for 15 minutes before using.”. So we put the DeLonghi back on the counter and toased our Bagels for breakfast. After that we did the burn in. This was important because, as they said, there were some “smells” that came from burning off the residue from manufacturing.

I did not find the controls “flimsy”, but they also don’t feel like they were made for an industrial application. They are electronic controls (everything here is controlled by the electronics) and as such they don’t have a mechanical feel because they are not mechanical controls. I think they will last a very long time.

All the functions work as described and are pretty simple to use. My wife was using it in less than 10 minutes and she has a hard time with electronic items.

I like dark toast and my wife likes it medium: we just took her’s out early. The controls are accurate; you have to put it on the higher number to get dark toast.
The timer is not loud, but it is loud enough unless you have the TV blaring and are in the other room. I like how it counts down cooking time and the on/off button.
The function buttons are nice (like a microwave) because they simplify how to cook different things. Just like you’d expect.
Bottom line, I paid twice as much for this as my next choice and since I’ll have to live with it forever; I am glad I did.
We already have avoided using the big oven a few times; we dont’ use the oven much anyway. ( the oven has a nice feel to it and the door doesn’t slam shut unless you slam it)
It is worth the extra money and if you want convection get the next model up; that is also worth it. We have convection on the big oven.

OH YEAH, it matches all the other Pro Appliances in our kitchen; right down to the nice handle.

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