I have heard several people recommend the Cuisinart Brick Oven, which is sold at Williams Sonoma. It is also pricey (can be found for $200 online) but has convection and nothing digital. It is also very nice looking.

I have had a Cuisinart Brick Oven (BK200), with convection, since May. I use it for nearly everything I would have previously used a full size oven and a toaster oven: bread, pizza, casseroles, cookies, pie and the list goes on. We have a dualit toaster.

I ordered it on sale from Horchow for $206 including shipping. It has manual controls, but there is not a temperature light indicator. I use a thermometer in the oven when preheating. It sits on the countertop and is narrower width than the microwave oven. Frankly, I do not understand why one would use a full-size oven for small item baking. I would replace it with the same oven if it broke today.

Hope you find what you are looking for.

Here is a link that might be useful: BK 200

I have a Cuisinart TOB-165 toaster oven with convection. I really like it. It does have digital controls. I like the way it knows the temp of the oven when calculating how long to toast for. This way, the second toasting gets the same amount of done-ness, but in less time.

Convection up to 500 degrees is very useful. Can crisp up frozen breaded chicken or fish (for my kid) or makes great crispy-skinned baked potatoes (starting in the microwave, and you can have great potatoes in 15 minutes).

About $150.

I second evergreendan - we really like ours.

Cuisinart TOB-165 for us too. We love it!

Wow - five votes for Cuisinarts! I'll have to check it out the TOB-165. (Still leery of digital controls tho.)

How well does the Brick Oven do toast?

wws: We have a dualit toaster. I've not done toast in the brick oven. Cinnamon toast (broiled) is good.

I have had my DeLonghi ($199) with digital controls for 7 years now, i use it twice a day at least and it is just now showing some wear with some paint bubbling on the door. i had originally bought the well regarded (at the time) cuisinart digital toaster oven and was very dissatisfied that (a.) the crumb tray pulled out the back (b.)it's default temperature when i turned it on to bake was 100 degrees so i had to constantly hit "up" "up" "up" to get it where i wanted it (mine defaults to 350) and finally the deal breaker- c.) it did not turn off when it's timer (on bake or broil or convect) ran out- it just beeped, once.

I also love that the deLonghi starts a 60 minute default timer when you hit "start" if you do not set a timer. So you can go out and see how long a thing has been in the oven even if you forgot to set the timer.

I would love to replace mine with another DeLonghi but I do prefer the digital features (default temp, default countdown timer) and they have not come out with another digital model.

If I had to pick today I would buy a Krups based upon the Amazon reviews if I could see it in a store.

joslin wrote "I would love to replace mine with another DeLonghi but I do prefer the digital features (default temp, default countdown timer) and they have not come out with another digital model."

DeLonghi did come out with another digital model with the features you mentioned, but Williams-Sonoma seems to be the only source. We bought one a couple of months ago. We are very happy with it. It even does a pretty good job with toast.

Here is a link that might be useful: DeLonghi Stainless Steel Convection Oven

I am in the process of purchasing a toaster oven for my mother for Christmas. I have an 8 year old white Cuisinart convection oven with digital controls. Unfortunately, the paint has been peeling off. Honestly, my main complaint is the toasting feature. Sometimes, it will toast evenly and on other occasions, it does not.

I am hesitant to buy anything with digital controls for my "older" mother. I have looked at toaster ovens with manual controls...most of them look very cheap. My mother herself has returned 3 different toasters due to quality, poor use of controls, etc. I have considered the DeLonghi, Krups, Kitchen Aid and possibly the Dualit. I worked at Williams-Sonoma for several years and we used the Krups Convection oven...no issues or comments from all of the employees. I was in the store recently and noticed the newest DeLonghi oven. The Kitchen Aid looks great but the reviews are terrible. I realize the Dualit and the Cuisinart Brick oven are the most expensive ($250.00) on my list, but I have not seen many consumer reviews. The Cuisinart Brick oven may be to big for her countertop.

I appreciate any feedback.

krdavid: The first thing that comes to mind with the Cuisinart Brick Oven is that there is no temp light. I use a thermometer inside the oven. It is not very easy to use; I don't know how old your mother is nor if you could find a thermometer that has larger numbers than mine does.

That said, I like the brick oven. It is in a corner and there is very little counter space in front of the oven.

I bought the DeLonghi Toaster Oven last year and I would never buy DeLonghi again. The electric coil on the bottom has failed to heat up sometimes for weeks at a time. I checked the connection and can't find anything wrong. It takes forever(about 4-5 minutes) for the coils to heat up. Toasting a frozen waffle can take up to 10 minutes! I had a B&D prior and it lasted about 5 yrs.- thought I would invest in a high end toaster oven, but will consider the Cuisinart next go around.

Update: I ended up purchasing a EuroPro TO289N2 T/O a couple of weeks ago at Target. I really didn't see anything more expensive that I liked better - until one got to the $200+ level with the DeLonghi at Williams-Sonoma (and it has digital controls - which I wished to avoid.)

Compared to the B+D CTO6300 which it replaced, it takes about equally long to make toast. About 6 minutes - which is a bit long compared to a dedicated toaster. Interestingly the EuroPro turns the convection fan ON during toasting, whereas the B+D did not. Not sure if this makes a huge difference, but it is interesting.

The mechanical timer can either be set to up to 60 minutes (with a 'ding' when it goes off), or to "always on".

Speaking of "always on", one feature of the EuroPro is that it acts like a real oven in that if the timer has not gone off, and you open the door, the heating elements stay on. In otherwords, there is no interlock like all of my old B+D T/Os have had. Depending on point of view, some might consider this a 'misfeature'. In my case, I don't care either way. It is just different, so I adapt.

One nitpick is that the interior chamber is slightly narrower than the B+D. So the 12" pizza pan that came with the B+D is a very tight fit in the TO289. You can wedge it in and make it work, but another 1/4"-1/2" of width would help a lot. Perhaps a little "local modification" can be made to achieve this... (The TO289 did not come with a matching 12" pan - like the B+D did. Though it did come with a very nice solid mini broiling pan.)

Temperature settings range from 150 to 450 degrees. The CTO6300 only went as high as 400 degrees.

Besides "toast" and "convection bake", the TO289 supports "keep warm", "convection broil", and "grill" modes. I doubt if I will ever do serious broiling or grilling in the unit. The "keep warm" mode is like bake, but without the convection fan.