When we were doing our last kitchen renovation, the toaster oven was the star of the show. in fact, we stopped using a regular toaster altogether. We don't use either anymore to be honest, but the toaster oven is far more versatile for an appliance that takes up counter space.

I had all my family down here a lot in the last few weeks and I have converted them also to the air fryer. I use the air fryers much more than my oven, stove top, barbeque, microwave and toaster.

Can not speak to the Breville Smart Oven but we have a regular Breville toaster oven that gets used daily. Keeps the house cooler than using our regular oven. My son and husband like to heat up all sorts of things in it, I do not use it quite as much but I cooked a quiche in it recently and it turned out wonderfully.

Now that DH is home, he uses it many days to heat up an open faced sandwich. We are having soup tonight and I'll toast up some nice sourdough in the toaster oven. It is a great small appliance for many small cooking jobs.

I now use my Miele CSO for some things I would have reheated in the microwave or toaster oven. They each have their niche!

If you aren't using it, put it away for now. Once those teens head off to college you might have use for it again, when you are cooking smaller quantities.

We love our Panasonic toaster. I use it multiple times a day (I have small kids)

I love my Breville Smart Oven. Couldn't live without it. I'm a fan of the over the range microwave for space saving purposes, personally.

Another HUGE vote for a Breville Smart Oven. Everyone in my extended family has one now. I have a new Bosch speed oven and a Bosch convection Oven. Neither works as fast as the Breville. Mom and one sis splurged on the BSO with convection. They rave. For extra crisp toast, I have learned to pop the door open halfway through to let out a little steam. But if I forget, it’s still fine.

Yes. Had a Walmart-version GE for 10+ years. Replaced with a Breville Mini.

I love my Breville compact smart toaster oven, and use the oven as much as the toaster feature. I bake potatoes in it, small casseroles, etc. so I don't have to heat up the big oven. ;-)

We use our Cuisinart toaster oven all the time! It's large enough to bake meals, etc. for up to 4 people. I love that I don't have to heat up the kitchen with the regular oven in the summer.

We use the Breville toaster oven daily and it was my only means of cooking when we had no kitchen for 2 years

Toaster ovens have their place. This might not be quite as apparent in your current situation, where everything has to be fast and in huge quantities. But that doesn't invalidate the concept.

In your situation, if you think you currently don't get any use out of your toaster oven, put it into storage. Once the kids move out and life isn't quite as hectic any more, you can retire the microwave and bring back the old toaster oven. I find our microwave is the least important kitchen appliance, but I could see that changing once we have teenagers.

Installing a functional vent hood is a nice luxury to have. Clean indoor air is something everybody should be able to enjoy, and over-the-range microwaves simply can't provide adequate venting. There just isn't enough space to effectively move the amounts of air that need to be removed.

I’ve had the smallest Breville toaster oven now for 3 years, and I’m in love. I use it multiple times everyday. I could not live without it! It is the first toaster oven that actually makes great toast!

I also have a small countertop microwave. I use it often, too. My stove oven gets used quite rarely. I have a very good Vent-a-hood over my stove.

I got a Cuisinart steamer/toaster oven a couple years prior to my kitchen reno, just to see if it lived up to all the hype - and it did. I didn't think I'd keep it beyond the kitchen reno, but it's so useful I've decided it's the one appliance (besides coffee maker) that deserves a permanent spot on my countertop. The steam option helps it double as a rice cooker.

Have you all abandoned your traditional pop-up toasters then? I am intrigued by the Breville/Cuisinart options, especially for pizzas, warming up sandwiches, etc., but I worry about too many things out on the counter. But, if I could get rid of my regular ol' toaster, that would help.

I, too, am intrigued by this thread! I've been considering an air fryer since my little ones take their lunch, and I was thinking it would be easier than firing up my oven to cook nuggets/pizza/corn dogs. I completely didn't even consider a toaster oven!

After going gluten free 6 yrs ago (celiac), we donated our pop-up toaster and just recently thought of buying another one since we discovered a good gf sliced bread. BUT if a toaster oven can do both, I think I'd rather have one appliance than two!

Count us among others who use our toaster oven all the time. I'm in my 40s and haven't had a traditional toaster since i left home for college. This morning it was used to freshen up both a biscuit for my son's breakfast, plus crisp up a piece of bacon (my husband has been making batches of bacon on the weekend and doling out through the week). Toaster oven gets used multiple times a day, and is particularly helpful when we're cooking for all three of us - we can toast three bagels at once (instead of having to do one at a time), and last night i toasted a large quantity of sliced baguette and then put a dollop of goat cheese on each one for eating with our salad. Much easier and more environmentally friendly than heating up the whole oven. Microwave probably gets used once or twice a week to rereat leftovers. If i had to choose one over the other, it's the toaster oven, hands down.

My husband got me an air frying for xmas last year as kind of a funny-but-maybe-you'll-use-it gift. It is massive and consumes a huge amount of counter space, and probably gets used once every three weeks - for french fries, fried tofu, or chicken nuggets. But other than the french fries, the air fryer isn't really a massive improvement on the traditional ways of cooking those things (oven or toaster oven), and it is really annoying to clean. Maybe other people eat a lot more friend foods in their homes? When we first bought it, we bought a bunch of frozen fried foods to try in it - mozzarella sticks, etc - and they were much better than in the mw or oven, but we just don't eat that way regularly.

following

So, in doing some research, it appears that Breville's main fault is that the glass can randomly shatter at high temps. This is slightly concerning....

Have had a Breville for 6 years. It’s the best, ever. DH is very picky about his toast, and is very satisfied with what the Breville produces. We use both our large GE microwave, and the Breville toaster oven all the time.

Trader Joe’s has these awesome roasted veggie pizzas. We like to add a little shredded mozzarella and jalapeños, and cook them in the Breville...perfection!

It’s just the two of us now (most of the time). We hardly use the Miele CSO, and Miele convection ovens anymore. Most of our cooking is done on the Thermador rangetop, and the Breville TO. The microwave is for reheating leftovers, or boiling water for tea.

We've used the Breville on high heat. No shattered glass. Hard for me to believe that would happen, they are so well made.

I have a pop up toaster still, and that’s what we use for toast. Because it’s easy.

I also have a combi-steam toaster oven, and I use that all the damn time. (It’s cooking my lunch right now!) It’s great for reheating, or when I don’t want to heat a whole oven. I also comes in handy when we are hosting large parties, and we can use it as a third oven for things like dip and/or appetizers.

Toasters are more efficient and faster at toasting bread than a toaster oven due to the smaller cavity space involved ... but the additional energy cost is not all that significant.

Toasters do one thing, and one thing only. Toaster ovens, are versatile. They toast, bake, and broil. Quality (yes, more expensive) toaster ovens, like the Breville, do everything extremely well. Well worth the money.

Thank you for all the responses! I am a bit surprised at the number of people that still use a toaster oven. I did use mine today to make a pizza puff for lunch :)

We use our microwave a lot too, mainly for reheating leftovers. Maybe I'll keep my current arrangement for now.

I cook often enough with my micro. Frozen meals and vegetables (if that counts as cooking), but also rice, pasta, fresh fish, fresh asparagus, baked potatoes, bacon, scrambled eggs.

I will just be repeating what many have said, but I do use my convection toaster oven (a much lesser brand than a Breville LOL) almost exclusively now, instead of the main oven. It toasts well, I make pizza in it, I bake in it -- mind, I am only cooking for one or two. It is so nice to be able to have it up to temp quickly and, in summer, not heating up the whole house with the large oven.

There was a small learning curve in changing from the traditional large oven to the CTO.

cd7733 - I also have celiac, and I find the steam/bread functions of my Cuisinart to be ideal for rejuvenating frozen gluten-free baked goods.

Steam isn't just great for GF bread. It's great for all sorts of baked goods. Even just a stale regular (i.e. non-GF) bread gets much better with a little bit of hot steam.

I use our Oster French door every day. It has convection as well. It is large enough for quite a lot( will hold a half sheet pan , has 2 racks and will hold many of my le creuset. It doesn’t heat up the kitchen as much and does a great job. I really only use my oven a few times a year for ham or turkey; and honestly I usually use the large rectangular instant pot multicooker (nonpressure cook for those). I also use the instant pot pressure cooker a lot, or the le creuset Dutch oven on stove top for soup. So, basically my oven stores my non pretty baking sheets and pans! I do still have a nice pop up toaster in the pantry for toast, bagels and to reheat waffles ( I make large batches when I make them and freeze) The Oster doesn’t toast the way I like....or maybe I am not patient enough. It must be worth the counter space for the Oster, because I have a small closed galley and still love it.

whenever my huge above the stove magic chef microwave dies I will be getting a very small one since it is only used for small reheats or forgo a microwave all together....yes we actually moved it from our last home....because we thought it would tie us over until our remodel, and I guess it has (but the remodel was SUPPOSED to start 3 years ago!)

We‘re empty nesters. Even though we have a full-sized wall oven, we use our toaster oven much more often. It can roast an entire chicken or handle a larrge pizza and preheats quickly. I prefer our standard oven for bread, cookies and cakes. It’s also a must for larger holiday meals. Otherwise, our toaster oven gets the nod.

After getting a Cuisinart combo steam convection oven, I rarely use my full size oven. The bake/steam function is amazing, especially for reheating leftovers. It’s ok for toasting bread but not great. If that’s the main use, get a toaster; otherwise, i recommend the Cuisinart. I’ve used it almost every day for 5 years.

LOVE our Hamilton Beach toaster oven and we were just talking about upgrading to a bigger one, mostly for summer and not wanting to heat up an oven. it's just two of us and I have counter space to dedicate to a larger option. I'm very intrigued by the Breville brand. I loved my toaster oven so much that I took one with me to Germany and when I blew that one, with a transformer, I bought another one at the Saturn store (along with my sandwich maker).

LOVE our Hamilton Beach toaster oven and we were just talking about upgrading to a bigger one, mostly for summer and not wanting to heat up an oven. it's just two of us and I have counter space to dedicate to a larger option. I'm very intrigued by the Breville brand. I loved my toaster oven so much that I took one with me to Germany and when I blew that one, with a transformer, I bought another one at the Saturn store (along with my sandwich maker).

I also have the cuisinart steam oven and it’s the most used appliance in our kitchen. I’ve had it for a few years and really love it. Just reheated a burrito in it for my daughter on bake/steam and it came out awesome. So much better than reheating in the microwave (where it would turn to rubber) or the oven (where it would be all dried out). I also like to bake/steam chicken in it. And we use it for toast daily.

After a major power surge we lost BOTH our wall oven and cooktop ( we’ve corrected the previously unknown issue that led to that ) . While waiting for replacement ,appliances, we used our toaster oven and grew to love it so much that our main oven gets used primarily only for holidays or other times when we have a crowd of people to feed. Good toaster ovens preheat quickly, bake evenly, and work well for daily meals, I still prefer my wall oven for cookies, pastries, cakes etc A full sized turkey or even a spatchcocked turkey won’t fit in a toaster oven.. So a toaster oven can’t do everything.... but it can do plenty.

I lost a bunch of appliances to a power surge. Turns out, the electrician messed around with the neutral at the breaker box, when they shouldn't have, and that caused several appliances to receive 240V instead of 120V.

Lost a game console, an AV receiver, the alarm system, the gas fireplace, and the furnace. I opened these devices and in most cases, the damage was quite apparent. Burned out PCB traces and exploded components. Both varistors and capacitors were the most obviously obliterated parts. But I also had at least three transformers that burned out. Turns out, the hardest part was diagnosing the problem. Fixing things was surprisingly simple. And replacement parts were dirt cheap.

It took me several hours of work, but I spent less than $100 total on all of the repairs combined.

So, there is a possibility that your defective ovens could still be repaired and that the repair wouldn't even be that prohibitive. But as I said, diagnosis isn't always easy.

I bought a Brevill Smart Oven about 8 years ago. It can hold some 9 x 13 pans and some 4 quart casserole dishes. For the first 6 years of its residence here, it was used as my primary oven and used my range oven for larger batches of baked goods. Two years ago I bought a KitchenAid double oven induction range. The Brevill is used for toast. During our 100 degree plus days, I've been using the Breville for baking potatoes and similar things as it's cooler than the range.

I dumped my toaster/toaster oven for a double oven. Toasts a huge amount of toast at one time perfectly. I'd hate to go back to cluttering up my counter top.

I also grew up using a toaster oven. After my 1950's toaster stopped working, I bought the large Breville. It was basically my second oven. Not only were frozen foods heated, bread toasted, leftovers reheated, but it cooked side dishes or baked potatoes. We're a family of 5 and it was used, at least once, daily. After a couple of years, the "on" button started to malfunction. I spent quite a bit of time thinking about a replacement and decided on the Cuisinart CSO because we steam veg and rice and I wanted to proof bread a couple of times a week, all in addition to the other uses I mentioned. I was essentially looking to replace our M/W for steaming.

I kind of miss my Breville because the interior is larger and it performed convection cooking better, IMO. However, the Cuisinart is still used quite often. I can still fit a 12 inch frozen pizza in there, but only 4 bagel halves instead of 6. With 3 kids, that makes a difference in timing. The kids like to heat sandwiches for lunch. I use the steam function regularly. I prefer to reheat on the cooktop for a crispy bottom, in a covered skillet. At this point, the kids use the M/W to make instant oatmeal and that's it. I'm just waiting for it to die. My induction cooktop does a better job of melting and reheating.

To go along with my oven, my ultimate goal is to get a real CSO and keep the toaster oven for small things/toasting. No m/w because we hardly use it.

I have the combo Cuisinart toaster over/air fryer and we use it a lot. It’s very useful and we do t have any other redundant equipment out on the counters.