No info about how far the Breville needs to be from the walls, but you can probably find out in the manual online. And it's an awesome toaster oven - we LOVE ours.

I LOVE my Wolf!

Wolf Gourmet Countertop Oven

I have a Breville Mini, the exterior gets plenty hot. The upper surface is touted as usable as a keep-warmer. I can't say about the bottom, have never checked it. The larger versions may have different characteristics.

I have the Breville Smart Oven Pro. I have not found the top of this unit to get overly hot. In fact, I once left a pot holder on top while I baked. When the timer went off 30 minutes later I picked up the pot holder expecting it to be scorched. It was very hot, but undamaged. The unit measures about 14.5 inches front to back (excluding the handle), 18.5 inches from side to side and 10.5 inches tall. Standard counter depth is 24 inches, so you have quite a bit of space, but I slid a short piece of 2x4 board behind the unit to keep it from being pushed against the wall. The interior usable space is 11.5 x 13 inches, which is a bit too small for a 9x13 pan.

The convection feature makes baking a bit faster, so I use the least amount of recommended time. It is, however, important to rotate the dish half way through cooking. This oven remembers the last setting you used, so if you are baking multiple batches of cookies you can just hit the start button and the oven is set to the time and temp of the first batch. If your first batch got too brown, you need to reset the timer before pressing start.

I do have a couple of complaints. The convection feature on my oven has quit working after 1 & 1/2 years. Fortunately I bought the 2-year warranty, but I still have to haul it back to the store for repair/replacement. You should also clean it regularly, so grease doesn't get baked on. If you do need to scrub, try a nylon scrubber and a degreaser like Krud Kutter. Cleaning instructions say to use a sponge and apply the cleanser to the sponge. You should not touch or get cleanser on the quartz heating elements. Bottom line for me: it's a very nice, effective appliance, but it's somewhat delicate and has no user repairable parts except for the internal light bulb. When I eventually replace it I'm going to look at less expensive models first.

Our Breville toaster oven sits on a quartz countertop. It has what look like air vents in the back. When used for baking, I pull it out, away from the wall and that keeps most of the heat from getting trapped under the upper cabinets, too. No problems yet.

So, the Breville Smart Oven Pro Convection Toaster Oven instructions say to leave 6" above and 4" to each side. The 6" above shouldn't be a problem but does everyone who has a Breville keep it 4" from the walls? I'm pretty sure my current toaster oven is 2-3" from all walls, so another inch may not be a big deal...

I am very happy with the Breville mini smart oven. I haven’t turned my regular oven on since I got it (at BBB With a coupon). I pull it out towards the front of the counter when I use it. It comes with a 10“ x 10“ baking pan which fits inside so it’s pretty roomy. It’s a solid appliance and I would recommend it if it fits your counter space.

I'm surprised you could use BBB coupon -- the fine print on my coupons say no Breville! Everyone seems happy with the Breville, regardless of model it seems. Thank you

Breville has a wood cutting board that you can get to put on top of the toaster oven. it’s supposed to keep the top from getting hot. I don’t have a board but have read comments that those that have one are happy with theirs. I’m happy with the Breville Smart Oven Pro And use it more than than the oven. The Breville customer service is good. The door of the Breville broke a shortly after the warranty expired, they replaced it with a new unit.

I have 3 vintage toaster ovens bought from garage sales. $6 is the most I have paid for one.

How did I end up with 3? Bought one, liked it a lot so bought an identical one for back-up. Then I found a taller one with two racks & convection so bought it. All are vintage but in nearly new/ unused condition when I found them--probably were gifted to the original owner who didn't appreciate how handy they can be or who just didn't cook much.

One requirement: the TO must be large enough to fit a 9 x 13 pan. Many of them will not.

I did lust for a Breville for a while but didn't want to pony up for what they cost. After a while, I started noticing that there were a LOT of 'reconditioned' Brevilles on the market. That told me something, as in, probably not all that reliable or long lasting. None of my vintage TO's have gone belly up on me yet and two of them have seen a lot of use over the last 8-10 years.

I'm happy with my Cuisinart oven, bought it new this summer so still experimenting tho. I do not keep it on the counter as I have so little of it, I had to be careful in choosing the size so it would fit on a shelf in the cupboard when not in use. If I had more storage or counter space I would have gone with a bigger size.

I adore my Breville Mini Smart Oven! It's the first toaster oven I've had in over 50 years that can actually make good toast as well as work as an oven/broiler! It was worth every single penny.

Mine sits on a Corian countertop, under an upper cabinet (18" between counter and cabinet). I keep a small wood cutting board on top of it and it's just fine. It does get hot, but nothing dangerous. I've had mine for over 3 years now.

The Breville is rated high, but $$$. I found one that is sold at Walmart which has a better price than Amazon. Farberware Air Toaster Oven. Nice design and size. I only paid $69 for it and if you check the YouTube videos, everyone loves it.

Sturdy door, not tinny sounding and once I went to Walmart and compared it to the Oster and Cuisinart, there was no contest.

The Wolf toaster oven pictured in a comment above is stunning when viewed in person. If my current toaster ever quits, I'm looking into getting that one. I've seen it in several showrooms, and it's definitely on my radar.

@Aglitter - my sister has that Wolf toaster oven. We were there for Thanksgiving, and made use of it. When I admired it, she said it is a good oven, but she wouldn’t buy it again. It doesn‘t make toast well, which she isn’t that fussed over because she uses a separate toaster most of the time, and just uses the Wolf as an adjunct toaster when there are people over and she is making a lot of toast. What she doesn’t like is that there are scroll-through menus that try her patience. According to my sister, it‘s a chase to have to use those menus and she is tired of it. That was her feedback over Thanksgiving anyway, when I was helping her in the kitchen. Perhaps go to a store with one working on display and try setting it etc. yourself, as the issues could just be my sister :), but I wanted to give you the feedback. For that price range, Breville may be a better bet. Me, I still have the 30-year-old toaster oven I got when I was living with roommates and needed a cheap spare oven. Still works great though it looks awful.

Since you have a small kitchen, the next time you need to replace your range, you might look at one with dual ovens. A friend of mine swears by the smaller upper oven for cooking smaller items, and you would have one less item on the counter.

I have the Oster French Door digital. Will hold two 9x13 pans although some with handles don’t fit. I really like it. For several years it sat under a cabinet with no issues. Mine has a bumper on the back to keep it out from the wall . Just two of us now so it is my primary oven.

Will use the big oven for Christmas Day but it makes great storage for all my cookie sheets and metal pans!

The Wolf is not the price range I’m looking at but the Breville is do-able with holiday sales and CC points. My current Cuisinart’s toast timer is iffy. If you can’t get it to make the ticking sound, today burns if not watched. I’d give up a few inches of counter space to get something nice. We use it more than our oven for sure and even more than our microwave

I agree with Beverly . I actually have never owned a toaster oven and never missed one . My MW just died after 15 yrs so we looked at some of the new ones with all kinds of features and decided we just wanted a MW exactly like our old one so back to Panasonic we go. I have toaster it gets used everyday but with 4 of us if I am making anything else I use one of my walls ovens and also for lots of toast for a brunch.

I do think toaster ovens for singles make sense our son has a Breville but he says it does get quite hot on the outside so he put it on a stainless sheet and pulls it out from under the cabinets .

I guess it depends on how you cook. We don't need to heat up our tiny NYC galley kitchen every time we want to warm something up or cook a meal for 2-3. We use our toaster oven 2-3 times a day and our oven once a week MAX. Stove is used a lot. I think I'll get the Breville- maybe add a stainless sheet or tiles under the feet and use that cutting board on top. If I can get it for less than $200, I may go for it. Thanks for all the info!

This post is timely as I'm looking for a new toaster oven. There's nothing wrong with mine, I just want a new one since we finally finished our kitchen refresh :)

I currently have a Black & Decker toaster oven that I got from Costco probably 7-8 years ago. We used it daily when the kids were little, making things like chicken nuggets and flautas in it instead of heating up the big oven. Now that they're in high school, and have their friends over a lot, I need to make more at a time so am forced to use the oven. The TO is 18 in long x 12 in high x 11 in deep. I just looked and noticed it is at least 4 in from the back wall but I do pull it out more when I use it. It has held up really well. It's nothing fancy - dials and only one rack. But for its price point (~ $50) it's been fine.

CR Nov 2019

We went with the Breville-used holiday sales and coupons—and love how it toasts and bakes. We went with the compact size. Although, exterior does get pretty hot.

In regards to Bed, Bath & Beyond, I have also used the 20% off coupons for Breville brand items, even though "the fine print" says they are excluded!

I'm looking for a toaster oven that does pizza well...

I recommend the Cuisinart TOB-260N1 Convection Toaster Oven, which cost around $180 on Amazon. You can read all its specifications, advantages and disadvantages here

This machine is a combination of basic toaster oven and the convection oven. Besides toasting and reheating, it’s also good at baking and grilling.

David Geok, you must have lucked out with the one you got. Pretty bad reviews on Amazon. I'll keep looking.

I'm a little late to this topic, but we're in the process of buying a new countertop convection oven. We don't have a lot of counter space but use our convection oven a LOT. After an exhaustive amount of research, I have almost settled on the Breville BOV450XL Mini Smart Oven with Element IQ. My biggest reservation is that it uses quartz glass elements. We currently own a Cuisinart TOB-175BC Convection Toaster Oven/Broiler (17 1/2 by 13 1/2 by 9 1/2 inches) which has worked well enough for our needs.

Knowing how much we cook, I'm concerned with damaging the glass elements and having them be costly and time-consuming to replace. With metal heating elements I've had grease drip on the elements many times with no damage - it just burns off. Any recommendations for reliable, good quality metal rod countertop convections made within the last year, with similar dimensions to the products I've mentioned, and within the price range (or cheaper) of the Breville? Thanks in advance for any feedback!