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artemis78

Favorite countertop convection oven that toasts well?

last year

Our 15-year-old Breville Compact Smart Oven gave up the ghost yesterday and I'm scrambling to choose a replacement while all the Prime Day sales are still happening today. (We will also try taking it apart to see if it's something like a blown thermal fuse that's repairable, but not holding my breath.) I'm totally overwhelmed by the number of options on the market today, though, and wondering what others who've purchased toaster ovens in the last couple of years have chosen.

Our top two criteria are good toasting ability (evenly browned on both sides and can handle bagels) and a compact footprint. Overall we've been really happy with the Breville on both fronts, but I've often wished it had convection. The regular Smart Oven offers this, of course, but is considerably bigger. We prefer knobs vs. touchpads/digital interfaces. I have no idea if air fryer capability is something I should want. We currently use this in a kitchen with a 24" gas oven so it serves as a second oven often, though will likely be replacing our range within the next year so will then have a 36" electric oven.

Any thoughts on what might be a good fit here? Should we just get another Breville and be done with it, or are there better options out there that might tick these boxes? Thanks!

Comments (9)

  • last year

    Thank you! Definitely looking for something smaller than either of those. (We currently have the Breville BOV650XL, which is the perfect size; could go a little deeper, but not much.) I did discover that Breville briefly made a convection version of the 650, which is discontinued in the U.S. but still for sale (and on sale) on Amazon--debating whether I should give it a try to see if that fits the bill. The other option is to assume we'll replace our range soon and just get a much smaller toaster oven that doesn't need to have added oven capabilities at all.

  • PRO
    last year
    last modified: last year

    Me personally? FROM NY TIMES ARTICLE ONLINE:

    CLICK HERE FOR FULL ARTICLE

    Breville’s Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro didn’t toast bread as evenly as our runner-up pick did. Photo: Michael Sullivan

    • It didn’t toast bread quite as evenly as our runner-up pick. But it excelled at cooking just about everything else we prepared in it.
    • We prefer Cuisinart’s ceramic pizza stone. The coating on Breville’s nonstick pizza pan will wear down over time. Breville does sell a separate pizza stone for around $30.
    • It’s very heavy. If you have the space, we recommend keeping the Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro in one place in your kitchen—it’s not something you’ll want to pick up and move often.

    Runner-up: Cuisinart Chef’s Convection Toaster Oven TOB-260N1

    Runner-up

    Cuisinart Chef’s Convection Toaster Oven TOB-260N1

    A slightly less powerful air fryer toaster oven

    This model offers mostly the same features as our main pick does, but its convection fan isn’t quite as powerful. We recommend saving some cash and getting this model if speed isn’t a big priority.

    $300 from Amazon$230 from Walmart$230 from Wayfair

    If you want to spend less than our top pick costs, we recommend getting the Cuisinart Chef’s Convection Toaster Oven TOB-260N1 (which is the top pick in our guide to the best toaster ovens). This model has many of the same features as the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro does, and it can handle cooking a 13-inch pizza, roasting a whole chicken, or toasting up to nine slices of bread at once.

    More on our favorite toaster ovens

    • The Best Toaster Oven
      We’ve been testing toaster ovens since 2013 and have two favorites: the compact Panasonic FlashXpress Toaster Oven and the large Cuisinart Chef’s Convection Toaster Oven.
  • last year

    "Definitely looking for something smaller than either of those."

    All the CR-recommended toaster-ovens with convection are 18"-21" wide, much wider than the 13-1/2"-wide BOV650XL. The BOV900BSSUSC is really wide at 21". If you're willing to give up convection, the CR-recommended, 18"-wide Hamilton Beach 31156 is only $92.

  • last year
    last modified: last year

    Thanks--the Breville Compact Smart Oven with convection (BOV670BSS) is the same small footprint as the one without convection, so it sounds like that's the way to go since we know we like the non-convection version. (The BOV650XL is actually ~17" wide, so not hugely different from the larger models--13.5" is the depth, but that's also the dimension we're most concerned with.) We're also going to order a replacement fuse and see if the old one can easily be fixed, though.

  • last year

    Hamilton Beach 31156 is a toaster oven that also has slots on top for two slices of bread. $92 on Amazon with Prime. Tied with Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro BOV900BSSUSC for top score in Consumer Reports' toaster oven test. Only 10" H 18" W 12" D, so much smaller than the Breville.




    artemis78 thanked John Liu
  • last year

    Thanks @John Liu. Unfortunately this is going under a cabinet so we don't have room to take advantage of that feature, but a neat idea!

  • last year

    Went ahead with the compact Breville convection oven, so fingers crossed that it's similar in performance to its predecessor! Coincidentally our state finally opened up applications for the IRA induction rebates today and that's what we've been waiting for to finally upgrade the range, so decided it wasn't worth sacrificing counter space (or spending the extra money) for a larger toaster oven.

  • 11 months ago
    last modified: 11 months ago

    Adding an update in case this is helpful for anyone else: the thermal fuse for the old Breville finally arrived and it was an easy DIY fix! So if yours dies, that is a viable option for repair. Unfortunately, we bought the new one a month ago, so now we have two...

    For anyone comparing these two Compact Smart Oven models (BOV650 and BOV670), they are virtually identical except for the convection feature—exactly the same size and form. On side-by-side comparisons, they seem to perform more or less the same on toasting. One small difference is that on the convection model, the backlit screen is much brighter than on the older model. (This may well be true for newer 650s too—ours is from 2010.) That's an annoyance for me but might be a plus for others. (Both screens are dark when they're in standby mode.) The other difference is that the heating elements audibly click on and off frequently during toast cycles on the convection model; the old one does far less of this (but end result seems the same). The convection mode does seem to meaningfully help shorten time for baking, though we use the countertop oven more for baking frozen food than for "real" baking, so can't speak to that. I thought the convection model had a new cookie setting, but turns out the old one has that setting too and I just didn't notice it for 14 years!