This review is from: Breville BOV650XL Compact 4-Slice Smart Oven with Element IQ (Kitchen)
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Like just about everyone else in the free world, I grew up with a GE Toast-R-Oven. I cooked everything from toast (of course) to pizza bagels (a great discovery back in the 70s) to TV dinners and even baked fish in it. When the one I received as a gift when I bought my first house finely gave up the ghost, I replaced it with a $100 Hamilton Beach tabletop convection oven could bake a whole loaf of bread, two pies or a meatloaf. It even had a rotisserie with a spit you could impale a chicken on, though I never tested this feature. I used it for several years, and it did everything you would expect of a compact toaster oven- except make toast. The burners were just too far apart.
Enter the Breville. Rather than the mechanical timer and temperature control of the Hamilton Beach (and the GE before it) this unit has fully electronic control that promises to be more accurate in both functions. It can handle (they say) a 12″ pizza, and 4 slices of toast. So how does all this work in practice?
As a toaster, it’s great. It toasts more evenly than my $20 Target toaster, and the slide out crumb tray makes cleaning easy. Repeatability if excellent, and of course you can watch the bread/bagel/whatever as it toasts, keeping an eye out for burning. It compensates for heat buildup when you toast multiple items in sequence- a major help. Still, for close to $200 you expect more than just toast from a machine like this.
I haven’t tried baking a pie yet, but I did do some miniature muffins, and they came out fine. I haven’t done any bread yet, as it’s just too small to handle a standard loaf of the size I bake. Maybe I can make some buns or rolls in it.
The timer function is a bit annoying in the way it works. You set the time and temperature, and when it comes up to temperature, it starts the countdown. This is fine for frozen pizzas and TV dinners, but less helpful for bakers trying to control the baking environment. I’d prefer something that would come up to temperature and then wait for me to start the timer.
Half the functions on the main knob are for preset cooking programs- like the microwave ovens in lunchrooms that have buttons labeled “soup”, “sandwich”, and so forth. There’s a “cookies” function, but I have dozens of different cookie recipes with different time and temperature settings. This program is useless to me.
So: A great toaster, and a useful oven for baking very small items. It’s a little deeper than the old Toast-R-Oven, but still not big enough to handle more than a quarter sheet of cookies or a small pie. Useful, for what it is, but given the price, it’s getting close to being a luxury easy bake oven. I think the Breville BOV800XL The Smart Oven 1800-Watt Convection Toaster Oven with Element IQ, which adds convection and a somewhat larger oven is a better deal overall, and if you really want a useful secondary oven, something like my Hamilton Beach 31197R Countertop Oven with Convection and Rotisserie is a lot more flexible.
Followup:
After a little over three months of using this oven, I’m more convinced than ever that this is a superb (if expensive) toaster. Unlike the pop-up toaster on my counter, you can precisely set the actual toasting time- very handy- and you can watch until you get the precise shade of browning you’re looking for.
I’m also becoming more favorably inclined to its use as an oven, too. It’s still a bit small for most baking uses, but it’s big enough for roasting peppers or baking a few potatoes, or even a tiny batch of cookies. I still think the larger version is a better all-around appliance, but for a tiny apartment kitchen this may be a good choice.
Six month update:
I find I’ve been using this oven more and more for all my toasting and small baking needs- it’s even taking over some of the tasks I used to do in my microwave. It’s still reliable, easy to maintain, and the accurate electronic timer is a great improvement over the mechanical timers in cheaper ovens in both accuracy and reliability.
Update: It’s now three years since I wrote this review, and I find myself using this toaster oven almost every day. I toast in it, I bake, and I broil. In hot weather it gets more use than my oven, and it still works as good as it did the day I received it.
Five year update: Still going strong, although one of the lower quartz heater tubes has broken. Doesn’t seem to affect the performance of the oven, but I’m going to see if I can’t find a replacement on-line.
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This review is from: Breville BOV650XL Compact 4-Slice Smart Oven with Element IQ (Kitchen)
It’s a shame you have to spend over $150 for a good toaster oven, but if the cost is not an issue, this is an excellent one. This is not a convection oven, but is exactly what I wanted and it fits perfectly where the cheap one it replaced was. This oven is well made, the door opens smoothly, the rack comes out easily. The pan that comes with it is heavy and enameled, not cheap sheet metal. The control system is excellent. The display is illuminated while setting or cooking, but dims out when not in use. I found it very easy to use. Toasting is a single touch and it compensates for the hot oven with multiple toast cycles. I’ve used the bake cycle and the muffins turned out great. It remembers your last setting for each cycle, so if you determine the ‘perfect’ setting for your favorite bagels or pizza, it’s preset and ready to start when selecting the cycle. The crumb tray pulls out the front and is very easy to clean. This is vastly superior to out the back or from the bottom that most of the others I looked at have.
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This review is from: Breville BOV650XL Compact 4-Slice Smart Oven with Element IQ (Kitchen)
I was searching for a toaster oven for a while, but I didn’t see anything I like at Target, so I searched online and found Breville’s oven on Amazon. I was gonna buy the bigger one (BOV850), but after looking at the measurements, I thought the smaller one (BOV650) would fit better for my kitchen. As soon as I took out the oven from the packaging, it’s a little smaller than I had imagined. I should have bought the bigger one. That’s my only regret… But if you have a small kitchen, this should be a perfect-sized oven for you.
I have this oven for almost 2 months now. Everything is so far so good. I mainly use this oven to bake, and I’ve baked several times already with it. The cakes and bread turned out very good. Since this oven is very powerful, I always set the time to the lowest setting. For example, if a recipe tells you to bake the cake for 30-40 min, then I will bake for only 30 min, and the cake will come out just right.
Although this oven is expensive, but it’s worth every penny.
Pros: – The door is very easy to open. – The trays that came with the oven is heavy, and don’t look like cheap metal pans. – The crumb tray can be pulled out from the front and is very easy to clean. – Auto shut off function – The LCD panel has different background colors to indicate the oven is in use or not in use.
Cons: – Very powerful oven. If not used correctly, it may burn your food. – The tray doesn’t automatically slide out like the bigger version.
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Great Toaster, Decent Mini-Oven,
Enter the Breville. Rather than the mechanical timer and temperature control of the Hamilton Beach (and the GE before it) this unit has fully electronic control that promises to be more accurate in both functions. It can handle (they say) a 12″ pizza, and 4 slices of toast. So how does all this work in practice?
As a toaster, it’s great. It toasts more evenly than my $20 Target toaster, and the slide out crumb tray makes cleaning easy. Repeatability if excellent, and of course you can watch the bread/bagel/whatever as it toasts, keeping an eye out for burning. It compensates for heat buildup when you toast multiple items in sequence- a major help. Still, for close to $200 you expect more than just toast from a machine like this.
I haven’t tried baking a pie yet, but I did do some miniature muffins, and they came out fine. I haven’t done any bread yet, as it’s just too small to handle a standard loaf of the size I bake. Maybe I can make some buns or rolls in it.
The timer function is a bit annoying in the way it works. You set the time and temperature, and when it comes up to temperature, it starts the countdown. This is fine for frozen pizzas and TV dinners, but less helpful for bakers trying to control the baking environment. I’d prefer something that would come up to temperature and then wait for me to start the timer.
Half the functions on the main knob are for preset cooking programs- like the microwave ovens in lunchrooms that have buttons labeled “soup”, “sandwich”, and so forth. There’s a “cookies” function, but I have dozens of different cookie recipes with different time and temperature settings. This program is useless to me.
So: A great toaster, and a useful oven for baking very small items. It’s a little deeper than the old Toast-R-Oven, but still not big enough to handle more than a quarter sheet of cookies or a small pie. Useful, for what it is, but given the price, it’s getting close to being a luxury easy bake oven. I think the Breville BOV800XL The Smart Oven 1800-Watt Convection Toaster Oven with Element IQ, which adds convection and a somewhat larger oven is a better deal overall, and if you really want a useful secondary oven, something like my Hamilton Beach 31197R Countertop Oven with Convection and Rotisserie is a lot more flexible.
Followup:
After a little over three months of using this oven, I’m more convinced than ever that this is a superb (if expensive) toaster. Unlike the pop-up toaster on my counter, you can precisely set the actual toasting time- very handy- and you can watch until you get the precise shade of browning you’re looking for.
I’m also becoming more favorably inclined to its use as an oven, too. It’s still a bit small for most baking uses, but it’s big enough for roasting peppers or baking a few potatoes, or even a tiny batch of cookies. I still think the larger version is a better all-around appliance, but for a tiny apartment kitchen this may be a good choice.
Six month update:
I find I’ve been using this oven more and more for all my toasting and small baking needs- it’s even taking over some of the tasks I used to do in my microwave. It’s still reliable, easy to maintain, and the accurate electronic timer is a great improvement over the mechanical timers in cheaper ovens in both accuracy and reliability.
Update: It’s now three years since I wrote this review, and I find myself using this toaster oven almost every day. I toast in it, I bake, and I broil. In hot weather it gets more use than my oven, and it still works as good as it did the day I received it.
Five year update: Still going strong, although one of the lower quartz heater tubes has broken. Doesn’t seem to affect the performance of the oven, but I’m going to see if I can’t find a replacement on-line.
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|Excellent toaster oven,
This oven is well made, the door opens smoothly, the rack comes out easily. The pan that comes with it is heavy and enameled, not cheap sheet metal. The control system is excellent. The display is illuminated while setting or cooking, but dims out when not in use. I found it very easy to use. Toasting is a single touch and it compensates for the hot oven with multiple toast cycles. I’ve used the bake cycle and the muffins turned out great. It remembers your last setting for each cycle, so if you determine the ‘perfect’ setting for your favorite bagels or pizza, it’s preset and ready to start when selecting the cycle. The crumb tray pulls out the front and is very easy to clean. This is vastly superior to out the back or from the bottom that most of the others I looked at have.
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|Expensive but well made oven,
I have this oven for almost 2 months now. Everything is so far so good. I mainly use this oven to bake, and I’ve baked several times already with it. The cakes and bread turned out very good. Since this oven is very powerful, I always set the time to the lowest setting. For example, if a recipe tells you to bake the cake for 30-40 min, then I will bake for only 30 min, and the cake will come out just right.
Although this oven is expensive, but it’s worth every penny.
Pros:
– The door is very easy to open.
– The trays that came with the oven is heavy, and don’t look like cheap metal pans.
– The crumb tray can be pulled out from the front and is very easy to clean.
– Auto shut off function
– The LCD panel has different background colors to indicate the oven is in use or not in use.
Cons:
– Very powerful oven. If not used correctly, it may burn your food.
– The tray doesn’t automatically slide out like the bigger version.
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