Ideally, you’ll want them all to come out looking as close to identical as possible. It also preheats extremely fast, holds the heat well and has intuitive controls. Toaster ovens are an essential small kitchen appliance because, let’s be honest, you’re not firing up that big gas stove just to brown a bagel.
While this wasn’t billed as a toaster, it is the “multi-use” recommendation in The Spruce Eats’ list of best toaster ovens, so I tested what it could do with pale bread and bagels. I cooked bagels on the broil setting and toasted the bread using convection. I got a reasonably even toast, although I had to watch the browning since I wasn’t sure how long it would take. The Hamilton Beach Air Fryer Sure Crisp Toaster Oven is considerably smaller and less expensive than the other models we tested. It doesn’t sport electronic controls or a lot of fancy features and settings. While it’s baking performance was disappointing and it’s not large enough to roast a chicken, it shines at toasting and does a credible job of air frying.
While all of the ovens produced meat pies that were hot in the center, the least outer browning came from the Hamilton Beach toaster and Oster. Not surprising, considering both ovens both ran cool in the temperature consistency and accuracy test. The Comfee was fairly accurate too, although it ran an average of 22 degrees hotter than the temp I set it for. In terms of pure speed, the infrared Panasonic was the fastest, living up to its FlashXpress nickname. The Balmuda also toasted four slices in under three minutes, while the Breville Mini Smart oven did it in three. The slowest was the clunky Oster, which took well over six minutes to hit medium, followed by the GE, which took nearly five minutes and was still underdone.
We recommend these products based on an intensive research process that’s designed to cut through the noise and find the top products in this space. Guided by experts, we spend hours looking into the factors that matter, to bring you these selections. This article is brought to you by Wayfair and created by In The Know’s commerce team. If you decide to purchase products through the links below, we may receive a commission.
One will likely suit you better than another, but you’ll have to think about how and what you want to cook with it. Even plain old sliced bread hamilton beach air fryer toasters are looking to grab the attention of smart home techies. The Revolution R180, a $350 toaster with a touchscreen on the front.
I ran each toaster oven for 15 minutes at 300 degrees F to measure the temperature accuracy and consistency. Easy – just take it apart and use a mixture of baking soda and dish soap. Here’s a link to a more detailed toaster oven cleaning guide made by me. With multiple cooking features, innovative technology, automatic shut off, hamilton beach air fryer thirty minute timer, and a spacious interior, this was an amazing option at an affordable price. While wiping it clean was easy, I’d suggest being careful to not slop water or food into the convection fan’s vent holes in the oven. Since most of the crevices and protrusions are rounded, it’s easier to clean than sharp corners.
The toasting controls can be hard to figure out to avoid burning your toast. On bright side, once we learned the subtleties of this oven, we were hamilton beach air fryer consistently able to produce frozen meals that were acceptably cooked. We simply had to wait a little longer than the directions suggested.
The oven is only big enough to toast two full bagels at a time. The half-bagel slices in the front toasted perfectly, while those in the rear of the oven were paler and less crispy. Overall, we gave the Easy Reach higher than average marks for toasting and feel it does an acceptable job with this metric.
At just 9 x 18 x 14 inches, it easily fits under a cabinet and doesn’t take up excess countertop space. I had the same toaster oven for about 13 years, and I loved it. It was the Hamilton Beach Toastation, a combination mini-oven and toaster. What made the Toastation unique is that it had a slot on top like a standard toaster but it was also a small oven that could bake or broil.
My biggest complaint with this toaster is the rack placement. The tray is able to slide in either near the top or the bottom but not in the center of the oven, which does cause some top-to-bottom unevenness, but it wasn’t enough to really bother me. But if you need something fast and don’t want to spend much, the small yet mighty Comfee is a solid budget toaster option.