Greatest Toaster Ovens for 2024

I got down to cook dinner all kinds of widespread toaster oven fodder. Except for the toast assessments, the place I checked out every toaster oven’s particular person settings for mild, medium and darkish toast, I used standardized temperature and cook dinner occasions and adopted the suggestions on the field for no matter I used to be cooking wherever doable.

Toasting capabilities: Velocity and consistency

Making toast is without doubt one of the important duties for a toaster. I imply, it is proper there within the title. I hauled in a complete lot of bread to see how briskly and evenly every oven made this breakfast and sandwich staple. 

Most low-end toaster ovens use a built-in kitchen timer to set the broiling, toasting and cooking time. Sometimes, these timers embody a few preset choices for toasting: medium toast, darkish toast and in some instances, a lightweight setting, barely toasted bread too. Greater-end fashions with an LCD will often allow you to dial into a selected doneness stage once you’re toasting. You will usually get about six or seven settings to select from with these, every with preprogrammed toasting occasions. That is extra exact than turning a timer knob and price it for those who’re a stickler for the right shade of golden brown.

For my functions, I toasted 4 slices of skinny, white sandwich bread in every toaster oven on medium. This take a look at aimed to see how evenly every oven toasts in all areas of the oven and the way well-calibrated the medium toast setting is. Evenness is very vital once you’re making breakfast for a gaggle. Ideally, you may need all of them to return out trying as near equivalent as doable.

I additionally examined two items of bread on the bottom doneness setting (mild) and the best (darkish), to see how effectively these presets had been calibrated. After every of the three toast assessments, I photographed the outcomes and made positive to let the toaster oven cool to room temperature earlier than testing once more.

For total evenness, the outcomes had been surprisingly uniform throughout the board, except the Cruxgg, which toasted extraordinarily inconsistently. The Hamilton Seaside, Panasonic’s FlashXpress and Breville Mini Good Oven had been among the many prime finishers with largely even cooking and a strong medium coloration. The Balmuda additionally toasted 4 slices of bread evenly.

The FlashXpress additionally had essentially the most precisely calibrated settings. The sunshine setting delivered barely there toasting whereas the darkish setting produced correct darkish items of toast with out burning them. The Breville and Balmuda additionally nailed the sunshine and darkish toast cycles after I put them via their paces.

Apart from the Cruxgg, which burned the toast, even when set to medium, not one of the doneness presets had been too far out of whack, though toast made within the Hamilton Seaside mannequin was oddly about the identical coloration for darkish because it was for medium.

Cooking occasions

Velocity was additionally an element. I believe we are able to all agree that, on a busy morning, the much less time it’s a must to look ahead to toast the higher. I famous the time it took for every toaster to finish a cycle on every of the three settings: mild, medium and darkish.

By way of pure pace, the infrared Panasonic was the quickest, residing as much as its FlashXpress nickname. It toasted to a pleasant medium in simply 2.5 minutes. The Balmuda additionally toasted 4 slices in underneath three minutes, whereas the Breville Mini Good oven did it in three. The slowest was the clunky Oster, which took effectively over six minutes to hit medium, adopted by the GE, which took almost 5 minutes and was nonetheless underdone.

Temperature consistency and accuracy

If you happen to plan to make issues like cookies and pizza or use your toaster to make extra difficult recipes, you may need an oven that holds its warmth constantly over time. To check the consistency of every oven, I examined how a lot fluctuation every oven skilled when set to 300 levels Fahrenheit for quarter-hour. I used a RisePro thermocouple thermometer to measure the best temp, the bottom temp and the typical temp all through that interval.

All the ovens carried out pretty effectively on this take a look at, except the Cruxgg. The Breville Good Mini and Panasonic FlashXpress each held a median temp of 310, simply 10 levels greater than the goal temp which is an efficient mark for any oven. The Balmuda Steam oven can solely be set to 350, 400 or 450 levels Fahrenheit, so I ran the identical take a look at at 350 levels Fahrenheit. It additionally did effectively, operating a median of simply 12 levels above the goal temp. 

In a shocker, the Comfee toaster oven fluctuated the least — solely 15 levels from begin to end — inserting first within the consistency take a look at, however that’s probably as a result of it’s each small and has no convection fan to stir the air up. The Comfee was pretty correct too, though it ran a median of twenty-two levels hotter than the temp I set it for. See full outcomes beneath. 

Testing the convection and bake features

To check every toaster’s energy and talent to cook dinner extra substantial meals, I baked three pizza bites positioned on a rack in several components of the oven. This was to check how precisely every toaster melts cheese, and one other take a look at to see how evenly the cooking is unfold out throughout the oven. The field recommends baking a frozen pizza at 425 levels Fahrenheit for 18 minutes, so that is what I did in every toaster oven. 

Along with pizza bites, I cooked a frozen Jamaican meat pie in every oven as directed by the field: 25 minutes at 400 Fahrenheit. This take a look at was designed to see how effectively an oven would cook dinner denser frozen meals with out burning the skin. We have all bitten into what seems to be completely browned and beforehand frozen meals solely to seek out it nonetheless frozen within the heart. Not enjoyable.

Within the Jamaican patty take a look at, all the ovens heated the frozen meat pies via the middle, however the Breville and Balmuda produced the very best browning on the outer pastry shell. The hand pie that emerged from the Balmuda Oven (see beneath) was almost overcooked (and maybe it could be for some of us), however that is simply how I like mine. 

The FlashXpress simply barely overcooked the patty, whereas the Cruxgg burnt it effectively previous edibility. Whereas all of the ovens produced meat pies that had been scorching within the heart, the least outer browning got here from the Hamilton Seaside toaster and Oster. Not shocking, contemplating each ovens ran cool within the temperature consistency and accuracy take a look at.

Toaster buttons and show

I discovered the toaster ovens with digital shows best to program because you dial into your most well-liked stage of doneness on a six- or seven-point scale reasonably than guesstimating with a timer knob. My favourite show was on Breville’s Mini Good Oven, which was easy and simple to make use of with dials that precisely regulate the cooking time for each doneness and the variety of slices. This mannequin additionally has an “a bit extra” button and a cool-down mode to cease cooking quicker. I additionally appreciated the Panasonic FlashXpress’ show which is barely less complicated than the Breville with fewer particular modes however extra applications for particular objects resembling frozen waffles, frozen pizza and even hash browns. 

In reality, I do not discover toaster oven cooking applications very useful, and I not often use them. Since each model, be it frozen pizza, waffles or mozzarella sticks, range in measurement and density, it is usually finest to comply with the directions on the field. 

My least favourite show was on the Oster, which had one-dimensional backset buttons and a wonky digital display screen that provided little or no data. The buttons would usually not react and required a forceful push, typically two. The super-cheap Comfee Toaster has guide dials and no show. Guide dials are tough to set precisely each for temperature and time. They usually make a ticking sound as effectively, which will be annoying.

The best toasters to scrub

This was much less of a cooking take a look at and extra of a cleansing take a look at, however one which’s close to and pricey to my coronary heart. Each toaster oven comes with an aluminum baking sheet with a nonstick coating, however some are a lot simpler to scrub than others. As a result of these sheets are largely fitted to the oven, you are form of caught utilizing that one till you change the toaster completely, so it is good after they come clear and do not stain or acquire gunk after only a few periods. 

After the pizza bites completed cooking, there was inevitably some spilled sauce and cheese left on the sheet. I allowed the pan to chill sufficient to deal with with out gloves after which scrubbed it vigorously for one minute utilizing a sponge, scorching water and Dial dish cleaning soap. The best baking sheets to scrub belonged to the Breville Mini Oven (which is black, in order that in all probability helps), the Panasonic FlashXpress and the Comfee toaster. 

The trays that got here with the Hamilton Seaside and GE Toaster remained essentially the most stained after a minute of cleansing, with the remaining falling someplace within the center.