"This is the first toaster oven I have ever purchased and knew nothing about them. My current kitchen is small and the oven heats the room so much, we can't eat in it comfortably so I wondered if a toaster oven may be what I need. I spent endless hours reading reviews and on my budget I had no intention of spending almost $300.00 on one. But after not finding any reviews that even touched the reviews on the Breville I had to rethink the price issue. When I considered my several times a week use of an oven, I figured paying a bit more may be worth the money. Also I was looking for the "perfect oven" and I didn't want the oven I was going to purchase to dictate what I could and could not make. I love this oven so much and have not found even one thing I cannot make in it. I searched for 13X9 pans without handles that fit perfectly and was super excited when I discovered my cupcake pan with a little lip all around the edge slides in the shelf grooves on the side of the oven and bakes them perfectly. The convection setting still intimidates me a bit so I tend to turn that off but I think with time I will use and appreciate that setting. I am currently looking for a juice machine and I believe Breville will be my brand of choice for that as well. Thank you for making a quality product. "

"Amazing! How can you get excited over a toaster oven you ask? You must have not used a Breville. We checked all the reviews, and were concerned that some were obviously not a quality oven, while most were thrilled so we took the plunge and fell head over heels for this silly toaster oven, toast, bagels, pizza, cookies, there all are just perfect, whether frozen or thawed. They hit the ball out of the park with this one. Then the fan gave out and we realized we had one of the "bad ones". I dreaded the customer service call as that is where many of the one star reviews came from. They answered right away, were pleasant, did not ask questions, or put up a fuss, they just asked if I would pack it up and return it, and they would ship me a new one. WOW! But . . . they said they were out of stock and it would be around the June before they could ship. I was not happy, but they were sending me a brand new one. So I shipped it in late April, and received my replacement in less than two week! I LOVE THIS COMPANY! Great Job Breville in this oven, and awesome job on your customer service! Jeff"

"I bought this toaster oven after Cook's Illustrated rated it as the best. I agree with the other reviews that it works great. My only complaint is how excessively hot the exterior gets. Perhaps it needs more insulation. I am a little afraid of this. I have it sitting on a granite counter top with a tile backsplash, however it is under my wood cabinet and the underside of the wood cabinet gets very warm. The distance from the top of the oven to the bottom of the cabinet is 8". I would also ask you to think about redesigning the wall plug, it would be better if the cord came out of the bottom of the plug so that the oven could be moved closer to the wall.
I gave this 4 stars because it is excessively hot.
I also have a Breville K-cup coffeemaker which is wonderful. However I have the same complaint about the wall plug.

Breville Response -

Julia,

Thank you for your suggestions! It's always great to hear if our products are working for you and even better to receive feedback telling us how to make them better! We have sent your information on to the category manager and would truly like to thank you for sharing those suggestions with us!"

"Our family has been having extreme difficulty in finding a toaster oven that would work as advertised. We have had the smart oven for a week and absolutely LOVE it! It does exactly as advertised for the price. I am particularly impressed with the "crispy on the outside toast and soft on the inside". After having gone through 3 toaster ovens in 3 years, we feel very happy with our new purchase."

"I purchased the Smart Oven after watching the review on Cook's Illustrated. Then mentioned all of the positive features plus the price of the unit so I was not shocked when I went looking for the best price.

There are some excellent reviews here so I will touch on a few things that I have noticed over the short time I have had the unit.

I would suggest you purchase the cutting board and if you like to bake bread and make pizzas then the pizza stone is a well worth addition.

We have used the oven for baking artisan breads, pizzas, broiling open faced sandwiches, and of course toast. All with outstanding results.

Some features to note:

1. When opening the door when you have it in the middle rack, do it slowly, otherwise you could wind up with whatever you are making slide out. I did this with the pizza the first time, thinking it would simply stay put but it slid out too quickly. They tell you to open the door slowly in the directions!

2. The oven does get hot when in use, but it is mostly on the top. This is great for heating plates or leaving your cutting board on top to prevent you from touching the top. There is very little heat around the sides, front, or back to cause any concern. We have a few plastic cutting boards standing against the wall near the oven, 5 inches away and it is not a concern.

3. The pizza stone heats up very quickly, they mention 15 minutes which is very fast compared to the Emile Henry Pizza Stone that we use in the main oven. It requires 45 minutes of pre heating. Hint to the Emile Henry company, please make a 13" stone with the special glazing for the Breville Oven.

4. When making bread or pizza using the stone we found it much simpler to use parchment paper than corn meal. Placing a loaf of artisan bread (we have tried three of the recipes in the Healthy Bread in 5 minutes a Day) on top of the pizza stone is not a problem, however pizza can be a different matter. We solved this problem by purchasing a 10 inch round cake lifter. Place the parchment paper on the metal lifter,then slide it onto the preheated stone. Nothing falls away and it can be done quickly and no mess.

5. When your pizza or bread is 3/4 finished, open the oven and remove the parchment paper, this way you get the nice brown crisp finish on your pizza or bread.

6. When making open faced sandwiches I would suggest setting the broil setting to 400 degree's instead of 500. The first time I broiled brochette with salsa and cheese on top of the bread, it made a mess on the broiler plate. After than I used parchment paper at the 500 degree setting and the paper went very brown. Sandwich was great but I was concerned, after than, 400 degree setting. It takes slightly longer but parchment paper does not brown.

7. There is a large crumb tray that opens up at the bottom. I find this an excellent design. You can simply remove it, and clean it up after each time you use your oven. Makes it easy to keep your oven spotless.

8. When baking bread I find the oven heats up quicker, and since it is a smaller unit bakes the bread slightly quicker than a regular oven. It is very easy to test doneness by inserting a thermapen in the bottom of the bread (artisan) and see if your temperature is between 205 - 210.

9. The controls to set the oven are very easy and they go over each one very well in the manual. I would have liked to see the broil setting adjust in 50 degree amounts instead of the 100 (wanted to broil at 450) but that is a small feature I would have liked to see.

10. As mentioned by many reviewers, toasting is outstanding whether you have one slice or 6, but it does take longer than you might except.

11. You can place a full size bread pan in the oven as well as change the position of the rack if you want to place the pizza under the broiler for a short time. Breville designed the oven so you can place the 13 inch plate or pizza stone in all three slots.

I purchased our unit at Amazon for $249. with free shipping and a week later it was on sale for $199.95 at our local Home Outfitters!

Accessories to purchase should you wish:

Parchment paper:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000VLJ8G You can also get quarter sheets as well.

Bread, Cake, and Pizza lifter:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000237LPC

I have not purchased the perforated 13 inch pizza sheet, so if anyone has any input on this I would appreciate any feedback.

I know this review is a bit long, but I wanted to touch on a few of the features that I thought about to supplement all the excellent reviews on this product.

"

"WE BOUGHT THIS PRODUCT FOR OVER TWO MONTHS NOW. IT IS THE BEST PURCHASE WE EVER MADE. I AM EXTREMELY PLEASED AND HAPPY THAT WE BOUGHT THIS. IT IS A GREAT PRODUCT AND WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT TO ANYONE. WE MADE THE RIGHT CHOICE INSTEAD OF GETTING THE KITCHEN AID. WE IT USED ON A DAILY BASIS. TRY IT AND YOU WILL LOVE IT."

"I absolutely love this convection/toaster oven. It works perfectly every time and has taken the place of my big over in most of my cooking. Just before the warranty is up, I am returning the oven because the LED light started fading a month ago and often flickers. I was afraid it was going to go out all together and then I couldn't use the oven not knowing it is set. Customer service is terrific. Cecilia Sauer spent plenty of time with me on the phone getting the numbers and information needed off the back of the oven. I will be given 30 days with a return label from Fed X to send the oven back. Lucky I still have the original box. I will be sent a new oven.
I am very pleased with the Breville even with this glitch and would buy another one and recommend this Smart Oven."

"I purchased this wonderful oven 6 weeks ago and use it almost daily. I've not had any problems with it and read a review where someone had tested the temperature against an oven thermometer and it was right on. Well, I purchased 2 new oven thermometers (recommended by Cooks Illustrated) and placed both inside the Breville, set at 400 on Bake . The pre-heat sound went off when it was ready, supposedly at 400. Both thermometers registerd 275 degrees, 400. I had the rack in the middle positoin so I tried this again later that night with the rack set at the lowest position. I had the same results when the pre-heat timer went off. The thermometers registered 275 degrees, but the oven indicated it was pre-heated to 400. I did have to wait an addition 6 minutes for it to reach the 400 temperature, both times. Then went to 425 degrees and stayed there for as long as I left the oven on 400. Has anyone else tried this and if so , what were your results?

Breville Response: The oven will beep at 75% of the heating process for pre-heating, due to the oven will lose temperature if it heated fully and then you opened the door, you would lose more heat that way and it would have to start over again once you place your food inside."

"We have had this product for a few weeks now and it's all they say it is. Everything seems to come out better with this oven and faster with the convection used. We had an old Farberware convection oven that is much bigger but this little oven out performs it with everything. It took me awhile to convince the wife we needed this oven and now she is trying to take credit for us getting it so I let her (oh well anything to keep a happy home).

Anyway, it's a great product and would recommend it to anyone....
"

"I have had this product for two days now. It was very easy to set up and worked correctly right out of the box! It is definitely important to do the pre-use instructions. I opened my kitchen window so the fumes were not bothersome. I have used the Cookie, Keep Warm, Bake and Broil features so far and all with great results. I purchased mine from Bed, Bath and Beyond because of the additional 20% coupon savings and the ability to return the product directly to BB&B at any time should something go wrong. I was reluctant to purchase this after many negative reviews on Amazon.com. I strongly considered the Cuisinart® Convection Toaster Oven since the two units are very similar and it was the next highest ranked in the recent Cooks Illustrated survey. I even brought my husband with me for his expert electronics opinion. After looking at both extensively we both agreed on the Breville. We like that it is very intuitive and easy to use and everything we've made has been cooked well. We really like the magnetic opening on the middle rack position. It's a shame it's not like that for all three rack positions. As for some other cons, it does require a 20 amp circuit to plug it into given the 1800 watts and it is a large footprint so a fair amount of counter space is needed. There is also a slight learning curve as to which method and rack position is best to use but the user manual does provide very helpful tips. I also live at altitude so I have to adjust some of the defaults to compensate.

"