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The best toaster oven
By Michael Sullivan and Brendan Nystedt This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, Wirecutter and Engadget may earn affiliate commission. Read the full toaster oven guide here. After more than 90 hours of research and testing—and making stacks and stacks of toast, mini pizza bagels, and cookies—we think the small Panasonic FlashXpress toaster oven and the large Cuisinart TOB-260N1 Chef's Convection Toaster Oven are the best for most people. We recommend the compact Panasonic toaster oven only for small jobs like making frozen snacks, and the sizable Cuisinart toaster oven for everything, including bigger tasks, like baking a pizza or roasting a whole chicken. Both models consistently produced almost perfectly browned toast and evenly baked cookies. They performed as well as (or better than) toaster ovens costing two or three times as much. The reasonably priced Panasonic FlashXpress excels at making toast, cookies, and frozen snacks. In our tests, it cooked food evenly and didn't generate any hot spots that would otherwise cause inconsistent toasting. Impressively, it made toast faster than most of the other models we tried. At around 1 cubic foot in volume, it takes up very little space on a counter, but it's still large enough to fit four pieces of bread or two slices of leftover pizza. We think the Panasonic is best for people who just want to use a toaster oven for toast or other small jobs, like preparing a handful of frozen snacks. For accomplishing bigger tasks, consider getting our other picks, the Cuisinart TOB-260N1 Chef's Convection Toaster Oven or the Breville BOV800XL Smart Oven, which hold nine and six pieces of bread, respectively. The large Cuisinart TOB-260N1 offers nearly all of the capabilities of a full-size oven. It delivers even heat to up to nine slices of bread and can easily handle a 13-inch frozen pizza or a whole roast chicken (whereas our other pick, the Panasonic FlashXpress, can fit only a handful of frozen snacks). The Cuisinart's three-year warranty is outstanding, as are its impressive accessories, which include a pizza stone. Like the Panasonic, this toaster oven was one of the fastest at preheating to 350 °F in our tests. Since it's so large (it measures roughly 20.5 by 13.25 by 11.25 inches), we recommend this model for bigger households that have ample space for a sizeable countertop oven. The Breville Smart Oven BOV800XL, a 1,800-watt convection toaster with the company's Element IQ technology, is a great medium-size model that's more compact than our Cuisinart pick but bigger than the Panasonic FlashXpress. We were impressed by its ability to maintain a set temperature better than most of its competition. It doesn't toast quite as evenly as the Cuisinart, but it bakes cookies and melts cheese well. Compared with the Panasonic, the Breville has a more modern, intuitive interface. However, it is more expensive, lacks an oven light, and doesn't offer a pizza stone like the Cuisinart. The inexpensive Hamilton Beach 31401 toasted bread better than any other toaster oven less than $100. This no-frills model lacks many of the features included in our other picks, such as digital controls and preset cooking features, but it heats evenly. Its humble size makes it ideal for kitchens with limited counter space, but its oven cavity is still large enough to fit four slices of bread. The Hamilton Beach runs cooler than other models we tested, so you'll need to increase the temperature by about 25 degrees when baking or roasting. However, we think this is a forgivable drawback considering its low price.
