Jun 10, 2019 Ovens The best toaster oven is the one you'll hate the least. Toaster ovens are bulky, inefficient and outdated. There, I said it. Now here's how to find one that's actually worth it.
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Sabrina Imbler
Michael Sullivan
Brendan Nystedt
After toasting over a dozen loaves of bread, as well as piles of bagels, English muffins, and frozen Eggo waffles in 23 toasters over the years, we think the Cuisinart CPT-122 2-Slice Compact Plastic Toaster is the best for most people. With slots wide enough to accommodate the puffiest bagels and deep enough to toast taller slices of bread, it browns bread as evenly as toasters five times the price. If you want a four-slice toaster, we recommend the Cuisinart CPT-142 4-Slice Compact Plastic Toaster, a larger version of our top pick.
This inexpensive toaster browned bread more evenly than almost anything else we tested, and looks attractive on any countertop.
Batch after batch, this four-slot toaster browned bread as evenly as its two-slot counterpart.
The Cuisinart CPT-122 2-Slice Compact Plastic Toaster and its four-slot version, the Cuisinart CPT-142 4-Slice Compact Plastic Toaster, both produced some of the finest, evenly browned bread of all the toasters we tested. The Cuisinarts offer a wide range of settings and easy-to-use controls, and remained cool to the touch even after toasting multiple batches. These toasters are also covered under a three-year warranty, which is exceptional compared with the one-year warranty that comes with most toasters.
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This futuristic glass-walled toaster has touch-screen buttons and browns bread almost as evenly as our top pick.
May be out of stock
*At the time of publishing, the price was $50.
If you want the luxury of watching your bread brown while it toasts, we recommend the Cuisinart CPT-3000 ViewPro Glass 2-Slice Toaster. It toasts more evenly than its $250 glass-walled look-alike, the Magimix Vision Toaster, and features convenient touch-screen controls that, unlike the labels on the controls on our main pick, likely won’t rub off over time. But it’s not our main pick because it takes up more space on a countertop and costs over twice as much. With buttons instead of a dial, it also has less nuanced toast shade settings: For example, you can set it to 3 or 4, but not anything in between. Like our top pick, the Cuisinart ViewPro also has an exceptionally long three-year warranty.
Though it’s more expensive than our main pick, this Breville toasts bread exquisitely, and its sturdy, elegant build should outlast cheaper toasters.
The stainless steel two-slot Breville BTA720XL Bit More Toaster (2-Slice), along with our four-slice upgrade pick, produced the most consistent toast of any toaster—golden brown all over with no white patches or lines—even after several back-to-back batches. It also offers a toast-saving “A Bit More” button that allows you to add a little more time to an underdone slice, and a “Lift & Look” lever that allows you to peek at the doneness of your slice without interrupting the toasting cycle. But this toaster costs almost $60 more than our top pick, making it a bit of a splurge.
Though it’s on the pricier side, this model consistently churns out perfectly browned toast. This Breville’s well-thought-out design and multiple features allow for more flexibility while toasting.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $180.
The Breville BTA840XL Die-Cast 4-Slice Smart Toaster is hands down the best toaster that we tested. It has the same functionality as our two-slot Breville pick, the Bit More, as well as a button that automatically lifts and lowers your toast. In the Breville Smart Toaster, the “lift and look” feature is its own button. While the Bit More’s “lift and look” feature requires you to raise a lever, the Breville Smart Toaster lets you check for doneness with the touch of a button. We preferred this toaster over the four-slice version of the Breville Bit More (the BTA730XL), which has two long slots that did not toast as evenly. The Smart Toaster is more expensive and will take up a considerable chunk of your countertop, but it’s built like a tank and offers more features than any other two- or four-slot model we considered.
This inexpensive toaster browned bread more evenly than almost anything else we tested, and looks attractive on any countertop.
Batch after batch, this four-slot toaster browned bread as evenly as its two-slot counterpart.
This futuristic glass-walled toaster has touch-screen buttons and browns bread almost as evenly as our top pick.
May be out of stock
*At the time of publishing, the price was $50.
Though it’s more expensive than our main pick, this Breville toasts bread exquisitely, and its sturdy, elegant build should outlast cheaper toasters.
Though it’s on the pricier side, this model consistently churns out perfectly browned toast. This Breville’s well-thought-out design and multiple features allow for more flexibility while toasting.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $180.
To narrow our selection of toasters to test, we interviewed experts like acclaimed baker and cookbook author Peter Reinhart and master toaster-refurbisher Michael Sheafe. We also spoke to product managers at some prominent toaster manufacturers, and additionally, we read editorial reviews from sites such as Cook’s Illustrated (subscription required), Consumer Reports (subscription required), and Good Housekeeping. We also looked at user reviews from online stores such as Amazon, Walmart, and Bed Bath & Beyond. Finally, we conducted a reader survey to help us figure out what most people look for in a toaster.
For the original version of this guide, Brendan Nystedt spent 30 hours researching and testing toasters (he also spent 20 hours doing the same for our toaster oven guide). Wirecutter kitchen writer Michael Sullivan tested six four-slot toasters for our 2016 update, and in the process ate more toast, bagels, and frozen waffles than he’d care to admit. Wirecutter junior staff writer Sabrina Imbler tested 14 two-slot and four-slot toasters for our 2018 update and suffered a similar fate.
You’re probably looking for a new toaster because your old one bit the dust. Or maybe it toasts unevenly, burns bread too easily, or can’t accommodate bagels. Toaster ovens can dry out your bread, so switching to the intense, direct heat of a toaster can give you a nice char while keeping the bread’s texture intact.
A toaster oven, which can handle some of the tasks that a full-size oven can tackle, such as roasting vegetables or pizza bagels, is a more versatile and capable appliance than a two-slot toaster. But if you don’t have room for a large toaster oven, four-slot toasters are the way to go. With double the capacity, four-slot toasters allow you to produce more toast fast, which is nice for feeding a large family.
Toasters haven’t changed much in the last century or so. Although they now have new features such as bagel modes or settings for frozen bread, the science behind the heating hardware is basically the same. That’s because, when it comes down to it, the ideal toaster should simply toast bread evenly and consistently without a whole lot of fuss. Every slot should give you similar performance, and you should be able to toast breads of different types and shapes, which means having a big enough slot to handle thick bagels plus a way to retrieve small English muffins without jamming utensils (or your fingers) into the slots.
To find that ideal toaster, we scanned dozens of best-selling models on Amazon and kitchenware sites. For the 2018 update we tested eight new toasters against our previous picks. Though the technology is simple, many small factors go into making a toaster that’s pleasant to use and churns out evenly browned bread every single time. In our research and testing, here’s what we looked for:
There are also some attributes that we found helpful, but not necessary.
There’s one thing you can’t expect any toaster to do: Put out perfect toast without supervision. Even the good toasters need help. Acclaimed baker Peter Reinhart told us even he has to babysit his toaster. “I have to push the lever down twice and sort of accept that,” he says. “It’s a cliche. We don’t expect them to be perfect. You can accept and move on or get angry at the toaster,” he said. It appears that toaster makers agree: All our finalists had a cancel button.
To see how each toaster handled breads of different shapes and sizes, we toasted dozens of loaves of basic white bread, bagels, frozen waffles, and English muffins. For our white bread test, we toasted three back-to-back rounds of Wonder bread slices to see how consistent the toast was from model to model and batch to batch. These multiple batches showed us how well each toaster could regulate its temperature after heating up.
In each round, we timed each toaster to see which could brown bread fastest. We judged toast itself on its top-to-bottom and side-to-side evenness, and evaluated the accuracy of the shade settings—would most breakfast eaters consider these results medium, or were they too light or too burned? We also bit into the toast to evaluate its texture and taste, looking for slices that had a lightly charred and crispy exterior and a warm interior that didn’t feel too dried out or stiff.
We tried each toaster’s bagel mode on everything bagels fresh from Murray’s, which we chose because they’re fluffier and thicker than traditional New York-style bagels and would show us where the toasters’ slot widths hit their limit. We wanted the results to resemble what you get in a deli conveyor belt—lightly toasted on the rounded side and nicely browned on the cut side. We tested the frozen modes on the toasters using blueberry Eggo waffles. The waffles, we hoped, would come out crispy and brown but not scorched or soggy. We toasted English muffins to see which toasters made it easiest to retrieve the small items without sticking our fingers in the heated slots. We also emptied each model’s crumb tray and noted how easy each was to clean, and we took a look at the size of each model relative to others in its class.
This inexpensive toaster browned bread more evenly than almost anything else we tested, and looks attractive on any countertop.
Batch after batch, this four-slot toaster browned bread as evenly as its two-slot counterpart.
The two-slot Cuisinart CPT-122 2-Slice Compact Plastic Toaster and its four-slot counterpart, the CPT-142 4-Slice Compact Plastic Toaster offer the best toast for your money, hands down. These inexpensive toasters browned bread, bagels, and waffles better than all of the competition in their price range. Unlike other cheap toasters, the Cuisinarts have slots that are wide enough to fit thick, hand-cut bagels without requiring you to push them down yourself. The plastic controls offer a wide range of toasting settings and feel sturdier than the plastic dials and knobs on some other toasters we tested. The two-slot Cuisinart is also one of the tiniest, most attractive toasters we tested, making it ideal for kitchens with limited counter space.
Both Cuisinarts toasted evenly from top to bottom and slot to slot, even after multiple batches. They beautifully browned the entire slice of Wonder bread, while other toasters, like the Osters or Hamilton Beaches we tested, left unappetizing raw halos on top. When filled in every slot, the four-slot model made slightly lighter toast than the two-slot, but you can easily fix this by turning up the toasting dial. In comparison, all other similarly priced toasters and even some pricier machines left bread even whiter and patchier.
In three successive batches, both Cuisinarts produced toast in pretty similar shades of brown, which is a rare feat for a toaster under $50. The medium setting on both Cuisinarts also popped out a fully done piece of toast after 1 minute, 20 seconds, almost half the time of previous top pick Oster Jelly Bean’s 2 minute, 20 second toast time.
Each toaster evenly browned a thick bagel without burning sesame seeds. Some models, such as the Black + Decker T2707S 2-Slice Toaster and Hamilton Beach Cool Touch left bagels pale white on either side. And both Cuisinarts’ defrost setting gave us Eggo waffles that were crispy on the outside but soft and moist on the inside.
The Cuisinarts’ slots were wider and deeper than those on most other toasters we tested. The slots in the Cuisinarts easily accommodated the puffiest Murray’s bagels and didn’t require us to force each half down into the machine, as we had to do with many other toasters. And the machines’ “high lift” feature on the lever allows you to lift smaller items like English muffins out of the slots without burning your fingertips.
The four-slice Cuisinart features a helpful label that indicates which slot should hold a single slice of bread.Photo: Michael Hession
The Cuisinarts’ buttons sit next to printed labels, which means you’re unlikely to rub the labels off with your fingers.Photo: Michael Hession
The slots of the Cuisinarts are considerably deeper than the Oster Jelly Bean’s and leave no white tops.Photo: Michael Hession
The four-slice Cuisinart features a helpful label that indicates which slot should hold a single slice of bread.Photo: Michael Hession
The Cuisinarts’ buttons sit next to printed labels, which means you’re unlikely to rub the labels off with your fingers.Photo: Michael Hession
The controls on both Cuisinarts are simple, featuring a knob that adjusts the darkness of the toast (from 1 to 7) and buttons that allow you to select the mode or cancel the toast cycle. The knob’s settings are accurate, meaning that setting the dial to 3 will produce toast that’s not too dark and not too light. They also have buttons to reheat and defrost your toast, as well as a bagel setting. All the parts you touch and twist on the Cuisinart stay cool, and they also feel sturdier than the moving parts of other toasters. We didn’t like that you could really wiggle the dial of the Hamilton Beach Classic Chrome 2 Slice Toaster or the Black + Decker T2707S 2-Slice Toaster. And neither Cuisinart felt hot to the touch, even after multiple rounds of toasting, as opposed to some of the metal toasters we tested.
Cuisinart’s stylish, boxy design means the two-slot version takes up less space than some of the flashier toasters we tested, such as our runner-up, the space-inefficient Cuisinart CPT-3000 ViewPro Glass 2-Slice Toaster. So if you have a small kitchen and your counter space is at a premium, the Cuisinart two-slice is the way to go. Between the Cuisinarts, the four-slice version is just four inches wider than the two-slice. And the four-slice Cuisinart is an inch smaller on all sides than our four-slot upgrade pick, the Breville Die-Cast 4-Slice Smart Toaster, making it a better choice for cramped counters.
Cleaning and maintaining both Cuisinarts is as simple as sliding out the removable crumb tray and wiping it clean, similar to other models we tested. The Cuisinarts come with a limited three-year warranty, which only the Magimix matches for the longest warranty of any toaster we tested. Our previous pick, the Oster Jelly Bean, and our current two-slice and four-slice upgrade picks from Breville, all have a one-year warranty.
We’ve been using the Cuisinart CPT-122 in our Wirecutter test kitchen since March 2018, and although that probably adds up to less use than it would get at home, the toaster has held up well so far. All of the printing is still intact, and none of the labels show any signs of wearing off.
The two Cuisinart toasters have virtually no flaws in toasting, aside from occasionally leaving slim pale lines around the edges. But though you can see these pale edges, they’re so small that you won’t notice any difference in crunch when eating your toast.
As an inexpensive plastic toaster, the Cuisinarts’ mechanics seemed less sturdy than our upgrade picks’. Its plastic levers may be less durable than metal over time, but most stainless-steel-bodied toasters we tested also had plastic levers. The labels printed next to Cuisinarts’ buttons may wear away over time, but most toasters we looked at had a similar issue. And the labels should last longer than the ones printed directly on the buttons of other toasters (such as the Oster Jelly Bean or the Hamilton Beach Keep Warm), which are far easier to wear off with buttery fingers.
Unlike on the higher-end Brevilles, the Cuisinarts’ bagel setting just adds extra time to the toasting cycle without lowering the heat on the outside of the bagel. Although this setting browns a bagel better than a regular toasting cycle, the Brevilles’ thoughtfully designed, side-specific bagel setting produces a better bagel with a crisp cut edge and a chewy middle.
And though the Cuisinarts’ toasting intensity remained impressively consistent across multiple batches of bread, we still recommend adjusting the settings to compensate for the inevitable buildup of heat. When the second batch starts, turn the heat down a half level from your normal setting. The only toasters that came close to fully compensating for this were our two Breville picks, which produced almost identical pieces of toast from the first to third batch.
This futuristic glass-walled toaster has touch-screen buttons and browns bread almost as evenly as our top pick.
May be out of stock
*At the time of publishing, the price was $50.
The Cuisinart CPT-3000 ViewPro Glass 2-Slice Toaster browns bread consistently and offers a few premium features. It’s almost twice as expensive as our main pick, but the glass walls and durable touch-screen buttons make it feel like a toaster that would cost even more. The Cuisinart ViewPro churned out toast that had no raw tops or borders. It’s an impressive, statement toaster for a surprisingly affordable price, and its glass walls ensure you can pull your toast out at just the right moment.
If you like the look of the luxurious, glass-sided Magimix, the Cuisinart toasted more evenly for a quarter of the price. When toasting two pieces of bread at once, the Cuisinart’s two short slots browned more evenly than the Magimix’s single long slot, which left raw-looking columns on the sides of the bread that touched while toasting.
The ViewPro is not our top pick because it costs twice as much as our main pick. It also doesn’t produce the all-around consistent toast of the Cuisinart 2-Slice, leaving behind some uneven, dark corners and a few thin raw bars in each piece of bread. The ViewPro is also 2 inches wider than our main pick, making it a bit big for small kitchens. But it does offer extra features that toast fanatics might prefer. Watching your bread toast allows you to hit cancel at the exact right moment, and the soft glow of the heating elements makes toasting seem like an occasion. The touch-screen buttons mean there are no painted-on labels to wear off over time, unlike on most of the other toasters we tested.
The ViewPro produced toast browned from top to bottom, but there was always a thin white line on one side of the bread.Photo: Michael Hession
The Cuisinart ViewPro’s glass walls let you watch your toast brown in real time, in case you want to pull a slice out early.Photo: Michael Hession
The ViewPro produced toast browned from top to bottom, but there was always a thin white line on one side of the bread.Photo: Michael Hession
The Cuisinart ViewPro’s glass walls let you watch your toast brown in real time, in case you want to pull a slice out early.Photo: Michael Hession
The Cuisinart ViewPro did have a bit of a wonky lever, which we needed to press down hard to lock it into place and actually start the toast. In our tests, we often had to push it down twice. And having touch-screen controls rather than a dial means that you can toast only at each level, with no room for gradation. For example, you can toast a piece of bread at settings 2 or 3, but not at 2.5 or somewhere else in the middle, which you can do with a more traditional dial.
Though it’s more expensive than our main pick, this Breville toasts bread exquisitely, and its sturdy, elegant build should outlast cheaper toasters.
The Breville BTA720XL Bit More Toaster (2-Slice) is a handsome, sturdy machine that toasts better than any other model we tested—with the exception of our four-slice upgrade pick from Breville. Though it’s over twice the price of our main pick, we found that the Breville toasts bread and bagels more evenly, with no traces of pale edges. The Breville also offers more flexible toasting options than our main pick. It allows you to check the degree of doneness mid-toasting, and has the option to add 30 seconds more to the toasting cycle. Also, its steel casing has a classic look that would fit the aesthetic of almost any kitchen.
The Breville toasts more evenly than our top pick, the Cuisinart Compact Plastic Toaster, with uniform browning from top to bottom. While the Cuisinart would occasionally turn out toast with pale borders, the Breville’s toast emerged an even, golden brown from crust to center. Its more advanced bagel setting (PDF) toasts a better bagel than the Cuisinart by increasing the heat to the inner heating elements, which ensures the bagel will have a nicely darkened sliced side and a round side that’s warmed but not overdone. It also has a helpful printed icon on the top of the toaster to show you which direction to insert a sliced bagel. With the Cuisinart, it doesn’t matter which way you point the slices, as its bagel setting simply extends the toasting time. The Bit More also stays cool to the touch even after multiple rounds of toasting, unlike the steel toasters from Oster or Hamilton Beach.
Beyond the good performance you’d expect, spending the extra money for the Breville buys you two features the other toasters in our tests didn’t have: Breville markets them as the “Lift & Look” lever and the “A Bit More” button. They’re accurately named. “Lift & Look” lets you raise the lever to pull the bread all the way up to peek at your slice without interrupting the toasting cycle. If it’s not done to your satisfaction, the heat stays on and you can lower the lever to finish toasting. The second one, the toaster’s namesake “A Bit More” button, lets you add a 30-second follow-up round to finish any underdone toast. The Breville also beeps to alert you when your toast is ready. (You can adjust the volume or mute this feature by following the directions in the user manual.)
Some of our testers liked that the two-slice Breville still has a mechanical lever to raise and lower bread into the slots. Our four-slice upgrade pick, the Breville Smart Toaster, has an automated lever that lifts and lowers your toast at the press of a button, which feels more luxurious but also takes longer.
The Breville is covered by a one-year limited warranty standard for most toasters, which is not quite as long as the three-year warranties covering the Cuisinarts. It’s also around an inch wider and longer than our main pick. It does cost significantly more than our main pick, but it’s close to a perfect toaster.
Staff writers Signe Brewster and Michael Sullivan have used the Breville toaster in their homes since about October 2018 and March 2018, respectively, and both report that it’s still working well. Signe said, “It’s easy to clean, looks great, and has well-designed buttons. I also really love that the plug has a hole in it for easy grabbing—a nice touch when you plug/unplug it once a day.” Both wish that the toaster offered a bit more lift, but as a solution, Michael recommends mini tongs to rescue stuck pieces of toast. Wirecutter editor Jen Hunter also likes her Breville, but joked that it may be haunted: “It occasionally just randomly comes on, or won’t turn off after the toast is done.” It’s a minor bother though, and she points out that there are other features to make up for this: “I really enjoy that the toast slowly rolls up out of the machine when it’s ready (rather than the traditional pop). It makes the whole experience feel like an upgrade should.”
Though it’s on the pricier side, this model consistently churns out perfectly browned toast. This Breville’s well-thought-out design and multiple features allow for more flexibility while toasting.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $180.
If you want a four-slot toaster that makes perfect toast, offers flexible features, and is built like a burnished steel tank, we love the Breville BTA840XL 4-Slice Smart Toaster. Though it’s pricier and takes up more space than our top-pick four-slot toaster, the Breville offers more features than any other two- or four-slot model we tested. Unlike the other toasters we recommend, the Breville Smart Toaster doesn’t have a mechanical lever and lowers bread automatically into the slots when you push the “Toast” button. The “Lift and Look” button automatically raises the toast just long enough for you to check the doneness, and the “A Bit More” option adds 30 seconds more to the toasting time.
Although our top pick for two-slice and four-slice toasters are two sizes of the same toaster, the Breville Smart Toaster is not a larger version of the Breville Bit More (our two-slot upgrade pick). The four-slice version of the Bit More is a long-slot toaster that can fit four slices of bread in its two slots. We tested this toaster last year and found it browned bread unevenly. It burned single slices of bread and left pale outer edges when filled with two slices of bread, so we don’t recommend it. Similarly, we don’t recommend the two-slot version of the Smart Toaster. It costs significantly more than our two-slice upgrade pick and doesn’t offer many additional features.
Like the Bit More, the Smart Toaster has lights that indicate the temperature setting (the lights also count down so you can gauge when the toast will be done). A single beep conveniently alerts you once the toasting cycle is complete, and you can also adjust the volume or mute this feature.
Also like the Bit More, the surface of the Breville Smart Toaster stays cooler than that of the other stainless steel models we tested, which is especially great if you have children in the house. Like most models we tested, however, you’ll need to increase the heat setting for bagels and English muffins.
Keep in mind that this toaster is a tank—it’s almost the size of our favorite small toaster oven, the Panasonic FlashXpress. But it has none of the versatility of a toaster oven, being unable to roast a squash, bake cookies, or make pizza bagels. Its automatic lever also lowers bread into the slot more slowly than all the manual levers we tested. If your counter is running out of space, you may prefer an appliance that can do more than just toast. But if you have a capacious kitchen or if toast is your thing, you can’t find a better toaster for the price.
Two-slot toasters
Although our previous two-slot pick, the Oster Jelly Bean, still browned bread better than most other budget toasters, it paled in comparison with the Cuisinart. Despite having slots deeper than those of the Black + Decker and Hamilton Beach toasters we tested, the Jelly Bean still left pure white crowns on otherwise nicely toasted bread. These white tops get even bigger if you forget to push the bread down as far as it will go in the slot, which we found irritating and hard to remember.
Though in past years we avoided models that cost more than $200, we tested two popular luxury toasters for our 2018 update to see what all the hype was about. The Dualit 2 Slot NewGen Toaster looked like a steely fortress that could toast well beyond the average human life span, but its limited, analog settings made it difficult and unwieldy to use. The Dualit’s toasting dial has just four levels, but in our tests we couldn’t find one setting that made golden brown toast. We wished it had more browning options. You have to manually retrieve toast from the Dualit—it will not pop up on its own, and there’s no timer noise. It also took up almost twice as much counter space as some of the smaller toasters.
We also tested the $250 Magimix by Robot Coupe, which has glass sides that allow you to watch your bread turn to toast. Like the Dualit, the Magimix is inconveniently large for a two-slice toaster. The Magimix did produce a mostly even toast, but each piece had a few white streaks around the top and bottom—an inevitability, it seems, with any glass-sided toaster. When filled with two slices, the Magimix’s long-slot design produced toast with white edges and patchy, overly toasted centers. If you do want a glass-sided toaster, we recommend the Cuisinart.
The Oster TSSTTRWF2S Brushed Stainless Steel 2-Slice Toaster browned bread evenly between batches, but all pieces came out with a raw, white top. When we peeked inside the slots, we saw the toaster had crooked heating elements that stopped partway up the walls of the toaster, which may explain why. The toaster also became too hot to touch after multiple rounds of toasting.
We liked how the exterior of the Hamilton Beach 2 Slice Cool Touch (22121) didn’t get hot to the touch after multiple rounds of toasting. However, it left bagels first looking pale, and then a bit too dark in our back-to-back toast tests.
Though a company best-seller, the Hamilton Beach Keep Warm 2-Slice Toaster (22811) gave us pale bagels and streaky toast with white tops. The toaster also beeps loudly three times before your toast pops up, which gets annoying fast.
While toasting on a middle setting, Hamilton Beach Classic Chrome 2 Slice Toaster (22790) left white tops and burnt bottoms, especially in the second and third round of back-to-back toasts.
The Black + Decker T2707S 2-Slice Toaster left slices of toast soft and pallid. Even at darker heating levels, the toaster didn’t reach the top of the bread, leaving doughy white crowns.
The Krups KH732D Breakfast Set did poorly in just about all of our tests. Our testers discovered its chrome exterior is wrapped around a cheap, lightweight interior frame that doesn’t sit securely on a countertop. If you push the lever to bring the toast up to the top, it tips over.
According to Cuisinart, the CPT-420 Touch to Toast has the same internal components as the CPT-440 (minus two slots and accompanying electronics, all from the same factory), so we were able to dismiss it.
Four-slot toasters
The four-slice, long-slot Breville The Bit More BTA730XL was one of the few that we tried that was able to swallow an entire oval slice of rustic sourdough without any of the bread sticking out of the slot. Unfortunately, it overcooked white bread on its middle setting.
The Breville BTA830XL Die-Cast 4-Slice Long Slot Smart Toaster toasted evenly, but it left the bottom of the lower corners of some pieces untoasted. Because it’s expensive, we expected more from this model.
The Oster TSSTTRWF4S-SHP 4-Slice Toaster, our former four-slice pick, toasted bread even more irregularly than its two-slice cousin. After toasting two rounds of bread on the same setting, the second batch inexplicably turned out lighter than the first.
The Cuisinart CPT-180 4-Slice Metal Classic Toaster toasted bread unevenly from batch to batch, leaving some pieces pale golden brown and other pieces burned.
The left lever on the Cuisinart CPT-640 4-Slice Toaster we tested was faulty. It couldn’t keep the bread in the slot without popping it up.
The Oster TSSTTR6330-NP 4-Slice Long-Slot Toaster toasted bread very inconsistently. Some pieces had hot spots or were burned while others remained pale.
Though the Cuisinart CPT-440 Touch to Toast Leverless 4 Slice Toaster has motorized slots, individual LCD panels, and countdown timers, it didn’t toast anywhere near what its steep price tag might suggest. In our tests, it toasted bread inconsistently from slot to slot.
The Frigidaire Professional four-slot toaster performed admirably in our tests, but Eggo waffles came out squished by the toaster’s racks along their bottom edge. The right and left sides also toasted inconsistently from one another.
Betty Gold, Toaster Reviews, Good Housekeeping, September 8, 2017
Two-Slice Toasters, Cook’s Illustrated (subscription required), June 1, 2013
Toaster Ratings, Consumer Reports (subscription required)
Phil McKnight, global business manager for beverage products at Breville, interview, May 1, 2015
Eric Murrell, publications chair and newsletter editor at the Toaster Collectors Association, interview, May 1, 2015
Peter Reinhart, baker and author, interview, May 1, 2015
Michael Sheafe, toaster repairman, phone interview, November 22, 2017
If you've come to find an exceptional toaster oven that you really ought to buy right this instant, I'm afraid I've got some bad news for you: Toaster ovens are, in my humble opinion, mostly terrible.
It's perhaps a hard truth to hear. For generations, the toaster oven has been a trusty, crusty countertop companion -- a toaster that doubles as a second, small-sized oven -- and with faster preheat times to boot! The problem? Most things you'd want to toast, like bread or bagels, would be better off in a toaster, and most things you'd want to bake would be better off in an oven. Either way, you're compromising from the get-go.
Most toaster ovens are bulky as hell, too -- and thanks to the rise of sous vide cookers, Instant Pots, kitchen-friendly smart displays, food processors and the like, the chances are good that you've got a better way to put that precious counter space to use.
Still, maybe you don't have an oven and need a toaster oven -- or maybe you just want one, dammit. I get it. This is a much-beloved kitchen contraption we're talking about, and my toasty hot take is probably a minority report. And like I said up in that second sentence of paragraph 2, there's a lot to like about toaster ovens!
But splurging doesn't always make sense. Want to add in modern luxuries like built-in food cameras, barcode scanners and smart cooking assistance? Techie toaster ovens from names such as Tovala, June and Brava can cost anywhere from $350 to $995, but most of those extras are above and beyond what an average kitchen needs.
More reasonable are 'upgrade pick' toaster ovens such as the fun, well-calibrated Panasonic FlashXpress, or a sturdy stalwart such as the Breville Smart Oven, both of which we reviewed -- and loved -- a few years ago. But at $125 and $245 respectively, those models, too, are outside the mainstream in a world where a regular toaster can be had for less than $20.
That's why I decided to take a look at some of your less expensive options to see if I could find a good value. I honed in on popular, well-reviewed models that cost between $50 and $100, and I used convection cooking -- a trick that uses a fan to circulate the hot air and cook more evenly -- as a baseline, must-have feature.
Then, with six toaster ovens ready to go in our test kitchen, I set out to put them to the test. Of these six, there were two we liked. But we're including the aforementioned Panasonic and Breville in our top picks list here because they remain well worth the splurge.
Disclosure: CNET may get a share of revenue from the sale of the products featured on this page.
We've tested all of those aforementioned upgrade picks here at CNET Appliances, but the only one any of us has ever bought for ourselves is the FlashXpress. It's a fun, quirky cooker that uses infrared heating elements to toast and bake with speedy precision. It might not be big enough for everybody, but that also means that it won't take up any more room than it needs on your countertop. Even now, six years after we first reviewed it, it's still easy to recommend as a toaster oven upgrade.
It definitely isn't cheap at about $250, and there's nothing smart about it in a cloud-connected sense, but the Breville Smart Oven cooks just about everything about as well as you could possibly expect from a countertop cooker. On top of that, it's sturdy, attractive and packed with extra cooking modes that you might actually find useful. It's a great pick if you don't have an oven or if you plan on using your toaster oven just about every day.
The Bialetti 35047 offers the same 1,800 watts of cooking power as you'll get from Breville, but at $99, it costs less than half as much. You also get a modern-looking black stainless steel build with an easy-to-use digital display that lets you dial into your preferred level of doneness whenever you're toasting something. Another little feature that I love? The 'A Little Extra' button for those times when your toast needs just a minute more or so. Just be warned: That extra power means that the Bialetti tends to cook quickly -- and we've got the burnt pizza to prove it.
I hate that the door on this toaster oven opens down more than 90 degrees. The glass can crash directly against the corner of your counter if it isn't pushed all the way back against your backsplash.
Still, if you can forgive that design flaw, then you'll love the way this thing cooks. Available for about $65 at Costco, it was a top finisher in each one of our cooking tests. That sort of reliable, predictable cooking is exactly what you want from your toaster oven.
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Bialetti 35047 | Black & Decker TO3265XSSD | Hamilton Beach 31123D | Nostalgia Retro RTOV220RETRORED | Oster TSSTTVCG05 | Toshiba AC25CEW-BS | |
Energy Draw | 1,800W | 1,500W | 1,500W | 1,500W | 1,500W | 1,500W |
Settings | 9 (Toast, Bake, Broil, Warm, Bagel, Pizza, Cookies, Defrost, Reheat) | 4 (Toast, Bake, Broil, Air Fry) | 4 (Bake, Toast, Broil, Convection) | 4 (Bake, Pizza/Toast, Broil, Convection) | 5 (Bake, Toast, Broil, Warm, Turbo) | 10 (Bake, Toast, Broil, Convection, Pizza, Cookies, Rotisserie, Defrost, Reheat, Keep Warm) |
Toast time, 2 slices, medium setting | 5:00 | 4:00 | 3:30 | 5:30 | 4:30 | 3:20 |
Toast time, 2 slices, dark setting | 8:00 | 8:00 | 6:30 | 9:00 | 7:30 | 4:30 |
Exterior Dimensions | 19.7 x 15.8 x 14.2 in. | 21.5 x 23.0 x 11.2 in. | 9.4 x 18.7 x 15.2 in. | 19.2 x 15.4 x 10.8 in. | 18.5 x 15.7 x 10.4 in. | 19.0 x 10.8 x 15.6 in. |
Interior Width | 12 in. | 16 in. | 12 in. | 12.5 in. | 12 in. | 12.5 in. |
Interior Depth | 12 in. | 12 in. | 12 in. | 12 in. | 12 in. | 12 in. |
Interior Height (from bottom rack position) | 7.5 in. | 7.5 in. | 5 in. | 7 in. | 6 in. | 7 in. |
Broil Height (from top rack position) | 2.5 in. | 2 in. | 3.5 in. | 4 in. | 4 in. | 2 in. |
Weight | 18.0 lbs. | 19.0 lbs. | 14.0 lbs. | 15.6 lbs. | 14.9 lbs. | 16.2 lbs. |
Color | Black Stainless Steel | Stainless Steel | Stainless Steel | Red | Stainless Steel | Black Stainless Steel |
Notable Features | 'A Little Extra' button | Mesh air-frying rack | 'EasyReach' door | Retro design | None | Built-in rotisserie cooker |
Warranty | 1-year | 2-year | 1-year | 1-year | 1-year | 1-year |
Price | $99 | $79 | $69 | $99 | $65 | $99 |
You've got absolutely no shortage of toaster ovens to choose from. Names like Black & Decker, Hamilton Beach, Oster and countless others have been cranking the things out for generations now.
The true bargain-bin picks cost less than $50. If you're willing to spend a little more, you should expect to get some form of convection cooking, as well as perhaps a wider oven cavity, a few additional cooking presets, digital controls or a nicer-looking design. The Bialetti and Toshiba models I tested come in black stainless steel, matching a modern large appliance trend, and the Toshiba model features a built-in rotisserie rack, too. The Nostalgia model offers a unique, red-bodied build, while lower-cost options from Hamilton Beach and Oster serve as simpler budget picks.
Testing toaster ovens requires an awful lot of cooking, so I donned my trusty tan apron and got to work.
Specifically, I set out to cook a wide variety of common toaster oven fodder. With the exception of the toasting tests, where I looked at each toaster oven's individual settings for light, medium and dark toast, I used standardized temperatures and cook times, and followed the recommendations on the box for whatever I was cooking wherever possible.
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Bread made up the bulk of my test fodder -- after all, the thing most of us probably make most often with these things is still toast.
Most low-end toaster ovens use a built-in kitchen timer to set bake and toast times. Typically, those timers include a couple of presets for toasting -- medium toast, dark toast and in some cases, a setting for light, barely toasted bread, too.
Fancier models with digital displays will usually let you dial into a specific doneness level when you're toasting. You'll typically get about six or seven settings to choose from with those, each with preprogrammed toasting times. That's more precise than turning a timer knob, and worth it if you're a stickler for the perfect shade of golden brown.
For my purposes, I toasted two slices of thin, white sandwich bread in each toaster oven at its version of each of the three common settings: light, medium and dark. After each test, I photographed the results and made sure to let the toaster oven cool back down to room temperature before testing again.
The main thing I was looking for was a nice, even color at medium settings, as well as the ability to easily adjust up or down from there.
The models with digital displays -- Bialetti and Toshiba -- were the easiest to use, since you dial into your preferred level of doneness on a six- or seven-point scale rather than guesstimating with a timer knob. Four out of 7 was a touch too dark for my tastes with Bialetti, but it'd be easy enough to leave it set at 3 (it was also the only toaster oven that visibly toasted the bread at the lightest toast setting). I also appreciated that it was the only toaster oven of the bunch to feature an 'A Little Extra' button for those times when your toast needs another minute.
Meanwhile, the Toshiba's toast was a little too light at 4 out of 6, and too light at the darkest setting, too.
The other four toaster ovens I tested all use timer knobs with little markers for different settings. I'm not a fan of the approach, especially with a model like the Hamilton Beach 31123D, which puts tiny markers for medium and dark toast directly adjacent to one another on the dial. Though a full 3 minutes of toasting time separates them, you'll have to stoop down, squint and turn the knob very carefully if you want to hit anything in between the two with any sort of consistency.
The best of the manual control bunch? That'd be the Oster TSSTTVCG05, which consistently delivered satisfying golden brown toast at medium settings in less time than Bialetti, and which also features the best setting for folks who like toast dark, but not charcoal black.
Speaking of the darkest setting, I didn't begrudge the toaster ovens that burnt the hell out of my bread, because that darkest setting is often needed to toast from frozen. To put that to the test, I toasted several batches of frozen Eggo waffles in each toaster at the darkest setting. Predictably, the ones that had produced black toast at the same setting did the best job, though the Black & Decker toaster oven's Eggos were a little too well done at the darkest setting, too. That'll force you to search for a sweet spot between medium and dark on the dedicated doneness dial when you're toasting something frozen.
Meanwhile, the weakest toasters of the bunch -- Hamilton Beach and Toshiba -- weren't able to get the Eggos quite crisp enough. They might have benefited from Bialetti's 'A Little Extra' button.
I also baked a bunch of frozen pizzas -- personal-sized pepperoni pies from DiGiorno, to be specific. The box recommends baking them at 425 F for 17 minutes, so that's what I did with each toaster oven.
The results were all over place, but not terribly surprising. The Hamilton Beach model was a little wimpy in the toast tests, and it followed suit here, too, with an underbaked pizza that needed another couple of minutes in the oven. Meanwhile, the toaster oven with the most power -- the Bialetti -- gave us burnt pizza that cooked a lot faster than you'd expect.
Toshiba burnt the pizza, too. That was more surprising since it had the opposite problem during my toast tests. Like Bialetti, it offers a dedicated pizza setting. With both models, the result was basically identical -- burnt pizza when following the box instructions.
The best-cooked pizzas of the bunch came from Oster and Black & Decker, while the bright red, retro-designed Nostalgia toaster oven baked a passable pie, too.
In addition to DiGiorno's, I made sure to test a number of other frozen snacks, including mozzarella sticks (short bake time), Pizza Bagels (medium bake time) and waffle fries (long bake time). Again, for the most part, I was less concerned with how things tasted than I was with how much each toaster oven matched the recommended temperature and cook times. The results largely lined up with what we saw from the pizzas, but if you want to read more details, you can check out my full testing notes here.
My last tests were an office favorite: Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies. I baked five at a time in each toaster oven at its convection setting and according to the recommended time and temperature settings.
The Toshiba toaster oven again produced an overcooked result, which fit the pattern -- it undercooked during toast tests and overcooked during bake tests. Bialetti and Black & Decker's cookies were slightly well done, too. Meanwhile, Nostalgia, Oster and Hamilton Beach produced our taste testers' top cookies (they passed the eye test with my Twitter followers, too).
Nostalgia's convection setting gave us the most even bake -- a notable difference from the standard bake tests, where Nostalgia tended to cook faster in the back.
In honesty, though, all of the toaster ovens did pretty well at the convection setting -- it's a feature that really makes a difference with baked goods. In fact, all of them can bake cookies or anything else just the way you like. The ones that overcook or undercook will just require more of a learning curve.
To that end, the Oster toaster oven emerged as my top pick from a performance standpoint -- it aced my toast tests and proved predictable throughout all of my baking tests, too. That said...
I've yet to test a toaster oven that makes food taste any better than a full-size oven would. They're simply not designed to perform to that standard -- especially not for less than $100.
That's why I think you should take most toaster oven performance claims with a grain or two of salt. As long as your toaster oven doesn't overcook or undercook too much, and if it has enough power (1,500 watts is a good benchmark for an average-sized convection model), then you won't notice much of a difference in the way it cooks food as compared with other models like it.
You will notice design flaws and clunky user interfaces, though, so if you can, head to the store and get your hands on the models you're zeroing in on before you buy. Open and close the doors, adjust the racks -- look for the little things. For instance, the glass door on the top-performing Oster model opens down more than 90 degrees, which means that the glass can clank directly against the corner of your countertop if you don't have it pushed up against your backsplash.
As for me, I hated the imprecise doneness dials on the Hamilton Beach and Nostalgia toaster ovens, and I was also bugged by the temperature dial on the Toshiba model, which starts at 350 F and moves in 20-degree increments -- that means you can't hit a precise 400.
None of these toaster ovens is perfect, but some in this price range look better than others, and feel much easier to use. Those are differences worth shopping around for.
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You'll also want to think about what you'll be using your toaster oven for most often. If you like toast with your coffee each morning, prioritize a toaster oven with precise presets. If you like to broil things like hamburgers, make sure you get a toaster oven with a high top rack position 2 or 3 inches underneath the heating element. Many don't let you set the racks any higher than halfway up, which is too low for a good char.
One argument in favor of toaster ovens is that they use less energy than full-size ovens. That's true -- most full-size electric ovens will draw about 2,400 watts at medium to high heat, while the average toaster oven will draw around 1,500 watts. That means that every time you're using your toaster oven instead of your full-size oven, you're cutting your energy consumption by a little over a third.
What does that mean in dollars and cents? Let's walk through the math. Assuming an energy rate of $0.12 per kilowatt hour and an average use of 1 hour per day, the full-size oven will add about $105 to your energy bill each year. Unplug the oven and use a toaster oven instead, and that yearly energy cost drops to $65.
Your actual savings will vary based on use, and will likely be a lot less than $40. After all, most people who own toaster ovens will continue to use their full-size oven sometimes, if not most of the time, and hardly any of us will stop using our ovens altogether. So let's split the difference and say that using a toaster oven instead of a full-size oven at least some of the time can knock as much as $20 off of your yearly energy bill, provided you're baking something just about every day.
That's still pretty good, but it's also less than you might expect. Think about it -- the average 1,500-watt toaster oven offers about 0.6 cubic feet on the inside, while the average 2,400-watt electric oven offers about 5 cubic feet. The toaster oven is 85 percent smaller, but it's only using 35 percent less energy. If you've got a family to feed, or if you like to make multiple batches of cookies at a time, then you'll actually get more value from the full-size oven.
There sure are -- but it's very early, and they're very expensive. Unless you're an enthusiastic early adopter of smart kitchen tech with lots of cash to burn, they're tough to recommend.
The first to arrive was the June Intelligent Oven, which now sells in a second-gen model for $599. It's a capable cooking machine that uses built-in cameras to identify what you're trying to make, and it offers cooking guidance and an abundance of settings to tweak in its companion app. It also isn't good at making toast.
The Tovala Smart Oven is another second-gen smart oven, and at $349, it's less expensive than June. It doesn't feature built-in cameras -- instead, it uses a built-in QR code scanner to identify specific Tovala meal kits or, thanks to a recent update, frozen foods from Trader Joe's. From there, it automates the entire cooking process. You just put the food in and press start.
The third smart oven worth mentioning comes from Brava, and it's the most expensive of the three at $995. Among toaster oven upgrades, it's a bit like Frankenstein's monster -- you get the same infrared heating element as the Panasonic FlashXpress, the same built-in cameras as June, and the same meal-kit approach as Tovala. Like the oven itself, those meal kits are awfully expensive, with dinner for two ranging from $28 to $45.
I don't think any of these smart options are worth buying yet, but connected cooking gadgets are continuing to mature -- and with products like the Instant Pot proving that there's still a healthy appetite for well-featured kitchen tech, manufacturers are motivated to innovate.
That includes the market-movers. Just recently, LG announced that its smart ovens will support Tovala's meal kits -- though you'll need to scan their QR codes with the Tovala app on your phone. Whirlpool has a smart countertop oven of its own coming this spring; more are likely to follow suit.
Fresh competition like that might lead to something truly compelling -- and, at the very least, it should eventually help to bring prices down to more reasonable levels. When we get to that point, I'll update this section to include our top pick.
This story was originally published on March 5, 2019.
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