Wise purchase for single senior!!
Pros:
Makes great toast, perfect for single people for small snacks, looks great.
Cons:
One quirk - Hard to switch to oven heating sometimes - needs patience.
The Bottom Line:
For one or two people who love toast and quick snacks, need economy of space and price, highly recommend this solution. 4 stars due to it's one oven quirk.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
This dual use toaster/oven suits my needs perfectly. When my toaster oven broke down I went through a hard decision making process of whether to replace it or get a toaster, either/or with no other counter space in a small senior's studio apartment kitchen, more like a galley. And a very limited income too! Then surfing for toasters I found this perfect answer on Amazon for $34 and free super saver shipping, no sales tax. Read the reviews and took my chances. Never regretted it, now I just love this little guy!!
It's quick, looks great with my other black and chrome appliances, makes great light toast at 3 1/2, and takes wide whole grain bread I prefer, or English muffins. Never had a pop up or stuck problem at all. I could not even find a good quality toaster for wide bread for less than $30, and small toaster ovens are almost non existant, and alone cost more than this, so this is a great buy 2 for 1.
It's not too small for my quick late night snacks, although at first the small frozen Celeste pizzas I buy were even too wide to fit. I quickly learned I can snap them in half like a big cookie when frozen and lay both halves in at the same time spread out. On the rack I get a crispy crust, or soft on the baking tray. Now I've moved up to bigger better pizzas just breaking off a smaller serving at a time, 4 minutes and done.
Just as handy for quick frozen fries, Quescadillas or Hot Pockets. Just keep an eye on it with no timer. Toasted cheese sandwiches and frozen fish sticks, perfect, no need to warm an oven and waste energy. My big oven holds my Baby George Foreman electric rotiserie so is never used for baking, nor the broiler which is too hard to bend over to clean with my bad back. So counter top cooking and a microwave make chores very easy and less time on my feet in the kitchen.
The only problem I've had is sometimes getting the oven to turn on. You switch a lever to close off the top bread toaster to use the oven below, sometimes it takes 3 or 4 pushes to get it to connect and the red light to show the oven is on. It takes some jiggling to get the lever in exactly the right position which is not all the way to the end. But once the red light comes on it starts heating, just a quirk and for the price I expect non perfection, not worth trying to exchange it by mail.
I've used it for 5 months now, and even if it were just for morning toast (which I missed when using just a toaster oven) it's serving my needs well and is in the top 3 of things I'm glad I bought. If it only lasts a year I'll replace it with exactly the same thing if available.