We've only had it a month or so, but I like our Breville Compact Smart Oven (it's still sizable, but definitely smaller than the regular Smart Oven, and does not have convection). The compact Smart oven is deeper than our old oven (Delonghi 6-slice), but not as wide.

There's a slight learning curve to figure out preferred settings for toasting (eg. for a 1/2 an English muffin, I use the highest darkness setting--7, and the highest slice # setting--4 because I like my English muffins crispy, while I set the toaster oven to a darkness of 3 or 4 and # of slices to 1 for a single, thin slice of raisin challah). As with any toaster oven, once you figure out the settings that work for you, you're good to go. If you leave the toaster on a setting that your son would like, all he'd have to do is push a button to start the toaster oven (button will "light" up red around it when oven is on).

Handle doesn't get hot at all, and I don't think the outside gets too hot (the top acts a warming plate for dishes which is nice--surface gets warm but not hot).

Only drawback (besides cost), the rack does not pull out by opening the oven door (some toaster ovens, incl the larger Smart Oven, do have this feature, but plenty do not, and it wasn't a deal-breaker for us).

It seems sturdy and well-built which was important to us--we had to replace the Delonghi twice. Not very well-made. The Breville seems much better quality.

HTH!

Ooh, that one looks nice! A little pricy (though worth it if it lasts)... it might work well for us. Thanks!

Glad to help! BTW, after a power outage (had one today!), the settings revert back to default settings--so you'd need to re-set for your son if that happens. No big deal, but good to know.

NC

I spent way to much time contemplated this very issue - I pulled the trigger @ Costco and got a cheap Oster for I had researched & found such rave reviews on the Breville that I finally pulled the trigger on that - @ Bed,bath beyond priced at $250 which I thought too pricey for a Toaster oven - w/20% coupon $200. I have had it less than a month and can only say "why didn't I do this sooner" - I have toasted, roasted veggies, made pizza, reheated dinners, kept dinner warm, heated frozen foods made Pumpkin pie! All the reviews I read are true, true, true - LOVE this oven. I am now considering getting the honking big microwave off counter & purchasing a smaller one.

This one
https://www.brevilleusa.com/cooking/the-smart-oven-tm.html

Smaller version
http://www.brevilleusa.com/toasting/the-compact-smart-oventm.html

GL

Thanks! You are swaying me :)

I like the idea of an inexpensive toaster oven just because I am like that, but I have been losing patience with cheap things that don't work well. (Like my stand mixer: a gift, so there is some guilt in getting rid of it, but what's the point if it can't even handle cake frosting. Honestly. Our hand mixer, which is a holdover from my husband's single days and is probably at least 25 yrs old, works much better.)

So one problem with the Breville is that it is that nice modern steel look to blend in with nice modern kitchens, but my kitchen is all white and un-modern tan, so it'll stick out like a sore thumb. ha! Too bad they don't make it in white. Maybe I should get a stainless countertop. :) (Joking, but ours does need replacing...)

Hey northcarolina (I have family there BTW!), I was in Bloomingdales this afternoon. Toaster oven is $225, then there was a sign on it saying take 20% off (I'm seeing 15% off kitchen stuff in an email I rec'd today from Bloomies, don't know if that would be instead of the 20% off I saw in the store, or in addition to it--you can always ask them if you call--they've been esp great about honoring promos lately), plus coupons/promos worth $25 off for every $100 spent, so that would be another $50 off! If you don't have access to Bloomies, I can email you the link/promo if you email me thru GW.

Well, if I get this it'll have to be the compact one; I don't see that one on the Bloomies site. I can probably find a good deal online or around town though -- I bet other stores are doing the same thing. Thanks for the heads up and for looking out for me!

So, based on the recommendation on this thread and other online research, I went out and bought the Breville convection toaster oven today. Expensive but I used a 20% off coupon at Bed, Bath & Beyond. So far, I've only done the burn-in and toasted a couple of bagels - but the bagels came out great. I'm really pleased about having a second oven now since there was no room for a wall oven in my galley kitchen. The only thing I want to mention was that during the burn-in (with the oven in pizza mode), the sides and top of the oven got Very Hot. I don't know if it would get that hot with just toasting since I did my toasting right after the burn-in.

I made toast today and the oven got warm but not very hot. It was when it was running as an oven yesterday that it got very hot but the handle stayed cool.

Reporting back as promised; the top, sides, and glass do get hot (though not hot enough to burn on quick contact, and I'm pretty sure you'd pull your hand away quickly enough to avoid burns once you felt the heat). The handle remained cool and comfortable.

All in all, we like our Compact Smart Oven so far. If we had larger counters/more space (and were willing to spend more $!), we might have considered its bigger brother in order to utilize it as a second oven. Not sure if it's large enough to be truly functional as one, but it certainly is larger than the compact version.

HTH!

Weissman - I realize you've just gotten your Breville, but have you cooked anything else in it? I am curious if it can handle a small casserole or square baking dish, and cook those things properly. I often am cooking the main dish in my range's oven, and wish I had another small oven for side dishes. My toaster oven isn't nearly large enough for true side-dish-sized cookware. Furthermore, my toaster oven's temperature control is iffy - great for grilled cheese, baked potatoes, reheating, etc., but my trusty toaster oven just isn't suited for real baking. I was wondering if the Breville is.

I cooked a frozen chicken pot pie in it last night and it came out great - in a little less time than the package said probably due to the convection. I also tried the broiler tonight to melt some cheese on top of a piece of toast and that worked fine. So far that's all I've done besides regular toast and toasted bagels but I'm quite impressed with it - particularly how well it toasts. The oven is reasonably large - I was surprised to find that my Bundt pan easily fits in it, although I haven't baked a cake yet.

We have the original size large Breville. Right now it is my sole oven because we're in the midst of our remodeling. I have been relying on it as my only oven since July! (plus the big green egg). It is a very useful and efficient small oven. Two caveats -- it is a little slow for making toast -- our toaster is faster. And, it gets very hot to the touch on top. We felt we needed to put an insulator pad on top of it because the bottoms of our cabs were close to it. But overall, really like it. Crazy as it sounds I almost think that from the standpoint of practicality it would make more sense to have two or even a three of these and not have a big oven at all.

I recently bought the larger Breville, for use during my kitchen remodel and as a second small oven afterward, and have been thoroughly satisfied with it. (Actually, we moved into this house about nine months ago with no functioning kitchen, no stove. With only about one ovenless month to go before the new kitchen is ready, I finally broke down and bought the Breville. So understand that this review is coming from someone for whom the ability to bake ANYthing seems like a small miracle and a joy.)

Thus far I've baked several batches of cookies, small free-form bread loaves, and dinner rolls. I've roasted a chicken (cut-up, not whole), warmed leftovers, toasted sandwiches, made a couple casserole-type dinners for six, baked pizzas both frozen and fresh, and yes, made toast. Baking with the convection fan is remarkably even for such a small oven. It's not perfect, and I've found that a sheet of cookies or a pizza browns slightly more evenly if I rotate the pan halfway through, but this step isn't absolutely necessary for good results.

At the store I checked a 9"x13" pan and found that it fit. MY 9x13, however, has handles that stick out and therefore doesn't fit. (I'm now wondering if what I saw at the store might have been 8"x12".) It comes with a useful 11"x11"x1" pan and a 13" pizza pan. Given the slight rim on the pizza pan, the usable flat surface is really 12" in diameter. I've also used 9"x9"x2" and 7"x11"x2" with no problems.

One thing to note, the thing uses 1800 Watts. When I run it in the temporary hallway kitchen of my old house, the lights of two rooms flicker and dim. When I told the electrician who was working on the kitchen that I had just bought an 1800 Watt toaster, his eyes widened slightly, and then he very carefully asked for all the places that we might decide to use it in the new kitchen so that he could be sure to accommodate it.