I am doing this in my kitchen. I am actually putting both the toaster oven and the microwave side by side in an appliance garage type set up. I know there is a fire issue with the toaster oven. I am planning enough clearance on all sides and I'll leave the doors up until it cools.

I'm sure it's totally not fire code but I don't care. I didn't want it sitting on the counter either.

I'm doing it, too. Micro and toaster oven side by side in a cubby type shelf. No doors.

I am toying with a similar idea.

One thing I would worry about is someone else using your toaster oven and shutting the cabinet door, or someone coming along and shutting the cabinet door when you are using the toaster oven. A forgetful relative, a thoughtless child, a helpful guest. I wonder if you can get the electrician to interlock the outlet in the cabinet, so that it turns off when the cabinet door is closed.

I don't think the risk is all that high - my Krups FBC2 toaster oven doesn't get terribly hot, certainly not at a 1 or 2 inch distance - but ideal to make things somewhat idiot-proof.

If you are determined to do this please try to find a toaster oven that cannot be left on accidentally. Several years ago I thought I was pushing the toaster function to off but actually pushed it to bake. When I came back home after a full day out the wall behind the toaster oven was too hot to touch. If the appliance had been any closer to the wall and nearby curtain I think we would have had a fire. Also, as johnliu has said above, you may be especially careful but you can't count on others to be equally vigilant.

Thanks. I was thinking of a larger cabinet space than the toaster oven requires with one of those slide-in doors like a television cabinet has. But that is a great idea to wire it so that if the door is shut, the power goes off.
Half of my work spaces seems to be taken by things like the toaster oven, the toaster, the coffee maker, the electric tea kettle, current cookbook favorites, some cannisters, a brita, a cutting board.... too much stuff

I don't think I'd use a toaster oven within an enclosed space like a cabinet. Ok to store it in there when not in use but I'd want to be able to pull it out and have it sitting on open counter before turning it on.

I do keep my toaster in my appliance garage, but I pull it out onto the counter before I pop the bread in.

We are building an appliance garage in our kitchen renovation and the toaster oven will go in there. I think we will probably pull it out when in use and push it back when not in use. There will be plenty of clearance though.

Mine is not hidden. It sits on the counter with a cabinet surround. There is more space around the oven than manufacture spec'd. It heats to 500F without the cabinetry getting hot.

Toaster ovens aren't insulated, and they get HOT. I'm really uncomfortable with surrounding them with cabinetry with doors. If it is in an enclosed cabinet, the plug for it needs to be outside that cabinet to be 100% sure that it's not accidentally turned on and inside the cabinet. That's a minimum safety effort to do that. If you do a "surround" like cothele has, I'd probably line the cabinet with metal flashing to deflect some of the heat. Yes, that' "probably" overkill. But, I'd rather err on the side of safety than call my insurance company amidst the smoking ruins of my new kitchen.

If you search for "electrical switch interlock" you'll find various devices that could possibly be used to interrupt the outlet circuit when a door is open. A company called ''Square D'' seems to make some, part numbers starting with ''EIK''. It is possible that a residential electrician and/or building inspector would not be familiar with these. I am not an electrican and have not used these myself.

Per some quick reading, the ignition temperature of wood is at least 420F. Which suggests that wood can be heated until it is too hot to touch, without necessarily reaching ignition temperature - not that it would be safe, or could be done repeatedly without ignition, or would be harmless to the wood or its finish - but my thought is that there is some safety margin to work with.

I'd buy the toaster oven you have in mind, set it on the driveway inside a cardboard mockup of the cabinet with the air gap that you plan, let it run and see what happens. With appropriate provisions to put out any resultant fire, of course.

As mentioned, I am thinking of something like this. I will probably line the inside of the cabinet with tile or another insulator. I am mulling over countertop ovens which are higher power than toaster ovens (2600 watt vs 1500 watt) so it may well not work for me.

Here's mine. Note, we recessed this portion about 4" into the wall to allow the doors to close without having a bump-out into the kitchen counter space.

See the tape above? That's where the fabricator had to put a seam. The maroons actually left that back piece completely out of the installation! Imagine my surprise when I went to put my toaster oven away and saw a 4" hole in the back of the space!

Is this really a fire hazard? I was also planning on putting my toaster oven in a 24" deep cabinet that 33" wide and 17" high. The toaster oven is small (15"w x 11d x 9"h) so I've left plenty of room for circulation. I plan on keeping the door open for a majority of the time, just closing when we are entertaining. Our toaster automatically shuts off when you open the door.

I'm planning to put it in a base drawer cabinet.
In order to use it, I have to pull the drawer out. Once done, I'll push the drawer back in.

I currently have the toaster oven and toaster both on my countertop and I hate it when my DH would use them WITH OUT pulling them out from under the upper cabinets. I don't like to "cook" the wood of my upper cabinets every time we use the t-oven/toaster.

Amanda

I also don't keep appliances on my counter top. My toaster oven is on a slide out drawer in a under-counter cabinet. I take it out when I need it.

Sue

I'm sorry if this sounds rude, but yours is a harebrained idea and I hope your fire insurance is really good. To say "I'm sure it's totally not fire code but I don't care." is beyond irresponsible. I had to go back in the thread to find that comment, it wasn't made by the OP.

I once went on a trip with a friend who had stayed at my house the night before we left. When we returned FOUR DAYS LATER I found the toaster oven on - at like 400 degrees. I was absolutely flabbergasted, my friend had turned on the oven and forgotten it! The ultimate responsibility was mine, as the home owner, but my friend easily could've burned down my house. I now unplug my toaster oven after every single use and guests are tactfully asked not to operate it.

I like the look of a clean countertop as much as any of the previous posters, but putting a toaster oven in a small enclosed area is a recipe for disaster.

Many newer toaster ovens now will not run indefinitely - you punch in the mode (toast, bake, broil, convection), the setting (hi lo), and the time (minutes) or doneness (for toast). The oven runs for the selected period and then shuts off. My Krups FBC2 is like this, if I recall correctly it will run for at most 1.5 hours. You might want to purchase such an oven.

(This model of Krups was recommended by Cooks Illustrated - just mentioning that in case you will be needing a new toaster oven. I've no connection w/ Krups.)

John and everyone, I was glad to see that John had a toaster oven he liked, the Krups. It would save me research time. I checked Amazon.

Two owners had their toaster ovens explode. Check the negative reviews

All the more reason to have an exploding toaster oven safely nestled in a blast cabinet! Just kidding.

I do like it, no explosion yet. Don't get your hopes up though, it does not toast as well as a slice toaster.

I would not put a toaster in an enclosed cabinet. The wood may take it and merely become discolored but coatings such as varnish, glaze, paint etc. tend to be highly flammable. It is likely that you have some kind of protective coating on the bare wood which has a lower combustion temperature. This acts as 'kindling' and could set your kitchen on fire. All you need is a bit of something dripping and you get a flare up, and really bad things can happen.

I am putting mine in a corner, like smarge, but with no door. It will be surrounded on three sides. I am thinking about putting it on a rolling shelf to pull out for use. I hadn't thought about proofing or insulating this shelf material, but that would be easier than doing so with the whole inside of the cabinet. If you have it enclosed inside a door, having it on a shelf like this would insure that you would be aware that it is off before sliding it back in. Unplugging it every time is also a good idea, and not difficult if the outlet is that convenient (but worth it even if the outlet is not convenient).

I have a KA that I like for what we use it for. The power button is integrated with the mechanical timer, like a typical kitchen timer. When the timer goes off, the oven goes off. This is one of my favorite features; I don't have to remember to check to make sure it's off. Like johnliu's, it doesn't toast as well as a regular toaster, but we also use it for things other than sliced bread.

I agree, "safety first" is not just a catchy phrase. Getting into a habit of unplugging any small appliance would be worth the effort it takes. But did the toaster ovens explode from inherent problems, while the owner was using it (and as a result of using it), or from a surge that would have exploded anything plugged in there? I did look up exploding toaster ovens and found that on most, it was the glass that exploded while cooking, but that wasn't limited to a particular brand. Johnliu, your brand had one that exploded. Apparently mine did too, though I couldn't find that particular review.

Sounds like maybe toaster ovens are a convenience to be handled with care in general. To be safe, don't let your kids stand in front of them and watch their food cook.

I found various complaints about exploding (shattering) glass doors, on various brands of toaster oven. I saw Toastmaster, Black & Decker, KitchenAid, Krups, Cuisinart brands mentioned, before I stopped browsing.

If you search, you'll find also complaints of glass windows in (full-size) ovens shattering. Even some complaints about the glass doors of microwave ovens shattering. Apparently this is something that happens, not very often but not never either, and isn't limited to any particular brand or type of oven.

I believe the glass in most or all ovens (toaster, full-size, or microwave) is tempered so the risk from shattering glass would not be great. I agree, you wouldn't want to peer closely at the glass while the oven is running, but no-one in our house finds the toasting process all that fascinating.

I just happened to be in the kitchen at work a couple of months ago when the toaster oven caught fire.

The guy was making toast (auto shut off), and it ignited grease on the bottom. And someone regularly cleans this oven.

I can say without hesitation, YES, this is a fire hazard.

If the cabinets -- a good 8-10 inches above the oven -- had not been made of metal, they would have ignited. The paint bubbled.

The guy knocked it off the counter onto the tile floor with enough force that it unplugged itself and we watched it burn itself out upside down, praying that it didn't set the sprinklers off.

I have no question that if it had been in a cabinet, the whole cabinet would have ignited, and the whole wall, and the whole kitchen within minutes.

Yes, maybe if this happened and you were standing right there and everything happened just right you'd whip out your fire extinguisher, cool as anything, and it would work just right, and you'd only lose a wall of cabinets.

But, most likely, this would not happen when you were at home.

This would probably happen when you were out. When someone who isn't familiar with how to use the setup safely -- a babysitter, your husband's stupidest friend after a few halftime beers, your kid who KNOWS better but got talked into it by a friend.

And fire gets out of control so fast, and there's no stopping it. No insulating it or containing it when it's licking up the whole front of the cabinet. Or the heat is slowly building in the box for hours or days, just waiting for oxygen to burst into a flame.

I understand the desire to get the oven off the counter. But the only way to do this safely is to store the oven there, take it out, and put it back when it's cool. Otherwise, it's just a bad idea. It's against fire code for a reason.

I have known half a dozen people who have had house fires. It really happens. Not to everyone, but it happens. And I know someone who died thinking they could put the fire out themself.

Be safe.

Um, where was the fire extinguisher that is required to be mounted in view in a kitchen?

FWIW, my Cuisinart Toaster oven is awesome and I highly recommend it. The space I store it in my kitchen was designed in order to accommodate it.

There are 9.5" between the top of the oven and the bottom of the upper cabinet above it. 4" on each side and 1.5" to the rear. The inside of the upper cabinet doesn't get as warm from the toaster oven as the rest of the uppers to from the UC lighting installed there!

My white Kountry Kraft cabinets look like new inside with zero discoloration and we've used the oven almost daily since moving in in July 2008.

That said, we use basic intelligence when using the oven. The door is obviously open while being used. The door is not closed until the oven is able to be touched.

Oh yeah. We have a fire extinguisher in the kitchen under both sinks. Not "code" bc they are supposed to be mounted in a visible place, but the kids, the sitter and any other guests who might cook are shown the location.

We also have fire extinguishers on every floor of the house and in our garage.

We also have a family fire escape plan that our kids both know. (We've even practiced it bc their school wants us to each October.)

Also have a hardwired, monitored security and fire alarm system throughout the house. We found out it takes less than 4 minutes for the fire department to get to our house bc my son was curious what would happen if he pushed the "test" button on the smoke detector.

A toaster oven installed in cabinetry is not for everyone. But, I think we're good.

johnliu, you must not have young children. Though I don't allow mine free access to the kitchen for that kind of reason.

We are putting our Breville Smart Oven (which is 1800-watts) in our breakfast bar. It will have a surround like cotehele's. Our microwave will sit in a similar surround on the other end of the breakfast bar. We gave the specs of the toaster oven to our architect, contractor and cabinetmaker (to make sure they understood how much clearance we would need) and they designed our breakfast bar around the specs.

We have a toaster oven and coffee maker in a corner appliance garage with a door. We pull the coffee maker out to use. After many years of keeping them both plugged in with no problem I almost caused a fire. I shoved the coffee maker into the cabinet and closed the door. What I didn't know was that I had inadvertently switched the rocker switch on the toaster to ON. After a while I started to notice the house filling with smoke and after running around frantically trying to figure out where it was coming from I realized it was the appliance garage. The coffee maker was melted but had not caught fire.

Clearly we don't keep the toaster oven plugged in anymore. It's just me and my husband, so I don't worry about it, but I'd never recommend this set up to anyone.