Black & Decker FC150B InfraWave Speed Cooking Countertop Oven, Black
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Black & Decker FC150B InfraWave Speed Cooking Countertop Oven, Black
Customer Review: A review from a bachelor!
Summary: 2 Stars
Just let me say that as a bachelor, this device was very appealing. I was looking for a way to cook & eat healthy without having to slave behind a stove every night. After watching the infomercial (both web and TV) I finally decided that I would give the infrawave a shot. I actually spotted the oven in the Black and Decker Store while I was on vacation in Wisconsin and brought it home with me on the plane.
The Infrawave comes with an assortment of literature as well as an instructional DVD which proved to be very helpful.
The first time I used it, I cooked 2 small shoulder steaks with carrots and sliced potatoes. The results were positive, but not life altering. I chalked it up to being a first timer. The vegetables did not come out soft and steaks seemed a little dehydrated (even using the conversion setting). But like I said, I was still thought it was a positive experience.
The second and final time I used it was to cook a baked potato as a snack. I used the "easy features" on the device and selected "potato" (even watched the DVD they include with the oven) the default time was 45minutes.. at the end of the cycle, the potato wasn't even half cooked so I put it in for another 10 minutes and it still was not fully cooked. This was the last straw. Why? Cause obviously you have to play with this thing in order to get the "true" correct timing for cooking certain foods. Not worth it. For $140 this thing needs to perform as advertised, I don't have time and money to waste (threw out the potato) trying to figure out how long I need to cook food. I cleaned the machine and packed it up and drove 62 miles to the closest Black and Decker store and returned it for a full refund.
Needless to say, I was disappointed that the Infrawave didn't live up to the hype. From reading other posts, I have concluded that this device is probably perfect for reheating leftovers, baked goods, toasting, and cooking "simple meals", but not preparing full course meal which is what I was looking for. Maybe this was out of the scope of the device, but I was given the impression that this thing could be a "one-stop-shop" for me. I have had better success with the combination George Foreman Grill for cooking meats and stove top cooking for veggies and rice.
Pros
- Very Easy to Use (was actually impressed)
Cons
- Does not perform as advertised.
- Pricey.
- External surface gets very very hot.
Customer Review: A Great Oven for You and (If Applicable) Your Diet!
Summary: 5 Stars
Ok, I must admit that when I took the Black & Decker FC150B InfraWave Speed Cooking Countertop Oven out of the box and felt how light it was, I thought: "What is this? A toaster oven?" Well I was quickly proven wrong as I put it through its' paces soon enough. My first use of the Speed Cooking CounterTop Oven was to cook a frozen chicken breast. I coated the rock hard bird with some olive oil and spices and then popped it in. I set it to broil and in about 25 minutes I had a golden brown piece of chicken which was moist and juicy inside. Try this in a conventional oven and you usually end up with meat with super-ball consistency. The next night I baked a fillet of catfish which was bathed in olive oil, herbs, garlic, lemon slices, and white wine. I baked it at the fish fillet setting and in 15 minutes, my meal was done to perfection!
I went out and bought 3 "pyrex" dishes which easily fit into the oven, one for baking/broiling, one deep dish for lasagna, meatloaf, and a cassarole with lid, for stews. Now what this helps me with is that I am now cooking smaller portions. One will no longer cook as if you are feeding the 8th army, leaving a slew of leftovers in the fridge. If you are single, or a couple, you will not mind that you are cooking smaller meals, because not only is it good for your waist line, you will also not waste food. Since using this oven is fast and efficient, cooking will not seem like a chore.
Now obviously if you are feeding a family of 5, this oven may not be for you.
My one caveat, as noted by others, is that the top of the oven does indeed become too hot. You will not want any children around it, but that's a good rule for any type of cooking. Some additional weight of the oven could have been used for some insulation between the inner and outer walls.
I also want to point out the complaint that you need to fiddle with the timing settings sometimes in order to cook your food the way you want. Well no one is proclaiming that this is a magic oven that will automatically have every single setting, for all types of food. Consider that when you cook in a conventional oven who know that a 1 inch rib steak will be medium in less time than a 3 inch piece. Once you use the oven a few times, you will know whether or not you will need to adjust the time of your meal without any brain strain.
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Customer Review: Another review from a bachelor
Summary: 4 Stars
I was given this item from a friend, so I didn't buy it.
I followed the instructions from the included booklet to bread a chicken breast, freeze it, and then cook it some days later.
The breast came out raw on the inside, when following directions. So we put it back in for a couple more minutes. When it came out again, this was, simply, the BEST CHICKEN BREAST I HAVE EVER MADE.
My girlfriend and brother were blown away.
I've made about a million breasts, frying and/or baking: I fry them with skins on, low heat to render the fat out, then brown the bottom flesh. Then finish in the oven to a perfect 160 F, let sit outside for 10 minutes and they go up 170 F and they're perfectly done. Then I sometimes broil the skins to get them to absolute perfection. When I do my chicken breast right, they are pure juicy goodness with a top layer of crispy perfect skin and NEVER too dry. I make good chicken breast, ok? But this oven beat me. Flat out beat me. Even on a skinless breast, the breading in combination with how the oven cooked gave it that toasted/crispy outside with a juicy inside.
It does take some tinkering, as I noted above. As for the dude who wanted it to 'just work' as advertised -- I understand about the price/performance arguement, but it's just hard to do that, since the manufacturer never knows what the size/weight of the food is that you're cooking. I mean, I can hardly ever get the same sized breast in the super market. So in conventional ovens I always rely on thermometers, not just XXX temp, for YYY time.
I still don't know how to do the conversions, but I think it will be worth trying.
And as far as a time saver, well, I don't think it saves a huuge amount of time, but if you can go from a frozen hunk of meat to a perfectly cooked hunk of meat in a controlled manner (without having to babysit the stove), then it's a huge convenience. Now that I think about it, I didn't have to defrost, either, so I guess it does save time, too.
As for the oven getting too hot..... I don't know what to say, people. Do you complain about your shower being too wet or your freezer being too cold and knives being too sharp for children?
It's an oven...
Customer Review: I love it so far!
Summary: 5 Stars
I received the Infrawave oven just tonight. I was really looking forward to preparing a meal (even had it planned out in advance). Getting home from work at 5:00 in the evening, leaves little time to prepare a decent meal without taking all night long to cook. I love broccoli casserole and since I had not had one in an eternity this was my test for the new oven, along with frozen hard hamburger patties from Wal-mart.
My casserole has a cook time of 35 minutes on 350, however, for years I have cooked it 50 minutes to get the center completely done, since it has four eggs in it. That is 50 minutes + reheating the oven which takes 15 minutes. Now to be fair, the oven reheats during preparation so one really can not say that is a time savings. After I prepared the casserole for cooking, I used the "convert" feature and the new "Infrawave Cook Time" turned out to be 24 minutes......l/2 the time it would take to cook in the large oven. The results were amazing. Completely done, browned on top (actually, I had to cover the top with aluminum foil the last 5 minutes or so to keep top from burning), however, it did not rise as much as it normally would in the large oven (it fell a little bit while cooling), but tasted great and and shaved 26 minutes off of the normal cooking time.
Next item was the two frozen hamburger steaks. Using the default settings for broiling hamburgers, it stated they would be done in 14 minutes and they actually were in 12. Taste? The meat was only slightly rubbery, but not so much that I did not enjoy the patty. It had a good taste. Rubbery because it was frozen to start? It cooked so quickly? Only time will tell on this one, still it was good, and quick.
I cooked a 50 minute casserole, and a 45 to 55 minute hamburger patties in in 36 minutes, and the flavor was great by any standard. Now that is time savings a working person can relate to at the end of a hard day's work. I think this is the start of a wonderful relationship between man and Infrawave oven that is.
Customer Review: Great Little Oven
Summary: 5 Stars
After watching the infomercial several times, I could no longer resist the urge to buy one. Upon it's arrival I opened up the box, set it up on my counter and have been running it through it's paces.
I must say this oven is very light in comparison to what I imagined. As a result I store it away in it's box and just pull it out when I'm going to use it. The inside dimensions are 10-5/16" x 11" x 6". This size will accomodate the included slide rack, bake pan, and broil rack. It will also accomodate an 8" x 8" or 9" x 9" glass dish.
The oven has several settings: pizza, cookies, quick foods, speed toast, bake & roast, broil, and the convert menu. I found the speed toast setting to work very well and quickly brown toast to perfection. The pizza setting I found to be a little short on time, so I now use the add time buttons to increase the cooking times by three minutes. I've also used the convert setting to bake canned, refrigerated cinnamon rolls. It did an excellent job converting the cooking instructions into Infrawave instruction. In ten minutes (no preheating) I had perfect rolls. On items with sweet toppings (ie: sugar, cinnamon) I found that covering the top with aluminum foil for the first half of the cooking time prevents the items from burning on top.
Overall, I have been very pleased with the performance of this appliance. I will update this review once I've had time to try out the bake and roast setting and the broil setting.
Update 10/08:
I've continued to use this oven frequently and am very happy with it. The broil feature has been especially useful. I normally wouldn't broil anything as it took way too long for my electric oven to reach the necessary temperature. Plus the door needed to be propped open. That is not a problem with the Infrawave. You just stick the food in, hit the broil button, and in just minutes your steak, chicken, etc. is done to perfection. Thanks to Black & Decker for making such a great cooking product.