Breville BOV800XL The Smart Oven 1800-Watt Convection Toaster Oven with Element IQ
|
List Price: Our Price: $234.88 You Save: $65.11 (22%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $217.34 (click here) Category: Kitchen See more product details |
|---|
Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Breville BOV800XL The Smart Oven 1800-Watt Convection Toaster Oven with Element IQ
Customer Review: Love this oven/toaster
Summary: 5 Stars
I absolutely love this item. I bought it a year ago from Bed Bath & Beyond, and used a 20% discount coupon. The other thing that I appreciate about buying products from BB&B is that should this unit ever start acting funky, I can return it at any time. Yes, seriously. BB&B takes things back for years after you've bought the item from them.
Anyway, this isn't a review of BB&B, so on with the oven comments. I read some reviews that said the oven temperature is off. I haven't personally tested this, because my items always come out cooked as they should be; in fact, I actually reduce the temperature and cooking time, because the convection fan circulates air around the item maintaining an even temperature for the whole cooking time (vs. a gas oven that heats up, then turns off its heat when it reaches temp, and then turns it on again when the temp goes lower then what it was set for).
I've also read reviews that only comment on this item as a toaster oven, and then complain that it's really expensive for being "just a toaster oven". However, this baby is way more then a toaster oven. It is a full blown functioning oven that can bake, broil, and do everything your regular oven can do in a shorter amount of preheat, and cook time, w/o using nearly as much energy as a regular oven. In addition, Cook's Illustrated recently did a product review of toaster ovens and found this model to be the best out of the 10 or so they tested. Specifically, the oven uses quartz heating rods which allows it to have an even temperature, i.e., no hot spots, and cooks items evenly as well, e.g., no need to rotate a pan in the middle of baking. I find this product to be well worth its price tag.
Again, I love this oven! I use it all the time and rarely use my regular gas oven. In fact, the only time that I do use my gas oven is when I'm making pizza (I make fresh dough and then use a pizza stone that needs to be preheated for a good 30-45 minutes, the Breville is really not that great of a fresh pizza baking oven, although it might do well with a frozen one); or when I'm baking something that requires me to have a large pan, or two or more pans in the oven at once.
Customer Review: I love this!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
My husband took one look at this oven and after tweaking the knobs thought they felt a bit cheap..well I think because the knobs resemble knobs on high-end audio equiptment he had an expectation they would be heavier and feel more in line with that type of equipment. He's reconsidered his initial impression and, like me, loves this oven. The controls are easy to navigate and don't require a stupid number of buttons to push for a simple piece of toast. The sound alerts are pleasant and at a perfect volume..this is really important to me. I hate jarring tinny sounding alarms. The whole unit is quiet when its baking/broiling/toasting.
The display is pleasant to look at and easy to read. The interior is spacious. The exterior, like all the other toaster ovens I read reviews on, DOES get hot, but there's the option to put the bamboo tray on top..or remove it for use as a warming tray. Quite frankly the front of my conventional oven gets quite hot to the touch. The cord is very beautifully designed with real safety in mind. And I agree with the other reviewer who pointed out the caution on using glass and foil is similar to standard safety precautions in other ovens.
The toast is yummy...I have to stop making toast! I use the pizza pan included for grilled grilling open faced sandwiches..easy clean up :). And although expensive..I will be saving much money by not using my large conventional oven so much.
The optional accessories appeared unavailable on the web site (The U.S. site was under construction) so I contacted the company by email and got a quick and helpful reply. Its possible order these items by phone however the customer service rep assured me it was ok to use the bamboo cutting board I had already purchased from a discount store that fits the dimensions of the oven perfectly so I didn't bother ordering another.
Just prior to taking the plunge in buying this oven, I had purchased a black and decker 4 slice toaster oven...I couldn't return it fast enough. I then spent an evening reading review after review on all the popular toaster ovens and decide on this model. I made the right decision.
Customer Review: We don't use our full-size oven anymore
Summary: 5 Stars
Full size ovens have their uses but for my wife and I (no kids), we found it to be a pain and stopped using it. It takes forever to pre-heat, and is so large that it is in-efficient for us for every day use. We also had a problem where it has a fish smell in it and anything we bake in it (such as brownies) taste like fish. I am sure we just need to use the self-clean function, but that is a 4 hour ordeal.
I've been eyeing the Breville for a while and finally decided to bite the bullet after seeing all the great reviews. I can't be happier with that decision.
The unit heats up quickly and it is the perfect size for what we want to do as a daily use kitchen appliance.
Toast comes out perfect (thanks to the "select the number of slices" function) and frozen foods (such as pizza and pizza rolls) come out perfect and able to be eaten fairly quickly (not over baked nor hot).
Another commenter said it might be a good idea to put the oven on its own electrical circuit. I would actually agree with that, but it is not necessary. This oven shares the circuit with our fridge and I do notice the fridge light flickers while the oven is on. So, it looks to use quite a bit of power when on.
We've only had it a short time but have made brownies from scratch, frozen pizza, frozen pizza rolls, other frozen foods, and fish in it. Oh, and of course, toast and waffles. Because of the built-in timer and auto-off, you pretty much set it and forget it.
I did buy a 13" pizza stone from here (Fox Run 13-Inch Pizza Stone) that works and fits great for this oven. I have seen random complaints about the bake/broiler pans that come with the unit being too thin and flimsy. I am thinking the Breville folks fixed that issue because the pans that came with my unit are super heavy duty -- I could probably knock someone out with them if I clocked them with one.
The only complaint I have, and this is not a fault of the unit, is that I have a hard time knowing when to use the convection function or not.
Summary: time saver, easy to use, daily appliance, enjoyable, cooks great
Customer Review: Overall quality not up to the price
Summary: 4 Stars
I have been looking for a good quality toaster oven for some time. This one seemed to be what I wanted. It arrived quickly as always with Amazon but the first thing I noticed was that the door was off center. It was lined up at the bottom and then headed off to the left as it went up to the top. The finish was rubbed off where the door met the door frame at the top center. It seems the item is not that well made and during shipping the door shifts to the left and remains there permanently. There were also two or three small dings in the front frame of the door. There was absolutely no damage to the packaging of any kind. It was placed in the box this way. For this price, I felt this was unacceptable and returned it for a replacement. The replacement had the SAME EXACT problems. I returned to also. I think the manufacturer needs to look at some type of packaging change to stop the door from moving around during the shipping process.
I then tried ordering from another retailer. They had it for the same price but after opening an account with them, I got another 20% off. It arrived and had the same door problem, only much less so. Since there were no dings in the door frame, I decided to keep it. After using it for a couple weeks, I can say that it is the best toaster oven I have ever owned. It does everything right. Since there are only two of us in the home, I think we will be using this in place of the regular oven as it cooks so evenly.
As some of the reviews stated, it is a power hungry kitchen appliance. When it is running with the convection on, the light in the refrigerator has a slight flicker to it when you open the door. It should have its own dedicated power line. I think I am going to move it to the other side of the kitchen where it will share power with the dishwasher and disposer. I do not think either of those will be running at the same time as the toaster oven. This is in a newer house with an ample electrical supply so I do not think I would purchase this if I lived in an older home with no upgrade in electrical service.
Customer Review: Great, but not accurate at high temperatures
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought one too. The internet is full of BS here's the real scoop folks:
I accurately checked temperature with multiple other oven thermometers in front and back, mid and bottom rack, results were similar in all scenarios:
Set to low temps 150-300, it accurately heats to the correct temperature! It has an even temperature throughout and it is excellent at maintaining the temperature (not matter where I put the thermometers the results came back very similar). It does heat up fast (at low temps).
BUT - Set to broil at 500F, it took 20 minutes to reach 445F. After another 10 minutes it topped out at 450F. So if you think this will reach high temperatures like a normal oven, it won't, which was disappointing because many reviews on here suggest and imply that it does, but these folks have never checked the temperature, because it does not.
Not all heating elements turn on, different ones are used by different modes, and no mode uses them all (the manual explains how this works). So though it clearly has heating elements that COULD do this if they were all on - there is no way, even by switching modes to try and trick it, to reach a higher temperature than about 450F with this oven (depending slightly on your kitchen room temperature). Pizza mode is supposed to reach 450F, but it also takes over 20 minutes to heat to this temperature, even though it uses the 2 bottom elements, which seem to be more powerful per element than the upper 3.
In other news... the manual is inaccurate in how it describes the preheat features, the nonstick baking pans say on them that it is not recommended to put them in the dishwasher.
Much like other reviewers, I was pretty impressed with the rest. Build quality looks awesome, and all the rest of the stuff other folks on here said is accurate so I don't need to go into it again. I'll just mention that my favorite feature is it magnetically pulls out the rack for you, so you can load and unload hot items with less risk of burning yourself, I love that!