Cuisinart 4 Slice Toaster Costco Reviews – View retailers, product details, and ratings. This article was updated in February 2023 to ensure all picks are in stock and reflect accurate pricing. Our top picks, based on testing notes from the Good Housekeeping Institute, remain the same. We appreciated the compact size of the Breville Compact Smart Oven (BOV650XL), but it didn’t do well in many of our tests. It also costs more than the Panasonic FlashXpress, which we like better overall. The Zojirushi ET-WMC22 toasted so unevenly that the bread looked like someone with terrible aim had zapped it with a laser.
The timer on our upgrade pick, the Breville Pro, also begins counting down once the oven is preheated. However, it will pause the timer when you open the oven door, whereas the Cuisinart doesn’t. The FlashXpress’s retro LED cuisinart air fryer oven display looks more like a time bomb from a 1990s action thriller than a modern kitchen appliance (but we kind of love it). Although it’s not hard to read the display dead-on, it can be tricky to discern from some angles.
But if you have the space and still want a dedicated air fryer setting (plus some additional settings), we’d recommend getting our upgrade pick, the Breville Pro. Beyond performance, there are other features that set the Panasonic FlashXpress apart from the competition. Hooks on the door help eject the toaster’s wire rack, so you don’t have to reach your hand as far into the oven cavity to retrieve your food. Some toaster ovens, like our budget pick, are equipped with only two heating elements. But fewer heating elements aren’t necessarily an indication of poor toasting performance.
The HD camera can recognize certain ingredients, automatically prompting the interface to recommend corresponding cooking programs. Plus, a Wi-Fi connection allows you to use an app to monitor your food with the camera and control the oven from anywhere in your home—or even miles away. Despite all these features, we were disappointed with the June’s cuisinart air fryer oven performance, especially given its high price. We wish it had additional cooking programs and that the recipes were more enticing and better written. And although the June is larger than most toaster ovens, its capacity is still limited compared with that of a full-size oven, especially if you plan to prepare food for four or more people.
To learn even more about the Breville Air Fryer Pro, see our guide to the best air fryer toaster ovens. They may use less energy, but if you’re buying with sustainability as a top priority, and you have the counter space, you should probably consider getting a toaster oven instead of a slot toaster. We’ve learned through research done by The Ohio State University that slot toasters aren’t built to last (you can read more about OSU’s in-depth work in our blog post). Since most modern slot toasters aren’t repairable, they’re destined for a landfill once they give out. Toaster ovens, on the other hand, typically last longer, which may be in part because the heating elements are enclosed or better protected by metal guards to prevent damage.
If you’d like to air fry, but you just don’t have the space (or budget) for an air frying toaster oven, then a pod-shaped air fryer might be best for you. Because their small capacity keeps your food close to the fan and the heating elements, pod air fryers can make food even crispier, and often do so more quickly, than their toaster oven-shaped cousins. Their cooking baskets can also be a little safer or simpler to maneuver than a hot pan for children, new cooks, or those with mobility concerns. Just keep in mind that the pods tend to cook a little less evenly, and in most cases you’ll only be able to make a couple servings at a time.
Read on to find out which air fryer toaster oven is right for your kitchen. Additionally, as a Japanese appliance, the Panasonic FlashXpress is designed around degrees Celsius for temperature input. There’s a converted-to-Fahrenheit selector on the temperature indicator, but the markings are oddly spaced. You can get either 425 °F or 390 °F, but nothing in between (we chose 390 °F). But this idiosyncrasy didn’t negatively impact any of the items we cooked—most toaster ovens heat at least 10 to 15 degrees over or under the set temperature anyway.
Some brands will advertise the material of their toaster oven’s heating elements, and generally, ovens using quartz or ceramic will cost more than those using Calrod. But in all our research and testing, we didn’t see consistent correlations between element type and either price or performance. For instance, our budget pick, the Hamilton Beach, has the same quartz elements as the Cuisinart Chef’s Convection Toaster Oven, which costs more than $200.
The KitchenAid KCO211BM Digital Countertop Toaster Oven didn’t toast as evenly as our picks, and several slices of bread were burned in patches on the bottom. Some of the Bagel Bites we baked were also undercooked and pale. Unlike our upgrade pick, the Cuisinart lacks a handy rack-position key on the oven door. However, when you open the oven door, you’ll find the rack position numbers printed on the side of the oven. But you’ll still have to consult the user manual to know where the racks should be placed for each cooking function, which is a little inconvenient. Keep in mind that a large toaster oven can be pretty heavy and is more cumbersome to move; this means it’s more likely to live on your counter.