You might not give much thought to this little appliance, but there’s a lot going on after you hit the “toast” button. Checkout The Best Toaster for a detailed review of all the top toasters. At just $30, this is a bargain-priced toaster that delivers dependable, if unexciting, results.
However, in our research, we’ve found that hamilton beach counter oven ovens have a longer life expectancy than slot toasters. If you don’t have room for both appliances in your kitchen, we’d recommend getting a toaster oven instead. I had the same toaster oven for about 13 years, and I loved it. It was the Hamilton Beach Toastation, a combination mini-oven and toaster. What made the Toastation unique is that it had a slot on top like a standard toaster but it was also a small oven that could bake or broil. It was easy to use, cooked evenly and quickly, saved on precious countertop space and it was a cute red color, so it added a little extra personality to my kitchen.
However, the manufacturer did give us the product for testing and review purposes. Anyone looking for small, sleek, and shiny — yet basic — low-priced toaster, and believes time is nothing when it comes to a perfect piece of toast. Electricity flows from your wall’s outlet through your toaster’s power cord to the inside of the unit.
The also has a broiler which is nice if you’re looking to make crostinis or melt some cheese on a loaf of garlic bread. The 2-in-1 comes with a tray for baking and broiling and there’s a crumb tray on the bottom which is easy to remove and empty. The GE Quartz Convection Toaster Oven and the GE Calrod Convection Toaster Oven are identical, except that one has quartz heating elements and the other has Calrod heating elements. The quartz model costs about $25 more than the Calrod version , but there wasn’t a huge difference in performance between the two. The underside of the toast we made was very uneven and patchy in the GE Quartz, while the GE Calrod toasted a bit more evenly. The cheese topping on Bagel Bites didn’t melt as evenly in these models as our picks, and the bottoms were burned.
Then, when you arrive at the store of your choice, use the Instacart app to notify us. Depending on the store, a shopper or store employee will bring the groceries to your car, or you can pick them up at the designated area. The filaments beam heat toward your bread using infrared radiation.
Designed to match other Cafe brand hamilton beach counter oven like the Cafe fridge, coffee maker and more, this Couture Oven with Air Fry will make a statement on your countertop. In addition to the matte black design with rose-gold colored knobs, it also comes in white and stainless steel. Aesthetics aside, this air fryer toaster oven performed well in our tests.
Like most toaster ovens, the Hamilton Beach will get hotter after each batch of toast you make in a row. You’ll need to reduce the toast shade setting for each subsequent batch you make to prevent the bread from burning. 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.
Plus, this oven has tons of extra accessories like a pizza pan, pizza stone, and a specialty broiling pan. The popular Breville Smart Oven Air got an even smarter upgrade with the ability to connect to an app. Breville leveraged its partnership with ChefSteps, the brand that first introduced the Joule sous vide, to make an app loaded with air fryer recipes and videos. This toaster made it easy to know what to expect from each of the settings with its detailed instruction booklet outlining every little detail.
She has tested more than 15 air fryer toaster ovens herself and also helped developed one of the best-selling air fryer toaster ovens on the market more than six years ago. The June Oven is a smart countertop model with an internal camera, a built-in probe thermometer , and several pre-programmed cooking functions. 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.
A shade selector lets you achieve your preferred toast doneness. And the automatic shutoff will turn it off at the end of the cycle, even if food gets jammed. Made with a brushed stainless steel finish, this toaster will be a stylish addition to your countertop, but is also easy to store thanks to a fuss-free cord wrap. Nicole Papantoniou is the director of the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen Appliances and Innovation Lab, where she oversees all testing related to cooking and drinking.