This no-frills model lacks many of the features included in our other picks—such as digital controls and preset cooking features—but it heats evenly. The Hamilton Beach’s humble size makes it ideal for kitchens with limited hamilton beach air fryer counter space, but it’s still large enough to fit four slices of bread. This toaster oven runs cooler than other models we tested, so you’ll need to increase the temperature by about 25 degrees when baking or roasting.
The oven’s exterior only gets hot to the touch after a long cooking time at a high temperature. The door can be kept partially open at many degrees but keep in mind that it doesn’t switch the oven off. The two sides of the baking rack have slight curves upward at an angle to keep the baking pan in place.
Eventually, we were able to find the sweet spot on the dial for our desired doneness, but it took multiple attempts. That said, the toast came out remarkably even for a toaster oven of this caliber. Like most toaster ovens, the Hamilton Beach will get hotter after each batch of toast you make in a row.
Since most of the crevices and protrusions are rounded, it’s easier to clean than sharp corners. The back corners are the hardest bits to clean, but they’re also the least likely places food would spatter. The top elements are at the very front and back of the oven, so I was surprised at how evenly my open-faced grilled cheese sandwiches cooked when I set the oven to broil. I was also pleased when I used the broil setting to sauce and broil some ribs I had cooked the previous day. The broiler isn’t super-fast or powerful, though, so it’s not the perfect replacement for the broiler in a standard oven. At 15 inches high, 23.4 inches wide, and 18 inches deep, this is a fairly large oven that eats quite a bit of countertop space.
The Hamilton beach has three contoured control knobs labeled Temperature, Function, and Timer which are durable and easy to grip. While the timer only runs from 1 minute to 30 minutes, the knob has a stay-on position as well. What stands out most is the roll-top door with a cool-touch handle. It moves up and out of the way, giving you safe and easy access to your food before, during, and after cooking. We initially set the toast knob to Medium—right at the Toast icon—for our Toast test. The bread came away very dark on the bottom but barely toasted on top.
We found that the displays on the pricier Cuisinart and Breville toaster ovens were easier to read. Keep in mind that a large toaster oven can be pretty heavy and hamilton beach toaster oven is more cumbersome to move; this means it’s more likely to live on your counter. Small toaster ovens are much lighter and easier to tuck away in a cupboard.
It is super easy to clean and there is a lot of room inside which is nice. It is easy to move around and stores nicely, too, when you do not want it on your counters. We like the Breville Air Fryer Pro’s sleek design and easy-to-navigate interface. The Breville also has a Phase Cook feature (similar to the Cuisinart’s Dual Cook Mode), which allows you to program two back-to-back cooking functions. Like the Cuisinart, the Breville’s rack glides out when you open the door so you don’t have to stick your hands deep into the oven cavity to retrieve your food. It comes with two oven racks so you can cook more food at once—an addition we appreciate with the Cuisinart too.
The toppings were also caramelized quite evenly from the meat and veggies to the cheese, worthy of another 8/10. The cheese was nicely melted but the areas closer to the back of the cooking chamber were more caramelized compared to the rest. Due to its contents, this product cannot be shipped via our Priority Service or sent to Alaska, Hawaii, P.O.
I was worried it wouldn’t live up to the standards of my beloved Toastation, but I’m happy to report that Hamilton Beach’s newest toaster and oven combo lives up to its predecessor. While this wasn’t billed as a toaster, it is the “multi-use” recommendation in The Spruce Eats’ list of best toaster ovens, so I tested what it could do with pale bread hamilton beach toaster oven and bagels. I cooked bagels on the broil setting and toasted the bread using convection. I got a reasonably even toast, although I had to watch the browning since I wasn’t sure how long it would take. The Hamilton Beach 6-Slice Toaster Oven with Broiler turned out to be the most useful and most often used kitchen appliance with my family.
The FlashXpress compensates for the increased temperature by automatically reducing the cook time, so the results are the same every time. These were some of the fastest toasting times of all the toaster ovens we tested. If you get a toaster oven with a convection setting, you can also use it for air frying (air frying is, after all, just convection baking).