The half-bagel slices in the front toasted perfectly, while those in the rear of the oven were paler and less crispy. Overall, we gave the Easy Reach higher than average marks hamilton beach toaster oven for toasting and feel it does an acceptable job with this metric. Most of the frozen items we heated came out a little undercooked after the recommended cooking time.
Convection mode uses a fan to circulate air during baking or roasting. It’s exactly 15.75 inches wide, 11 inches deep and 9 inches tall. The rack can be repositioned depending on what you’d like to do with your oven. The larger opening is attributed to the aforementioned roll-top door. If you’re anything like me, sometimes you will leave the house in a hurry and wonder for the rest of the day if you turned off whatever appliance you were using.
But if you’re looking to do a lot of air frying in your toaster oven, you may want to check out our separate guide to air fryer toaster ovens. High-end Hamilton Beach toaster ovens are priced between $100 and $170. These ovens are way more than just toaster ovens (though they can toast too), with options for convection cooking, air frying, and more, plus quality features like digital controls. It’s not the model for anyone who is looking for a replacement for their full size oven.
Check the number of slices of bread your chosen toaster oven can handle at once. When the oven is operating, the glass door becomes excessively hot, reaching temperatures as high as 339.2°F. The Hamilton Beach is the only toaster oven we tested with a door handle that becomes very hot to the touch at a temperature of 146.8 °F.
While there are a few cons to this particular toaster oven, over all the Hamilton Beach Easy Reach Six Slice Toaster Oven is a great deal. From broiling a lemon and herb crusted salmon for a delish dinner for two to making a tray of pizza rolls for your incredibly picky child, this oven can do it all. The Hamilton Beach Easy Reach Toaster Oven has both a top and bottom heating element and a fan to help move the warm air throughout the device. I enjoyed the Hamilton Beach Countertop Oven With Convection and Rotisserie (model number 31104D) and had good results with the recipes I made. However, I’m accustomed to precise digital controls and presets and wished for those as I turned the dials.
The baking pan doesn’t fit into the guide rails and has to on top of the rack. This may prevent the full use of the oven’s capacity and lead to some inconveniences during cooking. Unfortunately, the 31127D doesn’t have any interior features worth mentioning, not even internal lighting or a convection system like the Cuisinart TOA-60. These heating elements are made of quartz which uses infrared light to cook foods faster than the more common nichrome counterparts.
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. The Cuisinart TOB-40 Custom Classic Toaster Oven Broiler is easy to use, but on its medium setting, bread became too dark. Also, this model has no timer, so you’ll have to keep a close watch on your food to prevent it from overcooking.
While this might seem like a good idea, it often lead to drastically uneven cooking and burnt dishes. The kitchen was barely big enough for one person to maneuver and you had to access the oven at an angle. Michael Sullivan has been a staff writer on the kitchen team at Wirecutter since 2016.
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. Due to the interior not having a non-stick coating, there were some permanent stains on the cooking chamber’s ceiling and the upper heating element’s guard. Even though the Mueller only has three simple control dials, there are a few things to keep in mind. For the timer knob, when setting it to less than 10 minutes, always rotate past 10 minutes and then rotate back to the desired time. The Hamilton Beach has enough capacity for 6 slices of toast, a 3 lb chicken, or a 12-inch pizza.
Some ovens’ results weren’t dark enough; others were overdone or unevenly cooked. This was also one of the only models in this price range that could bake chicken thighs with a golden brown, crispy skin. Up against bigger, more expensive toaster ovens, the FlashXpress more than held its own. Similar to many other small toaster ovens, including the Comfee CFO-BB101, the Mueller lacks a convection fan and an interior light. In addition, it only has two heating elements which can usually lead to uneven heat distribution compared to four or more heating elements. However, you won’t get the stellar performance and extra features that you find on the more expensive models.