Best Rated Hamilton Beach Toaster Oven Reviews
- Best Overall: Hamilton Beach 2 Slice Toaster Oven
- Best Automatic: Hamilton Beach 2 in 1 CounterTop Toaster Oven
- Best CounterTop: Hamilton Beach 31401 Toaster Oven
- Best Combo: Hamilton Beach 2 in 1 Toaster Oven Combo
- Best Handy: Hamilton Beach 31105D Convection Toaster Oven
- Large Capacity: Hamilton Beach 31333 Toaster Oven
- Most Versatile: Hamilton Beach 31126 Toaster Oven
- Best Temperature Control: Hamilton Beach 31344D Toaster Oven
- User Friendly: Hamilton Beach 31101 Toaster Oven
- Best Compact: Hamilton Beach 31104 Convection Toaster Oven
BEST HAMILTON BEACHS TOASTER OVENS BUYING GUIDE
How to Choose a Toaster Oven?
Toaster ovens are designed to be versatile. In this ideal world, the toaster ovens would completely replace your microwave, toaster, and conventional oven. However, oven toasters are very convenient, fast and easy to use. You can find them in a wide range of colours and styles and they can even match your kitchen and other small appliances. For a warm and evenly toasted food item, you need the perfect toaster in your house. There are too many oven toasters you can choose from but finding the right one with all the main and important features isn’t an easy task.
Hence, we are here for you with all the detailed information that helps you choose the best Toaster Oven.
Size
Your kitchen has a fixed counter space to adjust with. Hence, before you buy a toaster oven, you need to consider how much space will you be willing to dedicate to your convection toaster oven. Toaster ovens are big in size, and depending on your use, they can be very big! The main thing is, you should first decide, what you actually do with your toaster oven. Would you like to just toast or prepare meals? Do you need to provide a 10-inch pizza? Or do you just want to toast 4 bread slices at a time? What quantities would you like to cook?
If you are bending toward buying a small toaster oven to save some space on your counter, you may not be able to do the justice with what toaster oven is capable of. The reason is that they come in different sizes and have large capacity is that you can prepare lots of healthy and delicious toaster oven recipes. However, make sure to check the exterior and interior measurements on ovens before you purchase. Avoid purchasing a unit just to find out that your most loved pie tin or oven plate won’t fit.
Functions
Present toaster ovens provide you with a wide range of functions. Although all ovens will toast & broil, present appliances also provide extra features such as rotisserie & convection baking functions. While looking for your features, take into account that you will be using the oven toaster for. People who are planning to use it as a second oven, or as an alternative to a traditional oven needs more functionality than those who are simply toasting slices of bread and bagels. There are also several options with respect to user controls. Few toaster ovens provide digital touch-pad features, while some other ovens may offer easy, knob dial controls.
Some ovens allow you to defrost or reheat food if you need an alternative to use a microwave oven for these tasks. While some others allow you to use convection heating (blowing hot air around the food to cook it quicker) or Rotisserie cooking (rotating meats on a spit).
Some of these features may only be found on more expensive toaster ovens. However, choose a toaster oven with a broil setting if you regularly cook meat. Select oven toaster with convection heating if you want to cook food more quickly using less energy. The Hamilton Beach Toaster Oven is a well-reviewed compact unit that has fast cook times and offers shade control to get the perfect amount of colour on your toast.
If an exact timer or temperature control is necessary for you, you must carefully research ovens in order to make sure it has all the required features that you need.
Cheaper Convection
Convection toaster oven uses fans to circulate warm air throughout the cooking space. This creates more even temperatures and hence more evenly cooked food. It also gets rid of excess humidity, allowing the outer part of foods to brown more while retaining moisture on the inside. It can also speed up cooking times as well. Conventional ovens toasters with a convection feature tend to be quite expensive. Most toaster ovens offer convection cooking at a fraction of the price, that can be a huge draw if you are on a quest for the perfect cookie. We can strongly say that the convection toaster oven models are equally effective.
Look for Special Features
Auto shut-off is one of the good features if you think you may forget to turn your toaster oven off after using it. And cheaper toaster ovens may have timers that only go up to 30 or 60 minutes. Hence, look for timers that run longer if you want to cook large food items like whole chickens. Other special features to consider are a light on the inside that allows you to see when your food is done the cooking or a curved back that can fit a full 12-inch pizza.
Some microwave toaster oven models offer so many functions that they serve as a toaster oven, oven and microwave all in one, such as the Hamilton Beach Toaster Oven.
Budget ovens usually offer few features beyond toasting. So, the Hamilton Beach Toaster oven allows you to toast bread in the slots on top or toast a sandwich inside the shallow oven below.
Better Bagels
To your pleasant surprise, we can say that the toaster ovens generally make much better bagels than traditional slot toasters. In our testing, they were able to evenly toast the cut side of the bagel, an impressive feat given the inherent inconsistencies found on a sliced bagel. Also, most of the models we tested (the Hamilton Beach Toaster oven) had bagel modes that reduced the temperature of the bottom heating elements.
This allows the backside of the bagel to get warm but remain untoasted, lending that incredible contrast of crunchy and gooey that makes us all crave a bagel in the middle of a bothersome morning commute. This is nothing less than a miracle, as after we completed our toaster review we were really craving some top-notch bagels.
Quality
It’s a shame that toaster ovens are not what they used to be. The classic toaster ovens that lasted for years and that many of us grew up using are a thing of the past. A lot of toaster ovens are now made in China and the quality has come down a lot – especially with budget or low-end toaster ovens. Therefore, with the low-end toaster oven models, you have to replace them a lot sooner than you are accustomed to. They are also characterized by a lot more consumer complaints about safety and performance. For these reasons, we recommend going with a quality made toaster oven.
Price
In addition to wide range of features present, the cost of a toaster oven also changes dramatically. A normal oven could cost you less than $60, while a bigger oven that features a rotisserie or convection fan may cost you a few hundred bucks. Again, you may need to carefully think for what purpose you’ll be using the oven for. It’s not a wise thing to pay for features that you will not be using, so make sure to go through the descriptions properly and know what you’ll be getting.
Safety
One of the most frequent complaints users have with toaster ovens is that the exterior gets quite hot. This is basically true with all toaster ovens, but more so with cheaper models. The reason some toaster ovens heat up more so than others is due to the materials used and the insulation. Cheaper toaster ovens are made of light and thin materials while more expensive units use heavier and thicker materials. This may not be a big deal to some, but for those with small children, it is some important thing to consider.
Also, keep an eye out for toaster ovens with cooking timers and the ability to automatically turn off. These toaster ovens not only help prevent your food from burning but also help lessen potential fires.
Hamilton Beach Brands Holding Company is an American designer, marketer and distributor of home appliances and commercial restaurant equipment. Until in the 1980s the Hamilton’s products were marketed under the brand name “Hamilton Beach Scovill”.
Later in 1990, the company merged with Proctor Silex, another brand for household appliances. As one of the country’s leading distributors of small kitchen appliances, Hamilton Beach Brands, Inc. sells over 35 million products every year. The company’s most famous brands are Hamilton Beach, Eclectrics, Proctor Silex and TrueAir. They can be found in the households across Canada, America and Mexico.
Hamilton Beach
Hamilton Beach Brands Holding Company is an American designer, marketer and distributor of home appliances and commercial restaurant equipment. Until in the 1980s the Hamilton’s products were marketed under the brand name “Hamilton Beach Scovill”.
Later in 1990, the company merged with Proctor Silex, another brand for household appliances. As one of the country’s leading distributors of small kitchen appliances, Hamilton Beach Brands, Inc. sells over 35 million products every year. The company’s most famous brands are Hamilton Beach, Eclectrics, Proctor Silex and TrueAir. They can be found in the households across Canada, America and Mexico.