Feb 202012
Cuisinart TOB-40 Custom Classic Toaster Oven Broiler
- 1800 Watts to toast, bagel, bake and broil; full size interior holds 11-inch pizza and 6 slices of toast
- Stainless steel front with rubberized easy grip dials, cool touch handle, and a front removable tray; easy clean nonstick interior
- Always even shade control monitors the temperature and adjusts timing to consistently toast to the shade selected every time
- Convenient auto side-out rack for hands free loading and easy removal of cooked foods and automatic shutoff safety feature
- Ships in Certified Frustration-Free Packaging
Cuisinart’s custom toaster oven broiler is large enough and smart enough to present a full range of menu options. Toast 4 bagel halves, bake an 11-inch pizza, or broil two big open-faced sandwiches. When the cooking is done, its easy clean with reflective nonstick coating on oven’s interior that wipes clean in seconds, which enhances heat efficiency and ensures even toasting.
List Price: $ 145.00
Price: $ 63.99
Solidly Designed Toaster Oven,
For the most part…just the looks alone are nice and clean. It doesn’t look like a spaceship on the counter.
Nice simple straight lines and simple on / off / bake / broil / etc controllers.
There were later design ovens from this manufacturer, but for the price, and all the Basic Features, I figured how can I go wrong?
With 1800 watts for the total heating elements…right there that tells you that it is going to heat up fast…maintain quickly to attain the setpoint, and perform like a regular electric range / oven / broiler; but just in a smaller package.
Toast making is complete on both sides. Fast! And with no drying out of the toast bread.
I was looking for the ability to toast bread, without the bread sitting there in the oven just drying out on the inside of the bread; while the outside was browning. That is the problem with toasters that are Lower Wattage. It is a proven fact in the testing sequence of a toaster designed to do just that….make toast.
The setpoint maintains just that, with not much droop in temperature. It is quick to respond to maintain the setpoint (temperature selected) to do a fast cooking chore.
The crumb catch tray just slides out easily for cleaning which is a plus. My old toaster oven had to be turned on its side to flip open the crumb tray. Wow! Those crumbs really sat in there till they cooked themselves to the tray.
With the slide out easy clean tray…I clean the crumbs every two or three times I use the oven / toaster! Smart Design!
The only downside …and it does not affect the useability of the oven; but it is annoying trying to see the settings plainly stamped in black lettering and numbering; but very very small. Just one step UP in the font SIZE would be a big improvement. I lost my 20 year old perfect vision some 40 or so years ago, and even with corrective lenses…I have to keep a little magnifying readers glass there just to see the settings of the controls. My 18 Y/O granddaughter who has perfect 20 /20 vision even has difficulty seeing the setpoints.
All In All….I recommend it highly. The functions and power of this little machine are absolutely great. It is definetely not in the toy division like some other products of the like are in.
I had to give this 4 stars**** only because of the inability to clearly see the setpoints on the controls that are printed so small. That’s My Opinion Anyway!
Oooops! one more important item, is the fact that there are multiple slots to position the shelves / rack etc for the different applications of cooking / heating / toasting etc.”NICE”
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|Just What I Wanted… Until it Broke **Updated Review**,
After a long search, I was unhappy with the selection of toaster ovens in my price range – my price range being as inexpensive as possible! My old Black & Decker toaster oven that I bought at my neighborhood drug store lasted for at least 10 years. I was totally happy with it. The cheaper new ones are not the same – they all have that timer dial for toasting with a space of 1cm (or less) to determine the shade of toast. I just don’t like that type of control knob.
Anyway… I decided to spend a little more to get what I really want, and this Cuisinart has all of the functions that I like – the generous shade control, nicely spaced options on the function and temperature dials, an on/off switch for toasting, and a pull-out crumb tray.
It has two heating elements on both bottom and top which seem to help the oven heat up quickly and toast evenly.
Like all toaster ovens I have encountered, the top and back do get hot – the sides not as much.
I could not find the true dimensions of this toaster oven anywhere (even on Cuisinart’s website & I don’t know where Amazon’s “product dimensions” measurements came from) so I’ll post the dimensions as I measured them here:
16″ W
9″ H
13″ D (That is WITH the “feet” on the back that prevent it from sitting flush against the wall [presumably for safety], but WITHOUT the handle, which adds 1.75″ to the depth)
It is bigger than I am used to, but definitely not the biggest out there.
I am very, very happy with this toaster oven and am only withholding a star because I’ve only had it for a few days. That fifth star has to be earned for durability!
****UPDATE November 2012****
Well, it is NOT getting that 5th star. In fact, I changed my review to 3 stars based on . I have been happy with this toaster for 1.5 years. Then an element failed. It started basically melting and cracking, and I fully expected it to burst into flames at some point.
I contacted Cuisinart. The toaster iss still under the 3-year warranty, and they offered to send a replacement. I have to mail the current toaster to them, which would cost me about $20, and I would also have to pay Cuisinart $10 for processing/shipping the new one.
$30 seems like a lot of my money to spend replacing something defective, so I am still undecided about going forward with it, though I suppose it is worth it unless I simply want to buy a lower-end replacement. I do still like this toaster as a whole and have found it to perform well until its failure.
I’ve had two previous really cheap toasters that lasted 10 years each, so I’m very disappointed in the longevity of this one.
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|The Goldilocks of Toaster Ovens,
My more expensive, super fancy Krups toaster oven recently kicked the bucket after about 4-5 yrs of service, and it was time to replace it. While my Krups was a good toaster oven (before it died), it took up a lot of space on the counter, it was expensive to buy, and frankly it had a lot of features (convection) and interior space that I just don’t use and don’t think are necessary in a toaster oven. So when I shopped for a replacement, I decided to go downmarket a bit.
Problem is, the toaster oven market is bifurcated towards two extremes and IMO neither is ideal. On the low end, are super cheap pieces of junk. On the higher end, are expensive behemoths that take up all your counter space and have a lot of features that most of us will never use. Now I’ll admit, for someone who lives in say a small apartment and doesn’t have a regular oven, the second type may make sense. But I live in a house with a regular kitchen and I have a regular oven and a cooktop, as well as a gas grill and a big green egg. What this means is, I’m not going to be roasting a whole chicken or searing steaks or baking any cakes or cooking thanksgiving dinner in my toaster oven. What I mostly use my toaster oven for is 1) toast! and 2) heating up things like leftover pizza or empanadas or really anything else that will get soggy in the microwave but you don’t want to wait for the regular oven to preheat when alls you want to do is heat up a single item, and 3) odd things like maybe an open faced sammich or something. So really, anything small that you want to heat up quickly yet still have it be crispy. I have a hunch a large percent of toaster oven owners use them pretty much like I do and want a quality product but don’t want a $300 large convection toaster oven taking up all our counter space, but also don’t want to trust the $20 hunk of junk that looks like it will die in 2 weeks and can’t toast evenly.
This toaster oven is a good choice because:
1) It’s simple – toast, bagel, bake, broil. The analog controls are simple to use, and unlike a digital keypad it “remembers” what your last setting was (for say toast darkness or oven temp), which you are likely to use repeatedly. Some reviews complained the controls are hard to read, and I don’t find this to be a problem although I do have good near-sight vision. The crum tray is easy to remove, clean, and replace.
2) It works – nice even toasting. Heats up quickly for reheating items. I was surprised at how light it was out of the box, but it works well so this doesn’t appear to be a problem.
3) It’s a fair price – way cheaper than the expensive convection ovens, but not so cheap as to be garbage
4) Small footprint – doesn’t take up much counter space yet still big enough for everything I want a toaster oven to do. Honestly if something can’t fit in this thing I have no problem firing up the regular oven.
Now, there seem to be 2 basic complaints on this model and I don’t find either to be a problem:
1) No timer – who cares? I’m only using it for toast (which does shut off when it reaches desired darkness) and to heat up small stuff that only takes a few minutes, I can hang around and keep an eye on it. Again, this seems like more of a problem for people who want to bake a cake or something and I don’t know why you’d want to use a toaster oven to do that.
2) A lot of people complain that the toast comes out too dark – I’m puzzled by these complaints as I find it extremely easy to set the toaster to desired darkness. The medium setting comes out pretty much what I’d expect medium toast to be, and more importantly you have infinite adjustability with the analog controls so it shouldn’t take you much experimenting to figure out how you want it. One person even complained they had this for over a month and couldn’t get toast that wasn’t burned – I’d say this person either got a defective unit, or they are severely challenged when it comes to the operation of small electronics and/or employing the trial and error method.
Overall – there should be more toaster ovens in this segment. If you don’t routinely roast whole prime ribs or do hard core baking in your toaster oven, this should suit your needs well.
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