One of the BEST in Toaster OvenThis is my second Panasonic Toaster. Unfortunately the heating rod of the first one stopped working. But I assume, it was just bad luck. In terms of functionality, this toaster offers almost everything that is needed for daily use.PROS:1. Heats very well, instantly and quiet (with all the appliances in the house making noise, you don’t need another one with noise. It does beep at end, but its reasonably low sound)2. The controls allow for Toast function, or you can create your own heating function. Plus toast can be large small as they all fit. With regular toaster, the toast moisture is lost and the regular toaster heats the bottom of the cupboard3. With air fryers, the fan noise is too loud. So if you have open concept house, or small apartment, this is ideal small in size and no noise4. The frozen items heat very quickly. I can heat up a frozen chicken patty in less than 5 minutes. Normal oven has to heat up, then baking takes time and finally the cooling keeps the noisy fan on till its cool.5. Compact size, great for counter space6. There is no rotary timer, as in almost every single toaster oven. That is annoying as the dial remain on until complete. Else it has to be forced wound down. There are some digital toasters, but they are much more expensive7. Very good design and easy to cleanCONS:Though I did not find any cons, it would have been great of there was an option top get extra element/heating rod at the time of purchase that was reasonably priced. I purchased an additional warranty for $30 for 4 years. That will cover the replacement in case the heating rod fails.I think this is one of the best alternatives to a regular toaster available in market.

The Perfect Toaster OvenI wanted a toaster oven to avoid using our big oven for small items . Searching for one that fit into our crowded counter space, this one was one of the smallest and not that expensive. I read all the manufacturer’s information, watched their videos, and read many of the 1 and 2 star reviews before I decided to get one 6 weeks ago. Pluses: small foot print, no preheat, simple controls, and speedy toasting. When it came I read all the instructions and info on cooking various things in it. Then I kept a record of my experiments. No cookbook included, just cooking guides. Looked online for recipes for this oven, found a few and printed them out.After using it a while I learned a lot. Watch carefully as your food browns, it will go very fast once browning starts. Be prepared to experiment: making a personal 7″ or smaller pizza is easy. Roasting peppers is easy too. If the food is not cooked enough, put it back in and heat it some more. Line the oven tray with non-stick aluminum foil. Do not put anything that will drip onto the grid, use the oven tray or heat resistant cookware (metal or ceramic). I collected recipes and took notes.One recipe for roasted party potatoes takes 40 to 50 minutes in the big range oven. In this oven it took 25 minutes, saving a lot of power and heating up the kitchen. Controls are very simple to use. Bread toasts perfectly. Whole wheat bread takes the #4 setting. White bread the middle #3. Easy to try again if not as dark as you want, just be prepared to hit the power button to turn it off as soon as you have what you want.One reviewer did not like this oven because the door does not seal!!! Look at the door, it is made to have a gap so it will vent. ALL OVENS VENT. Your large kitchen oven vents, probably through one of the burners. They have to vent or they will fill with steam and vapors and odors.Super easy to remove the grid to clean it off, read the directions. Crumb tray easy to remove to clean off. After using this oven for a week I did what I should have done at the start — I looked online for reviews. I found a number of sites that rated this as the #1 toaster oven of 2020. Many rated it in the top 5 or top 10 of all toaster ovens rated.Con: you cannot cook food that oils or greases come out of, like steaks or bacon, unless it is wrapped in foil. The infrared lamps might ignite the hot oil that collects on the tray. You cannot use anything flammable like parchment paper (unless it is trimmed so the paper is not exposed to the radiant heat. I prepared a recipe for frozen home fries that is intended to be cooked in a skillet. They cooked crisp like French fries and took as long as it did in a skilled. Frozen French fries are great cooked in this oven. Corn tortilla chips should not be heated, they might ignite as they are dry and thin. Toasting biscuits or similar items is a snap. Bagels, flat breads, pizza crusts.Note: I wanted to use a small Pyrex dish I have in this oven, but the cautions on the package cautioned against toaster ovens. Called Corning about this IR lamp oven, they do not recommend using Pyrex in it as they have no experience with this type oven. Note: Since around 2000, Pyrex glassware is no longer heat resistant anymore. It is not the original borosilicate glass that Pyrex has been made from for the last century. Pyres is now soda lime glass, like regular common glassware, and not meant for hot ovens. I bought some small vintage Corning Visions cookware that fit in the oven. I can also use my vintage Corning Pyroceram cookware.I love this toaster oven, it is perfect for our needs. Quick and simple. Keep notes on the temperature and time settings you use until you get a good feel for different recipes. I prepare my 7″ pizza crusts with pizza sauce, toppings (putting soft or cooked things first, then raw veggies & mushrooms on top. Cook at 425F for 5 minutes. Remove tray and top with cheese. Then cook at 425F for 4 to 5 more minutes. Mozzarella melts beautifully and starts to get toasty brown. Just don’t leave during the last several minutes – watch carefully and be ready to hit the power button.One of the best purchases I’ve ever made. Love this oven. Oh, don’t put your hand in the oven while the flash lamps ore on – the radiant infrared will burn you instantly. I know this from working with infrared lamps in an R&D lab. Turn off the oven before you reach inside.

Very pleasedI can’t remember how many decades (and houses) ago I owned a toaster oven. Somewhere along the line I just bought a few toasters as needed. We have 2 slow cookers, a microwave, a regular oven of course, and that was quite enough. I resisted air fryers, one pots, and the bread maker has never been used. It’s been a year since our broiler in the oven stopped and……..one day I wanted to make English muffin pizzas. No broiler.Research/reviews are contradictory, but ultimately this is the one we chose. Boy, howdy. We’re delighted. Our two slot toaster with no crumb drawer has been tossed. This one handles more oddly shaped bread products, at least four pieces at a time. The inside light is very helpful. The timer seems to be perfect for what we want at the time.Today Husband bought some McDonalds home for himself. Those fries are only good in house, not takeout.WELL. Leftover fries are good as new. I believe he said, “How did we live all these years without one of these?” We know the limits of a microwave when flour products are involved. This means that Leftover Pizza will be a really good thing instead of heating up a whole oven or making do with tough seconds the next day.It doesn’t take up much space and it’s a perfect little doo-dad for making appetizers while making a turkey in the big boy oven.

FINALLY a toaster oven CAN TOAST!I have endured a tragic series of horrendous toaster oven lifetimes.After each merciful death I tried a new brand, naively hoping for satisfaction. Oh NO. Each rivaled the last in being the stupidest, most godawful waste of engineering effort ever expended.My massive and most recent torturer, made by a formerly high-end French company, took ten minutes to effect any change at all on a slice of bread. The result was never the same twice, no matter how carefully I tried to manage the knob one had to turn each use to set the duration. It was invariable however in the way that it was always terrible: whether raw, burnt, or partially raw _and_ partially burnt! It clicked like a bomb timer in a cartoon and seemed perversely dedicated to burning human flesh.I am ashamed to admit I couldn’t even wait for the end of its natural lifespan — I gave to a neighbor’s son getting his first apartment. 😔 (Vis-à-vis this review… I’m pretty much hoping he doesn’t have Internet connectivity, or better yet, can’t read.)The FlashXpress heats in TWO ways at the same time, using both ceramic and quartz heating elements. It gets to temperature almost instantly, you don’t have to preheat at all. It gets incredibly bright — probably a good idea not to stare like DJT does at the sun — but I’m not tempted, so I can just enjoy the fact that it’s heating from the inside almost like a microwave and crisping from the outside at the same time. The second photo I took without flash in normal lighting. The intensity of the light so threw off the light balance of the camera that it looks like it’s in the dark!This Panasonic — I LOVE this thing.[NB: It meets some of my specific requirements beautifully, but if you have different desires it might not work so well for you.]Firstly, I live in a small space. Think of outfitting a ship.Second, I have an actual oven so I’ll never use this to make lasagna or multiple batches of cookies or roast a chicken, i.e., real baking.Thirdly, day to day, I often don’t feel like cooking (I live alone and can do whatever I want 😃) so I heat up a portion of something (like the items above) which I’ve previously frozen.It’s got a tiny footprint. It actually sits safely on top of my bubbler, so it robs me of zero zilch nada of my precious counter space.It toasts uniformly on both sides super fast. It melts cheese and heats single portions of frozen stuff like nobody’s bidnez.It automagically thrusts the grill rack slightly up and out when you open the door, and coming up on our 6 month thingiversary, it has yet to hurt me in any way.Now, if this were going to be your only oven, I would say nononono don’t get this. It doesn’t cook long enough, it’s presets are limited and it just won’t do a good job at cooking anything that needs to be particularly large, moist, low-temp, or slow.For me, it hasn’t quite been David Ortiz hitting a winning double-run homer in the 12th game 4 when you’re down 3 games in the series… but close. After all, my toast losing streak has only been around since the death of the upright steel toaster, sometime in the 70s. 😉

Small but Mighty!As mentioned by some other reviewers, the rack is a little on the light side, but I like the fact that it latches onto the door, so it makes access easier and the chances of burning a hand or finger are greatly diminished. I am especially impressed with how fast and evenly bread is toasted, much quicker than the last larger toaster oven I had. I’ve also used it for homemade individual pizzas several times and the ridges on the tray that is included give the bottom crust a panini-like finish, very crispy but not burnt. Considering that I got this at a reduced price due to “open box” status (the unit was brand new), I am very satisfied with my purchase.