Best Toaster Ovens to Buy in 2020

Editors' Choice: Breville BOV800XL Smart Oven

Amazon

This 1800 watt convection toaster is pricier than others on our list, but it’s worth it.

With nine preset functions, the Breville Smart Oven is a modern, medium-sized toaster with easy-to-use knobs and a digital display.

It also excels in maintaining temperature, especially for baking cookies and melting cheese.

Breville BOV800XL Pros

• Backlit LCD: The display changes from blue to orange when cooking.
• Nine present functions: Choose from Toast, Bagel, Bake, Roast, Broil, Pizza, Cookies, Reheat and Warm. These functions make it easy to use the toaster to make whatever you want.
• One-year limited product warranty: This protects you from defects in the product you buy.

Breville BOV800XL Cons

• Higher price: This toaster oven costs more than our other top picks. However, it’s worth the price if it fits in your budget.
• No oven light: Not having a light makes it harder to check on your food while it cooks.

Best Value: Hamilton Beach Countertop Toaster

Amazon

If you’re looking for a cheap toaster, a pop-up toaster will be your best bet. However, we prefer toaster ovens and convection ovens. Toaster ovens are not that much more expensive than pop-ups, and the value add of the baking functions make it worth it.

The Hamilton Beach Countertop Toaster fits easily on counters and measures 9.41″ H x 18.74″ W X 15.24″ D.

It has bake, broil, and toast functions, a roll-up lid, and can fit six slices of bread.

Hamilton Beach Countertop Toaster Pros

• 30-minute timer: The auto-shutoff and the optional stay-on setting can help you avoid problems with your toaster.
• Affordable toaster: This toaster will cost only a little more than a pop-up option.
• Bake, broil, and toast functions: These options make it easier to

Hamilton Beach Countertop Toaster Cons

• No advanced features: This affordable option doesn’t have some of the more high-tech functions.

Best Small Size: Panasonic NB-G110P-K Toaster Oven

Amazon

If you’re looking for a toaster oven that won’t take up too much space on your kitchen counters, check out the Panasonic NB-G110P-K Toaster Oven.

The digital console has six preset modes: toast, frozen waffles, frozen pizza, frozen hash browns, frozen rolls, and quick reheat.

It’s 1300 watts and heats up to 500°F. It cooks faster than most conventional toasters ovens thanks to its FlashXpress instant heating technology.

Panasonic NB-G110P-K Pros

• No pre-heating required: You don’t have to preheat this toaster. thanks to the double infrared heating setting.
• Non-stick interior: The non-stick surface makes this toaster easier to clean.
• Pre-set cooking settings: These options for common foods making heating up your favorites easy.
• Small size: The toaster is smaller than many counter toasters and has a removable 9-inch baking tray. Interior dimensions are 10-1/8-inch x 13-inch x 12-inch.

Panasonic NB-G110P-K Cons

• Digital display: The screen is difficult for non-tech savvy people or people who have poor eyesight or vision loss.
• Expensive price: This toaster is pricier than pop-up toasters.

Best Large Size: Cuisinart TOB-260N1 Chef's Convection Toaster Oven

Amazon

If space isn’t an issue and you’re looking for a toaster oven that can do almost everything your oven can (including roast a chicken), check out the  Cuisinart TOB-260N1.

It’s big, so make sure you’re comfortable donating that much of your counter space to a toaster. With two racks and an interior that can fit 9″ x 13″ baking pans, it has 15 cooking functions.

It features easy-to-use digital controls with a large blue backlit display and LED buttons.

Cuisinart TOB-260N1 Pros

• Accessories included: This device has a few included things to make cooking easier, including a pizza stone.
• Fast pre-heat: This toaster oven will warm up to the correct cooking temperature quickly.
• Large capacity: The appliance can toast up to nine slices of bread at once. It can also fit a 13-inch frozen pizza or a whole roasted chicken. The toaster measures 20.5″ x 13.25″ x 11.25.”
• Three-year warranty: This guarantee helps protect your investment

Cuisinart TOB-260N1 Cons

• Digital display: The screen may not be best for all users.
• Expensive appliance: This appliance costs more than most. However, if you want as many capabilities as this one has, you’ll probably be spending about the same without another model.
• Large size: Only invest in this toaster if you have a lot of counter space to spare

Best Convection: Hamilton Beach 31104D Countertop Oven

Amazon

We love this Hamilton Beach convection oven for a few reasons, one of them being easy to use knobs. While most of the toasters on our list have digital interfaces, this one is an old fashioned knob toaster.

If you want a quality convection oven toaster that’s easy to use (especially for the non-tech savvy), then this is the best toaster for you. This toasts can fit two racks and accommodate a 5lb roast or rotisserie chicken.

Hamilton Beach 31104D Pros

• Affordable price: This toaster will fit in most budgets.
• Cooking helps: This toaster makes it easy to heat more than one plate at a time because of its two cooking racks. It also has two baking pans, a broiler rack, and rotisserie accessories.
• Medium size: This toaster measures 13.11 H x 20.62 W x 16.54 D.

Hamilton Beach 31104D Cons

• Old-fashioned design: This appliance is not as high-tech looking, which some people may view as a negative.

Types of Toasters

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Toasters are not just for sliced bread, bagels, pop tarts, and waffles. Toasters can be used to bake pizzas, cookies, and even rotisserie chickens! Some toasters can be used for pretty much anything a regular oven can as long as the food can fit inside.

If you’re in the market for a new toaster, the first question you’ll need to ask yourself is why you need a toaster and what you’ll use it for.

If your goal is simply to make pumpernickel toast for breakfast each morning, a traditional pop-up toaster should suffice.

However, if you want a toaster that can do a bit more, you may want to look at countertop toaster ovens or convention toasters.

Pop-Up Toaster

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Pop-up toasters are your stereotypical, traditional toaster.

They’re great for toasting bread, waffles, and other thin slices of bread-like food.

They’re also the most affordable (and limited) type of toaster.

Traditional Counter Toaster

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A traditional counter toaster is the next step up from a pop-up toaster. It’s basically a small oven that sits on your counter and can bake, broil, and toast.

You can make cookies, nachos, and other items you would traditionally make in an oven. Plus it can make waffles, toast, and everything else a pop-up toaster can.

Convection Toaster

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A convection toaster is the third type of toaster, and it’s the most advanced option.

It looks nearly identical to a traditional counter toaster from the outside, but it has one small difference on the inside: a fan.

It also performs all of the same functions as a regular toaster and then some. Some can even make rotisserie chickens!

The key difference between a traditional toaster and a convection toaster is how it cooks the food.

The Difference Between Traditional Toaster Ovens and Conventional Toasters

A traditional toaster oven has a toast setting, bake setting, and sometimes a few other options. The baking setting uses three main heat sources to cook food:

• Conduction heat: This type transfers from the baking pan to the item on top of it.
• Radiant heat: Heat that emanates directly from the heating elements and metal walls.
• Warm air: This is the heat that naturally circulates inside the oven.

While a convection toaster has these three heat elements, it has a bonus one as well: a built-in fan.

This convection fan forces warm air to:

• Aid in the browning process (particularly helpful for vegetables)
• Circulate throughout the interior of the toaster
• Cook food faster and at an evener temperature
• Increase the temperature of your toaster
• Remove moisture

They also tend to be larger. Some convention toasters are even big enough to fit pizza pans!

Why a Convection Toaster Oven Is Better Than a Traditional Toaster

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We’ve already outlined the differences between a pop-up toaster, a traditional counter toaster, and a convection toaster. Now let’s compare them side to side.

Convection Toaster vs. Pop Up Toaster

If you’re short on space, you may not want to clutter your coveted counter space with a convection toaster.

However, if you enjoy cooking, it may be worth it. A convection toaster is better than a pop-up toaster for a plethora of reasons:

• Higher capacity: With a convection toaster oven, you can make four slices of toast at a time. With a pop-up toaster, you can only make two.
• More options: Convection toasters enable you to make more than toast, waffles, and other flatbreads! Sometimes even bagels have problems fitting into pop-up toasters. With convection toasters, you can toast two full bagels at once, heat up chicken nuggets, bake small pies, and so much more.

In short, if you want to use a toaster as a mini-oven, purchase a counter toaster.

You have two options: a traditional counter toaster, and a convection counter toaster.

Convection Toaster vs. Traditional Counter Toaster

Convention toasters also have advantages over traditional toasters.

• Better browning: They’re better for broiling and browning vegetables because they remove moisture.
• Consistent cooking: Convection toasters have a more consistent and accurate temperate than traditional toasters. They also cook your food more evenly than traditional toasters.
• Faster heating: Convection toasters warm your food up faster than traditional toasters thanks to their fan.

In summary, a convection toaster is similar to a counter toaster. It looks the same from the outside, but thanks to an interior fan, cooks your food differently than a traditional toaster.

Toaster Oven Buyer’s Guide

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If you’re just starting your toaster search and are still unsure whether want a pop-up toaster, a traditional counter toaster, or a convection oven toaster, here are a few more elements you should consider.

Cleaning and Maintenance

For most people, cleaning a toaster isn’t at the top of the agenda. It’s typically not even in the top 5!

But that doesn’t mean it’s not important.

If you regularly use a pop-up toaster, crumbs can build up and burn. This can cause a fire hazard at worst and an unpleasant smell at best.

If you have a counter toaster or convection toaster and use it for more than bread items, grease and food splatters can build up as well, which can also catch fire with high temperatures.

Toasters aren’t difficult to clean. Some have a self-cleaning function, while others can be cleaned simply by dumping the crumb tray and whipping the interior and exterior with a stainless steel cleaner.

If you want a toaster to last, clean it and take good care of it.

Ease of Use

No one likes an appliance that’s hard to use. If it’s too tricky, you’ll likely do something wrong and ruin your food!

Thus, you want a toaster that’s on par with your technical level.

For some, this means old fashioned knobs and buttons and perhaps not too many bells and whistles. Others may prefer a newer, digital model with more features than they can imagine.

There’s no wrong answer. The best option for you may be different than the best one for your mom.

Take a look at a few models and figure out which is easiest for you to use.

Extra Accessories

Most appliances come with a few accessories. Toasters are no different.

While a pop-up toaster is typically accessory-free, counter toasters and convection toasters can come with options like:

• Bake trays
• Broil pans
• Crumb trays
• Pizza stones
• Wire racks

Accessories on their own aren’t usually expensive, so you shouldn’t base your toaster decision on what free accessories come with it. They do, however, fall in the “nice to have” category.

Number of Functions

Would you be happy with a toaster that only made toast? And only two slices at a time?

If so, you’re an easy customer and will likely be happy with the first (and cheapest) toaster you find.

However, if you want a toaster than functions more like a miniature oven, look at counter toasters and convection toasters.

Consider making a list of everything you want to make in your toaster. If heating up chicken nuggets, making nachos, and enjoying other small plates of food are on that list, find a toaster with more functions than simply “toast.”

Common toaster functions include:

• Automatic shutoff
• Cooking options such as toast, bake, broil, reheat, warm, defrost, and convection heating
• Interior light
• Toast shade

Size

We love convection toasters because of how well they cook food, but there is a downside: they’re big.

Counter toasters and convection oven toasters are significantly larger than pop-up toasters. You may have difficulty fitting them next to your blender, coffee maker, slow cooker, and all your other small kitchen appliances.

Thus, if counter space is an issue, you may want to invest in a small pop-up toaster and use your oven for baking and cooking items you otherwise would have used a traditional counter toaster to do.

Warranty

All good appliances have warranties, which typically vary based on brand and appliance type.

Most toasters have a one-year limited warranty. Others have a three-year limited warranty.

Wattage Output

If you’re trying to cut down on the amount of energy and electricity you use, pay attention to the type of toaster you purchase. As you can imagine, a pop-up toaster uses less energy than a traditional counter toaster or a convection toaster.

In general, a toaster uses somewhere between 800 and 1,500 watts of energy when in use. The average toaster uses 1,200, but most pop-up toasters are on the lower end of that number. Most counter toasters and convection toasters are on the higher end.

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When it’s time to purchase a new toaster, use this buying guide and our top picks to help you choose the best option for you.