Chef's Convection Toaster Oven

I've had this toaster oven for a year now. It's been fantastic, so I figured a review might help potential buyers make a choice. I upgraded to this so I could get a 12-13" pizza in it, and it came with a pizza stone, so that works fine. It pre-heats in 5 min, beating my gas oven by 20 minutes. I use a $1/use rule of thumb for a purchase. This blows that away, I've used at least 4x daily for a year, or more than 1,400 times. Of course it does toast, but I've literally not turned my gas oven on since I plugged this in. It comes with some aluminum pans, but I bought several small stainless steel trays, links below. The smaller trays fit in, in pairs, and the larger one takes the whole size. Remember this has two racks and you can put items on both levels (and I do to get 3 or 4 foods cooking at once). The stainless is easier to clean and can drop in the dishwasher. I also discovered that a Lodge Braiser (enameled cast iron 3.6 qt) fits in like it's custom made. (The short handles go in corner to corner across the long angle). Besides being a great pan, it's inexpensive and allows braises, roast and stews to be started/ browned/seared on the range, then moved into the little oven for long roasting. There is a 2hr limit on the timer, but just check it and reset to go again. The temp range of 150 to 500 is great. I often use it as a warmer to keep dishes ready while completing another. The unit is a little large on the counter, and it's more expensive than average, but it's become my most used kitchen tool, second only to my refrigerator. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GYM74ND?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_3&th=1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B091F43YGX?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_3&th=1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BVPN78X?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_7&th=1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089Y9LH5T?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_8&th=1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GY2GC6M?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_8&th=1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09B17G3CY?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

This IS an air fryer! The words air fryer just mean EXTRA HOT heat and a FAN that circulates the heat. Thats it. This is an extra hot convection oven that requires no pre-heating (full size ovens take 15-25 min to pre-heat). This Cuisinart Chef’s is an “oven style” air fryer (it’s bigger so it can hold decent amount of food, and has shelves) versus the “bucket style” air fryer (which are compact size, and doesn’t hold much food, and you can only cook one food item at a time). I did not like having to cook one food item, then cook the 2nd food item, then the 3rd with my bucket style air fryer. With the Cuisinart Chef’s oven I can cook all the food at a one time. This IS an air fryer - however because the words “air fryer” had not yet been invented at the time they started marketing it, that is the only reason the word “air fryer” is not included in it’s name. It is all an air fryer oven, it’s just not named an air fryer. This is the absolute best appliance I’ve ever purchased. If you read Cook’s Illustrated reviews, Wire cutter reviews, and most other reviews etc. you will find that it is fantastic. Leaps and bounds better then all other air fryers (except perhaps the Breville, but it costs $200 more). This maintains a perfectly consistent temperature. It heats up in no time. It cooks food in no time. It holds two shelves full of food - two 9x12” pans. I prepare an entire meal - meat, vegetables, potatoes at the same time - and is done in less then 20 min. It has completely changed how I prepare meals. Quick, easy, healthy, fantastic. On Shop HQ I purchased Paula Deen’s “5-Piece Air Fryer Oven Basket” that comes with 4 mesh baskets about 12”x 10” for $25 and they are perfect.! I bought two more of these sets but I think they’re now sold out. However Amazon has similar sized mesh baskets for sale, a bit more expensive, but they are WELL, WELL, WELL worth the convenience! I painted the labels on the buttons of the oven with clear fingernail polish the day I got it, so the words don’t wear off, because I read that people said that has happened. It worked perfect. I use “bake” to cook frozen Costco wild salmon fillets and they’re delicious. I did purchase a high end, leave-in-the-food-while-its-cooking thermostat that beeps when the salmon is the temp I desire. And Costco’s Marie Callander chicken pot pies on “bake” result in flaky crispy perfect crust - unlike the nasty crust in a microwave - never been a fan of microwaves for many reasons, and they consistently are delicious (although not especially healthy). Costco Panko shrimp or coconut shrimp it is super easy and very tasty. Every meal I fill 1-2 Paula Deen baskets full of Costco organic veggies: asparagus, baby potatoes, mushrooms, slices of onions, baby carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, etc. They don’t really need oil or even salt or pepper, but you can add if you like. I’ve filled a metal baking dish with organic refried beans, a scoop of corn, some onions, cheese and heated it in the air fryer, then top with salsa and sour cream. By the way, Nachos are a breeze. But note: if you use a Pyrex dish, make sure the air fryer has ALREADY Pre-heated BEFORE inserting the Pyrex - it only takes 2 to 3 minutes. You do not want to put a Pyrex dish into it while the oven is still coming to full temperature because the temp while pre-heating can be be too hot and too inconsistent for glass or Pyrex dishes. I cannot say enough wonderful things about my Cuisinart chefs convection oven. I am buying a second one for my cabin. I think it is the best appliance I’ve ever purchased.

Waited to review until we had used for awhile, which we now have for over five months. As luck would have it, our stove oven went out just as Covid lockdowns were starting. So began the search for a countertop replacement where we could bake the occasional pizza plus casseroles, fruit crisps, etc....but mainly it had to accommodate a decent sized pizza for two. The fact that the information said this oven could do that and came with a pizza stone was the reason for choosing this particular oven. Learned at the outset that this oven bakes hot so we automatically set temp 25 degrees lower and if there is a time range on the recipe, set for minimum time. In the beginning, just watched things very closely until we got a feel for how it baked. There seemed to be quite a few comments that lettering fairly quickly wore off the buttons. The lettering on ours is still all quite intact, no issue there. The oven heats quite quickly and we have not noticed the outside getting excessively hot. The right front corner seems to have a warmer spot, bakes hotter, noticeable mostly with pizza, just make sure to keep an eye on it and turn during the bake to brown evenly. It is easy to clean the inside; there is a tray at the bottom that you can pull out to dump crumbs or wash spills. I must say I am not thrilled with the stainless exterior. Shows water spots and spots from hands that are hard to wipe off. I am not experienced with stainless appliances...perhaps there is a cleaner that deals with water spits,etc....need to research. Ok, now to address the function that was our main reason for choosing this model....Pizza! We have been most pleased with this oven's performance of handling pizza. We have a local Papa Murphy's that sells take and bake pizzas. They come on a tough paper-like round tray...actually, I am not sure what the tray is made of.....that you put directly into oven with pizza. However, results with baking on that have been less than satisfactory in our opinion. The directions say to bake at 425. By experimenting, I found that setting to 400 degrees, bottom position with stone preheated, place tray with pizza on stone. After 7 min, I use a metal peel-like gadget, slide between the now somewhat crisped up pizza crust and the tray, loosen it from the tray and pull the tray out so the pizza finishes on bare stone for another 7 min, rotating as needed for even browning. Our favorite is a combination and this tastes every bit as good as going to pizza restaurant. I made my first sourdough pizza in the oven recently....also excellent with results. My berry crisps have turned out great, casseroles. We have since repaired our stove oven, but find for smaller things like desserts and the pizzas, our go-to is the Cuisinart countertop oven. We are very pleased with it. My experimenting with baking sourdough loaves in dutch oven in the Cuisinart less than successful. Pan too close to bottom elements resulting in burned bottoms, but not ready to throw in towel yet. I do have the large oven for that but would still like to figure out how to make the smaller oven work as well. The photos are of my homemade sourdough pizza.

Love these convection mini ovens. Forget the toaster part I have a toaster. These are great for cooking, roasting or broiling without having to heat the kitchen up. Had a Cuisinart TOB195 that had been used heavily for over a decade. It was still purring along just looking the worse for wear so I wanted to replace it. Looked at the Cuisinart and the Breville. Both were about the same price and had both good and bad reviews. The Cuisinart came with a pizza stone and eureka! a light. Well it also had a three year warranty versus a one year. Usually an indicator of maybe better quality as the manufacturer is willing to put their money where their mouth is so to say. Plus have always had dependable service from all my Cuisinart appliances. Was mulling it over and Amazon lowered the price to $153. Time to pull the trigger. It came in and sure enough the often mentioned gap was there - darn. But got to looking and there are spacers that prevent the door from closing enough to make contact with the body. Hmmm. Next let's cook with it. Warm up is a little longer than the smaller 195 but love the extra room and the two racks. So let's get tp cooking. Does great. Chicken fingers, wings, pork chops etc. all did as well or better than the other oven and this one is quitter at convection. I was still curious about the gap. Holding my hand just above the door and I could not feel any heat escaping So let's get out my infra red thermometer. Measuring at the convection fan 424 degrees when set on 425. All following readings were within a narrow range. Probably better than most larger range ovens. So the gap does not affect cooking but why? Then it hit me. There have been problems with the glass door burning someone and in some cases cracking. So measured the glass corner and it was just over 160 degrees while the oven was at 425. 265 degrees difference. The outside of the door at the hottest spot was 107 coolest 97. Had the door been in direct contact it would have been much higher. So the gap so many have complained about is a pretty good idea saving some potential singed fingers. The next biggest complaint was the cooking time began when the oven reached the set temperature and you had to be there when it did. The cooking time and temperature are both bully adjustable at any time. Miss the start and you can adjust right before you put the food in. Speaking of warming up when you use the pizza setting it takes some time to heat up as the oven has the pizza stone warm up set in. Also complaints of the door using hooks rather than a magnet. Don't know; all the cooking I have done the rack is not high enough to catch. Probably on the Breville would not be high enough for the magnet to catch. Not too wild about the controls compared to the old 195 but it seems like most of the ovens use the same set-up. This one does have a lot of options that I may or may not use late. Happy with the purchase and only gave 4 stars because am not sure of long term reliability. But I know I am good for at least three years.

I did a ton of research before buying this oven. I'd had a Black & Decker for years that I loved, but it began to malfunction, and I reluctantly knew I needed to buy another large countertop oven. I use my countertop oven constantly--far more than my regular one, actually. There are two of us, and I find it ideal for most meal prep. I'd read the reviews about the door not closing properly, how hot the oven becomes on the outside, how the paint comes off the buttons, etc. But it seemed overall to be the best and most dependable choice. So I sprung for it. I love it. The first thing I did was to apply clear nail polish to the buttons before I even used it. Problem solved. I've never had a smidge of issue with the buttons or their paint coming off. The door was adjusted fine. At first I was curious, because it appeared to be slightly away from the oven body when shut, but that was not an issue whatsoever. No heat escaped. It was evenly closed. It works perfectly fine. And the heat issue--I'd read how people burned themselves on the door handle and so forth--honestly, I have never had a problem with the heat at all. Does the top get hot? Of course--it's an oven. Do I ensure to pull it forward to the front edge of the countertop and out from under the overhead cabinets? Of course. Does it heat up my kitchen? Nope. Can I put things on top of the oven while it's in use? Yes. I put the extra rack and extra broiler rack that I ordinarily store inside the oven on the top when I remove them to use it. They are all metal. It's no big deal. This oven heats up incredibly fast--within 3 minutes or so. It actually cooks faster than my other oven or previous B&D did (I check my recipes about 5-10 minutes earlier now). The heat seems even and steady. What I love about it: (1) The internal light is wonderful. (2) The interior is large enough for most daily needs and for baking quick breads (banana bread, zucchini bread) and the like. (3) It's an attractive piece of equipment to have on the counter in the kitchen. (4) It offers a number of cooking settings on the dial as well as the ability to customize to what you want. (4) It comes with two racks that can be placed in any of four positions, two of which will pull out when you open the door. What I'd improve: (1) The timer theoretically "rings" when it has preheated or is finished cooking. Are you kidding me? That "ring" is barely a whisper. The sound level of the timer definitely should be hugely amplified for anyone more than 1 foot away to hear it in a silent room. (2) There should be an independent, manual "Preheat" setting offered that doesn't impact the cooking time. I have to add extra minutes to the cooking time to account for my food prep, and then I set a separate timer (and one that I can hear!) once I put the food into the oven for when the food will be finished. That's a small inconvenience, but it would be nice if the oven provided it. The first improvement with the ring is the most important. (3) For some reason I read that the manufacturer says not to use glass in the oven, but instead to use metal. I'd gotten rid of most of my metal in favor of glass for my gas oven and my microwave, so I had to buy new cookware for this one. It's not the worst thing in the world, but it did cost me some extra money just for this Cuisinart. I've used this oven daily now for a couple of months. I'd recommend it in a heartbeat to someone who wants a quality appliance that will enhance and expand their cooking capabilities. It's a fine piece of equipment.

I purchased this toaster oven 7 years ago. We use it multiple times daily, for toast, baked potatoes, baked desserts, reheating leftovers, baking sheet pan veggies. It always works without fail. It is easy to keep clean (we're vegetarians, so no meat juice splatters). A quarter-sheet pan fits perfectly. I would happily buy another if this one ever fails, but it has lasted through the 7-year honeymoon period, so maybe this one is a keeper! (Sorry to see the price has gone up $100 since we bought ours, but then what hasn't gone up in that many years?)

As others have noted, the infamous "ERL" code has started showing up. Out of the blue, the error code will pop up, and the machine will stop working. Unplugged the unit to reset, but it just keeps happening. Some background: we originally bought this unit in early 2021, and in late December of 2023, we started getting the same code. When I was examining the unit, I discovered that the plug had MELTED and was disconfigured. We actually discovered this error just before the warranty was up, so ConAir sent us a new one, after we cut the cord off the old one and sent them a picture proving that. So it's not a total surprise that in 2026 the error code popped up again. I knew this time the unit wouldn't be covered under warranty, but I was hoping to get some sort of useful help from customer service; I had looked online for information on what was causing the error code (the plug was fine this time), and it was a whole slew of potential issues, from the control board to the temperature sensor needing to be replaced. I had read online that you could put the unit into a diagnostic mode to diagnose individual parts, but the online instructions weren't working for me. Hence, the call to Cuisinart Customer Service. The woman I was connected too was very rude and dismissive. Once she discovered that the unit wasn't under warranty, she said, there's nothing we can do. I asked her to help me figure out how to put the unit into diagnostic mode, but she said "We don't do that." And she promptly cut me off for any additional question I asked. I then asked to speak to her supervisor, and she initially REFUSED. "You can leave a review onine." "Why would you want to speak to my supervisor?" "The call's recorded, so they'll know I did everything right." I waited twenty minutes for her to connect me to someone and was then finally connected to an automated help line. I gave up at that point and came here instead. An appliance like this should last more than three years. Period. And the fact that it's still happening is an indication that Cusinart (or Con Air, who I believe engineers the product), has no intention of fixing it. So this will be my last purchase of a Cuisinart appliance.

This is a great toaster oven. I, perhaps unfairly, gave it 4 stars for ease of cleaning. Any time you have to wash any kind of oven rack, it’s a pain, but the tray that easily slides out of the bottom is incredibly easy to clean. My only real complaint is that the light behind the electronic display for which function you’re using (toast, bagels, bake, broil, etc) stopped working within 6 months, but my kitchen is well-lit & it’s easy to read without the light on the display. It’s a very roomy toaster oven, and I almost never turn on my regular oven anymore. It does accommodate regular-sized baking pans *unless* they have giant handles on the sides of them (mine don’t). I don’t think the kind with handles would fit, but I don’t have any of those, so I can’t guarantee that. It easily accommodates casserole dishes, too, and I’ve never had a problem with the top or bottom of anything getting burned because it’s too close to the heating elements. I’ve never put an oven thermometer in it, but everything I’ve cooked in it for the recommended time comes out perfect, so I would say it is spot-on. Besides the roominess needed to accommodate frequently used trays and casserole dishes, I looked for a toaster oven with as few electronic buttons to break as possible. This one has a selector knob that is simple and seems unlikely to break any time soon. It’s simple to use: turn the knob to select toast, bake, broil, etc., then push the knob & turn again to select number of toast slices, baking temperature, etc. until you have made all your selections, then push the Start/Stop button at the bottom. Easy-peasy. Like anything that has a heating element, it uses a good bit of “juice”, so if you have an older house (like me), find an outlet that doesn’t already have a high demand & you’ll be fine. It doesn’t demand so much electricity that you’ll notice it on your bill, but if you run it with another high-demand appliance from the same outlet in an old house, you may need to reset a fuse. :) It will cost you less than using your regular oven, too. I recommend this toaster oven. With the singular exception of the display light going out, it has been extremely reliable for a year so far, and I expect that it will last for a long time.

Quería un horno tostador de gama alta ya que no tengo un horno de tamaño completo. He comprado este mismo tres veces porque funciona muy bien. Puedo colocar fácilmente una sartén para lasaña de 9x9 pulgadas o una pizza de 12 pulgadas adentro. Me gustan todas las configuraciones diferentes, además de que la opción de convención (que ayuda a que las cosas se cocinen más rápido y tengan el exterior tostado) funciona como una freidora de aire. Las etiquetas están en inglés.

I have to say, not only is this a beautiful looking appliance, it is also a great product. Cruisinart thought of everything when they made this machine. Very easy to operate and food comes out perfect every time. The drip pan is so easy to clean, not like the cheaper models that you have to scrub. Cruisinart also thought to make it so you able to adjust the bell so you can hear it. The convection part is quiet but definitely running. I love the speed convection. I haven't found anything that I dislike about this so far. Well worth the money. I've had toaster ovens most of my life, even another Cuisinart. This one is the best!

Funciona de maravilla, es un poco costoso pero esta muy bien hecho y el desempeño es tal cual como dicen. Nunca me había salido tan bien una pizza….

Fantastic, well designed, easy to clean, as described -

Chauffe bien et vite et cuit bien, assez facile a utiliser