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When I first started to look for a replacement for my old (very, very) Black and Decker SpaceSaver toaster oven I had a long list of requirements. As I hadn't shopped for a toaster oven in about 30 years I didn't realize that those stipulations were wildly optimistic. After months of frustrating research (and one very bad purchase), I was left with two show-stopping requirements: no Teflon (or Teflon-like) coating because of the fumes that emits, and an "I am done" sound that didn't shatter my eardrums and cause my dog to run away from home.
The TCO600 meets both of those requirements. There is no Teflon coating just bare metal. (I would have preferred the old style blue/black enamel like my old toaster oven had and like my real oven has, but, as I said, I gave up on most of my "prefers".) The sound when the timer (60 minute) is complete is one "ding". That I love.
I'm pleased with the unit so far. The convection fan is quiet, the oven heats to the temperature set. I've used it to bake a few things and was satisfied. Haven't yet used the broiler. The toaster is not the most convenient to use, and you cannot choose a setting and leave it there. (One must turn the timer past 20, then turn it to whatever you think might be the right setting for the bread and wait for the timer to turn it off.) The toast was not bad at all.
It is nice looking, chrome front, painted silver metal along the sides and top. That chrome is going to show every fingerprint that touches it, but it's wiped clean easily enough. It does get hot, as toaster ovens do, but it hasn't caused any problems. The crumb tray is very accessible in the front of the unit. I do like the analog dials rather than pushbutton digital stuff.
It's a bigger footprint than I was looking for. My old unit was not called "SpaceSaver" for nothing: it was small outside and huge inside.
I have not had any problems with the oven being on the same circuit as the refrigerator. My house is fairly new, so maybe that makes a difference.
I've had it about two months. So far, so good.
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We bought this oven based on its size/appearance and the poor reviews of other models.* It's large capacity: They claim 6 slices can fit, maybe so, but I what I know for sure is that 4 frozen waffles fit very easily; it's also easy to reach in to remove them when done, no more using a fork to pull them out, my hand can fit w/o risk of hitting a hot element
* It looks good: It's got the stainless steel look and matches my counter-top microwave. Despite its capacity, it's unobtrusive on the counter and doesn't dominate other appliances near it.
* Timer/Convection/"Done" noises: Another review on here claims that the timer is very loud when running and that the sound of the oven element turning on and off is also overly loud. I think s/he must have a bad unit, because that is simply not the case with mine. When the timer is running you do hear a "ticking" noise, but it's not overly loud at all, it's quite soft actually. When the heating elements turn on/off there is a soft "click", I wouldn't have given it another thought except that I was watching for it due to the other review. The convection fan is also very quiet--yes, it is not completely silent, but there is no way that I would consider it loud or annoying in any way. The "done" ding is pretty loud, but that's a good thing in my opinion.
* Crumb Tray: It's a decent one. I was looking for two things--a little bit of depth, and front removal. This has both. Though one thing to note is that the fit/finish of the tray/door is tight and as a result the crumb tray will open approx. 1/4-1/2" after you open the oven door, it's not a big deal at all and many people might not even notice it. The crumb tray to me was important because our old toaster oven had one that you had to flip open from the bottom, it was basically worthless unless you picked up the oven and held it perfectly level until you were over the sink, then opened it. This one lets you easily clean it without moving the oven or making a mess.
* Elements: It has 4 heating elements, they aren't protected by a metal guard and should be easy to wipe off when cool if something drips on them
* Controls: Here's where it goes from 5 to 4 stars. There are three knobs which I'll call top, middle and bottom, you can view them by doing a zoom on the product image to see what I'm talking about. The top knob is straight forward enough, it has 4 positions: Conv/Bake, Bake, Toast and Broil. The middle knob is the typical temp knob with a wide range of "min to warm", then numbered in 50*F increments from 200*F to "450*/Broil". The bottom knob is the timer, turn it one detent to the left and it's in "always on" mode, to the right is the toast "shade control" and beyond that a 10-60 minute timer (in 5 min increments). The "shade control" is my number one complaint: It's way too small! It represents about 10* out of 360* of knob movement, which means about 1" of travel at most, the result is that it's very different to select a good position that doesn't result in either "not toasted" or "burnt", it's also dangerous because someone careless or not paying attention could easily turn the knob to 20 minutes and then end up burning something very badly.
What could be done different? My suggestion would be to make the bottom knob a "toast only" knob, giving you the whole turn of the knob to equal the shade of your toast. Make a "broil" position on the middle knob just beyond 450*. These two suggestions eliminate the need for two of the four positions on the top knob which could become the new oven timer, perhaps 0-60 on one side for Conv/Bake and 0-60 on the other for just Bake. Frankly having an "always on" position for a toaster oven is just not a good idea anyway, as you should be checking it at least once an hour and when you do that you can just turn the timer knob to add more time.
So overall I'm happy with this oven except for the somewhat touchy "shade control". I do feel like we'll need to warn any guests who might use it, because I can imagine a relative or two popping in some toast then turning it to 20 minutes and walking away.
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I've had this for a few weeks now and I've used it exclusively...I haven't turned my oven on once. That's the whole reason I have a toaster oven of this size to begin with, so I can do the majority of my baking in it rather than heating up the oven.I've cooked everything from frozen pizzas to a soufflé in this oven. I've found that the convection cooking is no faster and in some cases is significantly slower, than regular baking. Frozen pizzas take a few minutes longer on convection/bake than on bake. I made a small loaf of bread, which took 20 extra minutes on bake, after the 55 minutes on convection/bake! It's only supposed to take 55 minutes total! Same with the soufflé...it took almost double the time.
As a toaster oven goes, it's good. Good size, looks nice, easy to clean and easy to use. As a convection oven, it's absolutely worthless. I am extremely disappointed in it compared to my previous convection oven experience.
So, if you're just looking for a toaster oven, you can't go wrong. If you want a convection oven to speed up your cooking, look elsewhere.
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EDIT #2: After rearranging my kitchen so that I can accommodate the toaster oven to a different outlet (no small feat in my Brooklyn Apartment), it appears that separating the oven from the refrigerator did the trick. Fridge now seems unaffected. Which is really good. I can now use this toaster oven. It does cook well and is better constructed than other toaster ovens I inspected at various stores. So, it's a keeper for now....EDIT: After using this toaster oven several times, it seems to have knocked my refrigerator out temporarily. I surmise that the high wattage with its heating elements constantly turning on and off had shut down the refrigerator's motor/compressor as the oven was probably drawing too much power. This is very disappointing as it cooked good. I immediately disconnected the product. My refrigerator rebooted after about 20 minutes or so. Of course, the temperature in the refrigerator was going up. Luckily the refrigerator has been working properly 24 hours after the shut down.
If you want this oven, don't connect it to the same outlet as your refrigerator! I'll leave my original review in place for now.
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Living by myself in a Brooklyn apartment means that your big gas oven will heat up the apartment everytime you use it. So, for years now, I've been using toaster ovens to cook just about everything. No sense firing up the big oven for a personal frozen pizza.
I was using a DeLonghi digital toaster oven, but it was too small. It cooked very fast but I needed something a little bigger.
Most of the toaster ovens I inspected at Macy's were poor-quality looking.
Then I saw the Waring Pro. It looked better constructed than most. So, I decided to spend an extra $20 and get this model.
So far, so good. It's my first convection toaster oven. The fan is very quiet. Cook time isn't as fast as the smaller DeLonghi, but it's not really a problem.
Cooking is more even with the Waring Pro. I used to get half my pizza burnt with my previous ovens. So I guess the convection fan does make cooking a little more even.
Construction of this unit is pretty good. The door closes well and opens with no problem. The crumb tray pulls out easily for cleaning. Knobs turn easily. The oven can stay on indefinitely, or it can be set by the timer.
The top and bottom heating elements turn on and off to maintain proper heat. This is also stated in the manual.
As for the manual, its very sparse. My only gripe so far is that the manual should have been more comprehensive with a somewhat higher priced oven like this.
The back of the oven also curves outward to handle a 12" pizza. The size of this oven is really good and can handle most everything you can put in it.
So, hopefully it will serve me well for quite a while.
As for the first review regarding their unit catching fire with pop tarts, please be advised that pop tarts contain an ingredient in its frosting that is very flammable. Homes have been burned down from pop tarts while cooking in toasters! Just google it and see for yourself!
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I got this toaster oven after an exhaustive research period searching for a toaster oven that had no non-stick coatings (i.e. Teflon etc.). It was my great hope and I gave it every chance in the book but in the end I had to reject it before I even got to the point where I actually got to cook in it!From the research that I had done (and from the user's manual in the 1st oven I tried, yes that's right, I tried twice) you need to "burn-off" the protective coatings / lubricants in the oven. I did this in my master bathroom where I could be sure that the fan vented directly outside.
I followed the directions and in the last stage I turned the selector from bake to broil left the room for five minutes, heard something fall and returned to find that the handle had melted off. That's MELTED off.
Now, I will admit I left the glass door closed while the broiling element was on but the main culprit here is a flaw in the design/engineering in the way in which the handle is attached to the door and the fact that they used a type of plastic that obviously cannot hold up to the highest temperature that this oven can put out.
If you look you'll see that the handle is attached to the glass along its entire length. Noting this, I looked at other models and most of them only attach the handles at two points.
But it can't be just this. They must have used the wrong kind of plastic for the handles. I can say this because, wanting this oven to succeed, I returned the first oven and tried a second one. This time making sure not to "broil the handle".
Well, it has spent a month in my bathroom now, being "burnt-off" periodically. I kept doing this because there was this odor that just wouldn't go away. I've finally accepted that it is the plastic handle heating up and not some other mysterious oil that was taking a long time to burn off (as I was hoping). The smell occurs at a relatively low temperature, 300 degrees, and is not pleasant at all. I'm definitely not going to eat food cooked in it. If you feel the handle and the exterior it does get hot at a relatively low temperature.
So, I'm giving up! This one's going back tomorrow, no more chances.
So, no, I never got to cook food in it. Yes, the timer was click-y as it ticked away. I imagine it would take some time to gain experience on dial to determine toast "darkness". The dinger bell was average. What can I say? It's low tech. That's what you get with low tech. Dials to turn and things that click and ding.
My problem's not with the low tech it's with the low grade plastic used for the handles. I consider that to be a safety and health hazard. It's unfortunate because otherwise I think this could have been a hit.
As an additional FYI I believe that the manufacturer is aware of the flaw because the manual in the second unit did NOT mention the "burning-off" procedure. Which makes me wonder...what else they have "overlooked"?
So the search for the NO non-stick interior goes on...
EDIT: After much searching I never did find a toaster oven that I was 100% certain didn't have a non-stick/Teflon coating.
I ended up purchasing an Oster® Large Digital Countertop Oven Model: TSSTTVMNDG. I just posted a review here on Amazon if you want to search for it.
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