It took up a lot of counter space and beeped loudly as well. We think it’s best for people who don’t have space for a full-size oven in their home, or for those who have a lot of counter space and need an additional oven. Once your toaster is up and running, we recommend that you empty the crumb tray often.
We also offer expert advice on what to look for when shopping for a countertop microwave at the end of this guide. Some toaster ovens, like our budget pick, are equipped with only two heating elements. But fewer heating elements aren’t necessarily an indication of poor toasting performance. hamilton beach 1000 watt microwave If the oven cavity is small, two elements are enough to regulate heat. That said, avoid larger toaster ovens with only a couple of elements because they won’t be able to distribute heat evenly. The more heating elements a toaster oven has, the bigger and more expensive it will be.
This chart featured in the Balmuda manual is misleading. Surface browning begins at a much lower temperature than the 320 °F indicated above. And at 428 °F, toast would be burning, not beginning to brown (on a medium setting, the toaster didn’t even reach 428 °F).
The FlashXpress made crispy-yet-melty Bagel Bites that were more consistently browned from one edge of the pan to the other. Some ovens’ results weren’t dark enough; others were overdone or unevenly cooked. This was also one of the only models in this price range that could bake chicken thighs with a golden brown, crispy skin.
But the warping didn’t make the tray overly difficult to pull out or to clean. We noticed that crumbs tended to accumulate on the inner ledge at the base of the oven’s door. However, we found it easy to brush them onto the crumb tray using a pastry brush or a paper towel. We also ran a bonus round to evaluate how well each oven could crisp up the skin on hamilton beach 1000 watt microwave chicken thighs—a very telling test, as very few models excelled at this task. The knowledge gained from hundreds of hours of testing since 2013 has helped us identify the most promising models to test each year. We’ve been long-term testing our picks to see how they hold up over the long haul—we’ve been using some models in our own homes since 2017.