Can you get excited about a toaster oven?
By R. Neal
Created Mar 2 2008 - 11:50
I can! Our old Toastmaster toaster oven died after only four years (or more accurately it's computer got brain damaged or possessed or something) and I needed to replace it.
That thing was awfully slow to make toast, so my main requirement was speed. I thought about just getting a separate toaster, but I like to butter my toast before plus we use it for other stuff, so a toaster oven is more versatile.
I settled on the Krups. There are three different models, but I got the FBC2 [1] because that's the one they had at Bed Bath and Beyond and that's the only place I could find one locally.
This thing is great. It has three heating elements (the only one that I could find that does, which is the main reason I picked it). They are "quartz" elements, so they come on and go to work almost instantly.
Toast takes three minutes or less, which is about twice as fast as our old one. You have to play around with the right oven rack position to get it perfect, and it's way overpriced, but other than that it works great. Now I just hope it lasts. Ask me again in a couple of years.
Links:
[1] http://www.krupsonlinestore.com/product_detail.asp?T1=KRU+FBC212&MENU=toasterovens&SKW=kruoven6