I'm giving this convection/toaster 5 stars based on it's performance at it's price range and class. You can spend 3-4 times as much on a professional countertop convection oven like the Franklin convection oven (Amazon ASIN: B000BQ0CP6) for $250 and get a better product. However, I've used both and by comparison I think you really get your money's worth with this product.
We've had ours for about a month now and use it daily. The results are amazing. I've made numerous frozen pizzas, a meatloaf, cookies, brownies, loads of toast and lots of french fries among other things. The oven performed quite well in all cases. There is definitely a little bit of a learning curve and I goofed up a few things before I figured out how to use it. I would definitely recommmend reading the directions and following many of the recommendations for rack and food placement. That is actually very important.
Some examples of "tweaks" are as follows: With brownies you need a lower temperature than the box states when using convection and you might want to use a combination of convection and regular baking for cakes and browines.
With chocolate chip cookies you want to go with straight convection heat and depending on the mix you use you'll need to tweak the cycle. Cookies bake in much less time but you can get abolutely perfect and uniformly colored cookies! No more burnt bottoms! For example Ghiardelli dry cookie mix from the box cooks a little differently than the frozen dough that comes in a chub, even though the baking instructions on the packages are about the same. As you might expect you can only make about 6 average cookies, or biscuits at a time.
The convection bake is excellent for making all kinds of frozen french fries that come out perfect every time. Spring rolls come out great. The oven has several pre-programed cycles, a light, a timer, and every cycle offers the opportunity to tweak the temperature and/or time. There is a nice light inside the unit that makes it easy to check food.
Other notes: When making toast be sure to follow the directions for setting the rack.
Major Plusses:
1. Holds a very consistent temperature
2. Does a very good job on many types of food - better than a conventional oven
3. Produces very uniformly cooked foods
4. Cooks many foods in less time
5. Bottom tray is easy to remove and clean
6. Easy to use
A few drawbacks:
1. It does not quite fit most 9 x 13 pans, but will cook 12 inch pizzas.
2. It does get hot and you need to be careful how you open it and where you put your hands.
3. It only comes with one shelf. I would like two shelves for making cookies.
4. There is a bit of a "learning curve" if you're not used to convection
5. The oven operated at a slightly higher temperature than what my oven thermometer reads, but it holds at one, even temperature very well and it was consistently about the same difference at all ranges from 300 to 450. I'm honestly not sure which temperature was more correct, the oven's or my thermometer's. Based on my baking, the oven may be running a tad hotter than it says but it's easy to adjust. I would recommend checking your oven, as they may differ.
