My more expensive, super fancy Krups toaster oven recently kicked the bucket after about 4-5 yrs of service, and it was time to replace it. While my Krups was a good toaster oven (before it died), it took up a lot of space on the counter, it was expensive to buy, and frankly it had a lot of features (convection) and interior space that I just don't use and don't think are necessary in a toaster oven. So when I shopped for a replacement, I decided to go downmarket a bit. Problem is, the toaster oven market is bifurcated towards two extremes and IMO neither is ideal. On the low end, are super cheap pieces of junk. On the higher end, are expensive behemoths that take up all your counter space and have a lot of features that most of us will never use. Now I'll admit, for someone who lives in say a small apartment and doesn't have a regular oven, the second type may make sense. But I live in a house with a regular kitchen and I have a regular oven and a cooktop, as well as a gas grill and a big green egg. What this means is, I'm not going to be roasting a whole chicken or searing steaks or baking any cakes or cooking thanksgiving dinner in my toaster oven. What I mostly use my toaster oven for is 1) toast! and 2) heating up things like leftover pizza or empanadas or really anything else that will get soggy in the microwave but you don't want to wait for the regular oven to preheat when alls you want to do is heat up a single item, and 3) odd things like maybe an open faced sammich or something. So really, anything small that you want to heat up quickly yet still have it be crispy. I have a hunch a large percent of toaster oven owners use them pretty much like I do and want a quality product but don't want a $300 large convection toaster oven taking up all our counter space, but also don't want to trust the $20 hunk of junk that looks like it will die in 2 weeks and can't toast evenly. This toaster oven is a good choice because: 1) It's simple - toast, bagel, bake, broil. The analog controls are simple to use, and unlike a digital keypad it "remembers" what your last setting was (for say toast darkness or oven temp), which you are likely to use repeatedly. Some reviews complained the controls are hard to read, and I don't find this to be a problem although I do have good near-sight vision. The crum tray is easy to remove, clean, and replace. 2) It works - nice even toasting. Heats up quickly for reheating items. I was surprised at how light it was out of the box, but it works well so this doesn't appear to be a problem. 3) It's a fair price - way cheaper than the expensive convection ovens, but not so cheap as to be garbage 4) Small footprint - doesn't take up much counter space yet still big enough for everything I want a toaster oven to do. Honestly if something can't fit in this thing I have no problem firing up the regular oven. Now, there seem to be 2 basic complaints on this model and I don't find either to be a problem: 1) No timer - who cares? I'm only using it for toast (which does shut off when it reaches desired darkness) and to heat up small stuff that only takes a few minutes, I can hang around and keep an eye on it. Again, this seems like more of a problem for people who want to bake a cake or something and I don't know why you'd want to use a toaster oven to do that. 2) A lot of people complain that the toast comes out too dark - I'm puzzled by these complaints as I find it extremely easy to set the toaster to desired darkness. The medium setting comes out pretty much what I'd expect medium toast to be, and more importantly you have infinite adjustability with the analog controls so it shouldn't take you much experimenting to figure out how you want it. One person even complained they had this for over a month and couldn't get toast that wasn't burned - I'd say this person either got a defective unit, or they are severely challenged when it comes to the operation of small electronics and/or employing the trial and error method. Overall - there should be more toaster ovens in this segment. If you don't routinely roast whole prime ribs or do hard core baking in your toaster oven, this should suit your needs well. Edit: Well, 3 1/2 years later, one of the coils was coming apart and my girlfriend threw the Cuisinart away because she claims that's a fire hazard! Replacement is a Kitchenaid unit purchased from Costco (which also doesn't have a lot of unnecessary bells and whistles, although it's a bit bigger). The new Kitchenaid definitely does not toast as quickly or evenly as the trusty old Cuisinart! I wish we'd just bought another as it's replacement. 3 1/2 years isn't too bad for a toaster oven that was used fairly often and not really taken care of, rarely cleaned etc. I stand by my old 5 star review.
