It's back !!!! the Panasonic Flash Xpress toaster oven

[petek]

I just noticed in the last issue of Consumer Reports that Panasonic brought back the best little toaster oven ever made. It got rave reviews years ago and then they pulled them off the market which was really odd. If anyone's looking for a toaster oven with a small countertop footprint that makes excellent toast, something most toaster ovens can't do well, then this is the one. Now I have to figure out if I should buy another one to put away "just in case"

http://shop.panasonic.com/shop/model/NB-G110P

 

[NYCWriter]

I wish ...

... there was a full-size over-the-range version of this I could replace my microwave with.

 

[joeekaitis]

Bought one.

Great toast.

(Split image "before-and-after" photo-montage that I uploaded to Amazon.com)

 

[countryguy]

The toasts looks nicely browned but is it still soft inside or is it hard as a rock?

Gary

 

[joeekaitis]

. . . but is it still soft inside or is it hard as a rock?

Velvety soft. I never touch Eggo waffles but reviews on Amazon say it handles them the same way: browned but not burnt on the outside; warm and soft on the inside.

 

[joeekaitis]

Your humble toast-muncher's review. . .

. . . is just a click away. (Scathing merciless pull-no-punches comments welcome.)

http://www.amazon.com/review/R1YJ2O...e=UTF8&ASIN=B008C9UFDI&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag=

 

[petek]

That's some flowery prose you wrote LOL

Probably the only fault of mine and I'm wondering if they "fixed" it is that the end of cycle beep is so quick and quiet that you can't hear it at all if you're not in the kitchen close-by.

 

[fido]

What is the maximum cooking time? I have a similar appliance but it only goes up to 10 minutes on the timer. If I cook things like frozen burgers I usually have to reset the timer to add extra cooking time.

 

[joeekaitis]

What is the maximum cooking time?

25 minutes but you can add time up to the maximum any time during the cycle. To abort the cycle, i.e.: your food is about to burn, hit the master on/off button.

 

[sudsmaster]

I've admired that little toaster oven for years but the high price - for the size - always put me off. Naturally I've had a succession of toaster ovens since then and none of them does a very good job with toast. Nor do most of the succession of toasters I also purchased. Currently I have a Cuisinart toaster oven which can fit a 12" pizza, and does a decent enough job with that, as well as stuff like frozen seasoned pre-cooked chicken wings and fish sticks. But I've found that the GE P-7 wall oven does a more even job with pizza, and haven't had any wings or sticks for a while, either.

PS-The Panasonic Flash oven is on backorder. But $85 is a pretty good price - years ago it was retailing for $130.

 

[joeekaitis]

Cooked up some breakfast sausage . . .

. . . the fresh kind, not frozen/precooked. 15 minutes at 390°F.

We love having breakfast for dinner.

 

[jeffg]

FYI Amazon has them for the same price ($85).

 

[joeekaitis]

Hot dog!

Ball Park Bun-Length franks roasted on the Frozen Pizza setting as suggested by various online reviews. Just enough char to give them an authentic grilled flavor.

And, yeah, that's a CorningWare Pyroceram Blue Cornflower 9-incher.

 

[jeffg]

Joe or anyone, what's the approx. distance from the heating elements to the food in this oven?

 

[twintubdexter]

I've always wanted one of these nifty Panasonics ever since they first hit the scene. The Amazon one seems like a good deal but it's silver. I'm looking for the same price in white.

I love toaster ovens since heating up my wall ovens for something small seems like such a waste. Toaster ovens seem to have come a long way and there are some pretty nice ones currently out there. A number of years ago I bought a little Delonghi "Alfredo" oven and have become attached to it particularly because it has an interior light. I guess all toaster ovens work a little differently and after awhile you get used to them. Things that say "350" may cook better at a different temperature so you adjust.

 

[joeekaitis]

. . .approx. distance from the heating elements to the food?

Looks like about 4 inches above and below versus the extremely close proximity of the elements to the bread in a pop-up toaster and in lower profile toaster ovens.

 

[jeffg]

Joe, thanks. A review from a baker on Amazon claims the door glass shattered and flew all over his kitchen. If we hear any similar reports I think we'll limit its use to toaster instead of oven. I didn't even know manufacturers were allowed to use non-shatterproof glass in ovens.

 

[jeffg]

Ours arrived yesterday. Nice imo but the manual is close to hopeless. Anyone know which heating elements the different cycles use, e.g. does the oven have a bagel (toast one side only) cycle?

Our other (minor) gripe so far is the unit's power cord placement: on the right side toward the front. No way to get a clean look on the countertop.

To update my last post, the glass on this oven sure looks like the shatterproof type.

 

[petek]

There's no one sided (bagel) toasting on mine. I can't tell how the elements work. The flash one cycles on and off a lot but the other two regular ones, not sure, it's hard to tell.

 

[joeekaitis]

No broil = no top brown option . . .

. . . but if you put the bagel on an opaque oven-safe dish, that might reduce the browning of the crusty side. The FlashXpress toasts by time, not by thermostat.

Just a thought.

 

[NYCWriter]

I'd like one of these too ...

... to replace my over-the-range microwave oven (I haven't used my microwave in years since learning how unhealthy it is to eat microwaved food).

Unfortunately, from what I've learned from my research on toaster ovens, they are generally not insulated enough to even safely install on a shelf over the stove without huge space buffers on the sides and top.

Also, you wouldn't want to customize your kitchen around such an oven too much, since the new ones all have an inherent design flaw: combining electronics with heat (and lack of insulation). Purely mechanical toaster ovens can last for years, if not decades. But toaster ovens (with their notoriously poor insulation) with digital controls are pretty much guaranteed to fail within 3-5 years (if they even last THAT long) because the delicate electronics cannot withstand the heat from the oven.

 

[sudsmaster]

Actually I've found a toaster oven with mechanical timer not to last very long. It was an Oster and after a few years the timer stopped working. I replaced it with a computer controlled Oster convection oven.

The computer controlled convection Oster performed just fine for years, at least to its design limits. The computer control had no problems. But the unit had a rather large foot print. I replaced it with a Cuisinart Total Touch that has a smaller footprint, with the computer controls at the bottom front. It also has performed without any problems.