Oster Convection Toaster Oven

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sudsmaster

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As mentioned in a previous thread on toaster ovens, which I can't find now, Costco is having a special this week on the "Oster Digital Toaster Oven With Convection" model 6058.

So since the price was so reasonable, about $47 with coupon ($59 reg price, $12 coupon), I picked one up the other day.

So far, I'm pleasantly surprised. My old Oster toaster oven had its timer go out in about a year, and I finally wound up giving it to Goodwill last summer. It had a wind-up type of timer, was very difficult to set for toast. It did ok on TV dinners, but when the timer failed I lost interest in that as well.

What I like about this Digital Oster toaster oven:

* The digital controls resolve the issue of cheap plastic windup timers failing over time. Of course the pc board could fail on this oven as well... time will tell.

* The digital timer seems to do pretty well for toast. No more squinting and trying to guess how many minutes the mechanical dial is pointing to (a big problem with 1 hour timers with the last few minutes for "toasting"). So far I toasted a hoagie roll and it came out pretty good. Also toasted some mini bread slices with good results. These would have been lost in a conventional pop-up toaster, but were easy enough to do in a toaster oven.

* The oven has a light. Nice touch.

* The styling is sort of retro, actually fairly attractive. Stainless steel shell, chrome plated front, big tubular handle, black membrane type control panel.

* The oven is big enough to handle a 10 inch pizza on the rack - maybe even 12 inch if you don't mind it hanging off the rack front and back, and maybe smearing the door glass with pizza sauce/cheese ;-). I notice that the Costco website claims this oven can fit a 12" pizza, too.

* The convection feature seems to work well enough. I found it did well with a TV dinner and also with a couple of afore mentioned mini-bread loaves (Bridgeford frozen whole wheat bread).

* It beeps at you three times when it's finished. And not in an annoying way.

* The controls offer multiple cooking modes: oven, convection, pizza mode (20 min @ 400F), defrost, dehydrate, toast, grill. Haven't tried the defrost, dehydrate, or grill modes yet. Probably will try the defrost mode soon enough (might work better than a microwave for that).

What could be improved:

* The controls are hard to read - small thin white letters on a black background. I have the oven set up on a standard table, about four inches lower than counter height. So I have to stoop down to read the controls. Additionally, while the main LED display is large and bright, the extra information - such as the various modes: oven, fan, pizza, toaste, etc, are in very small red letters that are hidden from view from above - you have to be looking directly at the display at its level to see them. It would take just a minor redesign of the black mask surrounding the display panel to fix this issue. But it's not a show stopper, as one can pretty much tell what the oven is doing from the button presses and its behavior.

* The large interior and convection feature mean that the exterior dimensions are substantially larger than the average toaster oven. I guess the convection feature means that the walls have to be a bit thicker, with air space for recirculating the hot air and to house the fan.

* While the convection works, I didn't find that it reduced cooking times and temps as much as I expected. Initially I reduced the temp and time about 25%, and wound up with underdone results. I'll have to see if longer preheating might change that, though. I will probably go to trying a 10% reduction in time and temp, and see how that goes.

* The instruction manual is clear enough but doesn't contain any advice on cooking times, etc.

Here's a photo of the same model, but with light colored control panel, which might be easier to read, from the Costco web site. The online price is also discounted, but for about $15 more than one can get in-store.

Would I get one again? Probably. I'm having fun trying out the different features. In the winter I don't mind that it adds some heat to the kitchen. I don't know if it uses less energy than the well-insulated GE P*7 wall oven, but I suspect it does simply because there is less to warm up.


1-10-2008-21-40-48--sudsmaster.jpg
 
Rich, that looks identical to our VillaWare oven. So far ours has been a good performer but not on your basic slice of toast. It takes like 8 minutes for toast so we hauled out the old Sunbeam self-lowering for that. I find the touch pad fairly cumbersome but I've gotten used to it over time. I also notice the heating elements never get very red, just a slight dark red cast to them. Still, it performs well on regular oven tasks that a regular oven is too big for. My biggest complaint about this thing is that it's very easy to burn yourself on the metal trim piece along the top of the glass front when you pull the door open. I've gotten used to that over time also. I like the little gadget they included for pulling out a hot rack. I use that all the time, as it can also lift out lighter weight trays one might be using as well.

Ralph
 
Ralph,

The Oster didn't come with a rack tool. I haven't had a problem getting burned on the oven, yet, but I'll take another look the next time I use it. Sunbeam probably OEM'd the Villaware machine. I think Sunbeam had a smaller non-convection digital model a couple of years ago (and still might) but I thought it was too shoddy to consider.
 
Yeah, we're debating on whether this oven is going to earn its keep, as counter space while not skimpy is still precious in our kitchen. My partner tends to make purchases on a whim. But we have been through a couple of different toaster ovens before this one, both much smaller, and it's no contest as far as capabilities go. The VillaWare performs much better at true oven tasks than any of its predecessors. I'm a weenie when it comes to burns so I do use the rack tool most of the time.

I think you've made a good choice if you're a frequent toaster oven user, and Costco's price is a great deal even without the coupon.
 
That's the one. I wasn't familiar with the VillaWare brand until my partner brought home their impressive indoor smoker and then later, this oven. It seems to me that their brand name alone wouldn't command a higher price, but my partner is not a shopper. He sees it, and if he likes it, he buys it without shopping around for the best deal. Don't even get me started on how much money he's wasted with this practice!
 
It's why I like the old vintagey toaster ovens, they're for the most part pretty small. Many of these new ones are the size of or bigger than a small microwave these days, and more expensive. Hardly what you can call a toaster oven anymore.
 
Pete, I tend to agree with you. The term "toaster oven" is a bit of a stretch for this particular item. As I stated above, my experience has been that toasting (your basic sliced bread) is not this unit's strong suit but it leaves smaller toaster ovens in the dust when it comes to behaving like an actual oven.
 
Yes, but such toaster ovens do pretty well with bread items that won't fit in a standard toaster slot, like hoagie rolls, home-made bread from a bread machine, etc. I would not, however, use one for grilling or even roasting meats. It would surely make a mess of the interior.
 
Agreed Rich. Any bread/roll/bun or bread-like item that's too large or unwieldy for a standard toaster is a cinch for a toaster oven even if it might take a little longer. And if I were going to do any roasting, it would have to be something that's covered or yes, it would really mess up the insides. The VillaWare came in handy for doing casseroles over the holidays when the main oven was booked solid, and it did so quite efficiently and effectively.
 
Ralph,

I see what you mean by the top of the glass getting hot when you open the oven. I avoid this by opening the door underhand, palm up. That way my knuckles aren't caught between the handle and the hot metal as the door swings downward.
 
Yeah Rich, that's the same practice I've adopted to avoid the hot metal piece at the top of the door. My old 50's Roto-Broil rotisserie has a hinged tab that functions as the handle and there's never any potential for coming in contact with the door at all. It seems this would be a better design for Oster/VillaWare ovens instead of trying to simulate the handle on a full sized oven door.
 
Ralph,

I think what you are expected to do with the Oster is to adopt a very prim and proper hand position, pinkie finger extended, palm up, grasping the door handle daintily but firmly between thumb and middle finger.

I'm sure somewhere on the Web there is a training video demonstrating the proper procedure.

:-)
 
They also get points for not plastering anything on the front door. For a while you couldn't buy a product without a very hard to remove label stuck somewhere on the front of it. I think I passed on some products because of the inconvenience of removing all those external labels.
 
One thing my VillaWare version doesn't have, and that is a pre-heat indicator. You have to be in close proximity to the oven in order to hear the faint click of the elements cycling off or see them fade from the barely red glow they produce when heating. There are indicators for everything else, so why not one for pre-heating? Is this scenario the same with the Oster?
 
Never heard of a "pre heat indicator". Do you mean a sort of element on light, like my P*7 wall oven has? The manual says to pre-heat the oven for 7 minutes before doing any baking. This seems to help a lot, even if the pre-heat is followed by convection cooking.

It would be nice if the temp display showed the actual temp in the oven, in addition to the set temp. There's not enough room in there to put an oven thermometer (at least not in addition to food) so don't quite understand why they didn't add this function. I've found that if you press and hold down the temp button, it will display a temp much lower than the oven temp, but I have no idea what the numbers really mean. Doesn't seem to be celcius.
 
I am a staunch touchpad hater. I scoffed at this oven when my partner brought it home because it was clear from the instructions that this was a prime example of "made in China" touchpad technology. I got the hang of it but will always prefer knobs to touchpads. My partner, as it happens, is less adept than I am at working this oven's controls.

And yes, I'm talking about an indicator light for preheating. Even my mom's '49 Westinghouse range has one of those. I just don't understand the logic behind some of the shortcuts manufacturers take these days.
 

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