A few months ago, I reviewed a Europro toaster oven that was
giving us fits . Luckily, we've since replaced it with this very nice Krups six slice toaster oven that works MUCH better than the Europro. It costs twice as much, but it’s well worth it.
Like the Europro, the Krups has a six slice capacity, a convection oven, crumb tray and other nice features. The similarities end there. The Krups is a great product, the Europro a poor one. My biggest complaint about the Europro was the amount of time it took to brown a piece of toast (10 minutes). The Krups takes about 4 minutes with a cold oven, and the toast is more evenly browned. Krups chalks this up to their patented Expert Quartz Cycling Technology, which they say cooks faster and toasts better than other ovens. The six heating elements in the device (three top and three bottom) are powered alternately at full power. Krups claims this heats food more quickly and at a precise temperature control.
The Krups is easy to set up and their well-written, multi-lingual manual is very easy to follow. I had the toaster oven set up, with the clock set, shelves in place, etc., in less than ten minutes.
Features
The timer works in one minute increments from 0 to 90 minutes, and the oven works from 100 to 450 degrees Farenheit in 25 degree increments. The digital display is easy to read and the soft-touch controls are easy to use. There are four shelf positions and the manual explains which positions are best for which activities.
The Krups comes with a non-stick broil pan, non-stick baking sheet, two wire shelves, a crumb tray and some handy bread tongs, which make it easy to remove toast from the toaster oven. I've used these more than anything else.
Convection Oven
Convection cooking is faster and more consistent than conventional baking. The temperature tends to stay the same for longer periods, so your food cooks as much as 30% faster. Also, a fan circulates heat around the food, so you don't have to turn it over. The convection oven in the Krups works great. We've cooked pizzas, baked potatoes and a variety of items in the time advertised on the food package.
Broil/Grill
The Krups has a grill/broil feature that we've never tried. The default time is ten minutes. With only two temperatures (high and low), this is the feature that seems to have the least attention from Krups engineers.
Toast
This is the feature we've used most and is what makes the Krups such a pleasure. When you first put the toast in the oven, press the
Toast button. A browning setting of 4 comes up on the display. Change the setting to your desired level of brown (we use setting 7 or 8), press
Start and you're ready to go. The Krups calculates how much time it will take to toast your bread and counts down. Perfect toast every time!
Defrost
The defrost function uses the convection fan and low heat to thaw foods. I'm sure it works fine, but it's so slow (45-50 minutes to defrost chicken), that I doubt we'd ever use it. Our microwave does this just fine.
Conclusion
Krups makes a great toaster oven, better than the Delonghi that we had before we made the mistake of buying the Europro. This is a pleasure to use, looks great, and is well worth the money.
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