Quartz heating elements also cool down faster, are more energy-efficient and easier to clean but not as durable. Both units only have analog control dials and no internal lighting so there was nothing particularly convenient about them. The Hamilton does offer more cooking space though, fitting 6 slices of toast despite being a medium size. You can buy s starting at $30 to $60. Some higher-end Hamilton Beach toaster ovens have a roll-top door. This opens upward and rolls over the top of the unit rather than opening outward and potentially getting in your way or taking up counter space.
Roll-top door makes it easy to clean, reach, or quickly transfer hot food. Like traditional ovens, many toaster ovens use convection heating or at least offer it as an option for baking. Other models make up for the lack of convection with multiple heating elements placed around the oven. The GE Quartz Convection Toaster Oven and the GE Calrod Convection Toaster Oven are identical, hamilton beach air fryer except that one has quartz heating elements and the other has Calrod heating elements. The quartz model costs about $25 more than the Calrod version (at the time of this publishing), but there wasn’t a huge difference in performance between the two. The underside of the toast we made was very uneven and patchy in the GE Quartz, while the GE Calrod toasted a bit more evenly.
But fewer heating elements aren’t necessarily an indication of poor toasting performance. If the oven cavity is small, two elements are enough to regulate heat. That said, avoid larger toaster ovens with only a couple of elements because they won’t be able hamilton beach to distribute heat evenly. The more heating elements a toaster oven has, the bigger and more expensive it will be. If you need a slightly smaller machine, we think you’ll be happier with the Cuisinart—it performed just as well and it’s also more affordable.
Inside the box are also a user manual and a simple recipe booklet. Nonetheless, our chef decided to stop the roasting as the color wouldn’t improve anyway and to avoid overcooking the meat. This cooking time was the equivalent of a 6/10 according to our data. It’s important to think about both the internal and external size of any toaster oven you’re considering. We recommend these products based on an intensive research process that’s designed to cut through the noise and find the top products in this space.
It also comes with an air fry/dehydrate basket rack and a broiling rack that fits inside its enamel roasting pan. But we still prefer the Cuisinart’s ceramic pizza stone over the Breville’s nonstick pizza pan (though Breville does sell a pizza stone separately for around $30). For the past two years, two Wirecutter employees have used the Hamilton Beach for basic tasks like making toast, reheating pizza, and baking frozen snacks. One of our testers initially tried toasting bread in the baking pan, which only browned the top of the bread. As with all models, you want to remove the pan and toast bread directly on the oven rack.