Review on 🍕 Elite Gourmet ETO4510BM: Versatile Double French Door Countertop Convection Toaster Oven with 4-Control Knobs, Bake, Broil, Toast, Rotisserie, Keep Warm, and 14" Pizza Capacity, Includes 2 Racks by Calvin Chavva

We purchased an Elite Gourmet countertop oven to use as our main oven and planned to box up our Easter oven to keep as a backup. We have been cooking exclusively in tabletop ovens for 15 years, so this is not a new concept for us. We really wanted Elite Gourmet to be our new "favorite" in the kitchen. Unfortunately, this expectation was not fulfilled for several reasons. First, let me talk about its positive aspects. Interior lighting is TOP! It's a bit odd that it stays on all the time while cooking, but it's very easy to get used to. It's also a roomy oven that allows you to use pans that don't fit in most countertop ovens. And finally, there are simple pin hinges on the doors; no springs or other mechanisms will fail prematurely. Unfortunately, that's all for the "good" list. The first thing we found were doors. As previously mentioned, door hinges are simple pins. That's good because there's nothing to break. Unfortunately, if these pins aren't perfectly adjusted, the doors can become self-supporting and partially close when you don't want them to. Hot doors will burn your hand or forearm. Hopefully you won't be dealing with hot food when this happens! The next disadvantage concerns the temperature control. We thought it would be useful to be able to control the top and bottom elements separately. Maybe because we're used to a different system, but the separate controls seem to make cooking a little more difficult than necessary. This is more of a 'we' issue than a product issue, but worth mentioning nonetheless. Another problem with temperature control is that this oven seems to have a lot of trouble reaching and maintaining temperature. We've used multiple thermometers with the Elite and the readings were everywhere. It all boils down to the food not being cooked properly. The final straw for this oven came one night when the woman was roasting a whole chicken in a 9" x 13" pan. At one point she wanted to check the internal temperature of the chicken, so she pulled the grate halfway out. She let go of the grate without realizing that this oven didn't have the full grate support that our oyster had. The grate, chicken, and half an inch of hot oil tumbled back into the oven. She instinctively grabbed the grate to keep the hot oil from sloshing into the stove. Unfortunately, she also burned her hand quite badly. Back then I watched it long enough to realize things could have been much, much worse. Instead, the stand could lean toward YOU! THIS IS DANGEROUS! What scares me more is the number of countertop ovens that now come with this shelving system. I should also mention that while packing up for return I looked at the shelves and noticed that they aren't as straight as they used to be. Arrival. The racks flex fairly easily so I can see how continued use can cause the racks to flex enough to not sit securely on their supports in this oven. It has become painfully obvious that Elite Gourmet is manufactured at the lowest possible cost and this can cause many problems for end users. We also spent almost 8 hours tearing this house apart and looking for skewer forks for this elite oven. Finally I remembered to look closely at the skewer and saw footprints where the pitchfork had once been. Then it dawned on me that there were no forks in that oven, so I have to wonder if that's some sort of flashback from someone else? We didn't buy it for that. In fact, the only grill we've ever used was our Oster Vertical Grill, and it feels like it's been ages! Since this is an Elite Gourmet stove review, I will not list the Oster stove model that we currently have. All I want to say is that this is not a digital device and has been working perfectly since we received it in 2018. We will be ordering another Easter once the refund is made for this Elite Gourmet.