Review on 🍞 Hamilton Beach 31143: 4-Slice Stainless Steel Countertop Toaster Oven with Bake Pan - High-performance Toasting and Baking by Jennifer Powell

We bought this primarily for toasting and to reheat leftovers or make frozen food. While this oven is great for those last things, I really don't like the toasting feature. You need to turn the dial, which is at the bottom and not easy to see, to the setting that adjusts the amount of time the toaster stays hot. There are very few choices in the settings, and the gauges say nothing about how browned your toast is. The first is the contour of a piece of bread, the second is the half-filled contour, and the third is the completely filled bread contour. There's more space between the second two options, which I think should dictate how brown you want your toast to be (between the half-brown and full-brown option). However, the dial has nowhere to place, resulting in a light brown toast. After many months of use, we can only end up with almost burnt or not at all toasted toast. If you want the perfect piece of toast, you have to stand by and wait for the right color. Even if we could find the perfect setting, it would be impossible to get the watchface there every time as there are no gradations in the settings. Also, the toast will cook unevenly. The bottom is toasted much more than the top of the toast and is uneven on that side. While it's good that this machine has a bagel option and is good for reheating and baking food, I do NOT recommend it if you plan to make toast on a regular basis.