REVIEW – Why The Breville Smart Oven BOV800XL Is The Best Convection Toaster Oven For Your Kitchen

Updated May 2012 by Ellen Kaylor

The Breville Smart Oven BOV800XL

One of my friends recently was having her kitchen renovated and was without her traditional big oven for a certain period of time, so she was looking for a convenient small oven that could still fit in her kitchen, preferably on the countertop. Knowing the appliance “freak” that I am, she asked me to help her research the best convection toaster oven to buy, one that not only toasts, but can roast, broil and bake as well, just as capable as a conventional big oven, except that it’s smaller, faster, more energy-efficient and easier to use.

Countertop toaster ovens are great in the sense that they’re pretty small and they heat up really fast, which saves time, energy (roughly 50% less electricity) and money. When I think about all the times I cranked up the big oven just to bake a set of cookies or simply reheat some leftovers, it becomes quite clear how money wasting and time-consuming regular ovens can be!

So as I was looking for different countertop convection toaster ovens online and reading hundreds of reviews, I noticed the Breville Smart Oven BOV800XL was clearly top rated among consumers (ranked #1 by ConsumerReports in the toaster ovens category), which pushed me to look further into it. The Breville toaster oven was also featured in Cook’s Illustrated magazine (March/April 2011 issue) and was “highly recommended” in the best toaster oven report.

Much more than a toaster oven, this versatile appliance can be used for broiling, roasting, baking, reheating, defrosting and of course making toast. You can even bake pizzas, cakes, pies and bread in it. This countertop oven will cook almost anything from potatoes to a whole 4-5 lbs chicken without heating up your entire kitchen.

In this in-depth review, I will share with you everything you need to know about the Breville BOV800XL. We will also look at customer reviews as well as the pros and cons.

In a hurry? Scroll down to find out where to get the best price or read more reviews from people who have purchased and used this appliance.

The Breville countertop convection oven

The heating elements – the most vital parts of your toaster oven

Every toaster oven comes with heating elements. This is what actually heats up the oven and cooks your food. There are 5 quartz heating elements in the Breville toaster oven (3 at the top and 2 at the bottom) which share 1800 watts of power and heat up more evenly and much faster compared to metallic heating elements in other countertop ovens (up to 500° F within 5 minutes).

Note: Before using the oven for the first time, you must rid the heating elements of their protective coating by turning it on and letting it run for 15 minutes as instructed in the manual.

The heating elements of the Breville Smart Oven. They heat up to 500° in five minutes.

One of the features which I think makes it one of the best toaster ovens in the market is the Element IQ. Generally, in regular toaster ovens, the heating elements all come on, or all go off, and that’s it. However, in the Breville Smart Oven, depending on the cooking preset, the oven enables or disables certain elements, and changes the wattage of others. The Element IQ knows exactly how much power is sent to each element and how much heat gets pushed into each side of the oven thanks to an internal sensor. This is quite an innovative and smart way to use those elements giving you better control over the cooking process.

Avoid the guesswork…

What you will really love about this toaster oven is that there are a variety of preset functions built-in. There are 9 predefined presets that do not leave any room for guesswork. Each of them have their pre-programmed temperature (from 120°F to 500°F) and time to them. This comes in as really handy! The presets are:

• Toast – Browning range from 1 (lightest) to 7 (darkest). The number of slices ranges from 1 to 6.
• Bagel – The browning settings range from 1 to 7. The number of bagel halves ranges from 1 to 6.
• Bake – Temperature is set at 325°F and the preset time is 30 minutes. The convection setting is also selected.
• Roast - Temperature is set at 350°F and the preset time is 1 hour. The convection setting is also activated.
• Broil – The preset temperature is 500°F and the time is set at 10 minutes.
• Pizza – The temperature is set at 450°F and the size of the pizza at 12″. The convection setting is also displayed.
• Cookies – The preset temperature is 350°F and the preset time is 11 minutes. The convection setting is selected as well.
• Reheat – The reheating temperature is set at 325°F and the time at 15 minutes. The convection feature is also displayed.
• Warm – The temperature is set at 160°F and the time at 1 minute.

The following video by Breville explains very well the different preset functions:

Add your personal touch

The other remarkable thing is that the all 9 presets can be tailored to your specific cooking needs by changing the temperature and time of cooking. The Breville BOV800XL will even remember the changes made for next use. Amazing, isn’t it? This feature is wonderfully illustrated in the following video by a happy user whom we thank for sharing the video recording with us.

Tip: To restore the Breville toaster oven’s default settings for each function, simply remove the plug from the wall outlet, wait 5 seconds and then plug back in.

A convection oven as well !

This oven is loaded with some interesting additional modes that are rarely found on other brands. You have a warming mode, a reheat mode, a defrost mode and a convection mode. Convection cooking uses fan assistance to circulate heated air around the food. This produces faster, more even and more energy-efficient cooking. This will also allow you to cook things you would normally cook in your big oven with amazing results. It’s also very quiet so you can barely hear it.

Convection speeds up cooking time by as much as 30%

User-friendly control panel

The blue back-lit LCD display screen.

If you’re like me and hate reading pages and pages of instructions, then you will like how simple and easy the Breville BOV800XL is to use. Basically, all you need to do is turn the function dial to the preset you want, adjust the preset if you wish by using the temperature and time knobs, press start and you’re good to go.

The controls are so intuitive and the bright blue back-lit LCD screen makes it so easy to navigate through the 9 built-in functions. The screen also shows you your current settings (temperature, function) and any adjustments you’ve made.

Start/Cancel button (upper right), function dial (upper left) and temperature and time dials (below). The white little buttons are the convection, temperature conversion and the frozen food defrost buttons (from top to bottom).

Once preheated, the Breville countertop oven beeps for the food to be inserted. At the end of the timed cycle, the oven beeps again 4 times and is automatically turned off, unlike other toaster ovens like Cuisinart which only turn off after toasting … This feature will help prevent any overcooking. It is also a life-saving feature because I know how we can sometimes become very distracted when preparing dinner and can forget to turn off the oven as soon as we should.

A button is also provided to convert the temperature to either Fahrenheit or Celsius. I wouldn’t honestly use this feature very often, but it can come in handy when converting recipes.

In case you want to warm frozen food, there is a “frozen food defrost” button that will let the toaster oven know that the food is frozen. This button is only selectable during the Toast, Bagel, Pizza and Cookie functions.

It’s also worth noting that, if not used for 10 minutes, the Breville convection oven goes into standby mode and the LCD screen will cease to illuminate. To re-activate the oven, you will just need to press the START/Cancel button or turn any dial and the LCD screen will re-illuminate.

The capacity of the Breville toaster oven

This oven uses as much as 1800 Watts to heat the elements quickly. Therefore, I recommend that you don’t use other power-hungry appliances on the same circuit and that you make sure the plug you are using has a 20 amp breaker, which any modern house will normally have.

The Breville toaster oven has a 0.8-cubic-foot nonstick interior space (compared to 0.6-cubic-foot of the Cuisinart). A 12″ x 12″ enamel baking pan, a 12″ x 12″ enamel broil rack, and a 13″ (33cm) non-stick pizza pan are included, and fit perfectly inside. A pan any bigger wouldn’t fit though. Such a large interior space permits it to be used for items that would otherwise go into a regular oven.

Let’s say you want to do some crunchy and crispy toasts, you can fit up to 6 slices of toast at a time! The oven is roomy enough to fit a reasonably sized pizza.

With a capacity of a 13” pizza, the Breville countertop convection oven can easily become a substitute for your regular oven. It can also serve as a second oven when cooking large meals.

The increase in interior space is at the expense of some decent amount of exterior space that must be available on your countertop. The Breville exterior is 18-1/2″ W x 16-1/4″ D x 11-1/4″ H (including the door handle at the front and the curved bump-out which accommodates the non-stick pizza pan at the back) compared to the Cuisinart 17-1/2″ W x 14″ D x 9-5/8″ H. You should also make sure there is a 4 inch radius of space around the toaster oven. So if you are not sure whether or not it will fit in your kitchen, compare the measures of the Breville BOV800XL with the space available on your countertop.

The Breville toaster oven beautifully sitting on the countertop.

The positive side of this is the great cooking space inside, which makes this appliance more of an oven than a toaster, something that most other toaster ovens lack.

What can I cook in it?

One of the greatest features of the Breville convection toaster oven is that it can do almost anything, and still, compared to regular ovens, is extremely energy-efficient and it saves so much on preheating time. It even toasts very well and evenly, when most other toaster ovens don’t. But it’s also hard to think of it as a “toaster oven” considering the variety of foods you can cook in it. You can do everything with it – toast, bagels, roasted vegetables, custards, cakes, quick bread, pies as well as pork chops, casseroles, roasted chicken, pizza, baked tofu, fish, etc. Take a look at what you can cook in this beauty:

Toast (on the highest browning setting). Top side (left) and underside (right)

Breaded Buffalo Wings

German Rye. Temperature set at 365º and time at 35 min. Convection fan ON. Looks delicious!

Baked Chicken Leg with Potato Wedges

Homemade poppy seeds buns

Warm your food with the top of the Breville Smart Oven

Although it throws off far much less heat than a conventional oven, the Breville toaster oven gets hot everywhere except the door handle and the control buttons. You can take advantage of this by keeping your food warm on a ceramic plate on the top (ribbed section at the top of the oven) while other food is cooking.

You shouldn’t worry about the damage the heat might cause to your counter surface as the Breville BOV800XL has a nice rubber feet that keeps it 1” elevetad above your countertop.

Another thing you will appreciate in the Smart Oven is that it doesn’t heat up the whole kitchen, which is nice for summer cooking, especially if you live in a warm area.

Rack and door

The indicator shows you where to put the rack depending on each cooking function.

You want to make sure your food is evenly cooked and properly positioned next to the heating elements right? This is why the Breville toaster oven has 3 slots to insert the rack in different positions, depending on what you want to cook.

The Breville Smart Oven also gives you a visual feedback on the door of where to place your rack so you won’t ever make the mistake of putting it in the wrong position.

Another amazing feature you will appreciate in the Breville BOV800XL toaster oven is the auto-eject rack: The door has a magnetized area that pulls the rack about half way out when you open it. And when you close the door, it pushes the rack back in the oven without you having to touch it. This is conveniently thought of so that your cooked items can be easily and safely removed without risking a hand burn!

The not so cool thing though is that it only works for the middle rack position. It would have been really nice if Breville had included this feature for the other 2 positions.

The door seals nicely, which effectively reduces any energy waste and unnecessary heating of your kitchen. The large door handle is easy to grab and stays cool to the touch.

Easy to clean

Do you remember how irritating it is that every time you want to pull out the crumb tray of your toaster oven to clean it, you have to move it around because the crumb tray can only be pulled out from the back, or from the bottom, and as soon as you pull it out it already spills all over your countertop?

Unlike the Cuisinart’s, the crumb tray of the Breville toaster oven gently slides in from the front, and it’s the entire bottom of the oven, which makes removal and cleaning super easy and effortless.

You should brush off your crumb tray quite regularly. But remember, before pulling it out, always make sure the oven is OFF, the power plug is removed from the wall outlet and that you allow the oven to cool for a few minutes.

The interior is made of a non-stick material, which makes it super easy to clean. The outer surface is made of stainless steel. However, cleaning the stainless steel surface of the oven should not be neglected as dirt damages the steel and gradually destroys the metal’s corrosion protection with time. Of course you must avoid using harsh abrasives. I would suggest using a cloth soaked in warm water that you dry with a towel in order to prevent spots left by minerals in the water. You can add a mild detergent to the water on tougher jobs.

The Breville BOV650XL: the compact sister of the Breville BOV800XL

Breville has released a smaller version of the Breville BOV800XL toaster oven: The Breville BOV650XL Compact Smart Oven. This one measures 16.5 W by 14.5 D by 10 H inches (compared to 18.5 W by 16.2 D by 11.2 H inches of the BOV800XL) with an interior space of 3/5 cubic foot which can accommodate a 12-inch pizza (compared to 4/5 cubic foot of the BOV800XL).

Certain features are not found in the BOV650XL such as the convection mode, the warming preset and the auto-eject rack.

If you are either on a budget, or are limited in your kitchen countertop space, or simply don’t need that much interior space (depends on your cooking needs and the way you want to use the toaster oven) only then I suggest you rather get the compact version because it costs less than the bigger one and occupies less space. However, if you have enough space on your countertop, I strongly recommend that you invest in the BOV800XL model for more quality, more interior cooking space and only around 60$ more in cost.

Technical Details of the Breville Smart Oven BOV800XL

• Measures 18.5 W by 16.2 D by 11.2 H inches
• Weight: 21 pounds
• Manufacturer: Breville
• Model number: BOV800XL
• Stainless steel material
• 1800-watt convection toaster oven
• Element IQ technology for better control over heat
• 5 quartz heating elements
• 9 predefined settings. Modified settings are remembered for next use
• 6-Slice toast and 13″ pizza capacity
• 4/5 cubic foot interior space
• Convection fan
• User-friendly control panel with blue backlit LCD screen
• Auto shut-off timer
• 3 rack positions with magnetic auto-eject wire rack
• Front-access removable crumb tray
• 13″ non-stick pizza pan, 12″x12″ enamel baking pan and 12″x12″ enamel broil rack are also included
• 3 feet (36 inches) electric cord.
• 1-year warranty

What’s in the box ?

Accessories

There is some handy accessories available for the Smart Oven:

The Breville Bamboo Cutting Board and Serving Tray

The Bamboo Cutting Board and Serving Tray is a smart space saver. It is made of bamboo, which is the ideal material for chopping boards since it absorbs very little moisture and has natural anti-bacterial properties. Bamboo boards are also a lot harder than most chopping boards and less prone to markings from your knife over time.

You can also use it as a saving tray because it has recessed handles that make it easier to pick up and transfer directly onto the table. But the clever way to use it is to keep it directly on top of your Smart Oven and that will help you make up for the countertop space occupied.

The mounted silicon feet allows for the top surface of the board to remain cold so you can store many of your common kitchen items such as a fruit ball, a knife block or even a loaf of bread!

When it comes to pizza, this is the first convection oven to offer the 13-inch pizza pan (included with the purchase of the Breville Smart Oven). However, depending on your crisping preferences, you might also want to use the non-stick 13-Inch Pizza Crisper that will give you supreme golden brown results,

The Breville 13" Pizza Crisper

or you can use the 13-Inch Pizza Stone which you preheat in the oven at 450°F for 15 minutes. You can also use it in a traditional wall oven.

The Breville 13" Pizza Stone

What are others saying ? – Customer reviews

The Breville toaster oven has received rave reviews from most consumers with an average rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon making it the top rated convection toaster oven on the site (although this oven is way more than a “traditional toaster oven”). Some reviewers claimed they hadn’t used their regular oven for months! This particular customer did a wonderful review and comparison to other toaster ovens available and has been happily using the Breville for 3 years now. Here are some snippets of customer reviews:

Any complaints ?

I found very few complaints about this product as I was reading hundreds of countertop convection oven reviews around the internet. However, one customer expressed concern that the electric cord might be a little bit too short (3 feet (36 inches), as short as on most toaster ovens for safety reasons). This means that you must have an outlet near the space on which you are planning to put the oven. Alternatively, you can extend the cord with a matching extension cord so this is not really a problem.

Another customer was a little bit worried about not being able to use glass pans and aluminum foil. While these are actually general restrictions on most, if not on all toaster ovens due to the small cooking size and the high heat concentration, I contacted Breville and they said both were allowable to some extent, with some precautions. Glass pans shouldn’t be used if you are planning on cooking with very high temperatures, like when broiling, and aluminum foil must not touch the quartz heating elements. It’s also recommended that the wire rack be in the bottom or middle position when using metal foil to cover dishes and pans.

A lot of people mentioned they have been happily using them and haven’t faced any problems at all. So it’s just a matter of taking some logical precautions and using some commonsense, that’s all.

In my personal opinion, the only thing that is not so good about the Breville toaster oven is that there is no interior light. So if you’re like me and enjoy taking a peek at what you’re cooking, you might want to keep a flashlight alongside of your oven.

But overall, this is a high quality countertop convection toaster oven that has received very positive ratings compared to other convection toaster ovens in the market.

Pros and Cons

Where should I buy The Breville BOV800XL Smart Oven?

From what I can tell from comparing prices online, you should buy the Breville toaster oven from Amazon. They constantly have the best price especially with their free shipping. Plus, you can’t go wrong with their great customer service. So if you find it in stock, it is definitely worth grabbing.

Where can I read more reviews of the Breville convection toaster oven?

Amazon is the best place to read reviews from people who have actually purchased and used the Breville Smart Oven. Click here to read more reviews on Amazon.