Hamilton Beach 2-in-1 Countertop Toaster Oven and Long Slot 2 Slice Toaster, 60 Minute Timer and Automatic Shut Off, Shade Selector, Stainless Steel (31156)

I bought this toaster oven because it came highly recommended from a review in a consumer reviewing magazine. It is fantastic! It has an unusual design, where there is a toaster slot at the top, but a totally separate door at the front for baking or broiling items. The toaster slot at the top is very wide, and it accepts even the biggest pieces of rye bread that I get from my local delicatessen. It was very difficult to tell from the product description and the photos whether the slot at the top was one long slot (Yesudas), or two shorter slots. I was very happy to learn that it is one long slot. Of course, it also fits two pieces of bread at the same time. I have had it for almost a month now, and it has worked flawlessly. The price was nice, too!

Toaster function is flawless, perfect on both sides, even color and through cooked. Ignore people saying it is hard to use. You have to hold the lever down for 1 second until red light comes on. Perfect toast on 2 and half setting. Waffles on 3. 5 is max. There is a reason for this in case you got you toast in there wonky or it slipped sideways and want to fix it real quick, just release. Slot is wide for bagels so some little skinny tiny piece of pumpkin toast might need adjusting. Think you are done and want to eject early? Hit red light button. Done. Corn dogs are notoriously difficult with my older toasters. I put two in the microwave for 50sec to defrost. Use rack on bottom setting. 8 min at 350. They come out perfect all the way around without constantly rotating them. Heated all way through. Kids love it. Fully eliminated two appliances for one and it looks nice too. The lack of digital controls is good. Knobs and buttons, less to break, simple for kids to use also. Ambient heat is no different than any other toaster I have had. The toast may sit low in the slot if your bread is small so yes use common sense when plucking it out. Even my kids understand that one. Highly recommend .

TLDR; The good far outweighs the bad. The good starts with the size and appearance. The size is bigger than our old cheapo B+D toaster oven, but it does a lot more. I had trouble prying my wife away from that one because it’s been in use for close to 20 years, was still working, and she loved it. But I wanted something more versatile, and I figured the toaster function on this to be more energy efficient than the old one since the elements are closer to the bread. The toaster function is a bit strange. There are two large round heating elements, one on each side, as opposed to a regular toaster with full coverage via smaller heating wires. This works better than I imagined when I first saw the layout, but definitely not as well (or efficiently) as a dedicated toaster. Once you close the top to put it into ‘toaster’ mode, you have to push a little red “CANCEL” button to pop up the carrier… don’t try to pry it up using the side lever you used to push it down, or you’ll break it. (Oh, and the word “CANCEL” will wear off in a couple of weeks.) My wife likes the controls and loves the crumb tray. She still lines it with foil, but it’s super simple to pull out and clean. I wondered about how much it stuck out in the back, but the measurements are true. There is no big bump near the cord or anything that prevents you from pushing it back against the wall. There are two tiny plastic plug caps that cover Phillips head screws above the lever to press down to toast. One of them jumped out when we weren’t looking and apparently slipped under the wire. Despite a full search of the area, it somehow escaped. The oven part is large and seems pretty accurate as far as temperature goes. It seems to cook as well or better than the old toaster oven, so I think this was a good buy. I hope this helps.

Had this product for 7 years and loves using it daily for toasting and oven functionality. The spring on the door finally broke since we open and closed the door often. The rest of the product still works!! This is reliable and everything we were looking for a dual toaster and oven functionality.

This toaster-oven does an amazing job. Best toaster I ever owned. Cleanup is quick. Have it a 9 mo and is as clean as the day I bought it.

I got this to replace the older style of the same thing that I got in 2007. My old one was still working but it was starting to toast unevenly so we decided to upgrade. At first I thought that this was too big for our space but after using it a bit I find I like the bigger size. First of all the oven is actually usable where my old one was so tiny I hardly ever used it. The other thing I like is that since the toaster is wider I can actually fit three standard pieces of bread in there if I need more toast. One other thing that this has that my old one did not is a button I can press to disengage or stop the toaster, It causes the toast to pop up and stops the toaster. In my old one I had to push up on the handle which was hard to do without causing the toast to fly out of the toaster. I do find that I have to hold the toaster lever down for a couple seconds to get it to catch. I think it has to have that time to fully engage the toaster heating mechanism. The only downside and this could be a deal breaker if you do not have a lot of space on your counters. The outside gets extremely hot especially if you are using the oven portion. I have to position mine so the cord is not directly behind the unit because it's so hot that I think it could damage the cord over time. I think that they could have added some insulation to prevent the heat from radiating so much out the back and sides of the oven. It gets really hot and stays hot for awhile even when it's off. So make sure you have the room around it to allow for this heat to dissipate safely.

Like you all, I read allllllll the reviews about the rear heating element issue before ultimately buying this toaster. I was nervous it would be defective like it had for so many other people. I was also VERY excited to buy this. Who doesn't want a combo pop-up toaster and toaster oven, right??? Anyway, I followed the instructions upon first update, and ran the oven at 450 for 10 minutes without any food. I immediately noticed the rear heating element didn't illuminate at all. SO SAD!!!!! I called Hamilton Beach within a week, and they were happy to send me a replacement. (Side note: their customer service dept is amazing... hats off to them.) However, they also said there is a significant wattage difference between the front and rear heating elements. They told me the rear heating element will APPEAR not to be heating at all when, in reality, it's doing what it's designed to do. It's still working, even though it appears off. Customer Service encouraged me to test out the unit by cooking something. They explained if it's actually malfunctioning, it definitely won't toast evenly. Then they walked me through how to get a replacement unit, should mine be functioning improperly after all (so nice!). I tested out three pieces of toast: one in the oven portion, and two in the pop-up... and they are PERFECTLY TOASTED. This unit works just fine, even though the rear heating element never turns orange **because it's designed that way.** I love this thing. It saves a ton of counter space, and the toaster functions great as a 2-in-1 without sacrificing quality. Buy this. Stop obsessively reading reviews. It works great!

Love this new toaster oven !! It works amazing