Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro

I was initially attracted to this oven because it has air fryer and dehydrate functions and due to its high ratings from Consumer Reports. Yes, it is a little pricier than the others, but worth it!

I haven’t had it that long yet and have much more to discover, but I have tried out a few features like toast, bagel, bake, air fry and roast. I couldn’t be happier with the results: The large 6-lb chicken I recently roasted came out perfectly and evenly browned all over – even on the bottom! Nice and juicy inside, too – without any red rare spots. Plus the imported European bread I buy 80% par-baked and finish out in the oven came out fragrantly delicious with a crisp and chewy crust and soft moist center – ideal!

The bagel setting, by the way. is also ideal for hamburger buns or other specialty breads that you want toasted more on one side. Just like the toast setting, you can dial to your preference of light or dark and enter the number of slices you want toasted.

What I especially like about this oven is that I feel like I am the one in control of the cooking – not the oven. For example, a previous countertop oven I’ve owned always had the convection fan running on certain cooking functions, and you couldn’t ever turn the convection fan off if it was pre-programmed or hard-wired to run in that function. You just had to live with it. With this Breville Smart Oven, I can turn the convection off if I want, or turn it up a notch to super convection if I desire. The Breville may start the pizza function with the convection fan on, but if I don’t like it, I can always turn it off! There’s a button for that!

You can always change cooking temperatures with digital precision – even as you like in the middle of cooking (I haven’t tried “phase cook” yet, where you can program things to switch between cooking functions). The oven’s controls and digital display screen look intimidating in the advertisement pictures, but they are easy to use and rather intuitive once you try them out.

The oven is roomy, especially due to its width. It is a little bit lower in height than my previous countertop ovens, but quite a bit wider. I have no problems at all getting my long 9″ by 13″ Pyrex casserole dish in there, handles and all, with plenty of room around it for airflow! If you have a big roast, or bread to proof that rises very high, make sure to use the lowest rack.

The middle rack auto-eject feature is very nice. When you open the oven, the rack gently pops out about a third of the way for you to inspect the doneness of what you are cooking. This won’t work if you have anything very heavy on those racks though, weighing them down.

Some other reviews has described not being able to turn on the oven light when they wished. I have not experienced that. Maybe my oven comes with a product update, because I can turn the oven light on or off at whim from the little oven light button on the front of the unit. Otherwise, the oven light comes on automatically when you open the oven door and stays on for 30 seconds. It also comes on a few seconds before it alerts you of the end of a cooking function cycle.

One reviewer lamented that no cookbook is included with the unit. However, if you go to the manufacturer’s website at Breville.com and look up this oven model, you will find two full-color PDF eBooks- one with recipes and another one for bread “recipe cards.”

As I write this review in Jan. 2021, this Breville unit seems to be in high demand. The oven and many of its accessories are temporarily sold out at the Amazon Warehouse and even at the manufacturer’s website. The going price right for this model is about $399 when in stock, so don’t be tempted by Amazon storefront sellers who may charge a lot more. I see the sole seller who has it available to ship out now has it priced at their linked “available from these sellers” Amazon storefront for $699. Wait for this to be restocked at a reasonable price!

During the current “sold-out” season for the new oven, I bought my oven for $300 as a “Used-very good” unit from Amazon. Apparently it was returned due to some damaged packaging. It only had a little bit of exterior damage to the box it came in that did not penetrate the styrofoam inner packing. The oven was pristine, had never been used (still had that stinky new smell!) and all the accessories were there, too. I really don’t think anybody ever opened the box before I did. I couldn’t be happier with this deal!

I bought this to replace a very old Oster toaster oven. The reason I bought the Pro over the cheaper model was it has a built in fan near the control panel to keep that cool, so that was worth the extra money for me. My wife complains that it takes to long to pre-heat, our old oven didn’t take as long. The toaster function also takes some getting used to.The air fryer function is so so. I think for that you really need a separate air fryer, I have not seen one counter oven that does a great job at that. I didn’t have the room for another appliance in my kitchen so that is why I did not buy a separate air fryer. I have not used the dehydrator so I don’t know how great that works. Overall it seems to be a great product although it does need some minor improvements such as toasting, pre-heating as well as cleaning (the bars at the bottom that guard the heating elements are impossible to clean and stuff drips on those bars and turns brown. I would buy it again.

ADDED TO REVIEW ON 4/29/18: Some problems with the oven after a few months of use. First, the door hinge got stuck several times causing the door not to close. This issue has been reported in other Amazon reviews of this product. Next, the timer stopped working as well. I contacted Breville and they will be replacing the oven, but I am a little suspicious of quality control after now paying attention to a few negative reviews on this page.

——————

This was not my first choice

All I wanted was an air fryer. I was intrigued by the fact that there were appliances that could fry foods without the need for oil. I spent countless hours pouring over reviews of leading air fryer models. I was set on purchasing the most expensive one by Philips at nearly $300.

I then read a comment somewhere that if I was going to spend $300 on an air fryer, I might as well spend an extra $100 on the Breville Smart Oven as I would essentially be getting a full-service oven with high-capacity air frying capability.

I decided to take the chance on that option despite a few reviews saying that dedicated air fryer appliances did a slightly better job air frying than this particular oven.

This was an expensive purchase, no doubt. However, I had an aging Toastmaster oven that was nearly 30 years old but still kickin’ butt! There really was no need to replace it, but you could just imagine what a huge upgrade in modernization this Breville presented.

At first, the Breville Smart Oven seems intimidating. There is an elaborate selection screen and lots of dials and buttons. However, just experimenting for several minutes, I was able to quickly figure out the basics. The oven already has temperature and time presets for just about any cooking need you may have. From that point, the dials simply alter heating temperatures and cooking times.

Here are some things you should be aware of….

There is a design flaw in this oven that puts one at a huge disadvantage if placed on a higher shelf, which I initially did, above my microwave. The door opens top to bottom. This puts a huge strain on anyone placing and removing food from the oven as the door blocks arm movement. It would have been a far better choice for Breville to make a door that swings open from the side.

Additionally, if placed on a higher shelf, you cannot read the menu screen. I have read many complaints in Amazon reviews that the screen is unreadable. It is unreadable if placed on a shelf. If you place it on a counter at eye level or below, there is no issue reading the screen.

So, the big point here is that you should plan to place this on a counter, not a shelf.

The oven works very well in all the cooking tests I put it through. One of the things I am not fond of is that everything starts with a preheat. However, once the preheat is done (and you will get several beeps indicating such), the cooking time begins counting down. This is a pain-in-the-neck because it takes about a minute to grab your food and place it in the oven. At that point, you have to turn the dial back to the proper cooking time that the oven initially sets for you. The best thing Breville could have done is to “freeze” the cooking time once preheat is done and then let the user push the button again to start the actual cooking countdown.

So, let me talk about the essential aspect of this oven which is its air frying capability….

The Breville includes a large air frying tray that allows air to circulate through its screen door design. It allows an ample amount of french fries to be placed on it.

The best advice I can give is to ignore the instructions given on the package of french fries. Use the actual recommended time that Breville programs into its Air Fryer menu selection. You really want to cook it at a slightly lower temperature for a longer period of time. Breville does an excellent job with its preset temperature and time.

I tried air frying both Nathans french fries and Orida Tater Tots. The french fries came out very good — crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. However, something about it just didn’t scream “fried” to me. At best, the results were slightly better than just baking it in the oven. They really tasted more like baked fries rather than those fried in oil. The Tater Tots came out better. Those were really crisp on the outside and comparable to those I would cook in a pan with a little bit of oil.

I think, overall, the problem with the Breville air fryer function is that you are frying without oil. That can be a good thing, but at the same time, you aren’t getting that flavor which oil provides. If you actually fried french fries in oil and placed them in a blind taste next to the air fryer version, I would bet anyone would instantly pick the fried version as the better tasting product.

I haven’t been able to compare the Breville to one of the dedicated Air Fryer appliances, and perhaps they really do a more phenomenal job. The best I can say is that the Breville does a great job at coming close to producing actual fried results, but it won’t pass a blind test against the real thing.

Another issue I have is the lack of support from Breville themselves. Before purchasing this oven, I wrote their customer support an email asking how much distance this oven needed to be placed from the back wall. Breville never answered me. That is a bit concerning when this is customer support you may need to rely on should something go wrong with this oven. To answer my question, there are nubs on the back of the oven that gives you proper back wall placement.

People have complained that the oven does smoke. I have experienced this with every item I have cooked. For me, it’s no big deal. As long as the oven is working as expected, I don’t care if it gives off a small amount of smoke.

I would recommend purchasing and placing baking matts in the bottom grill tray as it can be a chore cleaning without it. You can purchase these matts for dirt cheap on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XKJDYL1/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Overall, this is a terrific oven, though with some really bad design choices that force one to not be able to mount it on a higher shelf. Please do take note of this when considering a purchase.

El paquete fue entregado en Perfecto estado, el horno está impecable y funciona maravillosamente, estoy muy contento con el