Calphalon Performance Cool Touch Toaster Oven (2106488)

I was considering this oven and the Breville Smart Pro Countertop oven (which surprisingly was less expensive, even if marginally so) and finally decided on the Calphalon for two reasons: first, I have a cat who sits on top of the microwave in the kitchen so she can stare at the dog when he eats and I was concerned she’d jump on a countertop oven while in use and give herself a nasty burn. The cool touch feature on this oven won me over.

Second, I bake bread year round and in the summer my gas range really heats up my kitchen. When I saw the step cook function with proof/bake I was completely sold and ordered it (and yes, a 9×5 bread pan with a lip on both ends fits easily in this oven.)

Another big plus was the interior light. Not many of these countertop ovens feature it but it’s important to be able to check on the progress of your food without opening the door and letting out heat.

The build just screams quality. The finish is beautiful and the Calphalon logo on the (very solid) handle as well as on the top of the unit shows attention to detail. The door glides open and shut quietly and doesn’t clang or rattle. Even the included accessories look fairly high in quality. And it looks elegant in my kitchen and not trashy like the old toaster ovens always did. I have it on a finished wood kitchen island and to avoid scorching the wood I have a thick silicone mat underneath it. It preheats quickly and all of the various functions work well.

By the way, I’ve made french fries in it using the dehydrator basket and the oven set to Turbo Convection and the fries turned out crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. It actually does a better job than my air fryer, although obviously I wouldn’t put something like wings in this basket. But for fries it’s great.

If I have a quibble it’s the utterly inadequate user manual that’s included. It’s more of a pamphlet than an actual user manual and it tells you in the (one page) of densely written text that forms the actual user manual portion of this pamphlet that if you need further usage instructions to go to their website. Seriously? It doesn’t even cover one of the unique and most important features advertised on this oven, the step cook function, and I’m supposed to scrabble around on Calphalon’s website to find this information? Not acceptable to make the consumer hunt for instructions that should be included with the oven. I want a full manual in hand and not this cheaply produced pamphlet. Calphalon, do better.

This is the only toaster oven I’ve come across, that can claim the title of “cool touch exterior”.

All the walls (except the back and bottom) are double insulated; even the door has double insulated glass (same as a full sized oven would).

Even after running the unit at MAX temp (450) for 20 mins straight, I could easily place my hand on the top and sides. The top was warmer than the sides, but nowhere near how hot traditional toaster ovens get.

The unit is bulky, but feels solid, and pricy; but definitely worth the cost, especially with little kids around the house.

Other than the cool touch feature, it’s a standard convention toaster oven (no air fryer capabilities).

I also own the previous model, and although this has improved on it, it still has the “wire melt” back, which can be a fire hazard. The sides and top are “cool touch”, but the back is still a single sheet of tin that this is a fire hazard for wires or power cables touching it.

All the Design errors: 1) The crumb tray is miss-sized. It bangs up against the door when closed. To mitigate this you have to bend the lip on the the tray to be flat. It still hits the door, but less so. 2) The interior light still stays on only briefly which is annoying. 3) The touchscreen buttons are not lit, which makes them impossible to see in a dimly lit kitchen – this is the most brutal design error I’ve seen so far. The LCD screen lights up, but the touchscreen buttons remain in the dark. You have to memorize their locations to know what your pressing. 4) The lettering on the knobs is hard to read, and the paint was haphazardly applied.

Build/Design error: This has been mentioned in other reviews, but the top left corner the of the case is miss-sized and is bent up from the frame it surrounds. This is not damage, this is a design and build error. The left wall is too high for the frame so it bends up on the top left corner. This resulted me in spending a day mulling over whether to return it.

I’ll update this review after more time with it. But the design flaws are obvious, and they should of known better.