Breville BOV800XL Toaster Oven Review

When you first look at the Breville BOV800XL toaster oven you might feel a bit overwhelmed by both its size and long list of features. But if you give this toaster oven a chance, you just may find that this is the best kitchen appliance you ever purchase.

That’s a pretty bold statement, but I’m not the one saying. Over and over again as I did my research on this product I read comments from people who own and use the BOV800XL along the lines of, “This is the best toaster oven I’ve ever owned.” Perhaps the best comment I read came from a person went so far as to say that even if his machine broke shortly after the one year warranty period was up, he would buy another one without hesitation because he can’t imagine cooking without it.

What is it about this Breville toaster oven that has people so completely satisfied with it? There are a lot of reasons why, but mainly it is the ease of use, as well as the insane number of features available on this model, as you will read below.

Exterior Housing Material

The body of the BOV800XL smart oven * is made of stainless steel. It does not surprise me that Breville chose to use stainless steel for this high-end model. Stainless steel does an excellent job of repelling fingerprints and smudges, and is easily cleaned with a damp cloth and a touch of soap, so you won’t have to work hard to keep your unit free of marks and dirt.

Exterior Color

The entire exterior body is silver, which is contrary to many competing models that have black added to their exterior bodies. The result is an incredibly sleek and modern looking toaster oven.

Cord Length

Cord length is 36 inches

The length of the cord, from the back of the oven to the base of the plug, measures 36.25”. The plug is 2.75”, not including the prongs. This is one of the longest cords I have seen on a toaster oven. Unless your kitchen is lacking on electrical outlets, you should have no problem plugging this in.

If you find yourself needing an extension cord to reach an outlet, make sure to get one that is grounded and rated for major appliances.

The cord has a three prong grounded plug, and the size of the plug is rather substantial. If your kitchen is older and only has two prong outlets, the instruction manual specifically states that you should not use an adapter but should, instead, have your two prong outlets replaced with three prong grounded outlets. You should also never cut off the third prong from the cord.

You might not give much thought to plugs, but Breville obviously does. They added an “Assist Plug” finger ring to the plug so you can easily and safely remove the plug from an outlet.

(Return to Table Of Contents)

Convection

The Breville BOV800XL toaster oven * has a convection oven setting. Cooking with convection is optional (you can turn it on or off with the touch of a button), and the fan runs very quietly.

Convection cooking is a method that speeds up the cooking process by circulating the heated air over the food. People new to convection cooking often overcook their food until they realize that they need to do one of two things: 1) Lower the stated cooking temperature by at least 25°, or 2) Decrease the cooking time.

Another benefit to using the convection setting when cooking is that it helps reduce uneven baking and hot spots. Some people use it everytime they cook, making sure to reduce the cooking time to prevent overcooking.

Heating Elements

5 elements

There are five quartz heating elements: three rods on the top and two rods on the bottom. Breville has created what they call “Element IQ” that controls which of the five elements are used during each pre-set cooking option, and how much heat they put out.

I do not understand the technology behind the “Element IQ”, but that doesn’t matter. The end result is that the elements work hard to ensure that your food comes out fully and evenly cooked, something this model does beautifully.

Quartz elements are superior to elements made from other materials. They react very quickly to changes in temperatures, which results in even cooking and heating. I have no doubt that this is why Breville chose quartz for their “Element IQ” technology. The elements in this model truly are smart!

Rack Positions

There are three rack positions and the foods recommended for each:

• Top rack height position: BROIL function
• Middle rack height position: TOAST, BAGEL, PIZZA and COOKIE functions
• Bottom rack height position: BAKE, ROAST, REHEAT and WARM functions

Rack position is very important for ensuring that food cooks properly. To make choosing the rack position as easy as possible, Breville put a rack position guide on the front of the glass door. It is little things like this guide that make this machine very user friendly.

It is safe to use foil on the racks and accessories when cooking in the Breville BOV800XL * toaster oven. This is not always true of other models, which advise against using aluminum foil in them. Using foil helps to keep the oven clean, as well as to quicken the cleanup process.

Rotisserie

There is no rotisserie option in the Breville BOV800XL toaster oven.

Temperature Range

120° F to 450° F for BAKE, COOKIE, PIZZA, REHEAT, ROAST, REHEAT, TOAST and WARM
300° F, 400° F, and 500° F for BROIL​

The baking temperature can be adjusted in 10° increments. This is unusual for a toaster oven, since most units can only be adjusted in either 25° or 50° increments. This is especially helpful when you use the CONVECTION setting, since you may want to lower the temperature to compensate for the faster cooking speed.

Just as the baking temperature offers complete control so does the broiling temperature. Unlike most toaster ovens that have a single temperature setting for broiling, this model lets you choose from HIGH (500° F), MEDIUM (400° F), or LOW (300° F). The reason for these three options is to allow users to decide how quickly food browns on top. These cooking ranges are just one of the many ways you have complete control over your cooking with this machine.

Warming Tray

Breville added a ribbed plate to the top of the oven that you can use as a warming tray when the machine is in use. One person said she  found on Amazon the Good Grips Large Silicone Drying Mat * to put on top of her oven. She said it helps keep the top clean and to protects it from scratches.

If you would prefer to use the top of the oven for storage, such as for plants or figurines, you can safely place them on top if you use the optional Breville bamboo cutting board. The cutting board’s thickness prevents the top of it from getting hot, so you can keep items on top even when the oven is in use.

Watts

1800 watts

The maximum watts that this model will use during cooking is 1800, but it won’t always cook at this level.

At least one person stated that this toaster oven was a bit too powerful for his 15 amp circuit breaker (though it should be fine on a 20 am breaker) and it blew a circuit if something else was also plugged into the same electrical outlet and being used when the toaster oven is on.

If you have no idea what the amp is for your circuit breaker, don’t worry. I don’t know either. If you plug this and something else into the same outlet and find that using both at the same time trips your circuit breaker, there is an easy solution. All you need to do is remove the second item and use the outlet for just the BOV800XL *.

If you are unsure if there might be a problem, then go ahead and make the outlet that you use for this oven a dedicated BOV800XL outlet, and don’t plug anything else into it.

The one potential issue with this fix is that the plug you use might also be wired to other appliances in your house, such as your refrigerator or microwave. If you notice that the power dims or lights flicker when you use the BOV800XL oven, use a different outlet.

Finally, you might want to have an electrician take a look at your circuit breaker to see what the amps are, and upgrade it to at least 20 amps if it is less. This will provide additional safety for anything that you plug into an outlet. If you live in an apartment or rental home, you may want to check with your landlord to make sure that this oven won’t be too powerful for your kitchen.

(Return to Table Of Contents)

LCD DIsplay

This model has digital controls, and the digital options are visible on an LCD display. The display changes colors depending on what mode it is in. When it is preheating or cooking, the display illuminates orange. When the oven is off, the display illuminates blue.

I like their color choices for on and off. Heat is commonly represented by colors of fire, so orange indicates on. Cold is commonly represented as blue, so blue indicates off. In other words, you don’t have to remember what each color means to know if the machine is on or off.

Type OF Controls

You will find a combination of dials and buttons on the front of the Breville smart oven *, along with the LCD display described above. The dials are large and easy to turn, and their functions are clearly marked. Here are the controls, starting from the top of the machine to the bottom:

• • FUNCTION (dial)
  • START/CANCEL (button)
  • TEMP (Darkness) (dial)
  • CONVECTION (button)
  • TEMPERATURE CONVERSION (button)
  • FROZEN FOOD (button)
  • TIME (Pizza Size Slices) (dial)

The dials are used to make choices on the digital display. Turning the Function dial, for example, will allow you to select from the display what you are cooking, such as pizza. The TEMP dial allows you to select the temperature, while the TIME dial lets you choose the cooking time.

The buttons allow you to fine tune your choices. If your pizza is frozen, press the FROZEN FOODS button, and the BOV800XL will automatically add the time needed for the frozen food. If you like to cook with convection then press the CONVECTIONbutton. Lastly, if you have a preference between Fahrenheit and Celsius, you can press the TEMPERATURE CONVERSION button to choose between them.

You can stop any cooking cycle at any time by pressing the START/CANCEL button.

After I bought my BOV800XL smart oven I found out that just how incredibly precise the BOV800XL is at cooking. After you choose BAGEL, TOAST, or PIZZA you next tell the machine how many slices are to be cooked. The “Element IQ” takes that information and cooks them perfectly!

Temperature Control Options

Some toaster ovens have two knobs, one for determining the temperature for toast, and another for determining the temperature for all other cooking. That is not how the Breville BOV800XL toaster oven * works. Instead, it cooks using one of the nine preset cooking functions, though you can change the default temperature for each setting to your preferences.

If you do change the temperature for any of the preset options, your changes will be saved in the machine’s memory and will stay there until you either change them again or unplug the machine.

Toast Darkness Adjustment

As is true with just about any toaster oven, the Breville smart oven allows you to adjust the darkness of toast, and is a very easy process. First select TOAST, turn the TEMPdial to select the browning setting anywhere from 1 (for light) to 7 (for dark), then press the START/CANCEL button.

Preset Cooking Functions

Breville has included nine preset cooking functions on this model:

• • BAGEL
  • BAKE
  • BROIL
  • COOKIES
  • PIZZA
  • REHEAT
  • ROAST
  • TOAST
  • WARM

Although Breville recommends cooking foods with their preset functions, you can customize them to your own preferences. If you customize a setting, your customization will remain in the memory of the machine until you either change them or unplug the unit.

Timer

The timer can be set for up to a generous two hours. This exceeds the timer capacity of many other toaster ovens, which can range from just 30 minutes to one hour.

After the oven has finished preheating it will issue an audible alert. The alert sound indicates that the timer will begin counting down, and it counts down in one minute increments. You may want to stay near the oven so that you can place your food into it as soon as preheating is done. If you wait too long to insert your food after preheating, you may need to adjust the cooking time so that your food isn’t undercooked.

The timer comes equipped with two types of alert sounds. The sound heard when preheating is done is two beeps. The sound heard when cooking is done is three beeps. The alert sounds are similar to the sounds of an alarm clock, yet they aren’t “too” loud.

(Return to Table Of Contents)

Alarm

The alarm on this model is either two or three beeps, depending on the action completed. There are two beeps when preheating is done, and there are three beeps when any type of cooking is done.

One consumer compared the sound to that of an alarm clock, but no one complained about it. I even found one positive comment by someone who said that the alarm sounds are pleasant, and that the sound level of them is perfect.

Always On

There is no “always on” setting for the Breville BOV800XL toaster oven *, but there really isn’t a need for this since the timer can be set for up to two hours. The longest the oven would ever be on (not including the time it takes to preheat) is two hours, which is the total duration of the timer. This is plenty of time to cook most recipes.

The fact that there is no “always on” feature is loved by many consumers. You don’t have to worry about accidentally leaving the oven on, something that I have done myself with a past toaster oven of mine.

Automatic Shutoff

This toaster oven shuts off automatically for all of the cooking functions.

Auto-Eject Rack

The door comes equipped with a magnetic system that causes the rack to come out of the oven when opened. The faster you pull open the door, the further the rack will eject from the inside. I played around with mine and found that I could get it to come out close to half way, which is pretty impressive, though you wouldn’t want to open the door fast if the food inside is spillable in any way. The racks on most other toaster ovens that have an auto-eject system only come out about an inch or two, so having the rack come out as far as this does is very helpful. You will be able to reach foods that are in the back half of the rack without fear of burning your hand.

The auto-eject feature works only on the middle rack position, not the lower one. This was a minor issue for some people, but it really shouldn’t be, something I came to understand after I bought it. The foods that are cooked on the lowest or top rack are foods that most likely cause hot grease to collect during cooking. Having either of these two racks auto-eject would have to potential to cause burns or messes if the liquified grease slops around during auto-eject.

The middle rack, on the other hand, cooks things like toast, bagels, and pizza. None of these foods are going to cause harm or messes when moved during the auto-eject process.

BPA FREE?

According to Breville, all of the parts that come in contact with food in the Breville BOV800XL toaster oven are BPA free.

*

Crumb Tray

The crumb tray can be easily removed for cleaning. The tray is easy to pull out and is removed from the front, which seems like common sense to me, but I learned that some other brands put their crumb trays in the back. Imagine having to move your toaster oven away from the wall every time you want to clean the crumb tray!

Unlike some crumb trays, this one is full sized. That might seem like a minor thing to you, but what that means is that the tray will catch just about every crumb or food dripping and prevent it from spilling over the sides where it will collect on the bottom of the machine. My previous toaster oven’s crumb tray was not full sized and I can tell you from experience that it was not fun cleaning the bottom of the toaster oven because the elements make it difficult to get down there.

Someone said she bought a nonstick pastry mat made of silicone to place on the crumb tray to make cleaning it fast and easy. This sounded great to me so I, too, did this when I bought my BOV800XL *. DO NOT DO THIS!!! My silicone mat caught on fire and things would have ended very badly had I not been there to see the small fire and remove the crumb tray and mat immediately.

Instead, you can place a piece of aluminum foil on the tray, then simply remove the foil when it gets dirty and replace it with a new piece. Just be sure that the foil is flat on the tray and not touching the elements above it so that there is no risk of an electrical shock or spark.

Door

The glass door comes with a stay-cool handle that allows you to open the door without fear of getting burned.

Additionally, Breville has kindly added a rack position reminder guide to the exterior of the glass door. Thanks to the guide you don’t have to search through the manual to remember what rack position is best for each cooking setting.

Each reminder is placed at the same level as the rack position on the inside of the machine. The image you see here has the rack placed at the middle height, which is the position you should use for toasting, cookies, bagels, and pizzas.

My 11-year-pld daughter got really excited over this feature because she could see from the door where to place the rack when she wants to make toast or tortilla pizza.

Exterior Temperature During Cooking

The Breville BOV800XL toaster oven * gets pretty hot on the outside during use, including the glass door. I was aware of this fact when I bought mine and carefully touched every part that I could reach. The hottest parts feel like the top and the back.

The back of this machine has rubber bumpers so that the back is not touching the wall behind it. Even so, I was worried that the heat from the back of the oven might cause discoloration to the splash guard so I moved it about an inch away from the wall.

To be safe, it is recommended that you use either hot pads or oven mitts when inserting, removing, or handling food. Common sense says that the inside of an oven gets hot, but people don’t always think about the outside also being hot.

Handles

There are no handles on the sides of the Breville BOV800XL toaster oven *. Given the fact that it weighs 20 pounds, you probably won’t want to carry it around too often, but since there are no handles, you will need to wait until the machine is completely cooled before doing so.

In Use Light

The START/CANCEL button is also an “in use” light. When you turn this machine on the START/CANCELbutton has a red ring that lights up around it, indicating that the oven is on. The LCD display also doubles as this feature. When the unit is in use, the LCD display’s backlit color is orange (aka “hot”), and when the unit is off the display’s backlit color is blue (aka “cold”).

Interior Light

There is no interior light. If this bothers you, you can do what one consumer does. One who likes to peek at food as it cooks keeps a small flashlight in her kitchen that lets her do just that.

Nonstick Interior

The inside is coated with a non-stick material. Pretty much everyone agrees that keeping the inside clean is a breeze, thanks to the non-stick interior! I have also found this to be true.

Breville has confirmed that the nonstick material contains the chemical PTFE, which has the potential to be toxic. According to Breville, though, it is only toxic at temperatures above 700° F, and this unit only heats up to 500° F.

The PTFE was a serious concern for several people, but if you research it you will learn that PTFE is in far more items than you would suspect, including footwear and non-stick pots and pans. There is a good chance that your kitchen currently contains items that have PTFE. You can read more about this chemical here.

Under Counter Mount

This model cannot be mounted under a cabinet.

Included Accessories

• Non-Stick Pizza Pan - 13"
  • Enamel Baking Pan - 12″ × 12″
  • Enamel Broil Rack - 12″ × 12″

Each of the three included accessories is covered with a nonstick coating to make cleaning them simple. If you take care to avoid abrasive cleaners they should provide you with years of services.

The edges of each accessory is fairly shallow so that they can be used with the CONVECTION feature. Pans and dishes that have high edges will block the heated air blown around by the convection fan, and will not cook as quickly or evenly as those with lower edges.

Optional Accessories

Breville offers several additional accessories that you can buy. All three are available at Amazon, which you can see by clicking the links below. These include:

• Bamboo cutting board * – this can be stored on top of the machine and you can safely place items on it that will stay cool
• 13″ pizza stone *
• Door stopper *

(Return to Table Of Contents)

Keeping the exterior and interior of the Breville BOV800XL * toaster oven clean is fairly easy. Simply wipe it down with a damp cloth or sponge with soap. Avoid scratchy cleaning pads or sponges to prevent scratching the stainless steel exterior. Never use a Brillo or other metallic scrubbing pad on the inside since pieces of metal can break off and land on the bottom heating elements, which can cause electrical shocks.

Cleaning the three included accessories (pizza pan, baking pan, and broiling rack) are another matter. There are numerous complaints from consumers who say that the enamel on these three items is very hard to keep clean. The ways around this include spraying them with a nonstick cooking spray like Pam or lining them with foil before cooking, but that defeats the purpose of them being nonstick. But, if it makes cleaning them easier, it may be worth the effort. One person recommend using aluminum foil sheets. Just make sure the foil NEVER touches the elements, since that would cause an electric shock.

Breville recommends that you unplug this toaster oven when not in use. Although they do not explain their reason for this, I suspect it is to prevent damage to the electrical components from a random power surge. That being said, plenty of consumers stated that they never unplug it except to clean it, and they have not had any problems.

Breville created an excellent video showing you how easy it is to use the Breville BOV800XL toaster oven *. It also gives a description of the Element IQ that powers the heating elements.

Dimensions: Length 18.5” x Height 11.2” x Depth 16.2”
Weight: 20 pounds

(Return to Table Of Contents)

Duration

1 year limited warranty

Customer Support Experience

There were a few reviews that expressed unhappiness with Breville’s warranty support. However, the complaints I read were primarily from 2010-2012. It seems that things improved after that. While reading review after review I found that there are far more satisfied than unsatisfied customers in regards to Breville’s customer support.

There are also a small number of reviews from people stating that their machines stopped working much sooner than they expected given the price, some just shortly after the one year warranty period ended. Owners who took the time to contact Breville about this fact said that Breville replaced their broken units with refurbished units, and at no cost to them, including shipping. The most impressive of these comments was from someone who said her toaster oven died after two years and two months of use, a full 14 months after the warranty expired, and Breville replaced it free of charge with a refurbished model.

If you are concerned that one year of warranty support may not be enough you can purchase a 3 year extended warranty from Square Trade on Amazon *.

(Return to Table Of Contents)

• • Size – You have a lot of cooking options thanks to the roomy interior.
  • Magnetic Auto-Eject – When you open the door magnets will pull the rack out of the oven when it is in the middle position.
  • Quality and Durability – Multiple reviewers updated their reviews to say that their BOV800XL ovens are still going strong. That speaks volumes to the quality of this oven. If the opposite were true, people would be very vocal about it. Instead, they are vocal about how well this oven holds up to, in many cases, daily use over an extended period of time.
  • Quiet – No matter what setting you use, it will run quietly, including the convection setting.
  • Cooking Control – You can control every aspect of cooking with this machine, right down to choosing one of three temperatures for broiling and customizing the nine preset cooking functions.
  • Easy of Use – It comes with a 160 page instruction manual, but this toaster oven is so intuitive that you may rarely need it.

(Return to Table Of Contents)

• • Size – This may not fit into smaller kitchens
  • Price – The price may be beyond the budgets of some people, but the number of features necessarily causes an increase in price when compared to other models
  • Quality Control Issues – Some consumers found that their ovens stopped working after about a year of use, but Breville appears to be making things right when this happens if ovens are out of warranty by replacing them with refurbished models, which means you should always take the time to contact the manufacturer if there is a problem after a warranty has ended
  • Quality of Included Accessories – The three accessories are not of the same quality as the oven itself

(Return to Table Of Contents)

There is no doubt that this is a high-end toaster oven, and the price reflects that. Many of the questions that I read on Amazon about this item were from potential buyers wondering if they should spend the extra money for this model instead of a less expensive toaster oven. The overwhelming response in from owners of the Breville BOV800XL toaster oven * was, “YES!” 

In regards to the price, consider what it costs to cook with your standard (aka large) oven compared to this smart oven. You can cook many of the same foods in both, yet it costs quite a bit less to run the BOV800XL oven than it does a traditional oven because large ovens take longer to heat up and require more energy to cook due to their increased size. The BOV800XL may very well end up saving you money in the long run.

(Return to Table Of Contents)

As of this writing there are over 1,800 reviews on Amazon for this model toaster oven! Of those, a whopping 1,333 rated it five stars. This may be a pricey oven, but owners repeated over and over again how it is worth the purchase price.

Another often repeated comment was how people couldn’t imagine cooking without this kitchen tool, and for many consumers they do about 75% of their cooking in this small oven. It is especially loved during the holidays when people can cook large turkeys in the regular oven and smaller dishes in this one.

In this particular case, I am also an owner of this specific toaster oven. Every one in my family, including me, loves it and has no regrets at all about buying it. And it is easy enough to use that my 11-year-old daughter can, and does, cook with it.

Here are the most helpful online sources I used to research the Breville BOV800XL toaster oven *. You may find additional helpful information by visiting any or all of these sources:

• • Product information on Amazon *
  • Breville Website
  • Breville BOV800XL Instruction Manual

This is not just a toaster oven. It is like a miniature oven, and many owners use this instead of their large ovens as often as they can. It is easy to see why people favor this over their large ovens – you can cook a nice variety of foods, it keeps the kitchen cool while in use, is easy to clean, and costs far less to operate than a traditional oven.

If all you want to do is cook salmon this isn’t the model for you and you may be much happier with a model like the Cuisinart TOB-40. But if you enjoy cooking a variety of foods such as baking, cooking, broiling, and even cooking frozen foods, then this model may very well be the best kitchen appliance purchase you ever make. You might even find the Breville smart oven turns your large oven into a storage location for pots, pans, and baking sheets!

I have done a comparison of the Breville BOV800XL to the BOV650XL and BOV450XL models, for those of you who want to know how they differ from one another.

(Return to Table Of Contents)

(Return to Table Of Contents)