Black & Decker TRO760 Toaster Oven with Convection Cooking

Actually, my review is about the TRO700S, which is essentially the same unit but with slightly different cosmetics.

When I got this unit, I clicked the convection switch--nothing happened. On-off-on-off-on... off. Nothing. I tried it again with the oven on/off and the toaster on/off. Still nothing. It was completely dead. I called up Black & Decker and told them about it, hoping there might be some trick to it. Nope--my unit was defective. I decided to try it anyway.

I put in a London broil and turned on the oven. It heated up reasonably fast and did a superb job. I never thought you could cook a steak so nicely in one of these toaster ovens (less time and less energy than a full oven). I was a little dismayed at how much heat is transferred to the outside (it's easy to burn yourself on that stainless steel), but I was willing to overlook that.

I brought it back to the store to get a replacement. I tried the convection feature and it worked. The next day I decided to make some toast, and at first fumbled with the confusing controls--needed to read the instructions; operation should be obvious. The oven temperature control doubles as a control to choose whether the oven or toaster features will be used. There's also a dial labeled "timer", but it's only used for the oven. Most toaster ovens I've seen in the past have one control to set the intensity (light, medium, dark) and another to turn it on. This uses one dial that turns on the toaster as you rotate it to the desired toasting intensity, and it should countdown (like the oven timer) until it reaches "off".

I turned the dial to 'medium', as suggested by the instructions, put in the toast, and walked away to do something else for a few minutes. When I came back in the room, the toast was burnt to a crisp and the dial was still on 'medium'--it didn't move at all. I turned it off... then turned it on. Yep, there's no ticking sound, as heard from the timer for the oven function. I played with the dial a little more and could coax it to tick for a second or two, but then it would stop. DEFECTIVE AGAIN.

Well, that's it. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me (yep, that's the cliche Bush couldn't get right). I brought it back to the store and gave up. I decided my time was not worth toying with a $60 appliance. I'm going to spend more this time and get something that WORKS reliably, has good heat insulation, and logical controls. Btw, B&D outsourced Aplica to make it. Not a B&D product!

So, here's what I didn't like about this unit:
1) Encountering TWO defects, one in each unit I tried. This is shameful, Black & Decker.
2) The controls don't feel like good quality. I also don't like the ticking sound (when it works). It's disturbing if you're trying to read the newspaper next to this thing.
3) The stainless steel exterior gets extremely hot. You can easily burn yourself on it, as well as anything nearby.

What I did like about it:
1) It cooks well and even.
2) It has decent crumb guards over the elements.
3) It's a nice size for what it can cook.
4) It is a good looking unit.

Unfortunately, my likes couldn't outweigh my dislikes. And the quality problems are just ridiculous. These are BASIC functions that should pass quality assurance tests, simple problems like an ON/OFF switch not working or a timer dial not turning should never leave the factory. Read up reviews on the TRO700S and you'll see some scary stuff--near fire disasters.