.FLYINGHEAD LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
.TITLE Toaster oven redux
.AUTHOR David Gewirtz
.SUMMARY Back in December, David wrote a somewhat brutal review about the GE Halogen toaster over. The thing burned him, and he was determined to burn it right back. What’s interesting about this isn’t that the boss had a grudge against an oven. What’s interesting is the strange fascination this article seems inspire with readers the world over. We’ve gotten an almost never-ending stream of letters about this review and this oven. Since nothing beats a warm toasty bagel for breakfast (except orange danish), we thought we’d share with you a representative sampling of the letters (two more showed up today).
.OTHER
Back in December, I wrote a somewhat [[http://www.computingunplugged.com/tocs/issue200712.html|brutal review]] about the GE Halogen toaster over. The thing burned me, and I was determined to burn it right back.
What’s interesting about this isn’t that I had a grudge against an oven. What’s interesting is the strange fascination this article seems to have inspired in readers the world over. I’ve gotten an almost never-ending stream of letters about this review and this oven. Since nothing beats a warm toasty bagel for breakfast (except orange danish), I thought I’d share with you a representative sampling of the letters (two more showed up today).
.H1 Get a Krups
Richard Orban recommends a $200 Krups, to which my wife replied "No way am I paying $200 for a toaster oven". Anyway, here’s what Richard had to say:
.QUOTE I loved your GE review. I laughed out loud in the middle of an impossible workload. That is so rare I had to thank-you.
.QUOTE I don’t have this GE product, but every other GE appliance we have in the house is as bad as that toaster oven. For example, the GE dishwasher has chipped every piece of Corning ware we own. The Lady Kenmore never did that.
.QUOTE Anyway, I recommend the Krups.
.H1 As long as you don’t mind getting burned…
Scott Taylor wanted me to know I don’t really know how to use a toaster, but if you don’t mind getting burned, it’s a heck of a device:
.QUOTE I understand your disgust with the burning issue, but I have no problem with the other two. First, you do not have to press 32 buttons to get anything to work. If you hold the + or — button, it will incrementally scroll for you in seconds. I have found a quick access function for anything I have done to date.
.QUOTE As far as crappy cooking, I normally use a regular stove, and microwave, and so far, I have had great success with the GE. I haven’t done anything fancy yet, but it makes great toast in 2 pushed buttons in 5 minutes. It also cooks snack items much faster, and more thorough than a large stove, all with no pre-heating. Aside from the burning issue, I like the other features fine.
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.H1 On pinions and needles
Rob Pinion likes halogen ovens:
.QUOTE I read your review of the GE Halogen oven. When I saw it the other day, I was very excited because I thought there was now a decent sized halogen toaster oven on the market at a great price. I’ve owned a Panasonic Flash eXpress for a few years now, and I think it’s great, but it’s so small. I just paid a guy about $40 to take it apart so he and I could clean it, and then put it back together. I haven’t been able to find a new one on the Internet when I looked several times, and my former Mexican house man would burn tortillas in it regularly. I’ve never burned myself, though.
.QUOTE So the GE oven seemed like it would be a good replacement if my Panasonic ever went south. I love the fact that there’s no pre-heating. I’ve cooked lots of biscuits in it (12 minutes) and never had a bad result. Too bad the GE gave you such bad results with the rolls you were making. The Panasonic sure uses lots fewer button clicks, and there is a timer "hold-down" feature. The digital controls aren’t perfect, but they’re pretty good, as its guess at how long a pizza should be cooked. It allows a temp setting also, with about 30 degrees between settings, close enough for most things. They recommend using the temperature that’s lower than the one the product calls for.
.QUOTE It was supposed to be on shelves at Sears, but it never made it, and I ended up ordering one online for about $99. The last price I saw online was $129, but there was no product. It doesn’t help search for one that Panasonic also makes "flashes" for cameras.
Just, exactly, how does one get a "Mexican house man"? As Will Ferrell once said, it "bottles" the mind.
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.H1 No hurdles to surmount with the oven
Kathy Hurdle had a lot to say:
.QUOTE I hate to dispute your opinion but I just bought that same GE-Wal-Mart halogen microwave oven and love it. It work great for me. True the first one I got did not work properly — the bottom element did not come on so I carried it back to Wal-Mart and exchanged it for another one — same model. This one is wonderful!
.QUOTE First of all — every microwave oven I have ever been in contact with is HOT on the outside — always paying attention not to touch nothing but the parts that were intended for you to touch while it is in operation. If you cannot get your hand around the pull bar without scorching your knuckles then you must really have some big hands — the size of the Jolly Green Giant.
.QUOTE Second, the pastry you cooked got tough because you had the convection option on. As everybody knows when air blows over and around bread — the bread becomes stale — so the convection fans blowing air on the pastry only soed up the staling process causing it to be tough. Frankly I don’t see what’s so great about convection cooking anyway. I have a convection oven that I bought at least 15 or 20 years ago and didn’t find it to be worth a hoot and so it wound up in my Dad’s shop building out back behind our house and my Dad use it to heat water to make instant coffee in the winter when he was working inside his shop. I also currently have a Sharp microwave oven that I bought back in 1992 that is also a convection oven. Now that has come in handy when I had my regular oven tied up cooking something else and wanted to cook something else at the same time — but not bread.
.QUOTE When I first tried out the new toaster oven — I like well toasted "toast" so I hit the "TOAST" button 3 times — and to my surprise it was really brown — much browner than I really wanted it so I gave that to my cat (which she did eat some of it which surprised me much because she normally want eat breat at all) and tried for a second time. This time I only pusing the TOASTER button twice — the toast was exactly toasted the way that I like it — golden brown. I ate this slice of toast and it was so good. To further test the toaster oven I put a third slice of bread in the oven and pushed the TOAST button only 1 time — expecting for it to not even be brown but the bread harden without browning. To my surprise when the oven "dinged" indicating that it was finished the toast was just slightly browned — it had toasted it as anyone would want it to — a slight brown but not golden -so the oven had done exactly as it should have — exactly as anyone would want it to toast bread.
.QUOTE I did cook some other things in it — trying it out and also trying to save energy by using it rather than my range and it always cooked each item I have put in it as I wanted it to. I have NOT used the convection open and really don’t expect to.
.QUOTE Perhaps the oven that you got was not working properly either as the first one that I purchased from Wal-Mart’s — I had already read your review before I purchased my oven — even though you had given it had "bad rep" I thought it try it out. Wal-Mart has always been very courteous when I have returned items — so I didn’t think I’d have any trouble if I returned it. I called the service number and to my surprise they answered as GE-Wal-Mart so GE & Wal-Marts much be in "co-hoots" as Wal-Mart will eventually take over the world — out here in rural North Carolina they have run most of the little independent guys out of business — they can’t complete with Sam — he buys in big lots and gets stuff for less than it cost the manufacturer to make it
Hmmm…ok, for the record, assuming I know anything about cooking anything that doesn’t grill on my Weber is not safe. If it bleeds, I can cook it. If not, well, that’s another story. I’m really glad Kathy likes the oven and I hope others who buy it enjoy it as well.
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.H1 Should you have buyer’s remorse?
Jim Burwell told us he bought one of these beasts back in June:
.QUOTE I just picked up the same GE Halogen toaster oven (169104) at Wal-Mart. It was sort of an impulse buy. I wanted a toaster oven for a while now and happened to be in Wal-Mart picking up something else. I saw this, and bought it for the same reasons you did. It was the "techy-est" looking one there. Plus it matched my other appliances (GE stainless steel). Plus, it was the only Halogen one there, and it just seemed cool that it cooked with Halogen lamps instead of the typical burners.
.QUOTE Is it really THAT bad? It’s still in the box. Haven’t taken it out yet. I just happened to Google for it just to see what I could find, and saw your article.
.QUOTE What did you wind up replacing it with? I saw they they also had an Oster there with a digital display on it, but it used conventional burners and sort of clashed with my other appliances.
.QUOTE Anyway, it was a laugh reading your article.
I hated it. It burned my hand. Never had one burn my hand before. Now, understand that other than grilling, I’m not a cook. But I’ve lived off of toaster ovens as one of my primary food preparation tools for 25 years, so failing Toaster 101 is not normally a good sign.
I took out my anger at my very minor knuckle burn by writing it up. Personally, I’d recommend returning it. But there’s always the nut behind the wheel.
.H1 Debbie does toast
Debbie from Syracuse wrote:
.QUOTE I just wanted to thank you for posting this review on the GE Halogen toaster oven. For some reason, it’s the only mention online that I can find on this oven!! I saw it today at Wal-Mart and as I’m in the market for a new one, thought I’d come home and research it. I was amazed that there are no reviews on Amazon, and at this moment, Wal-Mart’s website doesn’t even admit to selling it!
.QUOTE In any case, your review was exactly what I needed to know. So rest assured it was worth your time to write and post it!
I’m glad we were able to provide some useful information here.
.H1 I’m not the only one who got burned
Another reader, who didn’t provide his name, wrote:
.QUOTE Thanks for the review. I bought the same oven in the non-halogen/convection one with the regular heating element. Also disappointed. In addition to also burning my hand more than once, it takes a long time to toast even a piece of toast and does a poor job cooking most other things. Much preferred the small Black & Decker toaster oven that after many years finally needed replacing, and as could not find one at the time, bought the GE instead. Did not take it back, but have regretted not doing so. Thanks again.
.H1 Carol’s not happy, either
Carol wrote us:
.QUOTE Has there been a recall on this oven yet? We bought our daughter one last week and cannot figure out how the darn thing works.
She later wrote me that she took the oven back.
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.H1 Our final choice
This may well be one of our most responded-to articles, especially if you don’t count any of the articles for which we’ve gotten death threats (true story). So, what did we finally wind up with?
Turns out, we find a nice little $99 [[http://www.cuisinart.com/catalog/product.php?product_id=393&item_id=489&cat_id=15|Cuisinart]], which we picked up at the local Sears. I’ve only got two complaints: the trays seem to fit weirdly and one of the trays is starting to rust. But, in general, we’re quite happy with it and I’ve successfully cooked my share of orange danish on it and they were yummy. Oh yeah, the Cuisinart never burned my hand, not once.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
Read [[http://www.computingunplugged.com/tocs/issue200712.html|"Consumer Alert: Do not buy the GE Halogen toaster oven"]].
Learn more about [[http://www.cuisinart.com/catalog/product.php?product_id=393&item_id=489&cat_id=15|Cuisinart’s oven]].
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