Product Review: Proctor Silex 4 Slice Toaster Oven and Broiler

After reading so many negative reviews online about very reputable brands of toaster ovens, I finally settled upon purchasing the Proctor Silex 4 Slice Toaster Oven and Broiler. I have been extremely happy with this product, and would heartily recommend it to anybody who is in the market for a toaster oven.

Proctor Silex Toaster Oven Review: Overview and Advantages

One of the best features of the Proctor Silex Toaster Oven is that it takes up far less counter space because of its curved door design. Instead of opening outward like a regular oven (and most toaster ovens), it has a curved glass door that slides up and back around the toaster oven. This means that you don't need to leave counter space in front of it for it to open. In addition, as you will see below, it has great settings and a built-in timer for all your toasting (and oven-ing) needs.

Proctor Silex Toaster Oven Review: Temperature Settings

The Proctor Silex Toaster Oven comes fully equipped with every feature you could possibly need in your toaster oven, all conveniently located on two dials. It can be set to any temperature from 200 to 450 (with heat coming from the bottom of the oven), and the temperature dial also has settings for broil (heat on high from top only) and toast (heat from top and bottom slowly).

The second dial on the toaster oven is a timer, with a small spin counterclockwise turning the oven on indefinitely, and a spin clockwise turning it on for a set amount of time, anywhere up to 15 minutes. There are also some nice pictures on the timer at approximately 7, 5, and 3 minutes for dark, medium, and light toast settings. When the timer reaches zero, it lets out a nice ding and turns the oven off (although it is still warm inside for a little while, so it's a good idea to get your food quickly unless you take that into account).

Proctor Silex Toaster Oven Review: Toasting

Although this toaster oven is our primary toaster, that isn't the main reason we purchased it, so don't expect super toasting capacity. However, we have found that it works fine for our needs, although it is a little bit slow. As mentioned above, toast takes at least 3 minutes, and up to about 7 for nice dark toast (although it varies depending on the kind of bread).

The toast comes out very nice, and we haven't had any issues with uneven browning or anything like that because the heat is distributed very well on both the top and bottom of the rack. You can fit 4 slices of bread on the rack if they are slightly smallish rectangular loaves, otherwise two slices fit very comfortably.

Proctor Silex Toaster Oven Review: Cleaning

We have not had to clean our Proctor Silex toaster oven often, aside from the occasional emptying of the crumb tray, which slides easily out from the bottom of the toaster oven and, unlike many crumb trays, actually covers the whole floor of the toaster oven. In addition, the door of the oven is very easy to get off by pulling up the lever on the back right side that typically stops the door when it has gone back to its open position. That way, you can thoroughly clean both sides of the door and have easy cleaning access to the inside of the toaster oven.