Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

THE GOOD: (1) Not large. Doesn't require a major amount of counter space, but the interior is relatively small. While it may toast 4 slices of square white bread, it will only hold 2 slices of rye bread. The only time this might matter to me is when I'm toasting hotdog buns. The old Black and Decker would toast 3 open hotdog buns at a time. This Panasonic will only hold 2. It's also relatively shallow. (2) Doesn't require pre-heating. No preheating at all. Nice. Old Black and Decker it replaced required 15 minutes of preheating. Although I saw nothing that referred to it, I would suspect it would use less electricity than those that require preheating. (3) Toasts fast and evenly. (4) Heated up a cold bagel (direct from the refrigerator to the toaster oven) in only 3 minutes. Warm inside and out. (5) Being 1300 Watts it doesn't get brutally hot like those with 1800 Watts like the Breville BOV650XL which I bought and returned without so much as toasting a slice of bread because it got so hot on the outside that I was afraid of it damaging the kitchen counter and/or walls, and/or the cabinet above it, or even causing a fire. (6) Rack pulls out when door is opened. Nice. It's even spring-loaded so it pulls the door shut when you go to close it. DISCONCERTING: (1) Oven light goes on and off repeatedly during heating/toasting/baking. But that's just part of the normal process. NOT SO GOOD: (1) Cannot be set to bake for longer than 25 minutes. So, if you want to bake a potato for an hour, you either have to let it finish its 25-minute bake cycle and then start all over again -- and then do that again, or watch the time go down and -- mid-cycle -- reset the timer to 25 minutes multiple times. This means you have to stay in the kitchen with the toaster oven instead of being free to do whatever you want to do elsewhere. This is a significant annoyance. (2) Its idea of DARK toast is not mine. To get what I consider DARK toast requires that it be cycled first at DARK, and then again at MEDIUM. I rated it at only 4 STARS because of the maximum baking time of 25 minutes with no way to override it. Other than that, after only a week or so of using it I'd rate it 5 stars. Should I have further thoughts as time goes by, I'll update my review.