Black & Decker CTO 6301 Review

My husband and I found this Black & Decker convection/toaster oven on sale at Sam's Club for $46, though it retails online around $70-85. When we checked out the review sites, we found a lot of positive reviews as well as a number of negative reviews, most of which have to do with how hot the oven gets. We took those comments into consideration, but figured that for the price it was worth a little bit of a gamble.

Over a month later, it's by far the best money we've spent for the kitchen lately, and since my husband used to be a professional chef, that's saying something. We cook at least two meals at home 5-6 days a week, and over the time that we've had the CTO6301, we've probably only turned on our regular oven twice - the convection oven is that versatile. We've used it for things as basic as making toast (which it does MUCH better than other covection/toaster ovens I've used) and reheating leftovers, to more heavy-duty things like baking cookies and rolls and cooking lasagna straight from the freezer. 

Yes, as many of the reviews complain, this oven gets hot, and you should not put it right up against plastic things that might melt. That being said, it's a stainless steel oven that heats to 500 degrees+; OF COURSE IT'S HOT. We have ours in a corner between the microwave and the fridge, and have had no problems with it getting so hot we're nervous about it. In fact, what I like about it is that it comes up to temperature quickly, cooks for the amount of time you set, and then shuts itself off - much safer and less energy waste than a larger oven, in my opinion. 

As far as features go, this oven is great. The controls might not be immediately intuitive, but set it twice and you'll have the system down. It has settings for all sorts of cooking styles (bake, toast, broil, etc), the door opens nice and wide, and it comes with a nice set of specifically-sized pans to fit inside it. Frankly, I couldn't live without the oven at this point, and I feel like it's paid for itself many times over with the amount of time its saved us it's saved us in the kitchen.