George Foreman GRV660 Toaster Oven with Convection Cooking Review

George Foreman GRV660 Toaster Oven with Convection Cooking

I returned this product without even using it.

The first thing I noticed was that there is a hole in the top which is almost as large as the top! The idea is that the bun warmer is set into the hole to keep fresh bread warm. However, while baking or otherwise using the oven, heat will escape from around the edges of the bun warmer.

Secondly, the edges of the front door don't meet the frame of the oven. I could almost put the tip of my little finger into one of the spaces. Another place where heat will escape.

Since my reason for buying a toaster oven was to save energy, the two above deficiencies were enough for me to return the toaster oven without even plugging it in!

George, you can do better than this

Because I have other George Foreman products that are very good, I was very disappointed in this one. The racks are made of wire that is not strong enough to hold a pyrex 6 inch by 8 inch glass dish filled with a pasta and vegetable mixture! The racks fell out of their slots!

What ever happened to quality! I don't even want to think what might happen if I tried using the spit to roast a chicken!

With a nod to the positive reviews, yes, while it works it works well. But the quality is 100% pure garbage. Within a few months all the markings on the dials rubbed off; ok, I could live with that. But just after the warranty period expired, the rotisserie mechanism broke -- when even a small amount of weight is placed on the spit it tries to turn but slips back, which tells me (I have some experience in fixing mechanical gadgets) that the gears in the motor mechanism have broken teeth. This of necessity means that the material the gears were made of is extremely low quality, since ordinarily gears (that are not being shifted, as in a car transmission) DO NOT get teeth broken off. For $80 I'm not going to pay to have it fixed, I will use it a bit longer, but be warned: the parts are made out of junk materials and it will break, probably sooner than later.

We purchased the George Foreman 8 in 1 with the thought we would get the toaster oven we needed and some other features that would be nice to have. The 8 in 1 does have alot of neat features, the issue is it doesn't do any of the features very well. The toaster feature takes about 2 times as long to toast as a smaller, more conventional toaster oven. The Rotisserie is difficult to use and the grease catcher woefully inadequate. We found out the hard way when we had chicken grease overflow out of the grill and onto the counter. I can see this being a very good item for those with very small kitchens and in need of saving space, however, be warned that this oven has many shortcomings

I purchased this toaster oven because I wanted to use it to heat smaller items such as a frozen french bread pizza or bake cookies without heating up the larger oven.

The grill is a nice size - it doesn't take up too much kitchen space, though it is taller than most toaster ovens I have seen. Opening the box, you will see two aluminum cookie sheets which I initially thought were packing materials to protect the item during shipping. Setting up the toaster oven doesn't take too long despite the fact that the manual doesn't mention much about initial setup. You kind of just have to figure it out with common sense.

The first thing I tried was heating one of those non-microwavable frozen dinners. I was surprised at how quickly the oven heated. Unfortunately, when turning the timer knob, it cracked and broke. I am contacting the company for a replacement. This is annoying me now because the timer either counts down from 30 minutes or can be set to "stay on". Obviously, with a cracked knob it is difficult to set the timer.

The oven does generate some heat when cooking - enough heat that I had to move the toaster oven out from my original location which was under the cabinet and next to the side of the refrigerator.

I tried baking some cookies - and it does fairly well except that the cookie sheet doesn't hold very many cookies. I used the two supplied "cookie sheets" and placed the racks so that they were evenly dispersed from top to bottom. (You'll know what I'm talking about when you see the shaped racks). The cookies came out OK - I had to leave the top rack of cookies in a bit longer than the bottom but they both came out fine.

The keep warm feature is nice. The plastic thing at top that is supposed to warm bread does just that...you put cooked bread in it and it keeps the bread warm.

I have not tried the rotisserie feature but plan to use it this weekend with a 3.75 lb. chicken. Overall I am satisfied with the oven. I give it 5 stars despite the minor annoyances such as the broken plastic knob and cheap quality cookie sheets.

I quickly replaced the broken knobs free of charge. I have not had any other issues with the knobs cracking. The unit does cook a rotisserie chicken very well but the bird can't be too large (or it will hit the sides and/or heating elements). One shortcoming I did not mention in the review is that the glass door does get quite hot during use. Parents should exercise caution when kids are using the oven. I do find myself using this toaster oven every day. Very useful product.