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One of “Oprah’s favorite things” is a toaster oven/air fryer combo, and I spent many hours reviewing the Cuisinart TOA-60 and its digital counterpart Cuisinart TOA-65. Since they are almost identical, I have reviewed the base model Cuisinart TOA-60 and included a list of differences between TOA-60 and TOA-65 at the end for your convenience. Read below to choose which one you need.
Cuisinart TOA-60
Pros
- Design is great — I would buy it just for the retro vibes
- As far as cooking goes, it’s solid with quick heatup and even heating
- Versatility — it can air fry but also has other extra modes you don’t always get
Cons
- Air frying is mediocre
- Timer is inaccurate
I was skeptical about the endorsement at first. It promises great toast, a professional baking experience, and since it’s an air fryer, liquid-free frying. But how well does it deliver on these promises? Is the Cuisinart Air Fryer actually good at frying? What can you do with it?
Let’s find out.
Main Pros
To start, these are my Cuisinart Air Fryer’s favorite features:
Quick and quiet
If you want an effective toaster oven you want a toaster oven that performs well under time pressure, and the TOA-60 is definitely great at it.
The toaster oven quickly heats up and cooks faster than your conventional oven. In fact, like with most of our top counter toaster ovens, first-timers may want to reduce both heat level and time to prevent any burnt foods.
If you use the air fryer, you’ll also enjoy quick preheating times and a lightning-fast cooking experience.
And, although this oven does have a fan, the motor is so quiet you’ll barely hear it. This makes it perfect to chat with your guests in the kitchen and assures you won’t wake up anyone when you’re cooking up a midnight snack.
Great built-in features
Cuisinart’s Air Fryer Toaster Oven makes it easy to do both toasting and air frying. You can choose specific options to fry specific foods, like wings, snacks, veggies, and, of course, french fries. The toaster oven also has built-in options for reheating, baking, roasting, convection broil and cooking up pizza.
Besides conventional toasting and frying using hot air, you can use the low-temperature settings for braising and slow-cooking dishes. And, unlike most other toaster ovens out there, you can also use it for dehydrating.
The toaster oven’s design has some great little features as well. It includes a safety door that immediately shuts down the toaster oven when opening it and a timer to switch on the toaster oven after cooking.
Easy to clean
The stainless steel exterior can be wiped off with a damp towel once it cools off and the simplicity of the outer design makes the cleaning process very easy. No crooks and crannies to build up dust!
It also has a crumb tray that slides out for washing or just shaking the crumbs right off.
Great design
The beautiful silver exterior and the classic, almost minimalistic design makes it perfect for the countertop of any kitchen.
The door features a large window to keep an eye on your food without interrupting the cooking process and its size helps it fit anywhere.
Main Specs
Here’s a close look at the main features of the Cuisinart TOA-60 Toaster Oven:
Toaster oven size
The Cuisinart Air Fryer has a surprisingly large interior space. In there you can fit up to 3lbs. of chicken wings, 6 slices of toast, or even a 12” pizza.
It measures 14” by 15.8” by 14” (35cm by 40cm by 35cm) and weighs 21 pounds (9.5kg) so it can be hard to move around.
Dials and navigation
This toaster oven is fairly easy to navigate. All you need to do is to set up these four different dials:
- On/timer dial: The “On” dial also doubles as a 60-minute timer and shuts off the toaster oven once the time runs out.
- Temperature dial: You can select temperatures from 250 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit (121 to 232 Celsius).
- Function dial: With it, you can use it with the different built-in cooking options or manually adjust it to bake, air fry, or toast.
- Toast timer dial: Similar to the first dial, this dial simplifies the whole process to just toast bread, all you need to do is to select your toast shade and it’ll turn off automatically.
Included accessories
The unit comes with a crumb tray that doubles as a baking pan, an oven rack and an air-fryer basket. None of these are dishwasher safe so they must be hand-washed.
Cuisinart TOA-60 – Should You Buy It?
The Cuisinart Air Fryer Toaster Oven is a great toaster oven that can liquid-free fry well.
Here’s where it shines… and where it doesn’t:
What I liked:
- Versatile: With so many options, from toasting bread to baking pizza to air frying wings and fries, this toaster oven gives you more functionality than most others.
- Great design: The gorgeous stainless steel exterior and the simple and elegant design will look great in any kitchen for years to come.
- Good toaster oven performance: The air fryer toaster oven is fast, efficient, and heats up pretty evenly.
- Standard size: You can use the same accessories as in other toaster ovens, a plus when purchasing them or using the ones you have.
- Easy to use – You’ll either be using three dials to bake and air fry or the one for toasting. No complex navigation or weird digital screens.
- Three-year warranty: Although many toaster ovens offer one year, Cuisinart has always provided quality appliances. That’s why, although it’s not surprising to see the three-year warranty, it’s definitely reassuring.
What I didn’t like:
- Not the best air fryer: Although the air fryer is completely functional, some users reported that they couldn’t properly air fry things like donuts and full chickens and that the frying seems to be uneven, especially when loading it up to the top.
- Inaccurate timer: The timer is mechanical, not digital, and the mechanism doesn’t seem to be precise, so you need to check up on your food to make sure the timer isn’t running long. In addition to it, the timer has 10-minute intervals with nothing in between.
Conclusion – Should You Get It?
Don’t get me wrong – the Cuisinart TOA-60 is a great kitchen workhorse. It gives you lots of cooking options, a large cooking area, and quick cooking times. However, the air fryer seems to be slightly lacking — it’s certainly not as good as the big ol’ Breville Smart Oven Air — although it’s still great for a dual-function air fryer toaster oven.
The TOA-60 Air Fryer Toaster Oven is the perfect appliance if you want a great toaster and convection oven that you can occasionally use for air frying. It’s perfect for people that like to be more hands-on with their cooking experience and for people that are looking for a large oven at a small price.
See on AmazonCuisinart TOA-65
- Specially engineered 1800-watt motor, fan and heater deliver high-velocity, high-heat airflow for perfectly fried results with minimal noise
- 0.6 cu. feet. capacity. Wide range of toaster oven functions: bake, broil, pizza, roast, toast, bagel, reheat, Warm, dual cook
- Low temperature setting to slow cook, braise and more. Plus, dedicated functions for dehydrating and proofing
- Air fry function and presets take the guesswork out of frying wings, fries, nuggets, snacks and veggies
- More options to customize your cooking include: wide temperature range: 80°f to 450°f; adjustable time with preset ranges for each function; defrost and high/low convection fan speed options
The Cuisinart TOA-65 is essentially the same air fryer and toaster oven as Cuisinart TOA-60, with a few notable differences:
- The controls are digital: with Cuisinart TOA-65, you get buttons and an LCD instead of knobs. The digital controls break less than conventional knobs, but the knobs on the Cuisinart TOA-60 make it easier to use.
- The Cuisinart TOA-65 is a bit bigger (17 x 21.7 x 15.8 inches vs 15.5 x 16 x 14 inches) and heavier (28.5 lb vs 21 lb), although the interior space is the same.
- The Cuisinart TOA-65 has more options than the Cuisinart TOA-60. The additional options are Pizza, Bagel, Reheating, Roasting, Dehydrating, Proofing, and low-temperature options Slow Cook and Braise.
- If you prefer a more modern look or you need more controls and don’t mind the size and weight of the Cuisinart TOA-65, then this is the one you should get.
I hope this helps!
Love,
G.
