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halgreene

Combo Mwave / Toaster?

halgreene
9 years ago

Seriously, my toaster oven sucks. But my microwave (powerful Panasonic) is great! Makes popcorn like nobody's bizniz. Love it.

Wanna replace the toaster. Could give the microwave to a friend. Can I combine both functions? Is there a really good one?

Must fit on a countertop (no built-in).

Thanks, you guys know EVERYTHING!

Comments (4)

  • plllog
    9 years ago

    Did you see this thread from April? I did find a microwave with a pizza drawer that a reviewer said made toast. It is still listed for sale on many websites.

    There are also small microwaves that have slot toasters attached.

    Any microwave will do decent popcorn. Panasonics are good microwaves altogether. Panasonic is one of the few companies that actually makes microwaves (along with Sharp and one or two others). The rest order them with their own specs, features and badges from those few, so most microwaves are pretty good.

    What do you want your toaster to do? Toast pre-sliced bread? Heat up pizza? Cook lemon chicken from scratch?

    There are also combination microwave/convection ovens. The countertop models are fairly low power so limited, but if you want a toaster oven that makes frozen egg rolls, it might be a good option, but won't make toast.

    People are very happy with Breville countertop ovens, though I don't know how well they toast.

    What do you want your new appliance to do?

  • halgreene
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Hi Pillog,

    GREAT QUESTIONS!

    Basically, we make a lot of microwave popcorn, so as far as the microwave functionality that would be the primary use. I have had experience with lower-power microwaves and they always fall short in that area (takes too long to pop the kernels, which means that a lot remain unpopped, and if you leave it in longer to compensate then the early poppers get burnt, and didn't you want this level of detail??).

    As far as the toaster function, we'd like to be able to evenly toast rolls and bagels both sides and broil the occasional chicken breast, but not much else (have a Viking oven for that!).

    Thanks so much!

  • a2gemini
    9 years ago

    The Advantium is supposed to make toast - but I never tried it. I use my DeLonghi toaster oven for the few times I make toast.

  • plllog
    9 years ago

    The Advantium makes terrible toast. I've had decent toast from a regular oven. Convection is bad for toast. The toast setting on the Advantium is worse. And it doesn't come in a countertop model.

    Halgreene, GREAT detail information on the popcorn. Popcorn isn't big in my house. We get the stuff in the bag, which isn't supposed to pop all the corn in it, and make that about four times a year. There's a popcorn sensor on the Advantium, which works really well, but we did fine in the old countertop Panasonic. Yes, it's not deluxe amazing popcorn, but none of us care enough to make better.

    Since you want actual toasting--and evenly on both sides!--plus the correct kind of power, etc., for your popcorn, please give up the dream of a combo unit! It's hard enough finding a toaster oven that toasts well nowadays (my old one from college did, but it died of old age). As I mentioned, people love their Brevilles I saw that Breville has a new, smaller model, that looks more the size of my old one, and has good reviews for the quality of the toast, though one says it's not as good as the bigger model. I'm going to check it out one of these days. I'll happily donate my $25 loss leader model that's so meh I don't bother much with toast if the new little one is good. It's the best of what was available at the time in small enough to go in a drawer--I already have 3 actual ovens and a warming drawer and just want toast!.

    Combo appliances are for people who eat breakfast on the fly. Pop in a couple slices of bread, nuke the coffee, out the door. Or for the ones with the drawer, rather than the bread, pop in a leftover slice of pizza.

    Since you're more discerning than that, get something that makes good toast and keep your microwave. If you really only use the MW for popcorn, you could move it out of the kitchen to free up counter space. Any room in the TV cabinet?

    This post was edited by plllog on Sun, Oct 12, 14 at 1:27

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