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Small kitchen appliances; does quality exist?
I am moving apartments soon and will likely not have as much space in my kitchen. Specifically, I am most concerned about an oven, as I doubt I'll be able to get a full sized one.
Has anyone solved this issue? Know of any good, reliable brands (ideally with global shipping)? The last janky toaster oven I ordered from Amazon could barely get a good brownie out, so I hope to make a more solid investment this time that can actually bake things, if it even exists. That said, any compact, high-quality appliance is appreciated.
Oh, absolutely there are good quality appliances out there. But if you're looking on Amazon I am not surprised you're wading through cheap junk.
I am a pretty big fan of Breville. They make high quality stuff in general, and their products usually do a better job than most other major brands. Their small ovens of all types are fantastic - they have an extremely well regarded dedicated pizza oven, but their toaster ovens are also top-notch. I just got a Fresh and Furious blender from them and it's fantastic.
Cuisinart is also a pretty quality brand, and they tend to offer a lot of products that are pretty similar to Breville at lower prices. If you are getting a food processor, they are the food processor people.
Microwaves really don't need to be high end, but I personally choose Panasonic every time. Reheating things in the microwave tends to have a bad reputation, but that's because people use high speed and it just re-cooks everything. Most microwaves do low intensity modes by turning the magnetron off and on periodically, and that's probably fine, but one of the reason why I buy Panasonic is because they have an inverter which can actually reduce the amount of power going to the inverter instead. Beyond that, they're just simply reliable; they last for decades and take a lot of abuse. I've literally only bought one in my lifetime, but most of my extended family members have them as well and I don't think anyone's bought one in the last decade unless they didn't have one already.
Unfortunately, living neither in Europe nor in America at the moment, Amazon is the most reliable way of getting anything that isn't local - and our local electronics are pretty bad. Even then, not every item ships to my country. I made this post, beyond the reasons I listed, to gather brand names that I can check between to see if they have global shipping. My search engine results came up with nothing but sponsored ads and, afterward, sponsored articles.
My immediate reaction was wanting to go to Reddit, but then I remembered I could probably get a lot more in depth (and more crucially modern) information if I just ask the community here.
Second Breville, their quality is definitely good, but they do tend to come in on the more expensive end.
Another brand that I don't mind for other kitchen items is Oxo. Not the same quality as Breville, but they are generally more budget friendly and can be a good bang for the buck.
I almost described Breville as “the Oxo of appliances”, honestly.
Have you ever had to get a Breville appliance repaired? I bought an expensive espresso machine from them which had a small plastic valve fail internally. Their repair process was a $350 flat rate charge plus shipping (so over $400) and they absolutely refused to send out parts. I eventually found an australian supplier for the $5 part which fixed the device. I then sold it and bought a machine that could be repaired.
I don't mind it so much if a thing breaks, life happens, but they simply are not setup to handle simple parts replacements in the US and it feels like they are actively trying to prevent people from fixing their things.
Just found this out as I was doing research on your brands: In Europe Breville is known as Sage due to a copyright conflict.
Brand names are trademarks, works of fiction are copyrighted.
I have also had really good experiences with Breville. I have used a breville coffee grinder for several years now and it has been wonderful. My parents also have a breville air fryer / oven thing which has essentially replaced their microwave for re-heating things. I will also agree with the Panasonic recommendation, my parents white Panasonic microwave is older than me and still going!
One other brand I would recommend to OP is Zojirushi. I have a rice cooker (NS-ZCC10) from them but I have also heard great things about their hot water heaters and their bread makers.
I have a Zojirushi rice maker and it was worth every penny. Most expensive rice maker I've ever had but the quality always comes out perfect.
I've been wanting to grab one of their bread makers, but that's for another time...
I owned a Breville toaster oven that had a bunch of functions including air fryer - loved it! Hated using the whole oven and as I was just cooking for me it did 99.9% of what I wanted.
My sentiment on microwaves is: I don't need fancy settings and I'm not sure high-end really offers that much more than a mid-range (though I'm no expert), but my next microwave definitely won't be the cheapest either.
Current microwave was basically the cheapest there was (magic chef), and while it works fine it's soooo slow. It's like the total opposite of what a microwave should be. I look forward to the day it bites the dust so I can feel justified in upgrading.
America’s test kitchen says that inverters are unnecessary, and anything over 1000W is overkill. So it’s fine to cheap out a little on microwaves IMHO.
Just want to say that I completely disagree with the Cuisinart food processor. The motor on mine was fine and strong, but the plastic the bowls are made from are absolute garbage.
My first bowl broke after about a year, so I replaced it (for $50 fucking dollars), then the second one broke in a few months.
I'm not putting them through the dishwasher or anything, hand wash only and yet they both broke similarly. Maybe it was the model, but it completely turned me off the brand.
Throwing in another recommendation for Breville/Sage and Cuisinart. We've been very happy with our small appliances from both companies. We have a Cuisinart convection toaster oven which has worked well for many years. My aunt has a Breville toaster oven that she's also very happy with.
KitchenAid in particular is good for countertop mixers. You can also get attachments for it for things like making noodles or grinding meat.
If you want a high quality countertop oven for baking then the Anova Precision Oven is the way to go. No contest.
This is a great shout. I don’t own one but I have several friends very deep in modernist cuisine style cooking and baking. They use this for nearly everything. It’s high on my list of appliances to own except I hate having appliances on the counter.
I have one, I will say that it is enormously useful but not necessarily extremely high quality in my view. I've seen countless reports of units failing and in my own unit I have some rattling in the rear fan. It should also be noted the unit is also extremely difficult to repair. I'd still get another in a heartbeat because of the insane amount of utility you can get out of it, being one of the most versatile cooking implements ever invented as far as I am concerned, but to be able to get a combi-oven to consumers at a reasonable price point some corners had to be cut.
I have one of those, it's damn near replaced the sous vide setup for stuff like pork chops. It does bread way the hell better than my crappy gas oven, even if I do the whole cast iron skillet steam thing, because the gas oven necessarily vents all of the steam out rather quickly...
Also it's a good air fryer replacement, because it's a small convection oven and that's all an air fryer is.
I've got a full analog Black&Decker toaster oven. Its small. Build quality is good. Only three dials. Works a champ!
Like this one https://www.blackanddecker.com/products/to1303sb/4-slice-toaster-oven but older
Ditto. I have an ~15 year old convection toaster oven from Black&Decker which I used to use daily in my last apartment. I don't use it often anymore since I moved to a house, and have an actual oven now. But when our previous oven broke a few years ago I hauled the B&D out of storage and it still worked great. We used it for several months (COVID supply issues) until we got our new oven, and then back into storage it went.
We've had an Oster Countertop oven going on 8 years now, still working like the day we bought it. That said, your mileage may vary depending on the 'upgrades' you get, as some have air fryers and other add-ons.
Good luck with your purchase and new home!
My wife and i do basically all our baking with this and really love it. It's been well over a year since we've used our oven.
I also really like the zojirushi rice maker we have. Pricey, but extremely high quality and makes perfect rice.
Plugging my zojirushi water percolator: still going strong after near twenty years of daily use. AND their thermos will keep that hot water hot enough to do cup ramen after about 8hrs, and warm enough for a good drink for much longer.
I would buy everything their brand if I could.
I got a Zojirushi rice maker for Christmas in 2011, for my first year of college. It makes rice nearly every day for my husband and I still. I get the rice at the Asian market for $40 for a 50 pound bag of good quality medium grain (Nishiki, usually). I throw rice in there, some lentils in a skillet with chicken broth/spices/aromatics, and they're done around the same time. Dinner for two people for under $2.
I have a Panasonic toaster oven which has run without a hitch for 5 years. It's got temperature (in 20°C increments) and timer (goes up to I think 15 minutes), as well as a bunch of presets. It will roast broccoli (the tray is like 9x9" so maybe just enough for 2 people, 3 if they don't really like broccoli), toast spices, and of course toast bread and heat tater tots and all that stuff.
It's an investment but my June oven has been one of the best appliances I've ever owned. The original one I got in 2016, if I remember correctly, had a screen glitch and June replaced it right away with zero friction. Their support has been nothing short of wonderfully surprising. It's a little bigger than a standard countertop over but it's a decent air frier, dehydrator, etc., etc., and I don't need to find space for all that stuff.
Breville's stuff, as mentioned above, solid.
The other thing of delight is a roughly 20 year old Dualit toaster which is built like a tank and will outlive me I'd imagine.
Good luck on the move, moving sucks and I hope your new pad is delightful.
I have owned two Cuisinart toaster ovens and been quite satisfied with them for toasting and baking. The only criticisms I have are that the control knobs are solid black including the pointers and the toaster on maximum toasts but not to the point of having to scrape it clean with a table knife. This is true even new, so I assume this is by design.
Pretty sure I have the same model. I should probably paint a little white dot on the handle or something.
Yeah, we just fixed the problem with a little red nail polish.
After I moved I used a mini oven from FirstAustria - I put that through a lot of crap and it pushed through! Pizzas (both frozen and self-made), breads, roasts (like 5+ hours running, etc). They have international shipping if you order directly from their website, not sure about the amazon page.
https://www.firstaustria.com/Kueche/Minibackofen/
I have the 35 liter version
My partner and I bought a Cuisinart toaster oven/air fryer combo oven and it works pretty well. We still use our regular oven for some foods. When we use the Cuisinart we usually have to lower the temps by 25° to 50°F. The heating elements are so close to the food and the space is so small that many things burn or come out incredibly dry. I do use it for lots of things though. It excels at toasting and reheating food at a lower setting (300° or less).
I haven't tried their ovens, but I have a few appliances from Ninja and they are top notch. Might be worth a look if they are available in your region.
Also endorsing Breville/Sage and Zojirushi. All tend to be more expensive but you get what you pay for.
I would not purchase anything other than Breville. I have their toaster hot air frier, coffee maker with grinder and food processor.