Waring WTO150 4-Slice Toaster Oven with Built-In 2-Slice Toaster

Looks good. Worked ok for the first 6 months then the toaster side wouldn't stay down to toast no matter what the darkness setting. Started using the oven to toast our bread. After about 2 months, the bottom element stopped working and it would only toast on one side. I then started putting the bread into the toaster again and just holding the lever down until it was done. About two weeks of this nonsense and then only the inner toaster element would turn on so again, the bread was only toasted on one side. Waring was no help. So as an electrical engineer I did what I was born to do: I took it apart. 48,172 screws later . . . I found that the toaster carriage stays down because of an electromagnet that apparently was no longer being energized. Tracing that and the no-longer-working elements in the oven and toaster back to the only 2" x 2" circuit board in the whole thing, I found that R1 and Q2, (a resistor and transistor) were burnt on the board. Now at this point, I could probably figure out the values of those two components, order a couple replacement components online, de-solder the old ones, solder in the new ones, replace the 48,172 screws and the damn thing would probably work . . . for a while. The question is, why did it burn out after 6 months in the first place? That I can't answer and quite frankly my time is worth more than $108. So I'll keep the interesting parts and screws to use on other projects, throw this POS away, and buy a different toaster oven. By the way, I'd recommend you buy a different one too.

The pop-up toaster doesn't toast as evenly as I would like but it's better than the past two pop-up toasters I've had. What is a pain, however, is that for toasting a bagel there's a button that you press, but there's no indication whether it is or isn't on bagel mode. It's trial and error. As to the rest of the appliance, I've baked in it and broiled in it, and I'm very happy with the results. As there are only two of us, I hated having to heat up the entire kitchen with a hot oven for two large baked potatoes, for instance, or the broiler for just two steaks. Just be careful - it's small so the heat is more confined than in a regular oven and the first time I made baked potatoes I set it for 400 degrees and set the time for 30 minutes (the longest time available). Then, without even sticking a fork in the potatoes, I just automatically set the timer for another 30 minutes. After all, I bake potatoes in a regular oven at 400 degree for one hour, so... Anyway, I had two rocks! The next time, I stuck a fork the potatoes before setting the timer a second time. I set it for another 10 minutes and the potatoes were perfect.

The toaster is great in concept. However has been 14 months since I purchased the item and the toaster side lever failed to pop the toast, leaving the toaster going for long after the toast was done. We were alerted to this issue by the house filling with smoke. The toaster had been place underneath some cabinets, which were mildly charred, and the entire first floor was filled smoke. This was the second time it failed in this manner, the first time it had been supervised however and no one seemed to notice. Now we need to throw away a 100 dollar toaster a year into its use as it can no longer be trusted do not buy.

I'd rate this a 5 for toasting and baking but only a two on the broiling. The oven I find works great, I have baked a meatloaf in an average sized loaf pan, cinnamon rolls in a round glass pan and sheperd's pie in a loaf pan and all cooked fine and didn't take much longer than a conventional oven (and certainly saves on electricity!). It toasts fine in the oven section as well as in the toaster section, better than my previous toaster oven where I had to turn the bread over half way through.But the broiler just does not get the food hot enough. I broiled a ham steak and found the ham barely warm, then next time tried broiling it with the door closed (the instructions say to leave the door slightly open when broiling) and it was a bit better, edible but not hot. It also doesn't broil a grilled cheese sandwhich as well as my previous toaster oven did. The heating elements go around the top and bottom outer (inside) edges of the oven so the crust on the bread got crunchy but the middle didn't crisp up at all.So if you are looking for a good toaster oven for toasting and baking this will fit the bill for sure. You can also toast 6 pieces of bread at one time using the slice side toaster and 4 slices in the toaster oven.UPDATE 3 months later - the side toaster lever will not stay down when pushed down to start the toaster so we cannot use this part of the toaster oven any more. I am super bummed, as even though the rest of the toaster oven works I cannot toast 6 pieces of bread any more or use the toaster and oven sections at the same time. I have to bring down my rating to 2 star as durability is obviously poor.

Good - but the vertical toaster should have an cancel button instead of having to turn the 'brownness' potentiometer to the off position to pop your toast if your desired level of doneness has been achieved before automatic pop.