Easy to operate and makes excellent toast
My Oster toaster oven finally broke down after about 3 years. I like a basic toaster oven with temperature dials and not a ton of electronics. I was planning on getting another cheap sub $100 toaster oven but since I do almost all my baking/toasting/reheating using one, I decided since I’ve owned several Zojirushi products and have been happy with them, I’d give their toaster oven a try. It’s not tiny, but it’s not huge either, so there’s plenty of room to feed singles or a small family. I like the basic functionality; turn it on and use the dial to select Toast/Bake/Broil etc., hit OK, then use the dial to select temperature and cook time, press OK again and you’re done. When it’s finished cooking, it beeps and if whatever you’re cooking needs more time, just use the dial to extend the cook time. It really excels at toast once you find the level of brownness you want (settings range from 1 to 5). Great at reheating food (especially fried food), roasting vegetables, broiling burgers and steaks, baking chicken and fish, and heating frozen pizzas. Pretty much does everything you need a toaster oven to do. Highly recommended.

A Toast to Perfect Toast
After having spent many hours researching toasting ovens – far more than I care to admit, actually – I stumbled upon this small miracle appliance.Zojirushi (Zojirushi.com) is a Japanese company highly regarded for its quality bread makers, rice makers, and other appliances. During the past few weeks since I purchased a Micom Toaster Oven, I have baked rolls and cookies, toasted English muffins, bagels, and bread, baked a small ham, and reheated various foods with great success. (I admit, the cookies were a teeny-tiny bit more browned on the bottom than I prefer, but maybe that’s just me.)I purchased this device primarily for use as a toaster, and in this respect it truly excels. As with almost all toaster ovens, when initially turned on it must heat up in order to function. If more bread is placed into the toaster oven after the oven is heated, the oven automatically reduces the toasting time in a cycle. While operating, the remaining time in each toasting cycle appears on a bright blue led screen, allowing one to plan accordingly. I appreciate that it may not work as quickly as some other toasting devices. In my experience, this is an acceptable compromise. Being able to read the “count-down” timer on the oven display allows me to plan accordingly.The oven has an internal memory and stores previously used settings for future use; no need to keep guessing what setting you should use every time you turn it on.I feel it’s important to emphasize that unlike many other toaster ovens, the trays on which one places bread are made of expanded metal. (Other manufacturers tend to use wires trays.) The use of expanded metal allows for reasonably even browning on both the top and bottom of sliced bread. In my experience with toaster ovens, unless one flips bread over, it typically is much darker on the top than the bottom. While the Micom won’t toast both sides of your bread equally well, (I would argue that no toaster can.) it does a great job with toasting the bottom of a slice of bread while not overly toasting the top. (I guess you could buy a model that requires you to take the bread out and manually turn it over half way through each cycle, but where’s the fun in that?)Of course, all bread is not alike. Typically, I toast store-bought sandwich bread that is consistent in slice thickness, density, etc. Commercial bakeries also add sugar to their dough as a browning agent. These (and other factors) affect toasting outcomes. When I toasted some bread I baked at home, it required more time to toast than store-bought bread. Again, sugar content, slice thickness and other factors, e.g., moisture content, density etc. must be taken into consideration. But this is true regardless of what toasting appliances we use.If an item requires additional toasting/baking/reheating time, adding more minutes immediately following the “count-down” is easy – just turn the knob to add time and push the start button. (If no action is taken the oven completely turns off after about 5 minutes.)The oven interior is not particularly tall; I wouldn’t recommend roasting a chicken in it. But for foods that aren’t too high, it’s great. There are eight evenly spaced heating elements – four on the top and four on the bottom to ensure even heating.As far as other uses are concerned, while I haven’t actually tried, I don’t imagine that the broil setting in this toaster oven (or any other toaster oven, for that matter) will generate sufficient heat to reasonably sear a rib-eye steak or burger. (Let’s temper our expectations, shall we?) But if you want to brown the cheese on top of a tuna melt, I’m confident it will offer satisfactory outcomes.Another reviewer mentioned this oven should be better known. I agree. It’s surprising (and actually kind of disappointing) to research toaster ovens and come across so little information about this particular model.I had considered purchasing a Panasonic Flash Express toaster oven, but in the end, I purchased the Zojirushi Micom. In my research I read that although the Panasonic Flash Express toasts quickly and evenly (with no pre-heat required) its controls are awkward, and aside from its toasting utility, the Panasonic does not offer the same degree of heat control and distribution as a Micom. So, to my way of thinking, I ended up with a slightly more costly device with a wee bit larger footprint whose usefulness is considerably greater than that of the Flash Express.Thank you for reading. I hope that my insights will be of use to you.

This is the best toaster oven I ever used. Pros: Intelligent heating, hardware quality, design. Cons: power cord too short.

Very heavy.Complicated to use.Takes too long.Would prefer clear window to look inside…and,not a mirror.Stylish.Nice lit up panel.