REASONS TO BUY
Multiple cooking functions
REASONS TO AVOID
Lackluster cooking performance
Poor temperature accuracy
Hard to use and clean
Cuisinart AirFryer Toaster Oven Review
A promising design that doesn't really deliver on the hopes of great, air fried food
Credit: Cuisinart
RELATED: Best Air Fryers of 2024
Our Verdict
The Cuisinart AirFryer Toaster Oven attempts to be both a toaster oven and an air fryer; however, we found that it largely misses the mark. While the food it prepped in our tests wasn't terrible, it was a noticeable step below the rest of the fleet. It also proved to be one of the most challenging models to use and clean, and displayed the worst temperature accuracy of the bunch. Therefore, we would only suggest the TOA-60 if you're primarily looking for a top-ranked toaster oven but want the option to maybe occasionally do some air frying. If you want a toaster oven that can truly air fry, our top recommendation is the Breville Smart Oven Air, though it does cost quite a bit more.
Our Analysis and Test Results
The multi-function Cuisinart TOA-60 works well as a toaster oven, but we found its air frying function to be lacking.
Performance Comparison
The TOA-60 is marketed as both a toaster oven and air fryer but fails to hit the mark as either.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
Cooking Performance
During our testing, the Cuisinart's air-fried foods tasted okay but failed to highlight the actual air frying process. It yielded the same or similar results one might get from simply placing their food in a conventional oven. Onion rings ended up being the TOA-60's strong suit, as they came out with a nice crisp. However, that crisp came at the price of a dry inside and a slightly burnt taste. Like all the models we tested, the TOA-60 struggled in getting sweet potato fries truly crispy. They came out tasting more like sweet potato strips than sweet potato fries.
The TOA-60 did fairly well in all of our cooking tests, but certainly was not a top performer.
Credit: Michelle Powell
Doughnuts, chicken breast, and tater tots all proved to be a bit challenging for the TOA-60's air fry function. The doughnuts came out quite burned, the chicken breast was overly chewy, and the tater tots were unevenly cooked. Needless to say, the TOA-60 simply does not offer an even cooking experience.
User Friendliness
The TOA-60 offers our least favorite user experience of all the air fryers we tested. Our complaints start with the interface. Four dials and no digital readout means you have to trust that the dials are accurate; given the play in said dials, we were never inspired to such confidence. Then there is the frying basket itself. It has to be set inside of a baking tray but has no way to attach to the tray; this makes shaking around foods mid-cook (a requirement for many recipes) quite difficult. You also need to put the rack quite high in the oven when using the air fry function, which when combined with the basket/tray combo, leaves very little room for maneuvering.
The fact that the air frying tray must nest inside a baking tray makes access quite difficult.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
Ease of Cleaning
The TOA-60's less-than-ideal air frying design also made it the most difficult to clean. First off, the fact that you need to nestle a frying basket into a baking tray means the TOA-60 leaves you with two things to clean. That problem is exacerbated by the fact that the baking tray stubbornly hangs onto grease and that the texture of the fry basket rips up your sponge when you scrub it.
The TOA-60's knobs feel a bit flimsy; in our testing, they also proved inaccurate.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
Temperature Accuracy
Unfortunately, the negative experience continues with temperature accuracy. The TOA-60 was also the worst of the bunch in our temperature accuracy tests. It ran about 25 ̊ hotter than the set temperature across the board, but when we set it to 400˚, the oven temperature reached a whopping 485˚.
Value
Given the TOA-60's relatively poor performance in all of our air frying tests, we think it is quite a poor value for anyone looking to do some air frying. Even its additional abilities as a toaster oven can't really make up for its lack of air frying performance.
Conclusion
Though the Cuisinart TOA-60's suite of cooking features is enticing, its air frying function is a clear step below that of all the dedicated air fryers we tested. It even lags far behind other multi-function air fryers like the Breville Smart Oven Air and the Ninja Foodi.
—
Hayley Thomas, Max Mutter, and Michelle Powell
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