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Cuisinart TOA-60 Review

A promising design that doesn't really deliver on the hopes of great, air fried food
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Price:   $200 List | $199 at Amazon
Pros:  Multiple cooking functions
Cons:  Lackluster cooking performance, poor temperature accuracy, hard to use and clean
Manufacturer:   Cuisinart
By Max Mutter and Michelle Powell  ⋅  Jul 16, 2019
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46
OVERALL
SCORE

RANKED
#10 of 10
  • Cooking Performance - 35% 5
  • User Friendliness - 25% 5
  • Ease of Cleaning - 20% 6
  • Temperature Accuracy - 20% 2

Our Verdict

The Cuisinart TOA-60 attempts to be both a toaster oven and an air fryer, but we found that it largely misses the mark of the latter. While the food it prepped in our tests wasn't terrible, it was a noticeable step below the rest of the field. It also proved to be one of the most difficult 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 mostly looking for a 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 would be the Breville Smart OVen Air, though it does cost quite a bit more.

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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 Cuisinart TOA-60 consistently fell to the back of the pack in all of our tests, earning it the lowest overall score.

Cooking Performance


In general, we would say the Cuisinart TOA-60's air-fried foods taste ok, but kind of fail to highlight the actual air frying process. By this we mean the food doesn't really differentiate itself in any way from the food prepared in a conventional oven on a normal setting.


Onion rings ended up being the TOA-60's strong suit, as they came out with a nice crisp. However, they still tasted a bit burnt and dry on the inside when compared to the offerings of other models.

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.
The TOA-60 did fairly well in all of our cooking tests, but certainly was not a top performer.

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 very unevenly cooked.

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 just trust that the dials are accurate, and 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.
The fact that the air frying tray must nest inside a baking tray makes access quite difficult.

Ease of Cleaning


The TOA-60's less-than-ideal air frying design also made it our least favorite of the bunch 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 2 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 tends to act like a cheese grater when you scrub it with a sponge.

The TOA-60's knobs feel a bit flimsy and inaccurate.
The TOA-60's knobs feel a bit flimsy and inaccurate.

Temperature Accuracy


The TOA-60 was also the worst of the bunch in our temperature accuracy tests. In general it ran about 25 ̊ hotter than the set temperature, 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, and even lags far behind other multi-function air fryers like the Breville Smart Oven Air and the Ninja Foodi.

— Max Mutter and Michelle Powell