Cuisinart TOA-60 Review
Pros: Multiple cooking functions
Cons: Lackluster cooking performance, poor temperature accuracy, hard to use and clean
Manufacturer: Cuisinart
Our Verdict
Compare to Similar Products
 This Product
Cuisinart TOA-60 | |||||
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| Awards |  | |  | ||
| Price | $200 List | $120 List $119.99 at Amazon | $120 List $89.99 at Amazon | $230 List $199.90 at Amazon | $70 List |
Overall Score  |
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| Star Rating | |||||
| Pros | Multiple cooking functions | Fantastic cooking performance, easy to clean, easy to use, great temperature accuracy, multiple cooking functions | Great cooking performance, user friendly, excellent temperature accuracy | Relatively easy to use and clean, good air cooking performance, toaster oven functionality, flips up for easy storage | Good cooking performance, inexpensive |
| Cons | Lackluster cooking performance, poor temperature accuracy, hard to use and clean | On the expensive side | Not the easiest to clean | Expensive | Very small capacity |
| Bottom Line | A promising design that doesn't really deliver on the hopes of great, air fried food | Exceptional frying performance and an easy to clean design make this one of the best options on the market | This high performing, four quart model offers the most consistent quality of the bunch | Ideal for those considering adding both a toaster oven and air fryer to their kitchen collection | A fairly good appliance that is held back by a relatively small capacity |
| Rating Categories | Cuisinart TOA-60 | Instant Vortex Plus | Ninja 1550 Watt | Ninja Foodi Digital... | Dash Compact |
| Cooking Performance (35%) | |||||
| User Friendliness (25%) | |||||
| Ease Of Cleaning (20%) | |||||
| Temperature Accuracy (20%) | |||||
| Specs | Cuisinart TOA-60 | Instant Vortex Plus | Ninja 1550 Watt | Ninja Foodi Digital... | Dash Compact |
| Outside Dimensions | 14" x 15.8" x 14" | 11.5" x 13.25" x 12.75" | 13.6" x 11" x 13.3" | 19.7" x 7.6" x 15" | 10.2" x 8.1" x 11.4" |
| Capacity | 1.8 qt | 6 qt | 4 qt | 4 qt | 2 qt |
| Accessories | Air fry basket, baking tray, oven rack | None | Multi-layer rack for dehydrating | Wire rack, air fry basket, sheet pan | None |
| Power Consumption | 1800W | 1700W | 1550W | 1800W | 1000W |
Our Analysis and Test Results
Performance Comparison
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.
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.
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.
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