The KitchenAid Countertop Oven KCO1005 is an elegantly styled, efficient cooking appliance. This unit has an all-metal black cabinet, contrasted with a beautiful brushed stainless steel front panel.

More oven than toaster, this model is rather large, measuring approximately 20 inches wide, 15.5 inches deep and 10.5 inches tall at its widest points. The interior can accommodate baking pans as large as 12 inches wide, 10 inches deep and 3.5 inches tall. It comes with a unique reversible "Wave-Rack" wave-design oven rack, with a unique ripple pattern that promotes airflow around the foods being cooked. You also get a sturdy shallow baking pan with broil rack.

This model has four large cooking elements (two at the top and two at the bottom), which work together to provide a generous amount of heat. The heat is concentrated within the oven cavity so foods cook efficiently. We achieved excellent results cooking a small meat loaf and several medium-sized potatoes, which fit side by side on the oven rack. In a separate test, we also browned some skinless chicken breasts. In both tests, the foods were tender on the inside with a pleasant crispy exterior. The KCO1005 is also roomy enough to roast a whole chicken. The supplied heavy-gauge steel baking pan is ideal for most cooking tasks and deep enough to act as a casserole dish.

We love the smooth, easy-turn dial controls on this model, which click into position at each of the different settings. The three oversize knobs have easy-to-read markings to adjust the function ("Bake", "Broil", "Toast" or "Warm"), temperature (200-450 degrees Fahrenheit, plus "Warm" and "Broil" settings) and time (up to 30 minutes, with settings for light, medium or dark toasting). The 30-minute timer emits a soft ticking sound as it counts down and then shuts the oven off when the set time has elapsed. Since 30 minutes is not always sufficient to complete the cooking task, you will need to monitor the cooking progress and reset the timer if necessary to continue cooking.

When toasting, you can fit up to six slices of bread on the rack. It takes about 5-6 minutes to achieve a medium brown toast color when working with a cold oven; subsequent batches are much quicker since the oven is already preheated. For best results, we find that preheating the oven for about 5 minutes produces faster, more even browning. Also, the rack position is important in determining the evenness of browning. A higher rack position can be used to achieve faster browning on the top, which is excellent for bagels and muffins.

The KitchenAid KCO1005 does a great job with basic cooking tasks, and the variety of rack positions lets you put the food in the best proximity for cooking. This model also excels at preparing convenience foods, such as French fries, refrigerated dinner rolls and sliced frozen pizza. Additional features include a large stay-cool stainless steel oven door handle, front-access slide-out crumb drawer, indicator light and full-view tempered glass door.


Pros: Spacious interior, 30-minute oven timer with auto-shut-off, front-access crumb tray, brushed stainless-steel and designer color cabinet
Cons: Metal and glass surfaces can get hot during extended use, 30-minute timer must be reset during longer cooking tasks

Warranty
1 year hassle-free