Black and Decker 4 Slice TO1760SS Toaster Oven In-depth Review
Overall Verdict
The Black+Decker TO1760SS is a simple, small countertop toaster oven. Despite being inexpensive, it has a sturdy build, and is made from stainless steel. It’s suitable for consumers looking for a unit to save space on the kitchen counter, serve its function, and consume less energy.
Of course, compared to our top choices, it has the common limitations of a small size, such as a lack of design and usability features and a low power output. While a power output of 1150 W combined with a quartz heating element minimizes energy consumption, it may affect foods that require a constant, high temperature.
Things We Like
- Lightweight and small size
- Easy-to-clean stainless steel exterior
- Cool-touch door handle
- Simple control knobs
- Stay-on feature
- Quartz heating elements have safeguards
- Energy-saving
Things We Don’t Like
- No convection fan
- No internal lighting
- No safety mechanism for the door
The polished stainless steel Black+Decker TO1760SS 4-Slice Toaster Oven is a lightweight and small-sized unit at an inexpensive price of 51.90$. In addition to being easy to use and clean, it saves energy thanks to its two quartz heating elements and low power output. As with all units in the same size category, its performance varies, depending on the food cooked in it.
6.8 Performance: Varied Results
The Black+Decker TO1760SS performed to various degrees throughout our four tests. It was at its best toasting bread and roasting chicken wings despite a minor inconvenience from the timer. With baking pizza and french fries however, the oven’s low power output affected the results by quite a lot.
7.1 Toast
At the beginning of our Toast test, we turned the toast knob to the Medium Toast icon/setting—around 4 minutes 10 seconds on the timer—which resulted in four slightly burnt pieces of bread. We then chose the setting between Medium and Light, which was around 3 minutes 25 seconds on the timer, but that wasn’t enough time to get an even surface color.
Finally, we figured that around 4 minutes on the timer would yield the best possible result, with a total score of 7.1/10. Since it used an analog control knob, it was quite tricky to precisely choose 4 minutes, and we had to use an external timer.
On this setting, the Black+Decker produced four pieces of toast with a brown-colored top. However, the bottom was slightly charred in some areas and lacked color in others, so we gave the toast a 6.5/10 for even surface color.
Fortunately, the toast was crispy on the outside while still soft and moist on the inside, deserving a 7.5/10 for taste. Our head chef Tuyet Pham concluded that it would go great with omelets and eggs benedict, but not so much with soups or sandwiches.
For some reason, despite the identical toasting time, the second batch had a more uneven surface color than the first. The toast had a slightly darker color and crispier texture, which is more suitable for soups, and scored a 6.8/10 for consecutive usability.
6.8 Pizza
The low power output of the Black+Decker held it back in our Pizza test, where a high temperature of 450°F was required; it scored a 6.8/10. The oven took 13 minutes to bake a 9-inch thick-crust meat pizza, which was longer than the recommended 10 minutes on the packaging, resulting in a 5/10.
Fortunately, the other aspects were quite solid, even though the oven’s internal temperature couldn’t be maintained at 450 °F. The crust had a nice golden color but it was a bit soft, so it got a 7.5/10.
The toppings had reasonably even caramelization throughout and the cheese was slightly melted—enough to score another 7.5/10. Taking the crust and toppings into account, our chef gave the pizza one last 7/10 for taste.
7.4 Roasted Chicken Wings
The weak heating of the Hamilton Beach wasn’t a problem when it came to roasting protein, so it scored a 7.4/10 for our Roasted Chicken Wings test. The oven cooked 10 middle-joint wings at 400°F in just 50 minutes, earning an 8/10 compared to other small toaster ovens.
We’d like to see a better Maillard reaction on the skin. The color wasn’t bad by all means but it was not crispy, scrapping a 6.5/10 from our foodie testers.
This did make the meat very moist though, with an internal temperature of around 204°F that met the USDA guidelines, deserving a 9/10 for doneness. It still couldn’t raise the score for taste any higher than a 7/10 from our chef.
4.4 Baked French Fries
While conducting our Baked French Fries test, the Black+Decker’s weakness in maintaining a high temperature became more apparent, and it scored a 4.4/10.
To start with, it took 30 minutes to bake 12 oz of frozen fries. This was way too long and resulted in a score of 6/10.
Then despite the long time duration, the fries had almost no color, so we could only give it a 4/10. The same can be said for the texture of the fries which was not crispy, earning it another 4/10.
Overall, the fries appeared more boiled than oven-baked, so our chef had to give it one last 4/10 for taste.
5.7 Design: Standard
Featuring a standard design of a small toaster oven, the Black+Decker TO1760SS has all the basic features, with no noticeable strengths and weaknesses. The quartz heating elements may appeal to you if you want to opt for energy-saving devices.
In the Box
- Model: TO1760SS
- Warranty: 2 years (US and Canada only)
- User Manual
- Baking Rack
- Baking Pan
- Removable Crumb Tray
The Black+Decker toaster oven is simply positioned with two foam pads inside the packaging. To the same degree, its two accessories are wrapped in a carton sheet and duct-taped to the oven. There is a simple user manual inside the box.
6.0 Exterior
The Black+Decker has a basic stainless steel casing and a back buffer to prevent the oven from getting too close to the wall (+4). Our measurements of 15.55" x 11.61" x 8.86" showed a slight difference in the length and height of the oven compared to the manufacturer’s 16.9" x 11.63" x 9.07", but that wasn’t an issue. The large cool-touch door handle provides a good grip (+2).
Control Panel
The Black+Decker has 3 control dials, one each for temperature, functions, and timer. The oven will start running when you turn the timer dial and the indicator light glows red.
Cooking Functions
- Toast
- Bake
- Broil
- Warm
The Black+Decker serves the three basic functions of a toaster oven: Toast, Bake, and Broil. If you know your way around the kitchen, Bake and Broil are all the functions you’ll need.
The Warm function maintains the oven at around 150°F, which is the common lowest temperature for most analog ovens. However, that’s a bit higher than most digital ovens’ warm function, which maintains around 100°F–120°F.
5.0 Interior
The TO1760SS has only one tray level, while most other same-sized units, including the Mueller MT-175, have at least two (+1). Moreover, it doesn’t have an interior light or a convection system: two common weaknesses of small toaster ovens.
The oven has two quartz heating elements, which may not distribute heat as evenly as four or more will do (+2). Nonetheless, they are easier to clean and more energy-efficient than the more common nichrome variety. However, if grease splashes onto the heating elements while cooking, it’ll leave permanent stains.
These heating elements use infrared light to cook, which makes the process quicker (+2). They cool down faster too, but are not as durable.
Capacity
The Black+Decker has a standard capacity for a small oven—10 liters, 4 slices of toast, a 9-inch pizza, and barely enough for a 3 lb chicken. This was one of the rare occasions where the cooking chamber’s volume that we measured matched the manufacturer’s stated capacity.
6.0 Build Quality
The Black+Decker has a sturdy build and is made from durable stainless steel (+4). The dials turn smoothly and are polished for aesthetics and easy cleaning (+2).
The oven, equipped with a tamper-resistant screw to prevent removal of the outer cover, contains no user-serviceable parts. This means you need to refer service to qualified service personnel if an issue crops up and not attempt self-repair.
Power Cord
The power cord has a good length for household use—roughly 25.59". However, the oven doesn’t have any storage space for it.
Accessories: Baking Rack
The baking rack fits perfectly with the guide, which helps prevent accidents when placing food in the oven.
Accessories: Baking Pan
The baking pan rests on the supports of the baking rack, which saves a bit of space in the cooking chamber. However, this means the pan will be shorter in length than the rack.
The pan does the job of catching any meat juices and drippings. This helps prevent any mess and the risk of fire from dirty heating elements. However, it doesn’t have a good coating and thus sustained some stubborn stains after our Whole Roasted Chicken test.
Accessories: Removable Crumb Tray
Crumbs can be quite a hassle to clean up, but the removable crumb tray makes it easier to remove them from the oven’s floor. Nonetheless, be careful, as some crumbs may still fall to the bottom of the oven as you take the tray out of the oven.
5.5 Usability: Limited Features
Due to its small size, the Black+Decker has some obvious limitations when it comes to features of usability, especially compared to our top choices. For example, it has no non-stick coating to help with cleaning, and the control panel has a lot of room for errors. Moreover, its advertised advanced technologies are more misses than hits.
6.0 User Control
There are a few things to keep in mind when using Black+Decker’s three simple control knobs (+6). For the timer knob, always rotate past 10 minutes and then rotate back to the desired time when setting it to less than 10 minutes.
It’s also tricky to accurately adjust time and temperature. Normally, you can use an oven thermometer and an external timer to get around this. However, if you check the pointer, you'll find that the temperature knob of this unit is off by around 50°F. Evidently, when we set the temperature to 450°F for our pizza test, the oven heated up to only around 405°F.
5.0 Ease of Use
The manufacturer claims the Black+Decker has the EvenToast Technology™ which toasts bread 30% more evenly. However, we didn’t notice an increase in evenness in our Toast test. Their Natural Convection technology certainly didn’t change the fact that this unit doesn’t have the convection fan that comes with several advantages.
With three control knobs, it’s very simple to readjust cooking settings (+2). The cooking cycle finishes when the timer reaches O (off). When this happens, the oven will ding once and shut off (+1). As it has no digital display, you can freely leave this oven plugged in without worrying about power consumption (+1).
It’s easy to keep the door partially open to let food cool down; however, be vigilant as the door can slide all the way down on the rare occasions when the oven is tilted (+2). Opening the door doesn’t turn off the oven, unlike some other models (-1).
6.0 Cleanability
While the interior of the Black+Decker didn’t have a non-stick coating like the Breville Mini Smart Oven, it was easy to clean because there were no tricky nooks and crannies (+7). The removable crumb tray made it easy to clean up the crumbs, though we still had to tilt the oven to remove the last of them (+2).
During our Whole Roasted Chicken test, the chicken touched the upper heating element’s guard and left some permanent discoloration there, even after we cleaned up the burnt bits (-1). There were also some permanent stains on the cooking chamber’s ceiling.