The Problem

It is quite inconvenient to preheat the oven in my stove for 10 minutes to make sure it reaches the proper temperature. It is also too large of an oven for my average reheating or cooking tasks. I had to open the door to see if the food being cooked/reheated is ready as my stove has no glass or light inside. And I had to time the cooking process using a watch and try not to forget.

The Solution

Because I didn’t want to waste time, energy and effort and didn’t want to forget that I have something in the oven, I decided to get a toaster oven. I didn't want to spend much but I also didn’t want to make do with poor styling, design or craftsmanship.

As a result of my research, I got Sanyo SK-VF7S digital convection oven with stainless steel finish. Fortunately, “digital” doesn’t mean that the oven heats the food up with a constant high-velocity stream of digits, but rather that it has digital controls for temperature and time.

About the Oven

You can see the pictures of the oven that I took at

http://www.review-shop.com/SanyoSKVF7S/SanyoSKFV7S_1.html

The oven looks nice and doesn’t take much space (15.7x9x12.5 inches) - both positive attributes for my not-so large kitchen. It fits up to 4 slices of toast or a 10-inch pizza. It is designed to, quickly cook, bake, reheat and toast. Sounds good to me.

The oven has full-width bottom and top quartz heaters, twin convection inlets for even heating, 5 temperature-control settings (180F, 250F, 320F, 400F and 470F), a digital 40-minute timer and an adjustable toast-shade control combined with 1, 2 or 3-4 slice toast selection buttons.

The oven’s rack slides outward when the door is opened, making it easier to let food cool down before serving it without having to touch it. The rack is removable and the oven comes with a non-stick oven tray and a removable crumb tray.

The rack and the tray can be used together (rack on top of the aluminum foil-lined tray) or separately (either the rack or tray). For example, the toasting is done with bread on the rack.

Is Digital Good?

The digital part of this oven is its controls. The cooking time, for example, is set by rotating the timer knob, which is not a mechanical timer, but rather an electronic control that stays in the position selected and indicates time remaining by the lights around it.

The temperature setting is also electronic. The upside is its ease of use - hit the “Temperature Control” button until the LED below the temperature you want illuminates. The downside is the fact that there is no in-between temperature selection. You have to use the temperature closest to the one you need, selecting among the 5 available presets. I don’t find this to be a problem, however.

For toasting, you select the toast shade turning the knob in the upper portion of the control panel and then push the appropriate button (1, 2 or 3-4 Slice). The light beside the selected mode/button eliminates. If the bread is frozen, you push the button twice instead of once and an additional light illuminates.

The toast shade knob has several fixed positions.

The oven is very easy to use, even without reading the manual. I normally use it for cooking and reheating as I have a good toaster (Cuisinart CPT-65) already and like the way it works.

Results

I found the oven easy to use, aside from the fact that you have to have at least 4 inches of space behind the oven, above it and from the sides. The controls are easy to use and if you make a mistake (selected the wrong mode or temperature), you can correct it within 20 seconds or cancel the operation at any time and re-select the mode/temperature.

The foods were uniformly and well-cooked and the preheating time decreased (Sanyo recommends preheating for baking to be 5 minutes).

The oven beeps after the cooking is complete.

The timer is easy to use and I like the pre-set temperature controls. The crumb tray is easy to clean and the exterior of the oven looks nice. The assembly quality is, overall, very good, aside from the fact that the door seems very slightly crooked (right part is about 1 millimeter lower than the left part).

It is barely noticeable and does not impact the oven's operation at all.

Durability

As of 6/2012, after 8 years of use (including a couple of moves), the oven still looks and works perfectly.

Bottom Line

If you want to save time, energy and nerve cells, the Sanyo SK-VF7S digital convection oven is a good choice. It is inexpensive, yet easy to use and seems to be of the good quality. I highly recommend it.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 40