I am wanting to buy myself a bench top oven.Am I right in thinking that it will save me power roasting this way instead of using my big oven?I am wanting to roast, bake, grill. Does any member have one of the later models to recommend to me?I would appreciate any ideas or tips on using them thanks.

I have had a bench top oven for ages. We got it when there was just the two of us and I use it all the time. I'm sure it saves power. I do roasts, casseroles, and baking in it. Love it.

My daughter in law has one and loves it. She has the Breville Smart Oven Pro BOV845BSS, Stainless Steel. It is on special at Farmers for $350 instead of $550. It bakes, grills, fan bakes, slow cooks and has many other features it also is one of the few models that has an interior light. So suggest you check this model out. Her baking is always fabulous. Hope this helps.

Same as Marion. My son has one (Breville Smart Oven Pro BOV845. The BSS, CRN, etc, stands for the type of exterior finish - either stainless steel, red, etc)
They got it from Briscoes, which is currently selling them for $330 [www.briscoes.co.nz]
They've had their one for just over a year and love it. They pretty much never use their normal oven anymore.

They did have a fault develop in it though, after about four months - the fan stopped working properly. They took it back and received excellent service from Briscoes - the store happily took it back and immediately handed them a brand new one off the shelf.

I have had the 'less features' Breville for years and love it. It does all the normal things like roasting and fan baking, grilling, plus it rotisseries chickens, etc. It doesn't slow cook. They are currently selling for around $150 dollars, I think. They do save on power, and it's the wattage that determines how much power they use. Mine is 1300 - 1500 watts, depending which elements are being used. I can't find how many watts my freestanding F&P range uses, but I found this useful page that gives the average running cost of using various household appliances.

[northpower.com]

Edited to say I have mine sitting on my front-loading washing machine in the laundry room which not only saves space in the kitchen, it means my kitchen doesn't get hot when baking/roasting, etc.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/2016 11:25PM by Lorna.

Thank you everyone the Breville Smart Oven Pro seems to get the thumbs up as I had already been looking online at that model as well as a couple of others.A big thank you Lorna for the information from the Northover Power site I was very interested in this and it has made me wonder if I should really buy a lower wattage oven or just go with Marion and J1 as they have good knowledge of this appliance. I shall sleep on it.Thanks again.

One of the power savings with a benchtop oven is the space to heat up is way less. The benchtop oven reaches set temperature within a minute or so, whereas my normal oven takes 15-18 minutes, so there's a power saving there. Also, some things cook faster than they would in a normal oven.

However, if you think you might have to buy, for instance, a new roasting pan to fit, plus other dishes, and also if you factor in the cost of the benchtop oven, it'll be awhile before you recoup your power savings.

If you do a lot of baking, I don't know if you'd be happy with the benchtop oven. You might need to check whether your muffin pans fit, for instance. If you're making more than one tray of biscuits at a time, using the normal oven would probably be more convenient.

All good information thanks JI.

My Breville came with a shallow roasting pan which is OK for roasting and putting under rotisserie meat. I have roasted size 16 chickens and a 2kg pork leg roast. It also came with a pizza pan, one with holes in the bottom, plus 2 baking trays. I can also fit many of my existing casserole dishes, cake pans etc into the oven. I have a 12 hole large silicone muffin pan that I just cut in half and one half fits beautifully. I believe my oven is a little smaller than the upmarket Breville the others are talking about. Living on my own, it's ideal for me as I usually halve any baking recipes anyway, for the simple reason I cannot, and do not want to, eat as much cake and biscuits as a full recipe makes.

I find it really handy when I want to do something like a slow-roast leg of pork. I will do the long slow cook at low temperature in the Breville and do the roast veges, which need a much higher temperature so shorter cooking time, in the big oven.

I have recently written elsewhere about the 2 ingredient pizza that was discussed a week or so ago, and this was baked, with delicious results, in my Breville.