Black+Decker Convection (CTO6335S) vs Hamilton Beach Easy Reach 4 Slices Toaster Oven Side-by-Side Comparison
Black+Decker Convection (CTO6335S) vs Hamilton Beach Easy Reach 4 Slices Toaster Oven. What a large model can offer and the common limitations of a small one.
Specifications
Design
The Black+Decker CTO6335S has a sturdy construction. Standouts for us were the baking pan plus broiling rack combo and the quartz heating elements.
It’s understandable that an oven designed to be this simple would not have additional features. However, the Hamilton Beach 31344DA has some shortcomings in terms of capacity and cleaning.
Usability Comparison
The Black+Decker CTO6335S has an easy-to-use control panel. However, it doesn’t have any features that encompass convenience. Even the automatic preheat feature isn’t very useful. In addition, its door and buttons are a bit dodgy.
The Hamilton Beach 31344DA is intended to be simple and therefore doesn’t offer much when it comes to user control, ease of use, and cleanability. However, cleaning was quite an issue due to the design limitations.
Performance Test
The Black+Decker CTO6335S performed quite well in most of our test dishes except for the baked french fries. We speculated that 1500 W wasn’t able to heat the elements fast enough to keep up with the oven’s large capacity.
The Hamilton Beach 31344DA delivered an adequate cooking performance for a small toaster oven—not as high as the Breville BOV450XL. It was able to do the job of roasting a whole chicken, even though the cooking chamber didn’t have enough space. However, our Baked French Fries test exposed the oven’s weakness of low power output.
Overall Scores
Pros & Cons
- Large capacity
- Highly affordable
- Easy-to-clean stainless steel exterior
- High-contrast digital display
- Sturdy exterior
- Cool-touch door handle
- Convenient slide-out crumb tray
- Lightweight and small size
- Durable alloy steel casing
- Cool-touch door handle
- Simple control knobs
- Stay-on feature
- Quartz heating elements with safeguards
- Energy-saving
- Convection fan isn’t all-applicable
- No internal lighting
- Buttons not reliably responsive
- No convection fan
- No internal lighting
- No safety mechanism for the door
Conclusion
The comparison between the Black+Decker Convection Toaster Oven (CTO6335S) and the Hamilton Beach Easy Reach 4 Slices Toaster Oven (31344DA) showcases what a large model can offer and the common limitations of a small one. Not only does the Black+Decker have higher scores in every aspect, it also costs only twice as much as the Hamilton when the typical large toaster oven costs about four times higher.
The Black+Decker is easier to control thanks to its LCD and 13 control buttons for more precise adjustments of timer and temperature. Meanwhile, the Hamilton is simply an analog toaster oven with two control knobs.
The Black+Decker has more heating elements, a higher power output, and a convection system. As a result, it scored higher than the Hamilton in all the performance tests, including toasting bread, baking pizza, roasting whole chicken, and baking fries.
Behind the Comparison
Alan Nguyen is a writer and product reviewer at HealthyKitchen101. His major in English language teaching taught him to present concise information. In addition to his cooking hobby, he values the practical aspects of household appliances.
Tuyet Pham is an award-winning Saigonese chef passionate about delicious and healthful foods. At HealthyKitchen101, she develops recipes and collaborates with our Research, Testing, and Review lab to evaluate the performance of cooking appliances. Her assessments add a strong authoritative voice to our product scoring process.
Lap is Head of the Research, Testing, and Review Team (RTR Team) at HealthyKitchen101.com, where he directs and supervises the testing of kitchen gadgets and appliances.
