Cuisinart TOB-40N vs COMFEE CFO-BB101 Toaster Oven Side-by-Side Comparison
Cuisinart TOB-40N vs COMFEE CFO-BB101 Toaster Oven. A comparison between two toaster ovens with simple designs, one medium-sized and the other small.
Specifications
Design
The Cuisinart TOB-40N has a simple design but with some nice attention to detail. To accommodate its spacious interior, the oven uses 1800 W.
While being compact, the Comfee CFO-BB101 has a good capacity compared to the similar-sized Hamilton Beach 31401. Moreover, it still has all the standard exterior features, plus a neat detachable crumb tray. However, it’s very lacking in terms of the interior even though it uses quartz heating elements. Its overall construction also leaves a lot to be desired.
Usability Comparison
The Cuisinart TOB-40N doesn’t offer much in terms of ease of use. While the control panel is simple, not having a timer means you’ll need an external timer when using this oven. The oven posed no difficulties in cleaning but nothing to help either.
The Comfee CFO-BB101 doesn’t have anything strong going for it in terms of usability. The simple control has some drawbacks and doesn’t provide much convenience. However, a detachable crumb tray makes it easier to clean the oven, especially if the oven is of this size.
Performance Test
The Cuisinart TOB-40N performed well in making toast and whole roasted chicken despite not having a convection system. However, the lack of convection resulted in uneven surface colors on our test dishes.
Even though the oven runs on 1800 W, it wasn’t able to produce a good result in baking french fries. This made the oven pale in comparison to our top picks.
The Comfee CFO-BB101 has only two heating elements, and this often resulted in uneven coloring on our test dishes. Our speculation was that the low power output hinders the oven’s performance in test dishes that require a high temperature (> 400°F), including pizza and fries. One solution could be to decrease the amount of food compared to what we used for our test amount.
In addition, it was hard to input an exact temperature and time due to the limited settings on the control knob, especially for making toast. A small unit that doesn’t have temperature and control problems is the Breville BOV450XL.
Overall Scores
Pros & Cons
- Spacious and non-stick interior
- Auto-slide rack
- Easy-to-clean stainless steel exterior
- Slide-out crumb tray
- Cool-touch door handle
- Stay-on feature
- High power output
- Extra-small size
- Energy-saving
- Quartz heating elements have safeguards
- Cool-touch door handle
- Stay-on feature
- Detachable crumb tray
- No convection fan
- No internal lighting
- No safety mechanism for the door
- No convection fan
- No internal lighting
- No safety mechanism for the door
Conclusion
The Cuisinart TOB-40N Custom Classic Toaster Oven Broiler and COMFEE CFO-BB101 Compact Toaster Oven both have simple designs. The main differences between them are their sizes, prices, and most importantly, overall scores.
Thanks to its larger cooking chamber and higher power output, the Cuisinart had higher scores in all of our performance tests. In addition, with both ovens not having a convection system, the Cuisinart’s nichrome heating elements helped with the color evenness in foods as opposed to the Comfee’s quartz ones.
The fact that the Comfee is the smallest and cheapest unit among our tested ovens can’t help with its low scores due to a lack of design and usability features. The oven has a detachable crumb tray that is quite handy in cleaning, but nothing else. Despite both having analog control, the Cuisinart’s dials were more precise based on our interactions with the two.
In short, the Cuisinart TOB-40N is for you if you want an inexpensive medium-sized unit with a big capacity. Meanwhile, the Comfee CFO-BB101 is suitable for someone who just wants a unit that serves its functions, doesn’t use a lot of energy, and saves space on the kitchen counter.
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.
