Hamilton Beach Easy Reach 4 Slices vs Oster 6 Slice Convection Oven Side-by-Side Comparison

• Model: 31344DA
• Warranty: US - 1 year; Canada - 5 years
• User Manual
• Baking Rack
• Baking Pan
• Removable Crumb Tray

The Hamilton toaster oven, along with its accessories and a simple user manual, came in a basic cardboard box. The oven is secured with two foam pads and the accessories are duct-taped to it.

• Model: TSSTTVMNDG-SHP-2
• Warranty: 1-year limited (US and Canada only)
• User Manual
• Baking Rack
• Baking Pan
• Rack Clamp
• Removable Crumb Tray
• Rotisserie Kit and Lifter
• Air Fryer Basket

The packaging includes two foam pads to keep the oven firmly in place and the three accessories are wrapped in carton sheets to avoid scratches during transportation. The oven also comes with a user manual.

Although simple, the Hamilton has all the basic exterior features of a toaster oven and also something more: The roll-top door is a neat feature that can make it easier to move food in and out of the oven and save some space on the kitchen counter.

To make it easy to carry the oven, the two sides of the casing have shallow arches. The oven has a cool-touch door handle and two back buffers to prevent it from being too close to the walls.

Our measurements of 15.75" x 11.93" x 8.39" for the oven coincided almost completely with the manufacturer’s 16.12" x 11.93" x 8.97", with marginal differences being less than an inch.

The Oster has air ventilation holes on all sides of the convection system, which is a plus. In addition, having a slide-out tray is always helpful because it makes it easier to clean the oven.

Although the back buffers aren’t very sturdy, the bottom stands are and they also act as oven-carrying handles. Our measurements of the oven’s footprints were 19. 68" x 15.19" x 11.61" which were only slightly different in terms of width to the manufacturer’s provided  19.72" x 16.29" x 11.33".

The Hamilton has two simple control knobs: one for temperature and one for time. The timer has a stay-on setting to help with its short range, similar to many other small toaster ovens.

The temperature knob indicates the lowest temperature setting to be 200°F, which is quite limited. Interestingly, however, we could actually set the temperature as low as 120°F by only turning the knob until we heard a small clank before the 200°F mark.

The Oster has an LCD digital display and 15 buttons, including 8 functions, 2 to adjust time, 2 to adjust temperature, a light toggle, a clock feature, a stop and a start button. The built-in clock is something you rarely see in a toaster oven, but we’ve seen some comments about it, usually pointing out that the clock is ahead of time by 5 minutes.

• Not available

Not having multiple functions doesn’t affect a toaster oven’s mechanism, which is to heat air up to a certain temperature to cook food. However, it does mean that the user won’t have any way to operate only the upper or lower heating elements individually.

• Toast
• Bake
• Convection Bake
• Broil
• Warm
• Defrost (150°F)
• Pizza (400°F)

You can only adjust the temperature on the Bake and Convection Bake functions, which should be good enough for experienced cooks. Other functions have their temperature predetermined by the manufacturer, which can be useful for beginners in the kitchen. 

For some reason, the user manual doesn’t specify the predetermined temperature for the Warm function. Nonetheless, we were able to measure it to be around 180°F, which was unfortunately quite high for its purpose. Other toaster ovens with the Warm function usually maintain around 80°F-100°F.

The Hamilton shares the same lack of interior features, including a convection system and an interior light, similar to many other units of the same size. The design didn’t allow for maximum use of the space inside the cooking chamber even though it had two tray levels like most other small toaster ovens, including the Mueller MT-175.

It also only has two quartz heating elements, which can usually lead to uneven heat distribution compared to four or more heating elements. Nonetheless, they use infrared light to cook, which makes the process faster and more energy-efficient than the more common nichrome heating elements.

They also cool down faster and are easier to clean but not as durable. However, if grease splashes onto the heating elements while cooking, it’ll leave permanent stains.

The Oster has four standard nichrome heating elements but only two tray levels—unlike the similar-sized Cosori CO130-AO that has three. In addition to a convection system, it has internal lighting which is always useful, especially when you can choose when to turn it on and off.

While we couldn’t find the manufacturer’s capacity, we measured the cooking chamber’s volume to be around 13.28 liters. The 31344DA can accommodate four slices of toast or a 9-inch pizza, but not a 3-pound chicken due to insufficient height.

Its spacious interior can accommodate 6 slices of toast, a 12-inch pizza, and more than a 3 lb chicken. While the manufacturer didn’t state the exact capacity, we measured the cooking chamber’s volume to be around 28 liters.

The power cord has enough length for household use and an oven this size— roughly 34.65". The fact that it protrudes from the bottom of the oven may lead to some inconvenient bends, though.

Since the power cord is positioned at the bottom of the oven, it may have some inconvenient bends. The length of roughly 25.98" is adequate for household use but not enough to wrap around the back buffers.

The baking rack has two supports below to slide the baking pan in. It fits perfectly with the guide to prevent accidents when placing your food in the oven. The supports narrow at the back to prevent the pan from sliding out, but the entire thing doesn’t conform perfectly.

The rack fits perfectly with the guide rails and helps reduce the chance of an accident when you put food in the oven.

The baking pan fits nicely below the rack to catch any meat juice and drippings, which helps prevent any mess and the risk of fire from dirty heating elements. Keep in mind that it isn’t 100% non-stick, so it may be prone to stubborn stains after a hefty roast. During our performance tests, the pan bends when heated but luckily didn’t cause any issues.

The baking pan goes hand-in-hand with the broiling rack to catch the drippings and meat juice. Its enamel coating makes it more resistant to stains and caramelized bits but it is not advisable to put the baking pan in the dishwasher.

However, it’s slightly smaller than the oven’s capacity and therefore, does not make the most of the space. Nonetheless, it still does the job of preventing any hot mess from dirtying the heating elements which can lead to fire danger.

The removable crumb tray is useful for cleaning up crumbs and bits, which can be quite a hassle. However, some of the mess may still fall to the bottom of the oven upon taking out the tray.

The broiling rack has an elevation from the baking pan to allow for heat circulation around the food. However, it’s not firmly attached to the baking pan, so be careful when you move this combo around. In addition, the rack doesn’t have a coating, which may make it prone to caramelized bits, stains, and discoloration.

The Hamilton’s exterior shell is made from alloy steel, which has a higher tensile strength than stainless. We speculated the reason for this choice was to have the roll-top door—which can be easily removed for cleaning—more durable.

The casing also seems to have good heat insulation and only got hot to the touch after a long cooking time at a high temperature (>400°F). The knobs turn smoothly and have a contoured design for better grip.

Though it is made from durable materials and has a sturdy build, the Oster isn’t heavy for its size. The digital display is clear, but the flat buttons can be irresponsive at times; this seems to be a common problem for Oster units, as the Oster TSSTTVFDDG also suffers from it.

Throughout the testing procedure, we found that the oven’s power output of 1300 W may have offset its large capacity. Our speculation was that its performance efficiency could increase with 1800 W.