Hamilton Beach Easy Reach Toaster Oven review

This toaster oven's performance didn't blow us away, but we weren't dismayed. It performed decently well in our cooking tests, giving you plenty of cooking space. The roll-top door makes it easier to remove your food without burning yourself. This affordable family toaster oven can cook lots of food at once and is easy to operate. However, it doesn't do much more than many of the best toasters.

You can purchase this toaster oven from Hamilton Beach for about $50, which isn't the cheapest price but isn't the most expensive either. We also looked it up on Amazon and discovered it was selling for the same price at the time of publishing.

Hamilton Beach Easy Reach: Setup

I chose a suitable location to set up the Hamilton Beach toaster oven, ensuring enough ventilation since the cord measures 35.5 inches. Next, I plugged it in and familiarized myself with the temperature dial, which ranges from 150 to 450 degrees. I set the rack and bake pan to my preferred height. The crumb tray is easy to clean because it's easy to reach.

I followed the user manual for initial operations, including baking, broiling, toasting, and convection, to optimize performance and results.

Hamilton Beach Easy Reach: Design & features

I can set the temperature between 150 and 450 degrees with the temperature dial, which is 50 degrees higher than most other toasters. I can only set the timer to 30 minutes, so it's shorter than expected for a toaster of this size. If I press either button, the dial can be turned counterclockwise to the stay-on position, but I'll have to set an external timer to make it cook even longer.

This cord is 35.5 inches long, so I can put my toaster oven wherever possible. The included cook functions allow you to bake, broil, toast, and convection. You can also adjust the rack and bake pan between two positions to get your food closer or farther from the heating element.

Hamilton Beach Easy Reach: Performance

Despite not being exceptional, the Hamilton Beach toaster oven worked well during my testing. The rack fit six slices of bread, but it toasted both bread and bagel slices unevenly. Some slices had white spots and weren't toasted evenly overall. The front slices were lighter than the back, and the middle slices were the best toasters.

The frozen burrito came out well because I centered it in the toaster. The tortilla was golden brown around the edges, and the filling was cooked thoroughly. Due to the centralized heating, cooking more than one burrito at a time can lead to inconsistent results.

Using the instructions in the manual, I set the temperature to 350 degrees and set the timer for 10 minutes to bake my cookies. It took an additional minute for the cookies to be fully cooked, but the outside was a bit too browned while the inside remained slightly gooey. The cookies looked decent when the timer went off.

This toaster oven moderately reheated day-old pizza slices. The crust was stiff and slightly burned at the bottom, while the pepperoni was charred around the edges.

When I measured the temperature inside, it ran about 17 degrees hotter than the set temperature. It's not terribly high, but it could be better. This temperature discrepancy can result in food drying out and overcooking. The unit features a roll-top door, so you can reach in and grab food without touching the hot side. Due to the wide opening, you can easily remove the crumb tray. However, the oven doesn't have a non-stick interior, so removing food might be tough.

It comes with a one-year warranty, which isn't that impressive, but it's okay. It's safe to use, so I set it to 350 degrees and let it run for a while. Then I measured the outside temperature, which was 108 degrees on the backside, which wasn't too hot. The sides and top reached 145 degrees, which was definitely hot, but not as hot as some other ovens. The handle was a little warmer than room temperature, but there's no danger of getting burned.

This toaster oven's large roll-top door creates such a wide opening that it cools down faster than most other toaster ovens when left open.

Would I buy the Hamilton Beach Easy Reach?

The Hamilton Beach 31126 is an impressive toaster oven that produces powerful results. It could have been better in our cooking tests, but it performed as well as expected. The exterior temperatures don't get as hot as some toaster ovens, so you don't have to worry as much about burning yourself.