Breville BOV900BSS Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro and Convection Oven, Brushed Stainless Steel

RonaldUnited States

A few things you should be aware of....

ADDED TO REVIEW ON 4/29/18: Some problems with the oven after a few months of use. First, the door hinge got stuck several times causing the door not to close. This issue has been reported in other Amazon reviews of this product. Next, the timer stopped working as well. I contacted Breville and they will be replacing the oven, but I am a little suspicious of quality control after now paying attention to a few negative reviews on this page. ------------------ This was not my first choice All I wanted was an air fryer. I was intrigued by the fact that there were appliances that could fry foods without the need for oil. I spent countless hours pouring over reviews of leading air fryer models. I was set on purchasing the most expensive one by Philips at nearly $300. I then read a comment somewhere that if I was going to spend $300 on an air fryer, I might as well spend an extra $100 on the Breville Smart Oven as I would essentially be getting a full-service oven with high-capacity air frying capability. I decided to take the chance on that option despite a few reviews saying that dedicated air fryer appliances did a slightly better job air frying than this particular oven. This was an expensive purchase, no doubt. However, I had an aging Toastmaster oven that was nearly 30 years old but still kickin' butt! There really was no need to replace it, but you could just imagine what a huge upgrade in modernization this Breville presented. At first, the Breville Smart Oven seems intimidating. There is an elaborate selection screen and lots of dials and buttons. However, just experimenting for several minutes, I was able to quickly figure out the basics. The oven already has temperature and time presets for just about any cooking need you may have. From that point, the dials simply alter heating temperatures and cooking times. Here are some things you should be aware of.... There is a design flaw in this oven that puts one at a huge disadvantage if placed on a higher shelf, which I initially did, above my microwave. The door opens top to bottom. This puts a huge strain on anyone placing and removing food from the oven as the door blocks arm movement. It would have been a far better choice for Breville to make a door that swings open from the side. Additionally, if placed on a higher shelf, you cannot read the menu screen. I have read many complaints in Amazon reviews that the screen is unreadable. It is unreadable if placed on a shelf. If you place it on a counter at eye level or below, there is no issue reading the screen. So, the big point here is that you should plan to place this on a counter, not a shelf. The oven works very well in all the cooking tests I put it through. One of the things I am not fond of is that everything starts with a preheat. However, once the preheat is done (and you will get several beeps indicating such), the cooking time begins counting down. This is a pain-in-the-neck because it takes about a minute to grab your food and place it in the oven. At that point, you have to turn the dial back to the proper cooking time that the oven initially sets for you. The best thing Breville could have done is to "freeze" the cooking time once preheat is done and then let the user push the button again to start the actual cooking countdown. So, let me talk about the essential aspect of this oven which is its air frying capability.... The Breville includes a large air frying tray that allows air to circulate through its screen door design. It allows an ample amount of french fries to be placed on it. The best advice I can give is to ignore the instructions given on the package of french fries. Use the actual recommended time that Breville programs into its Air Fryer menu selection. You really want to cook it at a slightly lower temperature for a longer period of time. Breville does an excellent job with its preset temperature and time. I tried air frying both Nathans french fries and Orida Tater Tots. The french fries came out very good -- crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. However, something about it just didn't scream "fried" to me. At best, the results were slightly better than just baking it in the oven. They really tasted more like baked fries rather than those fried in oil. The Tater Tots came out better. Those were really crisp on the outside and comparable to those I would cook in a pan with a little bit of oil. I think, overall, the problem with the Breville air fryer function is that you are frying without oil. That can be a good thing, but at the same time, you aren't getting that flavor which oil provides. If you actually fried french fries in oil and placed them in a blind taste next to the air fryer version, I would bet anyone would instantly pick the fried version as the better tasting product. I haven't been able to compare the Breville to one of the dedicated Air Fryer appliances, and perhaps they really do a more phenomenal job. The best I can say is that the Breville does a great job at coming close to producing actual fried results, but it won't pass a blind test against the real thing. Another issue I have is the lack of support from Breville themselves. Before purchasing this oven, I wrote their customer support an email asking how much distance this oven needed to be placed from the back wall. Breville never answered me. That is a bit concerning when this is customer support you may need to rely on should something go wrong with this oven. To answer my question, there are nubs on the back of the oven that gives you proper back wall placement. People have complained that the oven does smoke. I have experienced this with every item I have cooked. For me, it's no big deal. As long as the oven is working as expected, I don't care if it gives off a small amount of smoke. I would recommend purchasing and placing baking matts in the bottom grill tray as it can be a chore cleaning without it. You can purchase these matts for dirt cheap on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XKJDYL1/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Overall, this is a terrific oven, though with some really bad design choices that force one to not be able to mount it on a higher shelf. Please do take note of this when considering a purchase.

Jess C.United States

Bigger, better, and quieter than the regular Smart Oven

Our Breville Smart Oven BOV800XL finally broke after 10 years of almost daily use, so it was time to replace it. Another Breville, no question - but which one? The newer Breville model (BOV900BSSUSC, the one in this review) seemed like the obvious choice, but I was afraid it wouldn't fit on the counter or it would get too hot under the cabinets. Short answer: It fits! It doesn't get too hot! It works great! Best choice! How did I live without it?? Long answer, for those who like to overanalyze everything (not that I'd know anything about that...): *** How big is it? *** - Width: 21.5" - Depth: 15" not including handle, 17.25" with handle - Height: 12.375" not including handle, 12.75" with handle See the attached pictures for how it compares with the BOV800XL. *** How loud is it? *** Quieter than the old one. The older 800XL convection fan was loud and almost rattled. The new one has 2 fans: one to cool the electronics and one for convection. Even with both fans, cooking with normal convection is pretty quiet. Airfry turns the convection fan up to 11 and makes a serious whoosh. I don't use airfry much (regular convection works just as well for most things we cook), so it's not a big deal. You want numbers? I got numbers. With the decibel meter sitting on the counter next to the oven: Baseline room noise: 33dB Oven, no convection: 55dB (mostly the electronics fan) Convection: 57 dB Airfry mode: 69 dB (Note that when the fan first starts, it's louder, maybe 66dB, for 1-2 seconds until it gets up to speed. That's how the old 800XL fan sounded all the time.) Check out the attached video if you want to actually hear it. *** How hot does it get? *** After 15 minutes of convection roast at 450°F: - Top front: 215°F - Top back: 160°F - Sides: 140°F - Glass: 235°F - Door: 220°F (top and sides), 170°F (bottom) - Back: 135°F - Wall behind it, a few inches away: 90°F - Cabinet above, 7" clearance: 90°F The cabinet above it does get warmish inside, so if you store your chocolate or cooking oils or other heat-sensitive stuff there, you might have a problem. *** How well does it work? *** Great! Having a 2nd oven is amazing for when I don't want to heat the big one, or need to cook things at 2 different temperatures, or need to keep something warm while the rest of the food finishes cooking. This oven has 10 settings, but I use only a few of them: - Toast: Slower than a toaster, but cooks the slices evenly. - Bake/roast: Temperate is accurate, cooks mostly evenly (there's a slightly hotter spot in the front right). - Airfry: I never had a standalone airfryer, so I can't compare. It does make things crispier compared with normal convection. Usually I just use the airfry basket with the fan on normal convection, and that seems fine. - Slow cook: Never used it. - Reheat: As far I as I can tell, the only difference between reheat and bake/roast is that for reheat, the timer starts when the oven starts heating. For bake and roast, the timer starts after the oven is already heated. Subtle difference, but surprisingly convenient for not overcooking your leftovers. tl;dr: Oven is good. I like it.

BoomzillaUnited States

Breville makes great ovens, IMO. If you disagree, you're wrong! Fight me!

What should other customers know? You probably mean about this Breville and not the other 1000 things that come to mind. The oven rocks. It is shiny. It gets hot. Not too hot. More like what it shows on the lovely LCD when you turn the big knob. That hot, exactly. It is new, so I'm learning the time period that it takes for each type of food. It's a little different than my last Breville. I had to leave that in the city I fled from. I think the people down the hall knew who I was. I had that one dialed-in regarding how long things were going to take to get cooked how I liked them. The last one was only a couple of years old. It still had a bunch of life left in it, I'll bet. This new one has a bunch of different shelves. Racks? One of them is even round. Someday I'll figure out what it is for. In the meantime, I am using it for pizza. Pizza from the grocery store. Not frozen, but unfrozen. I think it could get a tiny bit hotter on the bottom. The cheese threatens to burn - you ever been threatened by a cheese? It's not great. - before the dough is completely done. I'm hungry. This is my third Breville. I think the first one got dirty and needed replacement. Actually, I have no idea why I replaced it. But I did. Did I mention this one has a big-ish air fryer basket? It does. I wasn't overly familiar with air frying. The last oven that I had, the Easy-Bake 100 that was here when I moved in, said it was an air fryer. Then again, it said a lot of things. Most of which cannot be repeated on this family forum. It left me with the impression that air frying is just putting things in a basket so they could cook from all sides at once. That's nothing like the frying I was familiar with. This one has , like, a fan. The fan has a turbo mode. It's still not like frying. But it does pretty good at "air frying." Better than the Easy Bake. Did I ever tell you about the time I met Eazy-E's son? No? I was on an airplane flying around. Oh, I should stick to the oven story, huh? Some other time. Look, if you want a high quality, shiny, toaster oven that has a big air fry basket, and also has a dial with a bunch of other settings, go with Breville. The model I've got is great. I'd have liked the option of it coming in blue. Or even black. No, blue. They have a model that is blue, but I think this one is superior. It sounds like it but that might just be because it is French. I think. Buy it, you'll love it. I do. It's hot. PS- Don't fight me. That was a joke. Which they'll probably make me edit.

BBGramsUnited States

It's big, has tons of options and it's Breville. What more do you need?

I love this so much but... Beware if you decide to get an open box item. I have had lots of great open box products but not this one. It has quartz sleeves on the electric coils and the sleeve on the bottom of mine either broke in transport or shortly after I got it. I must say you can't beat Amazon for returns without the 3rd degree and replacements. I returned this to the UPS store at 11:30 a.m. and had my credit and replacement oven by 8 p.m. I didn't (of course) buy the open box replacement. This is the same Smart Oven that my daughter has. They use theirs all the time. After moving from a cold climate to a hot climate I didn't want to use my big oven and heat up the whole kitchen. This oven is BIG. You may want to be sure you have a place for it. Mine is sitting by my stove so I can use the oven fan to help vent it. But it really doesn't put out a lot of heat. And it is attractive enough that I don't mind it sitting out all the time. It is BIG so I wouldn't want to have to be moving it all the time. Unlike my little square Air Fryer that required a lot of watching and turning and didn't hold much, this Air Fryer basket is large with a lot of air flow so cooking is effective. I haven't made a lot in it but so far everything turned out well. I did two large trays of cookies. You do need to rotate the cookies, just as you would in a larger oven. I am anxious to try the dehydrator and the proofing setting for my sourdough bread. It is a bit expensive but it seems to me to be worth it so far. I bought it as my birthday present from my husband - thanks Honey!!