Hamilton Beach 31509 Convection 6 Slice/Broiler Toaster Oven

Admittedly I have not put any research into toaster ovens. But I bought this one yesterday thinking that you could put 6 pieces of bread into a "6 slice oven" and unfortunately 4 fit perfectly.

I bought a Hamilton Beach toaster oven (model # 31407) from Wal-Mart on Dec 05, 2010. Not sure if it is the same. The oven exploded when the first time I plugged it in. I followed the provided instructions closely, was trying to preheat the oven to 375 degree. I didn't put any food in the oven yet. The oven exploded after 3 minutes, glass door shattered, broken glass blow out everywhere. It is very dangerous.

I have contacted Hamilton Beach. I urged them to take any neccessary action to make sure this will not happen in another house. They told me they will investigate. I asked them to update me when they identify the source.

I chose this oven because the Hamilton Beach Set & Forget Toaster Oven with Convection Cooking (model 31230) was out of stock everywhere since Cooks Illustrated gave it such a high review. I decided to give this similar HB toaster oven a shot since we needed a new one pronto.

Overall we are pretty satisfied with it. The convection setting is better for toasting than the actual toast setting. This oven seems to take a bit longer to toast bread than our previous Cuisinart toaster oven that died. However, this oven provides relatively even toasting, though the slices towards the back of the rack seem to toast more than those up front by the door. The timer is an old-fashioned dial the ticks its way down to zero and then lets out a "ding." This oven isn't going to "wow" you in anyway, but it does the job without a problem.