0.6 Cubic Foot Combo Steam and Convection Oven

I have had this for a few months now. And boy am I so D@%# happy I got it! It is really a nice piece of kit. It has a quality to it that certainly has it appearing like a top quality item. I mostly bought it cause my old steamer, a cheap one, was giving out. I bought this and love it, I do have to change how I steam cook my items with this oven due to how it works... my old steamer pushed steam from the bottom up, this one pushes it out from the top side on the right... It has more area inside than my older steamer, so I have to think about where I place my potato and such in it. my old steamer had a two tray system, and I do miss that. So I had to re think of how to cook things in this steamer as it only has the one tray. Luckily it has a bigger inner area.. I have found a few glass pans that I can put side by side, one for rice, another for a pan or another glass bowl. When I steam the rice, I am able to steam frozen chicken at the same time, 45 minutes, and I'm done... it's great...There is another neat feature that lets you broil and steam at the same time, didn't think you could do that. But you can, and I have tried it on a few things already. It's great and nice, cause you can get a nice juicy item, but then it broils and gives the outer edge of the food a more crunch of sorts. It's pretty neat what you can do with this...BTW, the steamer only uses about 698 watts of power, and that is only when it's steaming... it steams on and off, but inside the temperature is kept steady, so it's not necessary using 698 watts the entire time. It's about double that when you broil too.I have read people saying it's difficult to clean. It nearly deterred me from getting this item. But now that I have it, I have no idea what their problem is about cleaning this steamer? It even tells you how to do it properly in the manual. Anyhow, it's soooo not difficult to clean out at all, not one bit!One thing I did do as preparation of getting this item was to buy myself one of them thick cutting boards that was pretty close to the size of this oven, it's slightly bigger. I did this cause I was not sure just how much the heat could damage my counter top, so I would recommend anyone buying this item to do the same thing, they are like only $14.Also, be sure to ALWAYS empty the water tray after each use, one hour of steaming in just the steam only mode can fill up the water drip tray.I certainly recommend this to anyone that wants to eat more healthy, steaming foods is a great way to start. I rarely even add any spices to my foods cause the juicy foods are so delish!Few Tips:An average size potato, scrubbed and rinsed off in water, takes about 45 minutes, and bigger heavier potato will take at least ten more minutes to steam. Rice in a bowl, I prefer glass bowl, fill the bowl with 1.5 cups of clean water and 1 cup of rice for 45 minutes... but in the last five minutes add a "Knorr homestyle Stock (concentrated stock) such as chicken flavor and add some shredded carrots, let that steam the last 5 minutes and you have a damn good rice... Frozen boneless chicken slabs, lightly rub your choices of cooking oil on it, not much as it's frozen and quickly add your already blended spices to it, cook from frozen for 45 minutes, same goes for frozen boneless fish slabs... so damn good, I often just cook them with out spices and they are juicy, well heated, and yummy... And set your steamer to the 210 F setting for all these tips. Broccoli, chopped carrots, cauliflower, really only needs about 7 minutes of cooking at 210 F steaming... and all these are only on the STEAM ONLY option. And ALWAYS empty the slide out tray at the bottom of the door, it's the drain excess water, it can fill up good on the 210F in an hour of steaming... I have also cooked rice and chicken at the same time, I found the perfect glass container to cook the rice in and I use the included pan with rack for the chicken. Fits perfectly beside each other... Hope this helps!

This is a fantastic little oven, but it's not perfect.First of all, as other reviewers have said, it would be nice if the oven were slightly larger. But I understand the compromise. If it were larger, it would be very inconvenient on my countertop. So I'll just have to work with its size. The size does cause certain problems, though. For example, in some shelf configurations, and with deep casserole dishes or tall loaves of bread, the top of the dish or bread may be too close to the upper heating element. You have to keep an eye on it. Also, anything (particularly bread) that is too close to the convection outlet may brown too quickly.I bought this oven for the steam feature, of course. I wanted to take my bread making to the next level. I can proudly say that, with the "BREAD" setting and starting off with steam, I can now bake some of the best sourdough bread I've ever had, as good as any I've had in San Francisco, with excellent oven spring. The steam function also is great for casseroles such as macaroni and cheese. Steam bake is FAR better than a microwave for reheating leftovers. "SUPER STEAM" is useful, too.I got a small pizza stone for this oven. It also makes fantastic pizza, even with a top temperature of 450. For my pizza crust and bread recipes, by the way, I rely on Peter Reinhart's "The Bread Baker's Apprentice." That book and this oven actually can get you to the professional level with artisan breads.I rarely use it as a toaster oven, but so far I would not rate it high in that category, partly because it seems a little too big for a toaster oven. The bread is just too far from the heating elements. Your mileage may vary.The oven is not particularly easy to clean. The crumb tray is somewhat too narrow. A small vacuum cleaner helps for removing crumbs. There has been much discussion about whether the top of the oven gets too hot to sit underneath cabinetry. I don't find that to be a problem. Though the oven is not highly insulated, it's better insulated than most ovens. I'm sure that the amount of insulation is another factor that forces a design compromise to keep the oven compact. Do remember to empty the water tank if you're not going to use steam for a while. It may leak slowly and, after a period of weeks, drip on your counter.It's slightly annoying that, though the display is plenty large enough, it displays only the time remaining when in operation. It does not show the temperature. The single-knob control takes a few days to learn to use, but it works fine.All in all, this oven is a superb design for getting steam baking into home kitchens at a reasonable cost. Now that I have it, it seems impossible to do without it. If Cuisinart ever comes out with a more expensive model that improves on some of this ovens little problems, I'd almost certainly buy it.