Last Updated on June 27, 2023

This Breville BOV650XL Review is the Best One yet!

Are you tired of using your oven in the summer, and heating up the entire kitchen?

Are you living alone in a small apartment and you don’t have enough space for a normal oven?

Do you want a solid built, handsome, small oven that doesn’t heat up the whole kitchen?

Then, I have the solution for you: The Breville BOV650XL. It’s simply one of the best toaster ovens available today.

This fantastic toaster oven it’s going to keep your kitchen cooler in the summer and it’s going to save you a lot of money in energy bills. And if you have a small kitchen, this should be a perfect-sized toaster oven for you, just like the apartment sized dishwashers I wrote about previously. It’s small, well made, works great, doesn’t heat up the whole kitchen and saves you money.

So, what are you waiting for? Don’t waste more time. You and your family are going to love this amazing appliance.

Before you read this review…

This toaster oven is the “little brother” of the Breville BOV800XL, the best toaster oven available on the market. It has nearly all the features of its bigger brother but the only reason to buy this one, and not the BOV800XL, is if you don’t have much space in your kitchen. Look at the measurements of the Breville BOV800XL by clicking here, and if you can fit it in your kitchen, then by all means, go for it! Or better yet, give it as a gift to someone you actually love and care about.

Capacity

The capacity of the Breville BOV650XL is large. It’s not as large as the BOV800XL but you can cook, broil or bake many, many things in this toaster oven.

It can handle an 8 x 10 baking dish, a 12” pizza or a 4 slices of toast. The Breville BOV650XL is still a bit small for most baking uses, but it’s big enough for roasting sausage and peppers or baking a few potatoes, roasting a small chicken or even a tiny batch of cookies.

It’s not deep enough to do more than a slice or two of pizza, or maybe some appetizers, so if that’s your goal, we recommend you to take a look at the BOV800XL before making a decision.

Also, the whole unit is smaller than a standard microwave.

Design

The design of this toaster oven is really good. It’s clearly that the idea of Breville was to build this machine to last forever. And they succeeded!

The exterior of the Breville is rugged baked dark gray enamel. And the rubber feet are large support the oven perfectly.

It’s well constructed and has a modern look, but a sturdy feel to all its components. Also, the steel finish doesn’t allow foods to bake on and stick, making the cleaning of this toaster a very easy task.

Heating Elements and Element IQ

The Heating Elements of an oven are basically, the things that heat the oven and cook your food. There are four IQ quartz-like heating elements inside the Breville BOV650XL, many more compared to the smaller toaster ovens.

Also, these elements heat faster, and more evenly, than the metallic elements in other counter-top ovens. It only takes 2 minutes to pre-heat the interior of the toaster oven to 375 degrees. Amazing! You just have to remember that it DOES work as well as a regular oven.

Element IQ is a new way to use the heating elements and a better way to cook your food. This unique feature of Breville can turn off and on the elements of the toaster oven or change the wattage of others (depending on the function you choose) offering a smart control over the heat, eliminating the guesswork (Preset Functions) and giving you the perfect cooking temperature depending on your individual requirements.

Preset Functions

There are eight included preset functions. You just tell the toaster oven what you want to make and with the simple press of a button, the timer and temp are set.

The functions are:

• Broil
• Toast
• Cookie
• Bagel
• Pizza
• Bake
• Roast
• Reheat

You can also change the settings of the preset functions if you’d like. The Breville BOV650XL will remember your last setting for each cycle, so if you determine the ‘perfect’ setting for your favorite bagels or pizza, it’s preset and ready to start when selecting the cycle.

Overcook

There is one potential problem when using a toaster oven like this, and that is its tendency to burn or overcook food. Because the Breville BOV650XL is compact, the heat energy is better concentrated and thus it cooks food faster than a large oven.

A good rule of thumb is to subtract about twenty percent of the standard cooking time from the recommended minutes when using a standard range. So, for example, if a frozen food items calls for forty minutes of cooking time, reduce the number of minutes to about thirty-two. Other small adjustments may be needed or else food will come out of the oven overcooked or maybe burned.

Rack and Door

The door handle is a huge substantial piece of stainless steel handle (not just a plastic lip but a real, metal handle), and stays cool to the touch. When the door opens and closes, it works smoothly and with a satisfying sound. And of course, it’s very easy to open. The glass door is full across the entire oven, so those little toasting bagels can’t hide from your view.

The rack comes out easily and, like the Breville BOV800XL, this one has three slots to put the rack in different positions, depending on what you want to cook. This wonderful feature allows you to make sure that your food is evenly cooked and properly positioned next to the heating elements.

You don’t know where to put the rack? Don’t worry. There is a display on the door that takes the guesswork out of where to place the rack for the different cooking methods.

Top Rack

• Broil

Middle Rack

• Toast
• Cookie
• Bagel
• Pizza

Bottom Rack

• Bake
• Roast
• Reheat

Controls

The control system of the Breville BOV650XL is excellent. Breville took the microwave oven control concept and translated that into a toaster oven. The controls are super intuitive compared to a microwave. There are two dials on the front of the oven, one for setting the type of (Toast, Bagel, Pizza, Broil, Roast, Cookies, Reheat, and Bake) and one for setting the temperature.

Just use the middle dial to choose what you want to cook, and the bottom dial to instruct the oven how you expect it to come out, and the toaster oven does the rest. Very easy, right?
Dials

The Control Dials

The temperature dial is context sensitive and switches based on the type of cooking to be done. For example, when baking the temperature reads in degrees (and can be switched between Fahrenheit and Celsius by touching a button). When toasting, though, it switches to the number of slices and the desired darkness.

And, just like a microwave oven, there is a start/cancel button to start or stop the machine.

The function buttons are nice because they simplify how to cook different things. Just like you’d expect. And the “frozen” button adds just the right amount of time to reheat a frozen bagel or waffle.

LCD Screen

The LCD screen of the Breville BOV650XL is fantastic. It has big numbers and reasonable contrast to allow almost anyone to read. And that’s not all.

The LCD screen has different background colors to indicate the oven is in use or not in use. It turns orange while cooking and it turns blue while in standby. Also, there is a pleasant beep repeated three times to tell you the food is done.

Timer

The accurate electronic timer is a great improvement over the mechanical timers in cheaper ovens in both accuracy and reliability. You set the time and temperature, and when it comes up to temperature, it starts the countdown.

Functions

Pizza

Do you really want your Pizza to be better than delivery? The Breville BOV650XL will do it. (So buy the pizza pan at the same time that you buy the toaster oven.) The oven is programmed to supply heat from the top and bottom, appropriate to whatever you are cooking. The pizza that you make in this toaster oven is going to be perfect on the bottom, perfect on the top, perfect when you bite into it. Guaranteed!

Baking

Baking in this toaster oven is very good. Cinnamon Rolls, Muffins and Cookies come out like a breeze, looking and tasting like they are fresh from a bakery!

Preheat

There is an automatic preheat cycle so the temperature is right. If you want just a little more temperature, the digital control allows you to actually control the heat.
You are going to love the reheat function. When reheating in the microwave, it sometimes dries food out, but with this feature you’re going to be able to reheat for example, a turkey and it will taste like it was just roasted.

Broil

You can cook perfect, crisp and hot bacon with the broil function of this toaster oven. Bake 8 minutes at 400 degrees, and that’s it. Piece of cake!

Toast

Toasting is a single touch and the toast comes out perfect. It is much better than what you get when you use a standard toaster because it toasts more evenly.

You can precisely set the actual toasting time- very handy- and you can watch until you get the precise shade of browning you’re looking for.

Reheat

You can quickly and easily reheat food with this toaster oven. It is a little slower than a microwave, but the food tastes so much better.

Hot

As with all ovens, the exterior of the Breville BOV650XL gets hot to the touch. The right side, the one with the controls, only gets warm. But the top and left sides get pretty hot (hot enough that a plastic bread package will melt, so plastics of any kind have no business on top of this toaster oven).

However, you can take advantage of this. The top servers as a plate warmer, allowing you to keep items warm without having to put them into an oven.

The instructions explain that you need to give the oven a few inches of space on the left and right to allow for heat to escape. I want to suggest that you do the same for the back as well.

Crumb Tray

The crumb tray of the Breville BOV650XL pulls out the front and is very easy to clean. This is vastly superior to out the back or from the bottom that most of the others toaster ovens have. Also, it is heavy, and doesn’t look like the cheap metal pans you see on so many competitor models, and it slides in and out very nicely. This is something you’ll only find on the best models.

Baking Tray

The baking tray of the Breville BOV650XL is a little bit heavy because it has a very good finish on it that prevents food from baking on. However, when you are reaching in to remove this heavy tray, it would help to have a shelf that moves out when the door is open.

Technical Details

Here are the Technical Details for the Breville BOV650XL:

Features

• Element IQ technology for smarter control over the heat
• 8 pre-set functions.
• 3/5-cubic-foot
• 4 quarts heating elements
• User-friendly control panel
• Backlit LCD screen
• 3 rack positions.
• Time/temp control dial.
• Defrost button
• Temperature-conversion button
• Tempered-glass door
• Front-access removable crumb tray

Measures: 16-1/2 by 14-1/4 by 10 inches; 13.9 pounds.

Electrical Plug: The electrical plug has a large hole in the middle in which to insert your finger to help remove it from the outlet. Very nice!

Electrical Plug

I wish ALL plugs on electric cords were made like this!

Electrical Cord: The cord is short (for safety reasons), but it’s not any shorter than cords on other toaster ovens.

Wattage: The Breville BOV650XL uses a maximum of 1800 watts (15-20 amps) to come to temp really quickly, but as a recommendation you shouldn’t use other power hungry appliances on the same circuit. Also, make sure that you have at least a 20 amp breaker on the plug that you are using.

Warranty: 1-year limited warranty.

Accessories

The Breville BOV650XL comes with the next accessories:

• A 10-by-10-inch enamel baking pan
• And a 10-by-10-inch enamel broil rack

The oven comes complete with a wire rack and baking pan. This wouldn’t seem like a big deal, since many toaster ovens have features like this, but the difference is that the rack and pan offered with this oven are much more durable and high quality than those found in other toaster ovens. With some of the cheaper toaster ovens, the included racks and pans are flimsy in design and not built to last. These accessories, on the other hand, are built to last.

Also, you can order various other inserts for the oven, such as a 12″ pizza pan or a Bamboo Cutting Board and Serving Tray.

Advice: The interior is exactly the right size for these foil sheets: Kirkland Signature Premium Quality Food Service ALUMINUM FOIL SHEETS — 500 Count 12″ x 10 3/4″. These sheets fit on the rack, in the broiler pan. Food sits on top of them and then slides out of the oven with no mess. They are a fantastic add to this oven.

Warning: The enamel broiler pan is NOT non-stick, so line it with aluminum foil, and it is NOT dishwasher safe.

Conclusions

The Good Things…

• Very easy to use: The design is very intuitive and instructions are easy to follow.
• The Element IQ: the future of cooking.
• The Auto shut off function
• You can see exactly how long it is for the toast (or whatever) to be done.
• The crumb tray can be pulled out from the front and is very easy to clean.
• The door is very easy to open.
• Great Capacity.
• A lot of functions.
• The cooking pans that come with this toaster are top-notch and should last for many years with proper care.
• The controls are super intuitive compared to a microwave.
• Nice user interface.
• Heats up faster than a regular oven.
• Safe.
• Does not waste energy by heating up the whole kitchen.

The Not-So-Good Things…

• The tray doesn’t automatically slide out like the Breville Smart Oven BOV800XL.
• Can be a bit expensive, but it’s well worth the price.
• It’s not a convection oven.

Final Words

The Breville BOV650XL is a handy small appliance for the kitchen and it’s a product that offers many improvements when compared to the typical toaster oven.

Besides the outside appearance of the Breville BOV650XL, this toaster oven offers many other features that make it better than the average toaster oven. You get a toaster oven with several exterior controls, enhanced technology, and a backlit LCD display, all combined in an attractive package that looks nice on most any kitchen countertop.

It also helps to save energy when compared to a large kitchen ranges and it prepares food beautifully and quickly. Yes, it costs a little more than other toaster ovens but the quality is easily worth the price.