REVIEW – Can the Toshiba ML2 EC10SA-BS 8-1 Countertop Microwave with Air Fryer Microwave Combo, Convection, Broil, you identify it, actually accomplish all that it’s marketed to do? Learn on for an entire breakdown of this full-featured kitchen equipment.
What’s it?
The Toshiba ML2 EC10SA-BS 8-1 is a one cubic foot countertop oven with many capabilities. On the highest degree the modes are Microwave, Convection Oven, Broiler, Griller, Air Fryer, and mixtures of those. In brief, it’s a powerful product to summarize in a sentence or two.
What’s within the field?
- The Toshiba ML2 EC10SA-BS 8-1 oven itself
- Glass Turntable
- Turntable Ring Meeting
- Turntable Shaft
- Bake-rack
- Bake-tray
- Instruction Guide
- Recipe E-book
Setup / Operation
The setup for the Toshiba ML2 EC10SA-BS 8-1 microwave is straight ahead. The parts listed above underneath the oven itself are merely positioned within the oven of their apparent locations. The Shaft is positioned within the backside middle, adopted by the Ring Meeting, with the Glass Turntable on prime of each.
The oven can get scorching, and so they have clearance necessities that ought to be adopted. Mainly, 3 inches for all sides, however the again, which could be as shut as 1 inch.
The operation of this oven shouldn’t be practically as straight ahead as one may be used to as it’s not only a microwave oven, but additionally Air Fryer / Convection Oven, and has a broiler coil, plus some mixtures. Each the included Bake-rack and Tray will not be appropriate with any of the microwave operations, and you really want to grasp which options are, and which options will not be, in use with the multitude of cooking modes. It might have been a much-welcomed function had these two parts be not solely oven secure, which they’re, but additionally Microwave secure, which they aren’t.
There’s a desk within the Toshiba ML2 EC10SA-BS 8-1 microwave handbook that lists the next cooking modes as headings: Microware, Grill, Convection, and Mixture. The left facet headings of the desk are the assorted cooking supplies, plates, pans, paper towels, and so forth.
Instantly you’ll discover that Air Fry shouldn’t be talked about there, and that’s most likely certainly one of my largest gripes with the product. This product is marketed as an Air Fryer and but it’s not even talked about as one of many major cooking modes on this desk.
Earlier than I get too far, I have to touch upon the standard of the handbook. The handbook is simply not constant and actually lacks a bunch of what I really feel could be related info given the complexity of this product. It is extremely superficial in a number of areas. I hope to spotlight a few of that stuff on this assessment, however it won’t be my objective to fully assessment the shortcomings of the handbook as there are far too many.
One of many very first issues I seen is that some issues are simply not worded appropriately. Take a look at the directions for setting the clock (handbook textual content in italics).
Suppose you wish to enter the right time of day 12 min 30 secs.
No person enters solely minutes and seconds for the time of the day. After 10 reads I believe they’re attempting to say that the traditional minute a part of the microwave time show will maintain the hours and the seconds half will maintain the minutes. I don’t assume I’ve ever seen directions the place the show solely has a minutes and seconds show undergo the gymnastics that this instruction handbook does to instruct one on setting the time.
Moreover, with respect to the clock, each single instance that includes setting the cooking time, refers to that worth with the phrase Enter the right time of day. This could clearly be, enter the specified cooking time, or one thing alongside these traces.
Lastly, with respect to cooking time, the Toshiba ML2 EC10SA-BS 8-1 microwave doesn’t embody a numeric keypad. As an alternative, cooking time, and different alternatives are entered by turning a quantity like knob on the backside of the entrance panel. In brief, it’s a very inefficient approach to set the time for something. Mainly, with the wheel, which additionally has an embedded button (Begin/+30Sec ) which acts as an enter-button for the system and provides 30 seconds for microwave solely duties, requires many turns to set a cooking time at 6:30.
Right here is how the round enter system works. The primary click on within the clockwise path units the cooking time to five seconds (00:05), and every click on provides 5 seconds till 1 minute is reached. At that time, every click on increments the time by 10 seconds as much as 5 minutes. From there the increments are 30 seconds per click on, up till 6:30. Right here is the entire breakdown.
- 00:05 – 01:00 by 5-second increments
- 01:00 – 05:00 by 10-second increments
- 05:00 – 10:00 by 30-second increments
- 10:00 – 30:00 by 1-minute increments
- 30:00 – 95:00 by 5-minute increments
It ought to be clear to anybody that that is simply not probably the most environment friendly means to do that. There are 39 clicks if I counted that proper to set a cooking time of 6:30. Evaluate that to ‘6’, ‘3’, ‘0’ ‘begin/enter’ like many microwave ovens assist. Overlook 6:15 as there may be actually no approach to get to that. Very limiting. For completeness sake, counterclockwise rotations carry out as anticipated in the other way.
Design and Options
As was talked about above there may be some confusion within the handbook, the place Air Fryer is talked about on the entrance web page and is within the precise product identify nonetheless it’s not talked about within the supplies to be prevented desk. As well as, there isn’t any icon for the Air Fryer within the show, nonetheless there’s a entrance dealing with management button for it. The icons which could be displayed are for; Microwave, Grill, Standard Cooking (choosing Air Fryer operate will even use this), Defrost, Baby Lock, Auto Menu, Timer Settings, Oz (for coming into in meals weights) and a Temperature Indicator Bar.
I’m going to undergo every function/operate of the unit as they seem within the handbook as I really feel it might contribute to the unit’s give attention to the options.
Microwave: That is the primary function of the unit for my part. There are two methods to invoke the microwave. The primary and simplest way is to only hit the overridden Begin/+30Sec button in the midst of the timer dial, which is able to instantly begin the microwave and add 30 seconds to the time. Continued hitting of the button, will add 30 seconds to the cooking time, probably as much as 95 minutes.
The second technique includes hitting the entrance dealing with Energy button, after which both persevering with to hit the Energy button to change the facility degree by 10% from PL100 (100% energy) right down to PL0 (0% energy) or rotating the rotary time dial talked about above on the underside of the unit to pick out one of many 10 energy ranges. As soon as one has the facility degree they need, they will hit the Begin/+30Sec button (acts like enter on this state of affairs) and they’re subsequent anticipated to enter the cooking time. That is achieved as one would anticipate by the rotary dial on the backside. As soon as the cooking time has been entered, push the Begin/+30Sec to start the cooking course of. One factor to remember is that when the facility degree has been chosen, the person has no approach to modify the facility setting. Unsure how widespread that’s, however our different microwave oven permits for that.
Broil (Grill) Cooking: This function is initiated by hitting the Broil button. After doing so a G-1 is displayed. That is the one alternative, so I’m not positive why it’s offered to the person. From there, the person selects the cooking time. There is no such thing as a setting of the temperature like in among the different modes. Because the broiler is positioned on the very prime of the oven, I’d assume one must use the Bake-rack to get the meals near the heating component.
Mixture Cooking: Mixture Cooking makes use of the microwave and the convection oven, or the broiler (grill). That is a kind of options that the person must be cognizant that the microwave is getting used, and subsequently they can’t use both the Bake-rack or Tray. When the person presses that button, C-1 is displayed. In the event that they hit it once more, C-2 is displayed. C-1 appears to be 25% microwave together with the convection oven whereas C-2 appears to be microwave at 40% together with the broiler. Each of those microwave energy values have been constructed by me timing the cycle of the microwave and calculating the outcome. There’s nothing talked about within the handbook about how one can use these settings and the way one would modify the microwave time suggestion to even know what to set the cooking time at. So, the best way this function works is you choose both C-1 or C-2, based mostly on whether or not or not you wish to mix the microwave with both the convection oven or the broiler. You then dial within the cooking time and hit Begin/+30Sec to start the cooking course of. One of many challenges of this cooking mode is discovering a cooking utensil (pan, paper, and so forth.) that’s each Microwave and oven secure on the identical time. You may’t use paper and you may’t use steel.
Convection Cooking: Right here is the place issues get a bit of complicated. The steps for this are to hit both entrance dealing with Air Fry or Bake button. This appears to point that the oven’s Air Fryer functionality is actually not more than an ordinary convection oven’s functionality. Be aware once more that each of those share the identical show icon when the oven is working in both mode. Convection / Air Frying each enable the oven to be pre-heated. That is executed by hitting the Begin/+30Sec after setting the specified cooking temperature twice. The person can skip the pre-heating, by hitting the Begin/+30Sec button as soon as, after which dialing within the cooking time. When choosing the specified cooking temperature, you might need seen that the beforehand talked about Temperature Indicator Bar had some exercise whilst you have been choosing the temp. The section on the backside will transfer from the left to proper as one will increase the specified cooking temperature. Because the temperature will increase (throughout pre-heat, or if skipped, whereas it’s heating as much as the specified cooking temperature) the section will develop as much as the section equivalent to the cooking temperature. The unit will beep as soon as it has reached that temperature. At that time, you merely place the meals within the unit, shut the door, and set the cooking time, then hit the Begin/+30Sec button to provoke the cooking sequence.
House Fry Presets: This may be the place the Air Fryer advertising function is derived from. There are 10 automated predefined cooking occasions for issues like frozen French fries, onion rings, hen nuggets, wings, legs, escalope, fish sticks, spring rolls and mozzarella sticks. This operate is invoked by choosing the entrance dealing with, yellowish French fry wanting button within the middle of the controls, after which rotating the time dial to show H1 – H10 on the show which corresponds to the merchandise you’re cooking. Fortunately, the definitions of every of those are positioned on the within entrance of the oven when the door is opened. That is true for the opposite symbolic codings the unit has. Please discuss with the image of definitions display to see what every worth corresponds to.
Low Temp Cooking: This can be a distinctive cooking mode which I didn’t get to check. There are 4 settings, for yogurt, proofing, maintain heat and sluggish prepare dinner, recognized with L1 – L4. These temperatures vary from 105 levels F as much as 230 levels F and from 10 minutes – 12 hours (yep 12 hours!) relying on the setting, and like with different presets, they’re outlined on the within entrance of the oven when the door is opened.
Customized Defrost: That is accessed by the Professional Defrost button on the entrance panel. As soon as hitting this, the person is offered with DEF1 – DEF7, utilizing you bought it, both the rotating dial, or continued hitting of the Professional Defrost button. These values correspond to defrost settings personalized to the particular defrost calls for for Greens, Fruit, Rooster, Fish, Meat, Broth, and Timed defrost. After choosing the specified customized defrost setting, the person is offered with a way to enter within the weight of what’s being defrosted. I spent a bit of time attempting to grasp what the oven does in these modes. I chosen 10oz for every setting DEF1-DEF6, and as anticipated there are differing defrost occasions. The shortest was related to Fish (DEF4), with the longest related to Meat (DEF5). There have been three groupings that I seen. DEF4&6, at a bit of over two and a half minutes are the shortest, DEF1-3 are a few minute longer, and DEF5 being about three and a half minutes longer that these center values. I did a deep dive on three of the settings, and in all three there may be near a 50/50 responsibility cycle (50%) for the magnetron being on and off for the primary half of the defrost interval, adopted by the second half being on for 17% of the time till the tip. Earlier than I understood this I defrosted two pork steaks, weighing 24oz, which resulted in a complete defrost time of 15:36. The handbook states that when 40% of the defrost time is finished, the unit will beep twice to all you to show over the merchandise and proceed the defrost. At the moment, I believed the sides of the as soon as frozen bundle felt actually heat. Not figuring out what the second half could be like at the moment I simply stopped the method. After I was able to prepare dinner the meat, I seen some cooked pork on the sides. Realizing what I do know now, leaving the meat in at some stage in the defrost time won’t have resulted in rather more cooking of the meat for the reason that cycle time was about 5 seconds on adopted by 25 sec of it being off, up till the tip of the defrost time.
Popcorn: There’s a entrance dealing with Popcorn button, and after hitting it, the person is offered with three particular popcorn bundle sizes, 2.7, 3.2 and three.5 oz, accessible by you bought it, the rotary dial or continued hitting of the Popcorn button. Now I believe all microwave popcorn that’s bought immediately explicitly states to not use the Popcorn function of the microwave. The actual model that I had specified that there’s nearly by no means a have to go greater than 4 minutes. Choosing 3.2 oz (my bundle measurement) resulted in 2:30 of cooking time, and the popcorn was popped nearly fully. Very properly executed.
Auto Prepare dinner: This entrance dealing with button is the place the person has entry to 10 auto prepare dinner microwave / convection modes, A1-A10. The cooking presets are Drinks, Dinner Plate, Soup, Potato, Greens, Oatmeal, Pizza, Cake, Cookies and Roast Rooster, once more viewable on the entrance with the door open. Selecting most of those will lead to an additional choice based mostly on the burden of what’s being cooked. As well as, a few of these alternatives have various microwave settings, preheats and mixtures of each convection and microwave, relying on the choice. The person will want to concentrate on when the microwave or convection is getting used in order to not make the most of steel within the microwave, or paper within the convection oven.
I attempted the Pizza (frozen) setting twice, choosing 14 oz because the pizza measurement. Since that is utilizing each the microwave adopted by the Air Fryer / Convection Oven you may’t use the included cooking rack or tray to start with. The preselected cooking time was set to 14 minutes, and the microwave runs for the primary 4 minutes, with solely the Convection Oven being utilized for the remainder of the cooking time. What I did was place the frozen pizza on a bit of parchment paper, after which positioned it on the Bake-Tray on the highest Bake-Rack to complete up the cooking time. The busy show video exhibits this on the second step. The next image exhibits the outcome placing the pizza on a Corelle plate and simply leaving it there for your entire cooking sequence. I believed it did an excellent job. Utilizing the parchment paper technique resulted in crisper crust.
Miscellaneous: There are another attention-grabbing options which can be actually not prepare dinner modes however are value mentioning concerning the unit.
- There’s a lock operate the place you may lock out the keyboard to forestall a baby from by accident beginning the oven.
- There’s an power saver mode, which is able to flip off the show. I linked a watt meter, and the financial savings was a paltry 180 milliwatts. If one extrapolates that out over a month and assume $.10 per kWh it will have saved a whopping cent. I believe extra significant advertising for this function is that there’s a approach to black out the display on the oven. This permits the oven to be fully black and subsequently wouldn’t be annoying if it have been seen from a sleeping space, dorm, studio, and so forth., i.e., it won’t maintain you awake at night time.
- There’s a turntable reset function that can return the turntable to the beginning place after the cooking mode is finished. Consider placing a cup of espresso within the oven to reheat, and you’ve got the deal with dealing with out. When the oven is finished, the turntable will likely be rotated again to the place the deal with is dealing with out after it’s executed so you may take it out. Type of cool.
- There’s a deodorizing operate the place the fan is run for five minutes to air out the within of the oven. I’ve used this to chill down the oven nearly after every use that includes the convection oven or broiler.
- The beeps of the oven could be muted. That is good if you would like the oven to function nearly silently.
Lastly, I wish to speak concerning the Toshiba ML2 EC10SA-BS 8-1 microwave’s show. There are a whole lot of issues blinking on and off whereas the oven is in use, relying on the mode of operation. Within the busiest modes, there may be the time altering in addition to the Temperature Indicator Bar segments blinking, probably two icons for the assorted modes. I wish to see the show simply illuminate any lively mode icons vs having them blinking at nearly the identical price because the time. This nearly the identical price ends in simply fixed chaos on the show for my part because the icons transfer out and in of sync with the clock all through the cooking cycle. When the oven is utilized in among the extra complicated modes of the unit, you generally get a Christmas tree of lights look.
Some Specs
- Rated Enter Energy (Microwave) 1500 watts
- Rated Output Energy (Microwave) 1000 watts
- Rated Enter Energy (Grill) 1150 watts
- Rated Enter Energy (Air Fry) 1800 watts
- Oven Capability 1.0 cu ft
- New Weight Roughly 40.6 kilos
- Exterior Dimensions 20.5 x 20.0 x 12.8 inches
What I Like?
- A number of options
- Deodorizing operate
- The Black and Stainless-steel design could be very pleasing to the attention.
What I’d Change?
- The handbook must be up to date in lots of areas.
- Rotary Dial for the inputting of cooking time.
- Busy Show when unit is in operation.
- Equating Air Fryer to a Convection Oven
- The Bake-tray doesn’t match cleanly on the Bake-rack. It’s a tad too massive to simply place the Bake-tray on the low setting.
Last Ideas?
After spending a while with the Toshiba ML2 EC10SA-BS 8-1 microwave, I’m nonetheless not satisfied it’s an precise air fryer. In actual fact, I wrote the earlier line earlier than I did one last check. My Alaskan cousin informed me that their air fryer did an superior job cooking laborious boiled eggs. She shared the recipe (https://feelgoodfoodie.net/recipe/air-fryer-hard-boiled-eggs/) that she used (try the video within the hyperlink), and I proceeded to try it with two eggs within the this oven. I used to be so excited to partake in some air fried hard-boiled eggs. So I preheat the oven to 250, and put the eggs in and set the cooking time to fifteen:00. This final photograph illustrates the outcomes of this check.
I believe you may see that as an air fryer, the Toshiba ML2 EC10SA-BS 8-1 Microwave / Air Fryer oven falls a bit of bit brief.
Ignoring that failure, it does have a whole lot of functionality in a single single unit and in a kitchen with restricted counter area, the various options of the Toshiba ML2 EC10SA-BS 8-1 are greater than welcome. I need to admit that given how poorly the documentation is that got here with the oven that it has type of grown on me some, though this dropped considerably after the hardboiled-egg check.
Lastly, the Toshiba ML2 EC10SA-BS 8-1 microwave is small, and I fear concerning the likelihood of burning oneself when utilizing the oven in any of the non-microwave modes. The oven could be very tight and when utilizing the Bake-rack it takes a acutely aware effort to not contact the very shut stainless-steel sides of the oven when inserting or eradicating meals into or out of the oven.
Value: $230.41
The place to purchase: Amazon
Supply: Toshiba supplied the unit to assessment. Be aware that this unit shouldn’t be out there on their web site.
