Found out my toaster oven hits 550 degrees when set to 'toast'

I was trying to crisp up a frozen pizza last night and smelled something weird. Pulled out my infrared thermometer (the one I use for checking engine temps) and pointed it inside. The thing was reading 550 degrees Fahrenheit on the heating coils. No wonder my bagels always come out looking like charcoal briquettes. I looked it up on the manual (buried in a drawer for 2 years) and apparently that's normal for the 'broil' setting they hide under the toast dial. Has anyone else accidentally broiled their breakfast into a fire hazard?

3 comments

3 Comments

garcia.tyler5d ago

That explains a lot actually. I had a similar thing happen with my air fryer where the "fry" setting was basically a jet engine. You would think they would put a warning label on these things or at least make the settings more clear. My toaster oven has a dial that looks simple but it's secretly a broiler in disguise. I checked mine with a thermometer after reading this and it hit 500 on the toast setting too. Guess I'll be eating raw bagels from now on.

jenkins.reese5d ago

Man that's honestly scary how hot these things actually get.

christopherwilson5d ago

I mean, is it really that big a deal? Your toaster oven hits 550 on a setting, okay, so don't use that setting for bagels. It's like buying a car that can go 120 mph and then being shocked when you floor it and the engine gets loud. I've had the same toaster oven for like eight years and I just twist the dial until the toast looks right and walk away. Never once pulled out a thermometer on it. If your bagels are coming out like charcoal, maybe just check on them halfway through instead of blaming the machine for doing what it's designed to do.