cuisinart lcd screen griddler five made in china

This updated version of the iconic Cuisinart Griddler features a user-friendly LCD display and digital controls while retaining its 5-in-1 versatility. The Griddler Five transforms between contact grill, panini press, full grill, full griddle and half grill/half griddle thanks to easy-to-remove, reversible cooking plates and a floating top-grill cover. A dishwasher-safe scraping tool is included for quick cleanup.

We’ve redesigned the iconic Griddler five with sleek, contemporary styling while keeping the widely-praised performance unchanged. In addition to the well-known and loved functions, including its 5-in-1 cooking options, the GR-5B has an LCD display, user-friendly digital controls, a sear function and more. The floating cover and reversible plates are easily removable, transforming the Griddler five from grill to griddle, making it an indispensable partner in the kitchen. The arms are made of die-cast aluminum and will become hot during use. Do not touch them during or immediately following cooking. The cover is made of stainless steel and will become very hot and should not be touched during or immediately following cooking. Never use metal utensils, as they will scratch the nonstick plates.

ENDLESS FUNCTIONS: The Griddler FIVE has a sleek contemporary design and used as a contact grill, panini press, full grill, full griddle and half grill/half griddle for endless options

The Cuisinart Chef’s Convection Toaster aced all our cooking tests, giving the most evenly toasted bread, perfectly browned, crisp frozen waffles, frozen potato skins that came to internal temperature in just 15 minutes with melted cheese that didn’t burn (something that happened in most of other models), and cookies with perfectly uniform tops and bottoms that had our kids begging for a new batch nightly. The french fries cooked using the convection setting turned out as good as any we’ve baked in an air fryer.

It also topped the competition when it came to included accessories. Cuisinart includes two cooking racks, a 9-by-13-inch enamel baking/drip pan, broiling pan, crumb tray and 13-inch pizza stone. Its spacious interior (which fits nine slices of bread, a quarter sheet pan or a 13-inch pizza) features four rack positions and a nonstick interior making cleanup easy, and gets extra points for its auto-slide middle rack, which attaches to hooks that pull it part-way out when you open the door — making access much easier.

The high-speed machine boasts an impressive 15 cooking functions (toast, bagel, waffle, dual cook, bake, broil, roast, pizza, sandwich, keep warm, leftovers, plus 30 seconds, two convection cooking settings and defrost) and seven toasting shades. 1800 watts of power are managed by what Cuisinart calls the “Exact Heat” sensor, which monitors internal temperature and adjusts the five heating elements to maintain the desired temperature through the cooking cycle. In our testing, it consistently delivered even heat from front to back and side to side.

The Cuisinart Chef’s intuitive, sleek display is large and easy to read, and the backlit LCD screen and selector dial are a cinch to operate. Beyond the expected stop and start functions, front panel buttons let you run the convection fan in any mode, choose faster or slower convection speeds, and add 30 seconds to your cook time (handy if you didn’t quite get your toast dark enough). You can also access dual cook mode, unique among the models we tested, which allows you to select and consecutively run any two functions or temperatures: For example, set it to bake nachos at 350 degrees for 5 minutes, then switch to broil at 500 degrees for 5 minutes.

The Cuisinart Chef’s Convection Toaster Oven is big, and it’s one of the most expensive toaster ovens we tested. But when you factor in its three-year warranty, superior results and versatility, it’s worth it — especially if you, like us, quickly find yourself using it more than your regular oven (a godsend in the hot summer months).

The KitchenAid is smaller than the Cuisinart, and has four heating elements, nine cooking settings (proof, dehydrate, toast, air fry, bagel, bake, broil, reheat and keep warm), plus air fryer and convection oven options and eight toast shades. We liked the simplicity of its interface, too: Use a dial to choose the cooking function, a dial to choose the time and temperature, a digital display for progress updates and simple start, cancel and frozen buttons. It comes with a baking pan, grill rack, crumb tray, metal rack and air fry basket.

Like our overall pick, the Cuisinart Chef’s Convection Toaster, it boasts 1800 watts of power, a nonstick interior coating for easy cleanup and it delivered great testing results. It didn’t preheat as quickly as the Cuisinart, but once up to temperature the KitchenAid did as well as the Cuisinart Chef’s, offering an even bake, and it matched the performance of its convection setting as well, cooking french fries that came out super crisp on the outside and nice and soft inside. It lagged behind as a toaster, with room for just six slices to the Cuisinart’s nine, and while it produced an even golden color on the tops of our test slices, the bottom surface was more uneven. That said, it outperformed most of the competition, none of which matched a dedicated toaster in this respect.

The KitchenAid weighs in at 21 pounds; lighter than the Cuisinart but you likely won’t be putting it away between uses in any case. More importantly, at 17 inches wide, 11.3 inches high and 16 inches deep, it’s shorter, narrower, and shallower than the Cuisinart, making it a great option for those with more limited counter space.

So, while this model got top marks for build, looks and high performance, the Cuisinart Chef’s Convection toaster oven fared better in our tests and had more versatility. However, if air fry capability is important to you, the KitchenAid, also about $90 cheaper than the first-place winner, won’t disappoint.

The models we tested range in power from 1300 to 1800 watts and all provided a number of functions/cooking modes, a wide temperature range (usually about 150-450 degrees) and a variety of toasting shades. The number of heating elements ranged from two to five and some used sensors or smart technology to monitor and adjust temperature. Some did not require preheating, while others did, typically alerting you to preheating status on a digital screen, much like a traditional oven, but with their smaller chambers took far less time to reach the desired temperature (usually in five minutes or less).

There’s a lot to love about this compact, stainless steel toaster oven. The smallest of those we tested, it can be stored away in a large cabinet, making it ideal for those short on counter space. Featuring six cooking functions (toast, waffle/frozen, roll/reheat, pizza/frozen, quick/reheat and hash brown/frozen), it has five shade controls and a wide temperature range (250 to 500 degrees). We loved the auto-eject rack that makes access a cinch, gave it high praise for its performance on waffles (“They were perfectly soft inside, crunchy on the outside and perfectly warm so the butter melted elegantly,” our teenage Eggo aficionado reviewed) and we appreciated that one of the dual heating elements acted as an interior light so you could easily see what was going on inside. It also doesn’t require preheating time, so if you’re reheating a couple slices of pizza or warming up a sandwich, your food will be ready in just a few minutes. Nits? Because of the small size, it can’t handle more than four slices of bread at a time, you can’t add time or change the temperature while you’re cooking and the temperature presets are set at odd intervals (for example, 355, 390, 425, 460, etc.). But as the most affordable of those we tested, for single cooks or those setting up their first kitchens, this is an excellent choice.

Just a bit smaller than our overall winner, the Cuisinart Deluxe is roomy enough to bake a 12-inch pizza, easily toasts six slices of bread at a time, and has nine cooking functions (toast, bagel, warm, bake, broil, reheat, defrost, convection bake and convection broil) and seven browning shades. Its adjustable thermostat allows you to choose from temps from 150-500 degrees in 25-degree increments and it comes with an oven rack, broiling rack, crumb tray and baking/drip pan. The blue backlit LCD digital display and selector dial and buttons are intuitive and easy to operate and, like the Chef’s version, the “Exact Heat” sensor keeps an even temperature throughout the cooking process. Unsurprisingly, it performed well on most of our cooking tests, with one of the faster preheat times. But the winner was much better on the convection setting (the Deluxe results were uneven, with some fries burnt and some not fully cooked). And, for the same price, we got better performance from the KitchenAid.

Cuisinart’s air fry toaster oven is smaller, but taller, than the Chef’s and Deluxe versions, which placed it too close for comfort to our cabinets. We found it performed similarly to the Deluxe, giving us very crisp toast that tasted great, but with uneven color and darker spots on the bottoms. We also noticed bread and waffles placed closest to the door turned out lighter than those in the back of the oven, a sign of uneven heat distribution. The timer also threw us for a loop — the indicator starts at 10 minutes, so if you want to bake for less time you have to guess where to set the dial — not great for things like cookies. It wasn’t our favorite air fryer, either — better than the Hamilton Beach, but not as good as the KitchenAid. The shallow basket was tricky to shake (we lost some chickpea soldiers) and some started to burn while others were still cooking.

Like all Breville appliances we’ve tested over the years, the Australian brand’s 1800-watt Smart Oven performed well. Smaller than the Cuisinart Chef’s oven, it’s big enough to hold six slices of bread or a 12-inch pizza, and has nine cooking functions (convection, frozen, toast, bagel, bake, broil, pizza, cookie, reheat and warm), seven toast shades and temperature control from 140 to 450 degrees that can be adjusted in 10-degree increments. It has top, middle and bottom rack positions and we love the magnetic auto-eject rack that ejects the rack halfway when you open the door, allowing for easier removal of food. It also includes a 12-by-12-inch baking pan and broiling pan, nonstick pizza pan, wire rack and crumb tray and an “Element IQ” smart heating system that transfers heat across five quartz elements. We love the easy dials and LCD screen and nonstick inner walls for simple cleanup. But it doesn’t have an interior light, the Cuisinart’s pizza stone gave us a much crisper crust than Breville’s metal pan, the Breville’s convection mode must  be turned off manually, which can be a bit annoying and it was one of the slower models to preheat to 350 degrees.

Called the “Easy Reach” thanks to its roll-top door, we found that the design made accessing the toaster oven more difficult in practice. With one of the most compact designs, it’s a tight fit to toast six slices of bread or a 12-inch pizza as advertised. The model we tested (which, we must note, arrived dented in on the top, perhaps due to a shipping mishap — we don’t believe this affected performance) is pared down compared to the other models with toast, bake, broil and air fry modes. It also only has two toasting modes — light or dark — and comes with a metal mesh air fry basket, baking pan, broil rack and crumb tray. With 1400 watts of power it performed well on our toast and waffle tests with nice browning and fairly consistent evenness. The potato skins were pretty burnt on top, though, and it did the worst job of the lot on cookies, which were unevenly browned on the tops and undercooked in the middle. However, with a five-year limited warranty at its low price, the Easy Reach could still be a good choice for someone with a small space or first apartment who will primarily use it for basic toasting, warming or reheating, but we think it’s worth spending more for the Panasonic if you can stretch your budget.

Yes, $750 is a lot for a toaster oven. At almost three times the price of our winning model, it costs as much as some full-sized ovens. But, man, does this thing perform. But to put that in context, if you’ve always wanted a second oven, but don’t have the space for a built-in one, this may be the next best thing. It’s larger than any of the other models we looked at and weighs nearly 50 pounds, but for those with the counter space it may make sense, especially with oven-like features including an integrated temperature probe. It also comes with a generous five-year limited warranty. The Wolf crushed our potato skins, cookies and french fry tests, but while it toasted bread and waffles nice and evenly, it took a long time to do so: almost nine minutes for the toast and more than seven minutes for the waffles. So, yes, it’s a great countertop oven, but unless you really need the extra space the Cuisinart Chef’s oven wins out overall for the great majority of home cooks.

We recently discovered the Cuisinart Griddler FIVE, a handy appliance that offers 5-in-1 cooking options, ideal for grilling, griddling, searing and more.

I love the level of control the Griddler offers, allowing you to customize the temperature in 25 degree increments ranging between 175 degrees and 450 degrees. When the plates have reached your desired temperature, you hear a beep, alerting you that it is time to start grilling or griddling! The LCD screen even features a progress bar informing you of the progress of heating up.