The King is Dead! Long Live the King!

This weekend, when we took the beach house out of mothballs, we discovered that our 3rd Breville 800-series oven is not fully functional. It still works, but the bottomost rotary knob now does nothing. So we’re stuck with the defaults for all the modes.

So, off to BB&B we went–remember driving to a store? They didn’t have the direct replacement (Spare?), but they DID have the even bigger BV900 Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro. It would fit in our existing space just fine, and stacking a -20% sale with a 20% coupon, saved $164 off the MSRP at Williams-Sonoma.

I had real trepidation continuing with the House of Breville dynasty. All the 800s we’ve had suffered from semi-jinky controls that felt lightweight (and utimately failed), but the 900’s controls seemed heavier-duty.

So we bit. Unpacked, the wire trays are also definitely more stout. And the pizza pans and stone from prior monarchs fit.

It will be interesting to find out if the toast times have improved or worsened. And I’m looking forward to trying the Air Fry mode.

Anyone have this model and what’re your rections to it, good and bad?

Thanks!

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This is sad. I’m glad you got a deal on the replacement, though. I’ve always had really good luck with Breville appliances, although I admit I haven’t brought anything lately, but overall I’ve bought a lot of Breville goods.

I think that is the one we have, our first countertop oven, and first air fryer. I think I bought it during a Black Friday sale in 2021. am generally very pleased when I use it, especially for broiling and reheating, but am often put off by the directions for cleaning it.

I got it a few months ago. So far, so good. I like it.

You’ve had three of these… all of which have failed in one way or another? Over what period of time?

Three in probably 10 years. BB&B comped #2 because #1 died in the crib.

How is it at toast? Have you used the “stacking” feature? Do you think Air Fry uses the same fan speed as “Super Convection”?

It’s bigger, yet still fits, and the controls feel beefier, so so far I’m pleased.

Still wondering about the Cuisinart Steam Oven, though. Wouldn’t want the BSO Joule version.

I think the Joule BSO is a waste of money.

Since the B convection fan has 2 speeds, I suspect the air fryer function uses the higher one.

I haven’t tried stacking, but I did buy extra air fryer baskets to do it. I’ll probably try it soon, since my InstantPot branded $49 mini air fryer went up in smoke the other day. RIP.

As for toast, I usually use my Dualit, preheated for 1 cycle. I’ve found with my older Breville (didn’t die; the door spring just gave out) flipping the toast halfway through yielded pretty good results.

As an aside, I did toast bagels in my late, wee air fryer. It was very fast - even at 350, and uniform. Which makes me wonder - would the Breville’s air fryer function do toast better than the toast function?

Wow! You are very forgiving. If anything I buy can’t last for at least ten years, they are pretty much not worth a second chance. So far only Samsung, Sony, and Huawei have made that list.

I never saw a better choice is the truth of it.

I noticed tonight that there are 4 top elements in the 900, whereas the 800 has three. Still just two underneath, so maybe that’s a hard limit with 1800W.

Mine lasted 13+ years and was completely functional except for the door spring. I actually ordered a new spring from a parts supplier; the repair entails removing 32 screws. I have the instructions; I’ll get around to rehabbing it for someone. As I said, the electronics are still fine. And the door will still remain closed, if you’re gentle.

The new spring cost less than $10.

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What I meant by stacking is that apparently, you can stack two functions. For example you can program it to bake something at X degrees for Y minutes, and then broil for Z minutes.

Not sure I’d ever use this, but I was surprised to learn about it from the manual.

I was also surprised to learn that an onboard chip stores use information.

Oh, yeah. I remember reading that in the manual. My mind was just fogged by thoughts of simultaneous trays of onion rings. :joy:

As they say in software development- 90 percent of the functionality is in 10 percent of the features…

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I agree that the controls have been flimsy, and I agree that for what it does, it invariably pops up as the logical choice.

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  1. The controls are defintely beefier and “tighter”.

  2. It doesn’t toast any faster–2 English muffin halves still take >7 minutes. I suppose I should be happy it toasts at all.

  3. The light is brighter and more useful.

  4. I like the alert volume adjustment.

  5. I like that the magnetic rack pull works in two positions.

  6. I like that it’s more capacious. A Breville has been our only oven at this house for years, and the 800XLs’ size put a crimp in our style. For instance, one covered braiser would fit in the 800, but just barely, and not without turning it diagonally and removing the knob. No such problem with the 900.

  7. Air frying seems promising. I didn’t think I’d use this mode. Browning was a little uneven, though.

  8. The roasting rack+tray included with the 900 is acompletely different design, which isn’t going to be great for small vegetable pieces. It’s proportionately smaller, too. We kept the old tray JIC.

  9. The 900 will not cook round pizzas any larger than those the 800XL can cook. I also found it amusing that Breville instructs users to preheat the 13" pizza pan and THEN place the pie on top. Only Luke Skywalker could center a fresh13"pie on a 13" pan.

  10. I like having more rack positions. While there are only 4 slots, the racks themselves are offet and reversible, giving a total of 8 possible rack heights. There are also little keepers, so the racks won’t easily pull out completely in use.

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You really should look into a foodservice brand countertop oven. I very much like the style of Breville stuff, it looks great on a countertop, but you can do better from a performance standpoint and at similar price points. If you can move up to 240V, on a circuit separate from your oven/range, it starts to get really interesting.

My…… I thought i bought a Breville just awhile ago. So now even a Brevilla is considered ancient?