BOV950BST Joule Smart Countertop Oven Air Fryer Pro, Black Stainless Steel

Update: the app allows preheating without autostarting the timer and enables modes which aren't on the main screen. That fixes the main thing that annoyed me, and after living with it for a month, the dang thing does an incredible job of cooking. BTW, get the cutting board for the top - it's so worth it to have a cool top surface. So I consider it now a five star device which I love *almost* as much as I expected to. Integration with home assistant so I can blink lights and stuff when it needs attention would put it at six stars out of five. 😂 No Home Assistant integration yet, but maybe someday. Original review follows, because I'm not editing history; I said what I said at the time, even if it was borderline wrong. 🤷‍♂️ --- The idea of a smart oven is awesome, as is the guided cooking. ChefStep almost got it right, then Breville bought them and I guess everything stopped? This thing is really nicely made and works well. But there are two things which are annoying me enough that I really wish I had preserved the box. 1: the app is absurdly limited, and even though they obviously have an API so Alexa works, the API isn't documented anywhere. There's supposedly a Google voice integration, but the link on their setup page is broken, so no Hey Google for you. No Home Assistant integration either, despite supposedly having a developer on staff who said it was coming soon a year ago. 2 - you can't just preheat the oven. Alexa can preheat the oven, ans the app can preheat the oven *in a recipe*, but there's no way to just use the front panel or the app to preheat to 350. You can say 350 for 15 minutes, but as soon as the oven is preheated, the timer starts. So they expect you two stand in front of the oven with your food all ready to throw in at the moment the preheating is done. The timer pauses when you open the door, but it's a small oven so you're losing heat now. You can can reset the timer, but as you're increasing the time, it's still counting down. So you turn to 15:00, and then it goes to 14:59, so you rotate again to get to 15 then 16 minutes. Every second, the number on the display is goes down by one, so it's a really aggravating experience. And of course there's no timer for how long it'll take to preheat. Sure, there's a thermometer in there which knows the current temperature and could calculate based on the time it's taking to increase the temperature how many more time intervals it'll take to reach the temperature, but obviously basic machine learning isn't a popular enough buzzword at Breville.l to apply it in a smart oven. All those buttons and all that intelligence, and no friggin way to just separately preheat or start the timer like literally every other oven which has ever been made. Otherwise, this thing is great. But holy cow, how did they overlook the most basic feature? Also, I'm a software engineer, not some old technology-averse curmudgeon who doesn't understand modern humanity. 😂

The Joule oven arrived (Nov. 2023) without drama. Easily unpacked, wiped down, and ran 20 min. Pizza mode for first cycle burn-in. Slight smell of plastic but no smoke or hiccups. The Wifi (2.5 only) and Bluetooth setups were easy with the iOS Joule app. To my surprise the oven’s firmware was upgraded after Wifi connected to the gateway. I like that feature a lot and had no idea with all the literature read including the online owner’s manual. Also the power cord plug (US/CA) is now a low-profile type with a 45 deg. wire exit to save space in back of the countertop. Older videos online show a larger plug. The oven gets hot on top. Blazing hot top in “Air Fryer” mode. The optional cutting board is recommended and does a decent job of insulating cabinets (the cheaper bamboo knockoff board). Just installed quartz countertops and a heatproof mat is also recommended. Bottom gets warm enough for concern. The left side and back are hot to touch. Right side only warm. Please be aware in high temperature modes or long duration cooks. ...After many cooks under my belt the Joule app Autopilot directed cook recipes just seem to be suggestions. Tried a 3-step Autopilot pizza recipe that actually took 1/2 the suggested time or otherwise would have been burnt to a crisp. What would be really cool Breville is to allow users to save custom Autopilot, multistage cooks on the Joule app to be recalled at any time. The Autopilot Joule feature is very powerful and sets this oven apart from the competition. But at this time Autopilot is limited by only allowing published recipe cooks. Again you can override time/ temperature with the dials on the oven. Once familiar and recipes repeated do not want to hover over the oven while cooking. Otherwise, gets used as a regular dial controlled oven which is $100 cheaper without the Joule feature (BOV900). Let's hope Breville adds custom cook option to the Autopilot and just a software change. Like PIZZA mode 425F 1 min, then 350F 7 min, turn off and beep. User configured. …This oven is huge. When extra counter space is needed the oven is unplugged and moved. But to my delight I can fit a 16 x 12 x 2 in. pan inside this oven! Takes up all of the available rack area with little room for vertical air movement but convection mode helps out. Original plan for the BOV950 was to use as a warm meat holding oven like resting full briskets at 150F until serving (up to 12-16 hrs). Excellent large, multi-tasking oven that uses less electrical energy over a full-size kitchen oven. Gets used daily.

The toaster itself is large and comes in a pretty heavy, but well packaged box. It would be helpful to have a second person help with unboxing if possible. Before using the toaster oven, keep in mind the manual outlines a small set up procedures (wipe down the interior, wash the included trays, run the oven empty for ~15–20 minutes to burn off factory residue, etc.) I would not skip this step as you can smell the residue burning off during (and I wouldn't want that on my food!) The quality is excellent. The materials feel premium to the touch (twisting the knobs, pulling the door handle, etc.) I didn’t expect to love the magnetic pull-forward rack system as much as I do. It makes checking/pulling out the food a little easier and feels like a nice luxury to have. Noise level is minimal (much quieter than my previous toaster ovens.) It’s spacious enough to fit larger dishes, which is exactly what I wanted, but make sure you measure your counter space. This is not a compact model. The only thing to be aware of is that after the oven preheats, the timer you set automatically starts counting down. This isn't a huge problem, though, as you can just re-adjust the timer using the knobs and set the correct cook time. The smart features are nice to have, but also completely optional. The toaster oven works great with or without the accompanying wifi/app/smart features.

So very happy with this Breville. It is so much better than the smaller air fry models. I can actually bake 2 loaves of bread in it. And the greatest thing is you can connect to your phone so it will cook automatically and it can change temp automatically. LOVE IT,