Not worth the trouble to take it out of the box

I received this as a warranty replacement for another B&D Model no longer made. ( under cabinet mount space saver oven)

The first thing we noticed was that while the outside case is larger than the old unit, the cooking cavity is over an inch smaller, so many pans will not fit.
Also there are only two heating elements one top and one bottom, these are centered so heat is concentrated in a strip, so food near the door or the back will be undercooked.

The lower element sits in a reflector that (un)cleverly catches any crumbs or spilled food, and keeps it directly in contact with the lower element. No doubt this will eventually fill with crud before bursting into flame.

Since there is no slide out crumb tray, the refuse collects on the bottom of the oven, and has a flip open door to clean it out. This would take two people one to hold the oven over a sink, and another to wipe it out.
The elements do not seem to be replaceable so once they go, the toaster oven is ready for the landfill, as other reviewers have commented that Black & Decker/Applica do not sell parts or even offer service on these.
Externally even the vent holes on the sides seem poorly designed as they allow anything to go directly inside (dust or food crumbs)
The 15 minute (max) timer combined with its low power makes even having a timer almost useless, for anything other than warming up a slice of day old pizza.
Almost everything we tried in it ran the timer out before it was cooked.

Toasting performance was equally pathetic as two slices of bread were still barely warmed when even set to dark, and needed another run and ended up with a stripe down the center from the single heating elements.
Strangely while they can't seem to heat the interior, the elements seem to have no problem heating the outside case during use, top, sides, back and even the bottom get alarmingly hot, and since it has no handles, you have to be very careful as to where it is placed during use, and it baffles me how losing that much heat can be efficient.


While it has three control knobs, two are timers that both could be combined as one. I think the third is put there by the marketing people to make it appear that it does more than two dial control competing models.
Our original also had three dials and a toast button as well. so the third dial served to set the toast darkness to users liking, and then never have to change it.
Apparently this cost to much, so they dropped the toast button, but left the now redundant dial.

Even the fancy blue power light is barely bright enough to tell it's on. How they managed to even make an "on" light worse than older models is baffling.

We really have no praise for any part of this toaster oven, as everything seems to be lacking or poorly engineered. Our older one from a few years ago, seems to be designed and built better. So the new design is about cutting costs and features, not to make a better product.
It's not a good toaster, nor a good oven, so there's not much else to say.

And after only a few days, we have already told Black and Decker (actually "Applica" who license the B&D name) to send something better or arrange a refund.

I will update when we know what happens.
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UPDATE:
Applica has returned our calls and stated that they are sending out a " higher quality, more suitable replacement ", a model tro-700. within 7-10 days.
(reviews already here on that model don't look too promising)

Strangely, they don't even want this tro390 back, and just said to cut off and mail them the plug.
I guess they don't think much of these either. (LOL)

In their favor, they did not seem to give us much of an argument, and seemed willing to address our concerns.
Of course I did let them know of this review on Epinions.com, so the consumer rep may have had some motivation not to "screw" me around.

But the fact that someone there first sent a totally unsuitable (downgrade) replacement, is a bit disappointing. As it indicates to us that they do only the minimum amount legally necessary to satisfy customers.
And that these must be made so cheaply, they are treated as disposable items. (not worth repairing)

So we should have another review to post on the new one in a couple of weeks.

While our opinion of the tro-390 has not improved. I should add that if you can buy it for $10.00 (or less after rebates), it may be worth that for students warm up a few small items, for a few months.