I spent a year and a half trying to cook real meals in a galley kitchen with eight feet of counter space and a full-size oven that took longer to preheat than it took to actually cook dinner. When I finally switched to the BLACK+DECKER TO1313SBD toaster oven, I did not just save counter space. I stopped dreading dinner entirely. If you are cooking in a small kitchen and still defaulting to that big oven, here are the ten reasons that stopped making sense for me.
The BLACK+DECKER TO1313SBD has 4.4 stars from over 22,000 reviewers on Amazon. It bakes, broils, and toasts. It fits four slices of bread or a 9-inch pizza. And it costs less than most people spend on a single grocery run. Here is why it beats the full-size oven for small-kitchen cooking every single time.
Your oven is costing you time, money, and counter sanity -- here is what apartment cooks are switching to instead.
The BLACK+DECKER TO1313SBD is the most-reviewed compact toaster oven on Amazon for a reason. Four cooking functions, fits on any counter, and it preheats in under five minutes.
Amazon Check Today's Price on Amazon →It Preheats in About Five Minutes, Not Twenty
A full-size oven has to heat a large cavity to temperature before it does anything useful. The TO1313SBD's small interior gets there fast, which means you are actually cooking while your neighbor is still waiting for their oven to beep. For quick weeknight meals, that gap adds up to real time back in your evening.
It Does Not Turn Your Apartment into a Sauna
In a small kitchen, a full-size oven running at 400 degrees raises the room temperature noticeably. In summer, that can make a studio apartment genuinely uncomfortable. The TO1313SBD generates heat in a much smaller footprint, vents efficiently, and keeps the overall room temperature manageable. Small comfort, major quality of life.
It Uses Significantly Less Electricity
A standard full-size electric oven pulls 2,000 to 5,000 watts. The TO1313SBD runs on 1,100 watts. When you are cooking for one or two people three nights a week, that difference shows up in your electric bill across a year. Not dramatically, but consistently, which matters when you are watching the budget.
It Fits Where Your Full-Size Oven Cannot
The TO1313SBD measures 15.47 inches wide. That means it fits on a counter shelf, under a cabinet, on top of a mini-fridge, or in the corner of a dorm room kitchen. You are not sacrificing your only stretch of counter space to use it. You are adding cooking capacity without losing workspace.
It Handles Everything You Actually Cook Day-to-Day
Most people use their full-size oven for toast, reheating leftovers, baking a chicken breast, or roasting a sheet of vegetables. The TO1313SBD does all of that. It bakes, broils, and toasts with four separate cooking functions. The capacity fits a 9-inch pizza, four slices of bread, or a standard meal-prep sheet for one to two people. The big oven is mostly wasted on those jobs.
I stopped turning on the big oven months ago. The toaster oven does everything I actually need, and I save twenty minutes on every dinner.
Cleanup Is Faster and Less Messy
The TO1313SBD comes with a removable crumb tray that slides out from the bottom. Wipe the interior, pull the tray, shake it out. Done in two minutes. A full-size oven with baked-on drips and a broken self-clean cycle is a different story entirely. Easier cleanup means you actually clean it, which means the oven stays functional longer.
It Toasts Bread Better Than a Toaster
A dedicated toaster does one thing. The TO1313SBD toasts bread on its top rack with even browning you can watch through the door, and then immediately pivots to broiling a piece of fish or warming a croissant. Replacing both a toaster and your oven usage with one appliance is exactly the kind of consolidation that makes sense in a small kitchen.
The Simple Dial Controls Are Easier to Use Than Most Smart Ovens
There is no app to set up, no WiFi pairing, no touch display to decode. You turn the function dial, set the temperature dial, set the timer dial. Three dials, no confusion. For reheating last night's pasta or making garlic bread in a hurry, simpler is genuinely better. The TO1313SBD gets out of its own way.
It Is Easy to Move If You Rent
Renters do not always get to choose their appliances. If your apartment has a gas oven that runs hot, or an electric oven that takes forever, you are stuck with it. The TO1313SBD weighs under eight pounds and moves in your hands in thirty seconds. It goes with you when you move, and it adjusts your cooking reality without requiring a landlord's permission.
It Costs Less Than a Single Month of Wasted Energy
At current pricing, the TO1313SBD is available for under $60 on Amazon. When you factor in faster preheat times, lower wattage, and the fact that you stop heating a large oven cavity for a two-serving meal, it starts paying for itself faster than you might expect. For budget-conscious cooking in a small space, the math lands clearly on the side of the compact oven.
What I Would Skip
To be straight with you: the TO1313SBD is not the right tool for a Thanksgiving turkey, a large casserole dish, or anything that needs more than about nine inches of interior width. If you regularly cook for four or more people or you bake big batches of bread, a full-size oven still has a place. But for the everyday cooking that most small-kitchen households actually do, this compact oven handles the job cleanly. If you want a deeper look at how it performs across eighteen months of daily use, I covered that in my long-term review of the BLACK+DECKER TO1313SBD. And if you want to see exactly how to bake, roast, and reheat using a compact oven without missing your big one, the step-by-step guide to cooking without a full-size oven walks through the full process.
For the cooking most of us actually do on a Tuesday night, a compact toaster oven is not a compromise. It is just the smarter tool.
Ready to stop waiting 20 minutes for a preheat on a single chicken breast?
The BLACK+DECKER TO1313SBD is the most-reviewed compact toaster oven in its class and it fits on almost any counter. Check today's price and see why over 22,000 people gave it 4.4 stars.
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