I felt this oven was very underpowered and thus not up to the task of actually cooking. I tried reheating pizza and it came out far soggier than it went in. I tried air frying french fries and those came out hardened through out and also not crispy. These are basic oven tasks. The oven also took 6 1/2 minutes to preheat, which is just unacceptable to me, surely because my Ninja Foodi preheats in about 1 minute. My Ninja by comparison has 6 quartz heating elements and this oven seems to have, from looking at it, 1 quartz element up top and then another 4 toaster oven elements (2 top and 2 bottom). I haven't been able to locate the total wattage, nor can I confirm the actual heating elements that are used, because neither bit of info was easy to find online. I tried using the actual steam function and no visible steam appeared in the oven, so perhaps I just got a broken oven. I also really did not like the door handle, which is connected to the door with large plastic pieces that in my view looked rather cheap on the front of the oven. Finally, I did a lot of research on toaster ovens before choosing the Tovala, which has many many positive reviews and few complaints. I did not find any complaints like mine about the oven being underpowered. Notably they reiterate numerous times on the website and in the manual that your oven must be plugged in to a dedicated circuit, which could be a deterrent for many users with small kitchens and limited outlets. I am unsure if sharing a circuit with other appliances, even though not actively in use, causes the oven to be underpowered or perhaps causes your electrical circuit breaker to trip.
As for the meals in the delivery service, well I am returning the oven but still have to pay for the meals that I ordered with the oven that will arrive next week. At first I thought this was not a big deal, I can just throw them in my Ninja Foodi, but then I reviewed the menu cards included with the Tovala and they only provide you with the scannable barcode for your cooking directions, they don't actually write out any cooking suggestions if you are not using the barcode scanner to set your oven. This is disappointing since the meals look delicious and I might have kept a subscription to the meal service even though I was underwhelmed by the oven. The meals look great but they are very expensive relative to other meal services such as Snap Kitchen, which are also raw food basically ready to reheat, and Freshly's meals that are somewhat prepped before they arrive at your door but require a bit of actual prepping and cooking by you using several appliances (oven, stovetop, microwave) to accomplish an edible meal.
Luckily Tovala has a 100 day satisfaction guarantee to return the oven, although I am also well within the standard 30 day window for returns. I noted in reading their FAQs on Tovala's website that they seemed to provide better warranty service and perhaps also the 100 day happiness guarantee to purchasers on their website and they may not provide the same leeway to purchasers from third party sellers such as Amazon, so that is worth confirming before you make a purchase decision.
