Should you have buyer's remorse?
Jim Burwell told us he bought one of these beasts back in June:

I just picked up the same GE Halogen toaster oven (169104) at Wal-Mart. It was sort of an impulse buy. I wanted a toaster oven for a while now and happened to be in Wal-Mart picking up something else. I saw this, and bought it for the same reasons you did. It was the "techy-est" looking one there. Plus it matched my other appliances (GE stainless steel). Plus, it was the only Halogen one there, and it just seemed cool that it cooked with Halogen lamps instead of the typical burners.

Is it really THAT bad? It's still in the box. Haven't taken it out yet. I just happened to Google for it just to see what I could find, and saw your article.

What did you wind up replacing it with? I saw they they also had an Oster there with a digital display on it, but it used conventional burners and sort of clashed with my other appliances.

Anyway, it was a laugh reading your article.

I hated it. It burned my hand. Never had one burn my hand before. Now, understand that other than grilling, I'm not a cook. But I've lived off of toaster ovens as one of my primary food preparation tools for 25 years, so failing Toaster 101 is not normally a good sign.

I took out my anger at my very minor knuckle burn by writing it up. Personally, I'd recommend returning it. But there's always the nut behind the wheel.

Debbie does toast
Debbie from Syracuse wrote:

I just wanted to thank you for posting this review on the GE Halogen toaster oven. For some reason, it's the only mention online that I can find on this oven!! I saw it today at Wal-Mart and as I'm in the market for a new one, thought I'd come home and research it. I was amazed that there are no reviews on Amazon, and at this moment, Wal-Mart's website doesn't even admit to selling it!

In any case, your review was exactly what I needed to know. So rest assured it was worth your time to write and post it!

I'm glad we were able to provide some useful information here.

I'm not the only one who got burned
Another reader, who didn't provide his name, wrote:

Thanks for the review. I bought the same oven in the non-halogen/convection one with the regular heating element. Also disappointed. In addition to also burning my hand more than once, it takes a long time to toast even a piece of toast and does a poor job cooking most other things. Much preferred the small Black & Decker toaster oven that after many years finally needed replacing, and as could not find one at the time, bought the GE instead. Did not take it back, but have regretted not doing so. Thanks again.

Carol's not happy, either
Carol wrote us:

Has there been a recall on this oven yet? We bought our daughter one last week and cannot figure out how the darn thing works.

She later wrote me that she took the oven back.

Our final choice
This may well be one of our most responded-to articles, especially if you don't count any of the articles for which we've gotten death threats (true story). So, what did we finally wind up with?

Turns out, we find a nice little $99 Cuisinart, which we picked up at the local Sears. I've only got two complaints: the trays seem to fit weirdly and one of the trays is starting to rust. But, in general, we're quite happy with it and I've successfully cooked my share of orange danish on it and they were yummy. Oh yeah, the Cuisinart never burned my hand, not once.

James Booth is Editor-at-Large at ZATZ Publishing. In addition to writing for Computing Unplugged and Connected Photographer, he's the author of Do-It-Yourself Wedding Photography. A self-taught photographer, James also dabbles in digital graphics and has learned to be a PC and handheld specialist through personal trial and error. James can be reached at jbooth@zatz.com.