Panasonic - HomeCHEF .7 Cu. Ft. 7-in-1 Compact Oven with Steam and Convection - Black

Nice tabletop oven - does the trick for cooking for 1/2 persons This device works well but is on the smaller side. I initially used it in my kitchen with the idea of not having to heat my full size oven when cooking just for myself or for a quick lunch or small baking treat. And in hopes of reducing some other appliances! It has many options to do a lot of tasks. Convect bake, airfry, steam, Ferment. All offering a specific duty. I found that the device does do all these tasks relatively well with some conditions. Lets start with airfry. I'm an avid airfry'r. So I threw in some cheese sticks! The device produced a great end product but took quite the amount of time compared to my dedicated airfryer. Time compare was 28min vs 8min. Result was the same though! crispy outside and smooth melted cheese in the middle. Was a good but late lunch. As the device took some time to come to temp and it was a specific temp. I then did some cinnimon rolls for baking. We enjoy these on weekend mornings but just to make a single roll. The device on convect back produced a nice roll. Really Really well. Again though it took a little more time than my full size oven to heat up. Rolls were really good. We did use the unit during Thanksgiving as a warmer. It really excelled at this job. Keeping a nice warm temp the entire day. Ultimately, I have moved this device to my wife workspace. They don't have these options for an oven so they utilize it well!!

A fantastic multi-function oven. Only missing the microwave feature but I'm sure that you already have a microwave. I have an affinity for Panasonic. Everything I buy from them is always top-notch. Their lithium batteries are world renowned for their dependability and I personally own a Panasonic Toughbook CF-20 laptop that I purchased new in 2016 and still use quite regularly. They're one of the last premium companies left where you know exactly what you're buying and this oven is no exception. You can make so many dishes in this oven. It's literally seven ovens in one and I have tested every function and have not ruined one dish. It has a fool-proof programming sequence and after that, enjoy your food. So far we have made steamed eggs, slow cooked tri-tip, chicken wings air fried, toasted several breads via convection feature. It is a one-stop powerhouse. The footprint is very compact too. The included oven trays fit inside our small low profile dishwasher so clean up is super easy as no food really ever touches the inside of the oven. It's quiet too. One thing that could be improved is the included booklet as it leaves a lot of needed information out like various cooking times and temperature settings. I found myself checking air fry times on the internet just to make sure that I get good results. Booklet aside, I highly recommend this oven.

My wife and I cooked a lot of different entrees in the oven. From a pie and biscuits to steamed vegetables and seafood. It did the best steaming food, but for fast air-frying and convection baking the results were mixed. I’m not going to quote all the specs and features, but focus on the oven’s performance with what we cooked in it. We tried to try a lot of things that we think most people would cook in it as well as what the oven’s manual suggests. The oven is aimed at the Asian market and has built in programs for cooking food in that vein as well as others. So keep that in mind. The programs will ask for the food’s weight, select that, hit start and wait for preheating (7 minutes), if that’s part of the program, then put the food in and hit start again. The oven takes care of the rest. However, it doesn’t tell you the time or temperature it’s cooking at when running programs. If you open the door the oven stops. You must hit Start for it to continue no matter what mode or program you’re using. You will need to read the manual on how to use this oven and will likely often need to refer to it. This oven isn’t very intuitive to use. Cooking a defrosted personal pizza with convection bake was a complete fail in my opinion. I ended up having to finish it up in a GE toaster oven - air fryer I reviewed about 2 years ago. My wife cooked some biscuits in it. They looked good on top but the bottoms weren’t brown and not done inside. Same for a homemade pie she baked in it. She tried a program first and that didn’t cook it long enough. Then she had to finish it with convection bake and that didn’t do it either. See photos. Using air-fry like you would in any other air-fryer didn’t work well either. It will do it but it can take up to 3 times longer. Steam bake did ok for making soft cookies and the manual tells what else you can cook with that setting. Bakeries use steam baking to keep certain baked goods from drying out during cooking. I’m not sure exactly which ones but I would say that this will work well for that type of baking. Note: Air-fry temperature is fixed at 445F. Use Convection bake for lower temps. Forget cooking tater tots and onion rings in it fast like with other air-fryers. It will take about 2 to 3 times longer depending on quantity and whether they are frozen or not. The one thing that this oven did very well was steam cooking. Steaming vegetables and seafood worked great but took about twice as long as what the manual calls for. But this might be somewhat subjective due to what we consider “done” for various types of vegetables. Seafood on the other hand, needs to be done by at least hitting the safe to eat temperature mark. I forgot to take a photo of the broccoli we steamed but it looked and tasted great! I steamed some raw shrimp with no seasoning and it tasted perfect. Shrimp cocktails anyone? See photos. We cooked as many different items as time would allow before getting the reminder to post the review. We didn’t have a chance to use Ferment and Slow cook but when we do I will post a comment under my review with the results. Build quality looks and feels solid, as expected from Panasonic. However, as another reviewer noted, it didn’t sit level due to one of the back feet being too long by about 2 mm. I filed it down until the oven sat level. With what this costs I shouldn’t have had to do that. The outer housing is metal and the inside is stainless steel. The door is a plastic frame with glass. The door latch catches are plastic too. I first saw this as a red flag as something that could be weakened by heat and fail over time. After running the oven at its highest temperature for about 20 minutes and taking some thermal photos of it and checking the door and those catches, they were just warm to the touch. The hot air vents out the back to the top and doesn’t feel hot, just very warm. The thermal camera says it got to about 132F. See photos. The manual says not to put it under cabinets unless you have a minimum of 8 inches over the oven and 2 inches at the sides. There’s a rubber seal around the door that does an excellent job of keeping the steam in. There’s also a bright white LED to light the inside up when it’s running. It’s on the right side of the oven near the top. However, if you're using the top and bottom pans together the top pan blocks the light from reaching the bottom pan. Speaking of racks and pans. The oven comes with 2 trays and 2 wire racks that sit in the trays. Unlike other toaster ovens and full size ovens, the wire racks don’t slide onto the shelves on the side walls of the oven, just the trays do. See photos. This is a bit odd to me. I think it prevents hot air from getting under the food being cooked so that it doesn’t cook the bottom of it like it does in your typical convection oven or air-fryer. This is why we think the biscuits and pie didn’t get done on the bottom. We couldn’t set the pie pan on a wire rack like in a regular oven and the tray acted as a heat shield. The maximum size of a pan you can fit into the oven without touching the walls is about 10.5” X 12”. There’s also no wire basket included. I had to use one that I had on hand to steam the mushrooms, peppers and onions. See photos. Filling the water tank and cleaning the drip pan are simple. Cleaning the oven after steaming is very easy. The steam comes out of a port in the back left side. There are no obstacles inside to get in the way of wiping it out. I leave the door open about 15 minutes to let it dry out after wiping it. See photos. To get the most out of this product you will need to read the manual and keep it handy for reference when cooking different food until you get thoroughly familiar with it. Even then You probably will still have to refer to it from time to time. It’s a complex device designed to cook a wide range of food. I made notes in my manual where needed for additional cook times and settings. My conclusion is that if you’re looking for a fast cooking toaster oven / air-fryer and that’s its primary function, then this isn’t it. If you want to steam veggies and shrimp it’s a steam dream. If you want to be able to cook a wide range of entrees and don’t mind learning how to use it to get the most out of it, and don’t mind it being slower than average, then it hits the target.

I remember when my mom got her first microwave in the 80's and she complained that she had to learn how to cook all over again. I feel the same way about this unit, but like a microwave, I can't imagine NOT using it now! First- the results are AMAZING! I have had a multi function toaster oven for several years so I like the convenience of many units combined into one. I have a small kitchen so the saved counter space is a blessing. Second- It stays incredibly clean during cooking but if there are some splatters, it wipes clean quickly. It has a self-clean mode that I have not had to use yet because it just hasn't gotten dirty! Third- I don't have a dishwasher so the sanitize function is very welcome. I did not have this on my last unit. There are times handwashing just won't clean items completely. Fourth- I love that there are two racks. You can cook on two levels, but I mostly use them to have one to cook and one to clean. I don't lose time washing and drying one rack in order to cook again. Fifth- I love the steam function. That was not an option on my last unit. I have steamed hot dogs (and then steamed in the bun for a short time at the end). They came out delicious! Some of the issues that created the learning curve- The buttons are not intuitive to me. Maybe they are to others. I have found that I need to follow directions (which I found a bit confusing at first) to even toast bread. The beep is VERY soft. If I am not in the kitchen, I can't hear it. If you open the door to check the food, you MUST hit start again or it will be in a hold pattern. I have forgotten this a few times at first and it throws off my cooking time. I have trouble getting the QR code to work. This takes you to an online cooking guide which is helpful (refer back to it not being intuitive). I have tried with my phone camera and two different QR readers so I don't think it's my phone. The directions to switch between the convection bake with and without preheat were a bit confusing. It took just pushing buttons to figure it out. I wish the words on the buttons were a little larger and easier to see. Because of the location I have to put oven, I am looking at it on an angle. I have since learned which buttons are which but I can't see the words very well (even with my glasses!). Overall, the learning curve is worth a little work at first to use this oven. The results are worth it!

SUMMARY: Full sized ovens are great for baking full sized turkeys, hams and pies for holiday feasts. However, they consume a lot of power heating up a ~4 cubic foot volume. On top of the high power consumption, most kitchen ovens are only radiant heat devices which can result in uneven temperatures top to bottom. As energy costs rose over the years, manufacturers came up with countertop convection ovens which consumed far less power. They also had circulating fans that circulated even air temperatures from corner to corner of the oven and thus on parts of the food that otherwise wouldn’t be warmed evenly because they weren’t in direct line-of-sight of the glowing heating elements. The Panasonic .7 cubic foot HomeCHEF 7-in-1 compact oven adds 6 more cooking features to a standard convection oven, further enhancing the possibilities. I am particularly impressed by the steam cooking option. FEATURES: •

If possible, I will give zero star. Didn’t work, malfunctions, no steam came out and stopped randomly, it’s heavy that I had to carry it back, totally waste of time

Its not user friendly and it does not have a option for toast

Well made, compact size, easy controls, and looks sharp. Very pleased with this oven so far. My only complaint is that it does not broil: no top heating element since it incorporates a rear convection heating vent on the back wall versus top and bottom traditional elements. So no toasting (like English Muffins) or browning is possible. If I had known this before purchasing it probably would been a deal-breaker, but I really like the oven and it does a great job so I kept it. More expensive than some other countertop ovens but it’s very well made, good materials and it steam cooks, air fries, and even has a sanitize mode (baby bottles, utensils, surgical tools!).

I have a slightly older Panasonic Convection Broiler oven and it does its job perfectly. So, I had no doubt that this Panasonic HomeCHEF oven would be another great product. And depending on your cooking needs. This oven might be great for you. Just be aware of its limits ahead of time. It seems to target Asian Cuisine and leans heavily on steam cooking with an additional ability to air fry and be a convection oven. First off, READ THE MANUAL! this is not a microwave and has a bit of a learning curve. While it works as intended. The minimal buttons and display are not easy to understand till you look over the manual. And if you open the door while cooking, it stops cooking till you push start again. Hard to notice because the light is on and the fan sounds like it is still working like a full size house oven would. Also, be ready to add more cook time before the clock ends. It seems to automatically go into cool down when the clock ends. Adding more time makes me start the oven again by choosing function/temp/time/start. On the plus side, set the right cook time, food won't burn because you didn't pay attention. Not sure if it is Panasonic's main purpose with this oven, but the steam is the best of the seven features. If you want to cook meals with steam or simply need to sanitize items like baby bottles. Look no further. From vegetables, seafood to dumplings. The steam and convection oven fan will easily help make larger quantities than most steam appliance cookers. I have made asparagus, salmon, and steamed some mussels and all came out really good. If I can find some way to cheat on the recipe, I want to try some of the dumpling recipes soon. Now for the, all the rage, air fry and convection/bake function. Its good depending on how high the temps need to be for the items you are making. Temps above 400 degrees (445 degrees is max temp) seem to be harder to reach/maintain even with preheat. And because of this. I had issues with frozen foods that prefer the 450+ degree temps like pizza and other junk food snacks. It will cook these items, but be prepared to almost double the cook time. Better success was had with baked goods. Cinnamon rolls and baked bread items did very well without becoming too dry. I'd say give the oven a try if you really want steam cooking or need a small oven to bake sides that don't require super high temps. It will require a little learning to operate correctly. But if you run the steam after a messy meal it almost cleans itself. Just wipe down after the steam clean cycle.