De’Longhi Toaster Oven and Panini Press Price: $99.99 Shipping Options: $5 Standard Shipping Estimates: Ships in 1-2 business days (Monday, Jan 06 to Tuesday, Jan 07) + transit Condition: New
Time to check out the product page and some solid reviews (4.3 out of 5.0) over at The O and solid reviews (4 out of 5 stars) over at bedbathandbeyond.com
Bingo. It would need another plate on top to be a press. Even then, it’s using ambient heat from the oven to heat the plates, not a direct element. That ambient heat will also affect the rest of the sandwich, like wilting lettuce and whatnot. A real panini press doesn’t operate in a 400 degree room, only the plates are heated.
It may be a good toaster oven, but forget about the panini part.
I own a medium size De’Longhi convection oven I bought on woot probably four or five years ago. I originally bought it for my girlfriend as she had asked for one but now I don’t know how I lived without one. I use it constantly for anything from heating sandwiches to baking small casseroles. I also can’t remember the last time I used the stove top for eggs. Aside from having to replace one of the knobs the unit has held up to a lot of use and abuse and even two moves.
That being said, all the things I love about mine (like the fact that it fits a 9x9 casserole dish or that I can fit two racks of relatively flat items in it) would probably be negated by the bulky panini mechanism on this one. It turns an enormously convenient and versatile (not to mention reliable in my experience) appliance into a single use item that takes up the same footprint on your counter. To be honest, if you want something cheap and versatile that can also make decent paninis and doesn’t take up much counter space, get a George Foreman grill.
I can’t accept your limited answer until you look at the video and tell me what she is lowering on top of the sandwich using a handle on the side of the unit.
Are we using some esoteric terminology here that delineates a top plate from a so-called “template?”
Looking at the product pages, I do see that whatever you call it that she is lowering is not a solid plate as is found on my maker…is that your “template??”
Most folks probably don’t know all the nomenclature of these devices, just as they might not know about a pressurized and unpressurized portafilter on a pump espresso machine.
According to the video it’s a “wire rack”. Look at the main picture on the woot page, note that the parts of the bread where the metal is touching is the NON toasted part, and realize the fundamental design flaw of this unit… the metal that presses into the sandwich does not generate heat. You can call it whatever you’d like to call it, that doesn’t make it functionally correct. It’s worthless as a panini press. And worthless as a toaster oven. You can go to the store and get a real panini press for $60 and a toaster over for $40. If this was a convection toaster oven, it might be worth it, but it’s not, it’s a stupid marketing gimmick.
I don’t know jack about espresso machines, but I’d be willing to bet you would be irritated if a company tried to sell a pressurized filter unit that wasn’t really pressurized, but used some kind of gimmick making it similar but not really.
This is probably what the other poster meant by esoteric language. I never knew there was a requirement for the plates to generate their own heat.
And I would have thought the top element would have been sufficient for that, something I assumed it had as a toaster oven (not just a mini oven) and the woman in the video mentioning the “top element” when mentioning the “broil” function.