Best Countertop Ovens UK – The Best Convection Mini Ovens for UK Market

The oven’s technological diversity is enormous, and non-techies sometimes can’t make a difference in which breed they pet. However, if you own an oven that is small and works as an alternative to a stove, you most probably have a countertop oven.

With countertops, also named as worktop ovens, tabletop ovens, or small baking ovens, this category also flashes different technologies to cook your food, like microwave, convection, etc. This detailed buying guide includes the best countertop ovens in UK, countertop or mini oven reviews, and how to buy perfect countertop ovens in the UK.

But before moving to the actual products, let’s see how you choose a best mini oven in the UK;

How to Choose the Best Countertop Oven in the UK:

Easy, Relax! There is no fancy and technical stuff regarding this category. As these are mini ovens for baking, a typical countertop oven won’t feature a long list of features, hybrid fuel systems, and other knick-knacks. But still, keep the below points in your mind before you click the buy button;

Power Sources and Consumption:

Unfortunately and fortunately, there isn’t a lot of variety in this department. The majority of the time, you’ll only see electric countertop ovens sharing a massive chunk of the market share, with the slightest possibility of gas-powered tabletop ovens on the other end. This is because these are primarily indoor appliances, so being electric is the most efficient, safest, and readily available fuel type.

That’s why I said fortunately and unfortunately because electric is the only option which can be a disappointment for those who look for tabletop ovens other than electric. On the same note, it can be a blessing for those who don’t want to go into complex assembly and setups.

So, being an electric countertop oven, the performance measurement is in watts which have to be at least 1500 watts, not to be an under-power oven. The domestic electric tabletop oven ranges from 1200 -2500 watts. Above this range, the category changes, and you’ll mostly see commercial countertop ovens series featuring (most of the time) 2500-5000+ watts.

Technology and Baking Space:  

Don’t confuse yourself between a convection countertop oven and microwaves. Typically, the convection technique employs a convection belt with a fan to throw hot air, which quickly heats up the food. The primary purpose of convection is grilling, browning, roasting, baking, and making food crispy.

On the other hand, a microwave uses 2.4 or 5.0 GHz of radiation technology to cook, reheat, and defrost foods from the inside out for much more evenly cooking.

So when you are going to buy the best countertop ovens for baking or reheating purposes, be very mindful of the countertop technology and its functionalities.

On the size and space part, the little is better if you’re much more strict on timing. The cooking space gets measured in liters, and 12L should be the smallest oven for baking and reheating purposes as less space will bring more quick results.

However, if you have multipurpose goals and plans to put whole meals in the oven, try more oversized countertops or commercial countertop ovens featuring 30L+ space. These appliances will incorporate more significant engines, so the power consumption and cooking timing will be considerably different than small countertop ovens.

So, the bigger size will leave a bigger footprint for counter space. However, some advanced tabletop ovens come in a compact body with larger baking space. Taking this point in your mind, you can see an air fryer, toaster, and stove (heated plates) in a single package that can save a lot of your counter or table space.

Nonetheless, no matter how big and mini convection countertop oven you have, allow 10” of clearance space from combustible and electric appliances like refrigerators and freezers.  

Apart from all these, you can watch out for the design and price department according to your requirements:

In a Time Crunch? Want to Make a Quick Decision? Here is the Best CounterTop Oven for In 2 Minutes!

We perfectly know some hyperactive souls may not have some spare minutes to go deep into each of the mini oven reviews in a quest of the best countertop oven to buy for their pizza journey. So, here is a quick overview;

Regarding efficient and innovative Baking, sturdy construction, and Extensive interior, We looked no further than Sage BOV820BSS as our Champion countertop oven in UK. With the gigantic 0.8 cubic feet of interior space, many “Smart” features, and IQ elements, it’s a complete and versatile package for every type of chef. 

However, on the second spot, we see a tie between Cuisinart-TOA 65 and Ninja Foodie SP101. If you want a bigger space with a convection option, TOA-65 comes first. But if you admire the more intuitive design, fancier looks, and quick baking operation, SP101 takes the lead.

1. Sage BOV820BSS – Overall The Best Countertop Oven UK

Why Do We Choose This: Looking for the best countertop ovens in the UK in the midrange category, Sage BOV820 will be a kitchen gadget that’ll hit your screen repeatedly. This convection countertop oven has everything for a robust, ampler cooking chamber and is a strong performer in multiple cooking forms. So, if you are not short of kitchen space, the “Smart Oven” will be a fine replacement for Cuisinart CSO-300, Panasonic FlashXpress, and Frigidare.

Who’s it for: Beginners looking to get started with preset cooking features, People looking for durability and efficiency, chefs stepping-up from small countertop ovens, versatile menus, spacious kitchen counters.

Who Should Avoid it: Small kitchens, Budget users,

The Best Selling Points of Sage BOV820BSS:

• Preset Memory: While trying different menus, preset cooking temperature settings are just a sigh of relief for many amateur chefs.
• Biggest Interior: Within the category of small tabletop ovens, it has the largest 0.8 cubic feet of cooking space, which is one of the highest.
• Intuitive Design: Though its dialer and knobs, a more prominent LCD helps the beginner with perfect cooking operations.

Sage or Breville, it’s a similar brand for different regions. When you mind robustness, ease of use, and looking to get impressed with the touch of “Smartness,” BOV820BSS is the fine pick.

Design and Usability:

The Stainless steel silverish-metallic body looks alluring, feels robust, and furnishes superb durability. The large digital LCD displays the whole oven activity, which becomes nimble when trying different menus without a firm grip over temperatures and timings.

While we loved preset settings from roasting-baking, the “Smart oven” with 3 rack heights has markings on the door to cook the right menu at the right height. So, gone are the days when you pull out the user manual whenever trying unique menus.

Also, the preset memory memorizes your temperature settings for a particular menu and sets it up for the next time you cook the same item. While these designs’ intelligence can supply splendid ease of usability for amateurs to expert chefs, it conserves your stamina from navigating the undesired menus.

Performance and Temperatures:

As always, we gave the Performance analysis department to Brian, and he reported the “Element IQ system” is actually programmatically preset for temperature settings for easy usability and does a lot of sweetening to Sage countertop oven performance.

While it’s a convection countertop oven, the convection settings through this Element IQ system automatically turns-on when you opt for bake, roast, pizza, cookies, and reheat functions; you save time and energy. This drives the rookie chef’s life painlessly, so they feel more confident in the kitchens.

Moreover, the temperature gets to 500F with a timer of a maximum of 2 hours. Being a native of the countertop toaster oven category, the toasting capabilities are impressive as we told the Toaster preset the number of marshmallow cookies, darkness/brown setting from 1-7 scale. Incredibly, we had some more exquisite results than all other electric countertop ovens running in competition.

Moving further in temperature accuracy, the Quality team performed a lot of testing, but the pizza preset is something that got our attention. We weren’t “really” impressed by the Pizza preset as it slightly overcooked every type of crust and size every time we gave it a pizza job. But if you’re an intermediate pizza chef, this oven works well with your manual temperature and timings settings.

Overall, Sage BOV820BSS is a compact size oven with a big belly to cook fantastic foods by adding a lot of “Smartness” into your cooking experience.

Alternatives to Sage BOV820BSS – Panasonic FlashXpress, Cuisinart CSO-300

Sage BOV820BSS and Cuisinart CSO-300 are well-known rivals in the convection and toaster countertop world. For the design part, both deliver crispy and innovative designs with a big LCD display on the right shoulder of the oven. Capacity-wise, sage has more edge, but performance-wise, Cuisinart has some more sharpness due t0 the steam + convection duo. While most of the toaster ovens don’t offer this feature, CSO-300 beautifully executes this feature at the cost of a 50+ bucks price difference.

---

2. Russell Hobbs 26095 Mini Oven – Best Mini Air Fryer Oven

Why do we choose this? Russell Hobbs 26090 was a success, so the manufacturer thought to make further improvements; that’s why we saw a new “express air fryer” in the shape of Russell Hobbs 26095. For people who are looking for small countertop ovens but versatility as their top priority, it’s not only versatile but a compact body oven, a quickie to cook your food, and power efficient. The design matches the taste of retro lovers with multiple knobs and dialers, but performance overweighs this old-school feature.

Who’s it for:  Extremely Small kitchens, versatile menus, grilling and baking

Who should avoid it: Rookie chefs, large volumes

The Best Selling points of Russell Hobbs 26095:

• Versatile Performer: It sees an upgrade from its older model, featuring 5 different modes of cooking.
• Quick Cooking Turnaround: The smaller 12.6L space is a blessing in disguise, as 26095 is like a “rapid-fire” kitchen gadget.
• Significantly Improved preheating: Basically, it’s a convection oven with some hormones of air fryer, which makes it 4x faster when it comes to the preheating period in typical countertop convection ovens.

The air-fryer cum Convection oven is one of the best mini ovens in UK, showcasing good value for money with its compact body rendering boosted power. It doesn’t get a “Major” overhaul from its previous model yet sees the Tefal Actifry Genius XL 2-in-1 tabletop oven as its smarter alternative.

Design and Build Quality:

For the build quality, Austin reported to us majorly the good things about this small baking oven and air fryer. We concluded that this appliance renders good finishing, and the stainless steel body case adds 6.47kg weight to its profile.

Though it’s not the lightest weight considering its 12.6L capacity and 35.8 x 45.1 x 30.5 cm dimensions, it depicts the excellent standard of components used in this kitchen gadget.

With the very first look at the machine, the design sense looks straightforward and well-executed, but at the same time, a little old-school due to the same old manual dialers and knobs. Considering it as an air fryer, the closest alternatives come with advanced controller settings, including touch screens and digital meters.

However, Russell Hobbs 26095 is a performance power pack that overshadows its mini-&-minor weaknesses.

Performance and Temperatures:

With no substantial overhaul, this electric tabletop oven features an additional cooking mode from its older brother. The 5 cooking modes include baking, grilling, keeping warm, air fryer, and toast boast tons of versatility, making it an all-rounder for most of your kitchen chores.

But then, Brian tested each of these modes, and we assumed the compact 12.6L baking space is its biggest weapon to swiftly cook food with a claimed 60% reduction in power consumption.

That being said, this small countertop oven has an improved cooking speed than a typical convection oven. However, we tested the air fryer as an “extremely” sensitive thing. Due to the compact cooking space, the food will come burnt if you slightly mismanage the cooking time or temperature. Though we don’t consider it a bug, the solution we found is to keep the temperature 10-20 degrees low than desired temperature settings while air-frying.

Technically, this little buddy runs extremely hot, and air-frying doesn’t include any lubrication or use of oil, so the narrow space with sizzling hot air sometimes ruins the party. But mind it; one can learn how to manage this thing.

Overall, with a 220c temperature limit, this worktop oven in UK is well-known for its sublime fusion of features and performance for small but diversified kitchens.

Alternatives to Russell Hobbs – Tower T14045, Philips Airfryer HD9240/90, Tefal Actifry 2 in 1, Ninja AF100UK

Tefal and Tower are both serious contenders to compete with Russell Hobbs’s mini convection oven in the UK market. However, we choose Tower T14045 due to its intent and appearance as a genuine countertop oven. Undoubtedly, the Russell Hobbs comes more with an air fryer intent.

Yet, it’s a small countertop oven with lots of versatility and great value for money with its frying, baking, roasting, and grilling abilities. On the other, Tower is a big boy, featuring 42L of capacity with almost the same functions. Both have practically identical cooking modes, but things differ when looking at 1000w and 600w hot plates for heating soups and other meals, yet at a higher price.

---

3. Ninja Foodi DT200UK – Big and Multi-purpose Countertop Oven

Why do we choose this? When someone ask a best countertop oven in UK with multiple wings to fly high in the domain of versatility, space, style, and performance, Ninja Foodi DT200UK should be your strong consideration. The wide range of cooking modes and much more stylish design make it an elegant appliance matching your kitchen aesthetics.

Though the temperature peak isn’t extraordinary, it runs scorching, preparing your meals in the course of minutes, so it also saves electricity. Yet, the 2400W engine is a loud mouth, producing noise that may disturb users with sensitive ears.

Who’s it For: Health conscious foodies who avoid oil, moderate kitchen spaces, busy chefs with multiple kitchen chores, people looking for energy efficient and quick food processors.

Who Should Avoid It: Not so frequent users, limited kitchen spaces as it’s a big countertop oven, limited budget users under 200 pounds, users looking for a feature pack specific options like dehydrator or toaster.

The Best Selling Points of Ninja Foodie DT200UK:

• Bigger Space: Though it comes under the best mini oven category, the depth of the cooking bay with multiple racks is impressive.
• Attractive design: It isn’t touchscreen but is far from dialers and knobs. A digital display and fancy and tactile buttons horizontally raised at the forehead elevate the appliance’s elegance.
• Wide range of Functions: The 10-in-1 multifunctional approach will really relieve some burden from the shoulders of busy chefs.

Technically, the Ninja Foodie targets the audience, wanting their hands to get dirty with different menus and cooking experimentation frequently. With an eminent style and robust performance, it gives a tough contest to the very famous Cuisinart TOB-260N1, Hamilton Beach 31103DA and other similar boys in the market.

Design, Build Quality and Maintenance:

It’s a fusion of uniqueness and elegance, considering the design part. The horizontal black glossy finish handle, featuring the digital display and control buttons on the forehead, makes it distant from the orthodox and typical “oven” design. We really liked the combination of black and grey color scheme, and the luminous whitish LED display delivers a killer look in low light ambiance.

Regarding build quality, Austin briefed us about robust stainless steel chassis that showcase exceptional firmness. Perhaps, that’s why this mini convection oven weighs about 40lbs, which is a bit higher than its twin brother Ninja DT-201.

Undoubtedly, design and build quality can enchant mostly chefs, but maintenance is a weak point here. The accessories that come along with the oven, including pans, are not dishwasher safe. So, you only have to clean it manually. For this reason, many users find cleaning and maintaining this appliance a bit problematic.

However, there is a solution for every problem; you can use parchment paper or aluminum foil to save accessories from spillage and grease build-ups.

Performance and Temperatures:

The highest it gets is not something we say extraordinary. Yet, with its 2400 Watts motor, it’s a pretty quickie. As it’s a 29L electric tabletop oven, Brian being a foodie, took full opportunity to test it against 5lbs full roast, chocolate cookies, fries, potato wedges, and other menus.

The results were pretty satisfying; the roast got done in 50 minutes with an upper-moderate brownish texture and impressively juicy and tender from the inside. Air frying results were somewhat average, with some potato wedges remaining dry from the inside. But then, the chocolate cookies were soft and rose well under 8 minutes.

Well, the command to handle such a diversified menu tells the power and the need to have this appliance in the kitchen of every creative and foodie soul.

To be honest, all went well, but the fan was louder than this league’s contenders. We measured around 60.8 dba while roasting. This isn’t a noteworthy issue, but it can disturb sensitive ears.

Overall, Ninja DT200Uk is a feature-packed countertop toaster oven to pleasure most of your cravings.

Alternatives to Ninja Foodie DT200UK – Cuisinart TOB206N1, Breville BOV900BSS, Hamilton Beach 31103DA

We took Breville BOV900BSS as a proximate competitor to Ninja Foodie. Though both convection countertop ovens are very similar in terms of features and specs, the main difference one can judge is in design, cooking maturity, and price. Breville gets the somewhat same dialers and knobs stuff, but a big LCD tempts the eyes. For the cooking part, Breville almost does what Ninja can. Yet, it’s more mature than Ninja, especially in the baking, roasting, and Air frying category.

---

4. Cuisinart TOA-65 – A Robust Convection Countertop Oven

Why Do We Choose This: Seeing the previous Cuisinart TOA-6o, this newer iteration sees a significant overhaul in the interface, performance, and, more specifically, temperature accuracy. It’s a biggie in the league of small baking ovens, so it can perfectly handle the volumes. While it’s a digital countertop oven, some amateur chefs may get on a steep learning curve while interacting with this machine. However, if one gets used to it, it’ll be your partner in crime while doing every type of food processing.

Who’s it for? Midrange budget users, stepping up from analogue ovens, Durability seekers, versatile menus

Who Should Avoid it: Congested Kitchens, Budget Users,

The Best Selling Points of TOA-65:

• Simplistic Digital Console: There isn’t a cluster of buttons and dialers for easy usability. Only some essential knobs and buttons and a giant LCD screen for operational information
• Sturdy Built Quality: Robust stainless steel body along with dishwasher-safe accessories, giving easy peace of mind in the maintenance and durability department
• Bigger Capacity: It can even cook 4+ lbs of whole roast with 0.6 Cubic meters of interior space. So can handle a variety of items in a single go, saving you time and energy.

Cuisinart TOA-65 is physically like a biggie in the league of minors, having all the power to handle diversified and versatile menus with a much-improved interface. For that reason, we can see this machine competing with alikes of Ninja Foodie SP101, Gourmia GTF7450, and Hamilton Beach 31103DA.

Design and Usability:

We already tested the TOA-60 model, so on a first impression, Leonard reported a notable transformation from analog to a digital interface, worthy of an upgrade. That said, simplicity is the primest element of this design for creamy usability, and we really loved this.

Though the Forehead is covered with basic buttons, dials, and a Big LED, there are no unnecessary fonts, markings, or branding; minimalism certainly raises its elegance. Besides, like other mini convection ovens in the UK, pre-programmed settings navigate through knobs and a touchscreen, constructing it super-easy for rookie chefs to take complete control of this appliance. 

The exterior is sleek but bulky, too, in terms of height. Though it won’t cover excessive counter space, the cabinet’s height over your counter will be a concern as we tested 1.5ft as the safest cabinet height. But don’t worry, it won’t eat that much of your counter space.

Well, the interior is roomy, furnishing 0.6 cubic feet of space, which isn’t bad at all. But Sage BOV820BSS has 0.8 cubic feet, the highest in this league.

Performance and Temperatures:

With 9 preset functions, we also fine-tuned these preset settings, and it felt like we have and can do almost everything with this oven. It gives you impressive controls over this appliance, but good temperature handling skills are required.

Preheating is super-fast; it can reach its highest 450F in almost 7 minutes, coming neck-neck with our Ninja Foodie SP101. As it can advance highs, it can also be set on lowest convection settings for slow cooking and dehydrating purposes which we adored the most while eating dried apple and pineapple.

Brian is a super impatient foodie, so he personally loved the proofing function, which can stimulate the process of making delicious pizzas and bread.

Although the pizza oven is perkiest at temperature accuracy, we found toasting a somewhat red spot of this oven. We tested 6 pieces of toast and patty buns, which were slightly burned each time. We kept the temperature 10F lower than the recommended heat, and still, we can’t say the results were impressive.

All this testing ran on smooth and quiet fan performance, measuring 54.2 DBA on its height. It was such a solace for sensitive ears.

Overall, the Cuisinart TOA-65 can be the best countertop oven, more specifically, if you are planning to step up from its previous model or mini ovens like Hobbs 26090, 26095, Tefal Actifry, etc.

Alternatives to Cuisinart TOA-65 – Ninja Foodie SP101, Breville smart oven;

Breville is a good machine, but we took Ninja foodie due to a lot of similarities between these two. Though TOA-65 got a major overhaul in the design and look department, Ninja SP101 has a much crispier, more attractive, and creamy interface. Performance is almost the same, but capacity-wise, Cuisinart holds better specs. Also, Cuisinart has convection controls; Ninja lacks this. However, the Ninja Sp101 has an extended cooking timer than TOA-65.

---

5. Ninja Foodie SP101 – The Best Value-to-Money Countertop Oven

Why Do We Choose This: Though the ninja Sp101 8-in-1 digital air fryer countertop oven has some baking capacity limitations, it does a marvelous job on the design, performance, and space-saving part. First of all, the digital one-dialer design is a treat for those who are not into dialers and buttons to navigate through the settings. The broil and dehydrating features are something that you’ll majorly encounter as a weakness of this league’s ovens; SP101 carries these cutting-edge attributes to stand out from the small baking oven category competition. Overall, this machine could be a savvy choice for small countertops seeking versatile but robust performance.

Who’s it for: Really congested kitchens, users looking for a fancy, versatile and easy maintenance appliance

Who Should Avoid It: High volumes, baking big items like full roast, large spaces looking for specialized appliances like air fryers or dehydrators, budget users

Best Selling Points Ninja Foodie Sp101:

• Design Masterpiece in its league: Apart from “Cool” aesthetics, intelligence in the design section qualifies it to grab full marks in maintenance and space-saving niches.
• Perky Versatility: A number of presets allows you to enjoy sublime versatility from vegetables to fast foods to desserts to junk
• A Strong Performer: A pleasing value-to-money package that cooks much evenly with Instantaneous preheat and cooking timings

Small countertop ovens are good, but Ninja Foodie Sp101 is something else when the goal is to reach versatility induced in compactness. With its cost above 200+ bucks, the close counterpart it experiences is CuisineArt TOA-65, Cosori Air Fryer, and Breville Smart mini oven.

Design and Usability:

You see tons of mini ovens for baking in UK, but somehow design stays not the best part of their execution. Ninja Foodie took the smartest route while making a one-dialer digital design behind a black glossy finish as a core for easy usability for immature to expert chefs.

The digital display is curved on the oven’s head, improving visibility without bending down. The only dialer in the control panel allows you to navigate the settings to easily play with the oven.

While this was the usability part, the innovation has also been spilled in this Small countertop oven’s structure. The foldable design comprises the hinged foot that folds upside the oven when it’s not in use. So, users with minimal kitchen counter space who get tricked by “Space-saving” design will ACTUALLY experience an Excellent design in the true sense.

Other than that, the crumb-release feature opens up the lower lip of the oven, and it makes the user’s life easy while cleaning.

Performance and Temperatures:

Slow performers or quick performers, forget that! This best mini oven is an “accurate performer” regarding temperature. Brian stated the results were impressive as this oven, despite having a capacity of 13” pizza, quickly preheats and cooks desired foods. In our tests, it took nearly 7 minutes to go from 0-450F, which is the fastest among all the appliances in this range.

Factually, the temperature accuracy is sublime. You only have to keep an eye on delicate menus as, due to the slim baking cabin, it gets sizzling hot in minutes, resulting in overcooked or slightly burnt outputs. We also tested its bigger brothers Ninja Dt200 and 201, and we didn’t find any compromise in the cooking quality except for the lesser presets.

We know there is a capacity limitation due to the 2-rack interior, but you can place low-height menus, and it indeed does the purpose.

Overall, It’s a compact package showing smartness, aesthetics, and performance for users looking for a top-tier toaster and air-fryer ovens on a mid-range budget.

Alternatives to Ninja Foodie SP101 – Cuisinart TOA-65, Cosori Airfryer, Breville Smart Airfryer

Cuisinart TOA-65 aggressively challenges the Ninja. While both counterparts have almost the same intent, SP101 has much fancier looks and easy usability. On the other hand, Cuisinart hit its opponent’s right pain point with a bigger capacity, 8 vs. 4 Quarts. The Cuisinart has convection ability which Ninja lacks, but Ninja takes it somewhat back with a 90-minutes timer vs. Cuisinart 60 minutes. Technically and specs-wise, the Cuisinart TOA-65 has a better range and count.

---

FAQs

Which is the best mini oven in UK?

If it’s about the best mini oven in the UK market, the sales graph shows Russell Hobbs 26090, 26095 beats the charts. However, most people prioritize Tefal Actifry, Ninja Foodie SP101, and other similar brands.

Are countertop ovens any good?

Countertop ovens are specifically good for saving your energy cost, giving your versatile cooking experience while consuming less space area. And top of all, countertop ovens are usually cheaper than other full-fledged oven appliances.