Breville Smart Oven Pro: Should You Buy This Countertop Oven?

The Smart Oven Pro is near the top end of the Breville countertop range of countertop ovens and toaster ovens in terms of price and functions.

You probably want to know what this Breville Smart Oven Pro can do for you, whether you like all of the features, and whether you think you’ll actually use them or at least know that you can use them by increasing your cooking skills. At the end of this review, you will be able to know if the Smart Oven Pro is a good buy for you or not.

Credit: Breville

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What Is Breville?

Breville is based in Sydney, Australia, and has been making and selling appliances there since 1932, when Bill O’Brien and Harry Norville combined their last names to create Breville. The O’Brien family has remained a part of Breville over the years since its founding.

Breville started with radios and then televisions before moving into their first toaster oven or any other small appliances. Breville has grown since then by adding new appliances to its product line, making a big splash with its “toastie” sandwich maker in the early 1970s, an early version of a toaster oven, and also by expanding in many areas of the world including the United States in 2002.

Breville has become one of the most innovative small oven manufacturers in the market since making a name for itself with the toastie. In the process, Breville has won 40 design awards and has over 100 patents. As part of its ever-growing small appliances product line, Breville has introduced many different countertop models at different price points over the years to appeal to different segments of the market. These include blenders (you can read our detailed review of the Breville Super Q premium blender here), food processors, mixers, Nespresso machines, ice cream makers, and many other small appliances.

Breville has gained a lot of experience in starting with toaster ovens and then countertop ovens and are known for some innovative features and creative designs like using the top of their warm countertop ovens as a built-in warming rack. Or, alternatively, they designed a solid oven door handle that can also act as legs for the oven door when fully opened so you can more easily reach into the hot oven without having to hold the oven door open.

What Are The Basic Features Of The Smart Oven Pro?

The Smart Oven Pro is rated at 1,800 watts of power, the same power rating as a lot of higher priced countertop ovens like the Wolf Gourmet Countertop oven (you can see our review of the Wolf Gourmet Countertop oven here). It will also produce up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit of heat.

Credit: Breville

This stainless steel countertop oven also has a proprietary smart operating system, the Element IQ™ cooking system, as the pricier Breville Smart Oven Air has. The Element IQ™ system automatically adjusts the oven’s cooking elements and other settings for whichever mode you select to optimize cooking time. The Smart Oven Pro also includes a convection fan to better distribute oven air inside your oven for more even and faster cooking.

There are ten cooking modes to choose from with the Element IQ™  system. These are Bake, Broil, Roast, and Warm as you might expect, but also includes specialty modes like Bagel, Pizza, Cookies, Toast, Reheat, and Slow Cook.

When you select your preferred mode, Element IQ™ will then adjust the five heating elements and temperature settings for the best results. So, for example, when you select Pizza mode, the Element IQ system uses each of the fire heating elements at full power for a crispy pizza while Slow Cook only uses two of the heating elements at a low temperature for long, slow cooking.

Apart from these cooking modes, the Breville Smart Oven Pro also has a Frozen Foods button, that will adjust cooking time and temperature settings if your food is frozen rather than fresh when you start cooking it. The Frozen Foods button works with the Cookies, Pizza, Bagel, and Toast functions.

Another feature in the Breville Smart Oven Pro is an auto-eject function that uses a magnet to pull the middle oven rack out of the oven when you open the oven door. That way you don’t have to touch the hot rack when you’re removing whatever is on it. This is an example of the small design tweaks that Breville incorporates in their ovens to make things easier for you to use your oven.

Another nice little feature included in the BOV845SS is an interior oven light.

These features make the Breville Smart Oven Pro anything other than a standard toaster oven.

For some perspective of how the Breville Smart Oven Pro compares with other Breville countertop ovens, even a toaster oven, you can see our detailed review of Breville’s most expensive smart oven, the Smart Oven Air here, and a lower-priced Breville smart oven, Compact Smart Oven here. You can also see how all of the Breville ovens stack up to other countertop ovens in our detailed review here.

How Does Each Of The Main Cooking Modes Work?

The Breville Smart Oven Pro main cookie modes each have a default temperature and cooking time. These modes are bagel, bake, roast, broil, pizza, cookies, reheat, warm, and slow cook.

To change cooking time or temperature, you just rotate the two dials on the front of the oven. You can also change the default temperature display from Fahrenheit to Celsius. Once changed, the settings will retain those settings until you change them again, so you can use the same time and temperature for routine cooking jobs.

Once your cooking time has elapsed, the BOV845SS will alert you that your food is ready.

Cooking Modes In Detail

Bagel

Bagel mode will crisp one side of a bagel or any other kind of bread you’d like to use in this mode, while the other side is much less crisped. If instead, you want a crisp on both sides of your bagel or other bread, use the Toast mode.

With this mode, you select the level of darkness that you prefer by using the Temperature dial to select the level. The default setting is 4, with a range from 1 to 7.

You can also select the number of slices for this mode, from 1 to 6 and the default number of slices selected is 4.

Once you make your selections, the Breville Smart Oven Pro will automatically set the cooking time needed to produce your settings.

Toast

Toast mode will even crisp both sides of bread, frozen waffles, or English muffins just like in your basic toaster oven. But unlike a toaster oven, the Smart Oven Pro gives you a lot more temperature control.

Just like Bagel mode, in Toast mode you select the level of darkness and number of slices and the Smart Oven Pro will automatically set the right cooking time.

The default setting for darkness is 4, and the range is from 1 to 7, just turn the Temperature dial to adjust to your desired setting. The range of slices that you may select is from 1 to 6 and the default is 4. Changing the number of slices is also easily done by rotating the Temperature dial.

Bake

Bake mode automatically selects Convection cooking mode and a default temperature of 325 degrees and is used for everything baking, cookies to small casseroles, etc.

The default cooking time is 30 minutes but you can choose to select up to 10 hours of bake time (if temperatures are set below 300 degrees, 2 hours max if above it). You can also just turn off the Convection mode if you prefer not to use it.

The maximum cooking temperature in Bake is 450 degrees.

Roast

Use Roast for dense foods like thick cuts of meat.

The default settings in Roast mode is 350 degrees and 1 hour cooking time. Convection cooking is also automatically turned on in this mode. Each of these modes can be easily changed.

Max cooking time in Roast is 10 hours if you set your temperature below 300 degrees and 2 hours above it. Max temperature in Roast is 450 degrees.

Roast mode also automatically includes preheating time. Once the temperature is reached, an alert will sound.

Broil

Broil mode uses the highest temperature setting in the Breville Smart Oven Pro to sear or crisp food.

The preset temperature is 500 degrees, but you may also select two other temperatures: 400 degrees or 300 degrees.

The default cooking time is 1o minutes, but you may select up to 20 minutes of cooking time.

How Do The Specialty Cooking Modes In The Smart Oven Pro Work?

Pizza

Pizza mode will cook pizza, fresh or frozen, and from 6 inches in diameter to 13 inches in diameter. Pizza mode is specially designed to melt cheese and roast toppings on the top of the pizza while also making the crust on the bottom crispy.

You can select your pizza size by rotating the Time dial. Once you make your selection, the cooking time needed will be calculated automatically.

The Pizza mode defaults to 450 degrees, with Convection cooking and Frozen Food mode selected.

When you start the oven in Pizza mode, preheating will begin and alert you when the preset temperature is reached. If you’re using a pizza stone, let it heat up during preheating.

Cookies

Cookie mode isn’t just for cookies, but also for cooking biscuits, cinnamon rolls, and other similar bakery food. This mode is designed to accommodate these baked goods whether they are made with fresh or frozen dough.

Convection is automatically turned on in this mode and the default cooking time is set for 11 minutes (q hour is maximum) at a default cooking temperature of 35o degrees (maximum is 450 degrees).

Reheat

Reheat defaults to 325 degrees for 15 minutes to reheat whatever you may have in your refrigerator, for example, without browning.

You may alternatively choose a Reheat temperature of up to 450 degrees and up to two hours of cooking time.

Warm

Use Warm to keep your food warm in the oven after it’s cooked to prevent the growth of harmful bacteria. The default time and temperature is 1 hour and 160 degrees, with temperature and time up to 450 degrees and 2 hours.

Slow Cook

This function is a great option for small slow-cook dishes, like pulled pork or small cuts of brisket. It’s also a nice option to have in your countertop oven since you’re still able to use your main oven for cooking while you slow cook in the Breville Smart Oven Pro.

Slow Cook uses “HI” or “LO” settings to cook for a long time, those are the only two temperature options.

In “HI” mode, you can select anywhere from 2 to 8 hours of Slow Cook cooking time and 4 to 10 hours in “LO” mode.

Once you start Slow Cook mode, the oven will preheat, alert you when the oven’s preheated, to allow you to put your food in the oven. Then after the cooking time has been reached, the oven will switch to Warm mode for up to 2 hours.

What Don’t They Tell You About The Interior Area Of The Breville Smart Oven Pro

The interior oven space of the oven “box” is about 0.80 cubic feet, but what isn’t detailed is the actual usable area when you factor in oven racks and heating elements.

When you deduct for those things, the usable oven space is about 0.45 cubic feet. The interior measurements are 11.25 inches deep, 5.25 inches high, and 13.25 inches wide (see photo below).

Another way to consider the interior space of the Smart Oven Pro is to know what can fit inside of it. As can be seen by our photograph below of the Smart Oven Pro interior, a 13-inch diameter pizza pan will fit. The oven interior is specifically designed to fit this sized pizza pan, and you can also see that the back of the oven is partially concave to fit the round edges of the pan.

Breville Smart Oven Pro Interior, Credit: newkitchenlife.com

What About The Exterior Size Of The The Breville Smart Oven Pro?

The exterior of the Breville Smart Oven Pro measures 14.5 inches deep, 18.5 inches wide, and 11 inches high. By comparison, the Breville Mini Smart Oven, Breville’s smallest smart oven, is the closest Breville oven to a toaster oven in size (but not close to a toaster oven in features – the smart ovens have a lot more features) measures 12.9 inches deep, 17.7 wide, and 10.5 inches high.

What’s Included With The Breville Smart Oven Pro?

The Breville Smart Oven Pro includes a lot of accessories, at least compared with other countertop ovens. Included are a 12-inch by 12-inch baking pan, a broiling pan (also measuring 12″ by 12″), and a 13″ diameter pizza pan, as well as a built-in crumb tray and wire racks.

The optional bamboo cutting board is a nice feature that fits on top of the oven and is a very smart use of space.

So What Do We Recommend About The Breville Smart Oven Pro?

People really like their Breville Smart Oven Pro and are really enthusiastic about it. We recommend it as a very functional countertop oven for the price with nice design features and built-in elements, including Breville’s Element IQ™  system.

The standard warranty provided by Breville is too short (1 year), small appliances can fail in the first year or two that you own, so you need a longer warranty to protect you. We recommend buying an extended warranty to cover you for as long as possible. You can see warranty options as well as the latest pricing for the Breville Smart Oven Pro below.

See the latest pricing, extended warranties at Amazon here in the standard Stainless Steel color.

New Kitchen Life is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.