Breville Quick Touch Review

While the Breville does have a sleek, flashy exterior with a more detailed screen and interface than many other models, it falls short in arguably the most important traits for these products: heating and defrosting food. It also has a very high list price, more than the top scoring model, the Panasonic NN-SD745S, which earned 17 more points in our tests.

Heating

This model failed miserably at heating a frozen burrito, with the center temperature well below the stated minimum. It was also heated extremely unevenly, with an average temperature difference of 21.5°F.

The Breville fared even worse in our lasagna test, once again failing to heat the center to the necessary temperature and exhibiting a significant amount of average temperature variation between different regions of the lasagna. It averaged about 21.9°F, substantially more than the 3.1°F of the Oster or the 3.8°F of the Kenmore.

The Breville did redeem itself a minuscule bit in our leftover, doing an average job. We used the “Sensor IQ reheat” function, and the green beans, mashed potatoes, and chicken tenders were all roughly heated the same amount, with the green beans being slightly warmer. There were some warm and cool spots, but nothing too extreme in either direction.

After a brief respite, the Breville was back to performing poorly in out chicken pot pie test. The center failed to reach the minimum temperature, and there was an average temperature discrepancy of 13.6°F between different areas of the pie.

The Breville finished out our test with an acceptable performance in our Hot Pocket test and with the chocolate heat map. All three regions of the Hot Pocket hit the minimum temperature stated by the package directions, and there wasn't a ton of temperature variation, only 6°F on average.

We heated chocolate on non-stick paper in the Breville for one minute, and looked for inconsistencies in melting. The center was still solid, and the very outer edge had just begun to melt.

Ease of Use

We made a bag of popcorn and baked a potato using the preset buttons. The Breville did about average, doing better at making popcorn than baking the potato. It made awesome popcorn that wasn't burned at all, though it did leave a decent number of kernels unpopped.

It produced a slightly subpar baked potato, with the center and right side appearing slightly undercooked and firm, although the left side was cooked to perfection.

This model doesn't have any keypad quick buttons, but it does have a “+ 30 Seconds” button that automatically starts the microwave. The Breville has a great interior light, and you can easily see the food inside while it's being heated. This model can act as a kitchen timer, but not while you are using it to heat food.

We weren't the biggest fans of the lack of a keypad, but this was the best of the dial interface models. The Breville was a sturdy model and was the hardest to slide on a smooth countertop.

Defrosting

This model only defrosted about 4.9 ounces of the turkey, with the remaining log being difficult to break apart and likely requiring additional time in the microwave. The Breville does notify you at the halfway point to flip the meat.

This product performed slightly better at defrosting the muffin, but not by much. We used the Smart Defrost function set to the weight that most closely matches the muffin. The top was significantly cooler than the bottom or the sides, with some of the chocolate chips still completely frozen. The Breville does have a time defrost function, as well as a smart defrost, where you enter the weight and food type that most closely matches what you are defrosting, such as frozen meals, meat, poultry, soup, or fish.

Speed

The Breville raised the temperature of water by 32°F over one minute, about 5°F less than the top-scoring model.

Value

This model cost the most and scored close to the bottom of the pack — not a good value at all.

Conclusion