Breville Smart Oven Pro BOV845BSS Review: Exactly Who Should Buy It (And Who Should Keep Looking)

The Breville BOV845BSS Smart Oven Pro is best for home cooks who want a capable, no-fuss countertop oven that handles everyday tasks — toast, roast, bake, broil — with consistent, reliable results. It’s a mid-to-large capacity oven with 1800 watts and 10 cooking functions that genuinely performs well out of the box. It’s not the right fit if you’re after air frying, a very tight budget, or a compact footprint.

Safety First: The BOV845BSS reaches up to 450°F and the exterior, door, and accessible surfaces get very hot during use. Always use oven mitts when handling racks or pans, keep at least 4 inches of clearance on all sides, never place it under upper cabinets, and unplug the unit when it’s not in use. Do not leave it running unattended for extended periods, especially when broiling.

Quick Facts: Breville BOV845BSS Smart Oven Pro

• Wattage: 1800W with Element IQ — power is distributed across 5 quartz heating elements
• Capacity: 0.8 cubic feet — fits a 13-inch pizza or a whole chicken up to about 4 lbs
• Temperature range: 120°F to 450°F
• Cooking functions: 10, including Toast, Bagel, Bake, Roast, Broil, Pizza, Cookies, Reheat, Warm, and Slow Cook
• Price tier: Mid-to-premium (usually between $200–$280 depending on the retailer and season)

I’ve had the BOV845BSS sitting on my kitchen counter for a while now, and I’ve run it through everything from weeknight sheet-pan dinners to slow-cooking a small pork shoulder on a Sunday. Here’s what I actually think.

What Makes This Oven Different From the Crowd

The headline feature Breville leans on is Element IQ — their term for a system that moves heat intelligently between five quartz elements depending on the cooking function. On paper, it sounds like marketing. In practice, it actually does something. When you select “Bake,” more heat concentrates at the bottom element to prevent that soggy-bottomed biscuit problem. When you switch to “Broil,” the top elements take over. I was skeptical, but I ran a batch of chocolate chip cookies and they came out evenly browned on the bottoms without the usual hot-spot carnage I’d expect from a countertop oven.

The other thing worth calling out is the slow cook function. A lot of countertop ovens technically have a “warm” setting, but this one goes all the way down to 120°F and holds there steadily enough to actually slow cook. I ran a pork shoulder at 200°F for about 6 hours. It worked. That’s not something the cheaper models can reliably do — or at least not without babysitting a dial.

The interior light is also genuinely useful, not decorative. Sounds trivial. It’s not, once you’ve owned an oven without one.

Real Cooking Performance: What I Actually Tested

Toast

Toast on setting 4 out of 7 gave me a good, even medium-golden result with sandwich bread. Setting 5 is where I’d put it for a slightly crunchier slice. The rack position matters more than most people realize — I learned that using the top slot the first time made the tops of my toast blotchy and uneven. Middle rack is the sweet spot for standard bread.

Roasting

Roasted a 3.5 lb chicken at 400°F on the Roast setting, about 55 minutes. Skin crisped up nicely and the breast meat stayed moist. I used the included roasting rack placed inside the toaster oven baking pan that comes with the unit — it’s a decent setup, though the pan itself is a bit thin and warps a little at high temps over time. Worth grabbing a heavier replacement eventually.

Pizza

The Pizza function defaults to 425°F with bottom element emphasis, which gave me a respectable crust on a fresh dough pizza. A 12-inch fits comfortably. Thirteen inches is technically the max, but honestly it’s tight — the crust on mine brushed the side wall on one side. I’d say 12-inch is the practical ceiling. Frozen pizza at 400°F for 14 minutes was excellent.

Baking

Cookies came out well, as I mentioned. I also did a small loaf of banana bread at 325°F for about 42 minutes and it was done through. The even heat distribution is real — I didn’t need to rotate the pan halfway, which I always have to do with lesser ovens. There’s a recipe on Serious Eats I use for focaccia that I adapted to this oven at 450°F with the bake setting, and it got a proper crackling bottom crust.

Who Should Actually Buy the BOV845BSS

This is the part most reviews gloss over, so I’ll be direct about it.

Buy it if: You’re cooking for 1-4 people and want your countertop oven to genuinely replace your wall oven for most tasks. If you appreciate a simple, well-labeled interface with real physical dials (not just a touchscreen that’s impossible to use with wet hands). If you bake occasionally, roast vegetables two or three times a week, and want a slow cook option without buying another appliance. This is also a solid pick for a vacation home or a smaller apartment where the oven is undersized or inefficient.

Don’t buy it if: You want air frying. The BOV845BSS doesn’t have it. Full stop. If that’s important to you, look at the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro (BOV900BSS) instead. Also skip this one if counter space is genuinely tight — it measures about 18.5 x 15.5 x 11 inches, so it’s not small. And if budget is the primary driver, there are decent options like the Cuisinart TOA-60 at a lower price that’ll handle basic tasks without the Breville’s refinement.

One edge case I haven’t seen other reviews mention: this oven is a strong choice for people who do low-and-slow cooking of smaller cuts. The slow cook function is genuinely underused and underappreciated. If you want to reheat food in a toaster oven or keep a dish warm without drying it out, the Warm setting at 120°F does this better than most dedicated warming drawers I’ve tried.

BOV845BSS vs. The Competition

Here’s where it stands against the models you’re probably also considering:

Model	Capacity	Air Fry?	Key Strength	Price Tier
Breville BOV845BSS Smart Oven Pro	0.8 cu ft	No	Consistent bake/roast, slow cook	Mid-premium
Breville BOV900BSS Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro	1.0 cu ft	Yes	Air fry + everything BOV845 does	Premium
Cuisinart TOA-70	0.6 cu ft	Yes	Air fry, compact, lower price	Mid-range
Ninja Foodi XL Pro Air Fry Oven	Large (sheet pan)	Yes	Massive capacity, air fry, low price	Budget-mid
Hamilton Beach 31127D	Countertop	No	Very affordable, basic functions	Budget

My honest take: if air frying isn’t on your list, the BOV845BSS is the best-performing oven in this group for baking and roasting. Period. But the BOV900BSS, which adds air fry capability and a bit more interior space, is only about $60–$80 more most of the time. For most people who are undecided, I’d lean toward spending up to the BOV900BSS unless the price difference is actually a factor. If it is, the BOV845BSS doesn’t disappoint.

If you’re shopping for something more compact, check out our roundup of the best mini toaster ovens — there are some surprisingly capable small options that won’t eat your counter.

A Few Gripes Worth Knowing

No product is perfect. The crumb tray on the BOV845BSS slides out the front, which is convenient, but it’s also shallower than I’d like and needs cleaning more often than I’d expect. After a roast chicken, there’s always overspray that gets on the bottom element area. Not a disaster, just annoying.

The included toaster oven wire rack and baking pan are functional but not impressive. The rack is fine; the pan is a bit flimsy. I replaced the pan within a few months.

The outside of the oven also gets warm — not dangerous if you’re careful, but warm enough that you shouldn’t store anything directly beside it while it’s running. And the fan (this isn’t a convection model with a dedicated convection button, but it does have a light internal air movement) is quieter than I expected, which I appreciated.

One thing that tripped me up initially: the default settings for Toast show the number of slices before confirming. First time I used it, I didn’t realize I had to select slice count before starting. The oven just sat there. Not a flaw exactly, but worth knowing going in so you’re not standing there confused on a Monday morning.

For a broader sense of how hot these ovens run and what that means for your cooking, our guide on how hot a toaster gets has some useful context — particularly if you’re thinking about which rack position to use.

Final Verdict

The Breville BOV845BSS Smart Oven Pro is a well-engineered, genuinely reliable countertop oven that does what it says. It bakes evenly, roasts a whole chicken without drama, toasts consistently, and the slow cook function is a legitimately useful addition that most people ignore until they need it. It’s not the flashiest option and it won’t air fry your wings. But for a cook who wants performance over feature-count, it earns its price.

If you want air frying, step up to the BOV900BSS. If you’re on a tighter budget, the Cuisinart TOA-60 or 70 will do. But if the BOV845BSS fits your needs and your counter, you won’t regret it. I haven’t.

?Frequently Asked Questions

Does the Breville BOV845BSS have air fry capability?

No, the BOV845BSS does not have an air fry function. That feature is available on the step-up model, the Breville BOV900BSS Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro. If air frying is important to you, the BOV900BSS is the more appropriate choice.

What is the internal capacity of the Breville Smart Oven Pro BOV845BSS?

The BOV845BSS has 0.8 cubic feet of interior capacity. That’s enough to fit a 13-inch pizza, a 4-pound whole chicken, or a 9×13 baking dish — though the 13-inch pizza is tight and 12 inches is more practical for everyday use.

How does Element IQ work on the BOV845BSS?

Element IQ is Breville’s system for directing wattage across five quartz heating elements based on the selected cooking function. For baking, it emphasizes the bottom elements to prevent undercooked bases; for broiling, it shifts power to the top. It results in more even cooking compared to fixed-element designs at the same price range.

Is the Breville BOV845BSS worth the price compared to cheaper toaster ovens?

Yes, for cooks who actually bake or roast regularly. The even heat distribution, reliable temperature accuracy, and the slow cook function are meaningful upgrades over budget countertop ovens. If you’re mainly making toast and reheating pizza, a $60–$80 model will likely do fine and the extra spend isn’t justified.

What is the maximum temperature of the Breville Smart Oven Pro?

The BOV845BSS reaches a maximum temperature of 450°F. The low end is 120°F, which is used for the slow cook and warm functions. That 120°F floor is lower than many competing models, which makes it genuinely useful for keeping food warm or doing low-temperature slow cooking.