Panasonic - HomeCHEF .7 Cu. Ft. 7-in-1 Compact Oven with Steam and Convection - Black

I have a slightly older Panasonic Convection Broiler oven and it does its job perfectly. So, I had no doubt that this Panasonic HomeCHEF oven would be another great product. And depending on your cooking needs. This oven might be great for you. Just be aware of its limits ahead of time. It seems to target Asian Cuisine and leans heavily on steam cooking with an additional ability to air fry and be a convection oven. First off, READ THE MANUAL! this is not a microwave and has a bit of a learning curve. While it works as intended. The minimal buttons and display are not easy to understand till you look over the manual. And if you open the door while cooking, it stops cooking till you push start again. Hard to notice because the light is on and the fan sounds like it is still working like a full size house oven would. Also, be ready to add more cook time before the clock ends. It seems to automatically go into cool down when the clock ends. Adding more time makes me start the oven again by choosing function/temp/time/start. On the plus side, set the right cook time, food won't burn because you didn't pay attention. Not sure if it is Panasonic's main purpose with this oven, but the steam is the best of the seven features. If you want to cook meals with steam or simply need to sanitize items like baby bottles. Look no further. From vegetables, seafood to dumplings. The steam and convection oven fan will easily help make larger quantities than most steam appliance cookers. I have made asparagus, salmon, and steamed some mussels and all came out really good. If I can find some way to cheat on the recipe, I want to try some of the dumpling recipes soon. Now for the, all the rage, air fry and convection/bake function. Its good depending on how high the temps need to be for the items you are making. Temps above 400 degrees (445 degrees is max temp) seem to be harder to reach/maintain even with preheat. And because of this. I had issues with frozen foods that prefer the 450+ degree temps like pizza and other junk food snacks. It will cook these items, but be prepared to almost double the cook time. Better success was had with baked goods. Cinnamon rolls and baked bread items did very well without becoming too dry. I'd say give the oven a try if you really want steam cooking or need a small oven to bake sides that don't require super high temps. It will require a little learning to operate correctly. But if you run the steam after a messy meal it almost cleans itself. Just wipe down after the steam clean cycle.

I remember when my mom got her first microwave in the 80's and she complained that she had to learn how to cook all over again. I feel the same way about this unit, but like a microwave, I can't imagine NOT using it now! First- the results are AMAZING! I have had a multi function toaster oven for several years so I like the convenience of many units combined into one. I have a small kitchen so the saved counter space is a blessing. Second- It stays incredibly clean during cooking but if there are some splatters, it wipes clean quickly. It has a self-clean mode that I have not had to use yet because it just hasn't gotten dirty! Third- I don't have a dishwasher so the sanitize function is very welcome. I did not have this on my last unit. There are times handwashing just won't clean items completely. Fourth- I love that there are two racks. You can cook on two levels, but I mostly use them to have one to cook and one to clean. I don't lose time washing and drying one rack in order to cook again. Fifth- I love the steam function. That was not an option on my last unit. I have steamed hot dogs (and then steamed in the bun for a short time at the end). They came out delicious! Some of the issues that created the learning curve- The buttons are not intuitive to me. Maybe they are to others. I have found that I need to follow directions (which I found a bit confusing at first) to even toast bread. The beep is VERY soft. If I am not in the kitchen, I can't hear it. If you open the door to check the food, you MUST hit start again or it will be in a hold pattern. I have forgotten this a few times at first and it throws off my cooking time. I have trouble getting the QR code to work. This takes you to an online cooking guide which is helpful (refer back to it not being intuitive). I have tried with my phone camera and two different QR readers so I don't think it's my phone. The directions to switch between the convection bake with and without preheat were a bit confusing. It took just pushing buttons to figure it out. I wish the words on the buttons were a little larger and easier to see. Because of the location I have to put oven, I am looking at it on an angle. I have since learned which buttons are which but I can't see the words very well (even with my glasses!). Overall, the learning curve is worth a little work at first to use this oven. The results are worth it!

Nice tabletop oven - does the trick for cooking for 1/2 persons This device works well but is on the smaller side. I initially used it in my kitchen with the idea of not having to heat my full size oven when cooking just for myself or for a quick lunch or small baking treat. And in hopes of reducing some other appliances! It has many options to do a lot of tasks. Convect bake, airfry, steam, Ferment. All offering a specific duty. I found that the device does do all these tasks relatively well with some conditions. Lets start with airfry. I'm an avid airfry'r. So I threw in some cheese sticks! The device produced a great end product but took quite the amount of time compared to my dedicated airfryer. Time compare was 28min vs 8min. Result was the same though! crispy outside and smooth melted cheese in the middle. Was a good but late lunch. As the device took some time to come to temp and it was a specific temp. I then did some cinnimon rolls for baking. We enjoy these on weekend mornings but just to make a single roll. The device on convect back produced a nice roll. Really Really well. Again though it took a little more time than my full size oven to heat up. Rolls were really good. We did use the unit during Thanksgiving as a warmer. It really excelled at this job. Keeping a nice warm temp the entire day. Ultimately, I have moved this device to my wife workspace. They don't have these options for an oven so they utilize it well!!

The Panasonic HomeCHEF 7-in-1 oven is another of the many options you have out there for multipurpose kitchen appliances now a days. This oven has a small footprint but is tall and is pretty heavy which helps it feel that it is well made and is built to last. To me it looks like a cube. Inside the capacity is 20 liters and it comes with two non-stick metal trays and two wire racks that can keep your food off the metal trays. You do have to use the metal trays at all times though. There is also a steam tray that you fill up with water that is inserted below the unit and helps provide some of the magic that this appliance and do. You can have both metal trays in the oven at the same time, however, the small LED light is located in the upper right of the oven and only illuminates the top tray if that is in there. I do wish they would have added a second LED light on the bottom as well. The rails for the trays will not hold the metal trays in place if you pull them out too far so you have to watch for that if you pull something out to inspect it. The heat is generated from a heating element in the back with a fan and perforated holes in the back of the oven. The outside of the oven will get hot, and I measured it at about 146 degrees. Also, the steam will vent out the rear of the top and Panasonic recommends that you pull this out of below cupboards to avoid damaging the underside of them from the steam. This isn’t ideal for me, if I pull it out to give the steam vents a clear path, it leaves the unit hanging off my counter. I may modify the under neath of my cupboards with waterproof covering to help avoid damage. As you can imagine, there are many things this oven can do, I haven’t had a chance to try all of the modes such as Ferment or the Seam Conv setting. Convection Baking is what I used to cook up a small frozen pizza and I found that I had to cook it a few minutes longer than the packaging said in order to cook the middle of the dough thoroughly. Air fry had the same results for me and with my stand-alone air fryer, it will cook frozen fries in 6-8 minutes, but with the Panasonic HomeCHEF, I did have to cook them 15 minutes. In my opinion, it will cook food, but it doesn’t seem to do so as efficiently as other appliances that I have. For those that may be short on counter space, this could be a good solution as it does many things, but if you are looking for the best way to cook something, it just seems that you need the appliance that is dedicated to that one thing. I really like the steam cooking though and this is where I think this unit shines the best. I was able to steam some veggies and they came out delicious. Also, the sanitizing feature using the steam for baby bottles and utensils works great and it just gives you that feeling that those items are extra clean. Panasonic does give you a 54+ paged book with instructions and recipes and that is a good addition. The inside of the oven is stainless steel and is mostly flat and easy to clean. So far, the non-stick trays are holding up, but I don’t think they will stay clean after about a months’ worth of uses. One major complaint I do have about the unit is when you set a mode and start cooking something, if you open the lid to check, it will pause the time and you have to remember to hit the start/stop button to resume. This feature drives my wife crazy, but hopefully after some time she will get used to it.

INTRODUCTION: The Panasonic HomeCHEF SC180B is a 7-in-1 Compact Oven that can Convection Bake to 445 degrees F, Steam, Slow Cook, Ferment, Stay Warm at 85 degrees F, & is an extraordinary Air Fryer. With a 0.7 cubic feet capacity, it measures 15 29/32"W x 15 29/32"L x 14 51/64"H & weighs 27.1#. REVIEW & RESULTS: The large viewing glass on the front door strikes a sleek appearance with a beautiful view. A versatile LED simplifies the cooking process. A water chamber, located below the oven, makes meats even juicer with steam. We Air-Fried the most tender chicken & baked the tastiest brownies (see photo)! YUM! DISAPPOINTMENTS: - When you select Air-Fry, the oven Pre-heats, which takes more time than expected. No timer lets you know remaining Pre-heat time. You must wait for 3 beeps & a check mark on the front panel before you can enter the desired Air-Fry time. - A Stainless Steel exterior option should be offered, as many kitchens today feature all Stainless Steel appliances. We plan to hide this black appliance in a ventilated Appliance Garage because it is not Stainless Steel, as are all of our other appliances. - Operation is not intuitive, even when you are familiar with Air Fryers & Convection Ovens. Auto Cook Setting & Menus require careful review of the online instruction manual. CONCLUSION: - Energy efficient; our kitchen did not heat up using it. - It is super easy to clean. - The steam tray also collects food drips in a separate section of the tray, simplifying cleaning even further. - The wire rack & metal trays are dishwasher safe.