Breville the Joule® Oven Air Fryer Pro

The Oven: This is an absolutely wonderful oven. We gave our other countertop oven away because our friends raved so much about this one. In the very brief time I used it, it toasted bagels perfectly and re-warmed the best leftover pizza I have ever put in my mouth. The good reviews you read are true.
Internal Quality Control: We have received two defective ovens. The first had a large dent in the top; it worked perfectly, but for $600, I expected better. The shipping box was in pristine condition, so this certainly happened at the manufacturer. The replacement that eventually came was 1 mm too narrow inside the oven. None of the racks would fit in it, and it was unusable. Breville appears to have very poor internal quality control.
Customer Service: It took Breville over 60 hours (all work days) to respond to my call about the first problem. When I called about the second defective unit, I was told by an automated attendant I would receive a call in 2 hours; 14 hours later the call finally came. The customer service reps were polite, apologetic, and easy to understand. However, they only had two options to remedy any problem: a. Return the unit to the UPS store and when it was received by Breville, a replacement would be sent, or b. Give Breville more money for a replacement to be sent immediately. Since this was a gift for my wife I elected option b.
Conclusion: So, as things stand now 6 weeks after my purchase, I have spent several hours on the phone, repacking defective ovens, and hauling these very heavy units to the UPS store. I have no oven and Breville has my $800. When I complained about this I was reluctantly offered a $50 accessory that I have no idea will even be useful. If you get a good oven on the first try, well and good. If you get a defective one, you will need a lot of patience and luck. When I ran a business, service to a customer this poor would have resulted in a full refund and a replacement unit, gratis; don’t expect anything more than a polite apology and a long wait for correction from Breville.
Update: First, I sent the above review to Breville answering an email survey, and checking the box requesting follow-up and they never replied. The third unit finally arrived. The outer box had some damage, but the inner box was fine. Removing the oven from the box, we found a large dent in the back of the unit. It works fine; I am so tired of dealing with this. Breville you win, I give up! You can keep my money, I will keep your factory-damaged oven. I just can’t keep throwing more time at this. I am lowering my rating to one star. I regret ever starting down this path, and I can’t advise anyone to buy a Breville online in good faith. Getting one bad unit might be unfortunate, two very unlucky, but three damaged units in a row? Anyone must conclude that Breville has grave quality control issues in its manufacturing plant. I wonder how long it will work?

The Joule oven arrived (Nov. 2023) without drama. Easily unpacked, wiped down, and ran 20 min. Pizza mode for first cycle burn-in. Slight smell of plastic but no smoke or hiccups. The Wifi (2.5 only) and Bluetooth setups were easy with the iOS Joule app. To my surprise the oven’s firmware was upgraded after Wifi connected to the gateway. I like that feature a lot and had no idea with all the literature read including the online owner’s manual. Also the power cord plug (US/CA) is now a low-profile type with a 45 deg. wire exit to save space in back of the countertop. Older videos online show a larger plug.

The oven gets hot on top. Blazing hot top in “Air Fryer” mode. The optional cutting board is recommended and does a decent job of insulating cabinets (the cheaper bamboo knockoff board). Just installed quartz countertops and a heatproof mat is also recommended. Bottom gets warm enough for concern. The left side and back are hot to touch. Right side only warm. Please be aware in high temperature modes or long duration cooks.

…After many cooks under my belt the Joule app Autopilot directed cook recipes just seem to be suggestions. Tried a 3-step Autopilot pizza recipe that actually took 1/2 the suggested time or otherwise would have been burnt to a crisp. What would be really cool Breville is to allow users to save custom Autopilot, multistage cooks on the Joule app to be recalled at any time. The Autopilot Joule feature is very powerful and sets this oven apart from the competition. But at this time Autopilot is limited by only allowing published recipe cooks. Again you can override time/ temperature with the dials on the oven. Once familiar and recipes repeated do not want to hover over the oven while cooking. Otherwise, gets used as a regular dial controlled oven which is $100 cheaper without the Joule feature (BOV900). Let’s hope Breville adds custom cook option to the Autopilot and just a software change. Like PIZZA mode 425F 1 min, then 350F 7 min, turn off and beep. User configured.

…This oven is huge. When extra counter space is needed the oven is unplugged and moved. But to my delight I can fit a 16 x 12 x 2 in. pan inside this oven! Takes up all of the available rack area with little room for vertical air movement but convection mode helps out. Original plan for the BOV950 was to use as a warm meat holding oven like resting full briskets at 150F until serving (up to 12-16 hrs). Excellent large, multi-tasking oven that uses less electrical energy over a full-size kitchen oven. Gets used daily.

Great little oven, however; it’s not at all worth the additional cost for the “smart” version. Unless I suppose you’re following a recipe from the app you can’t actually control the oven at all unless you’re standing right in front of it. This is especially true for the smart home integration, which cannot start the oven unless you physically push the start button. If I’m standing right in front of the over, why on Earth would I ask Alexa to set the oven to bake… it’s so silly and useless.
Adding to that, and something very much NOT advertised, is the fact that you loose phase cooking with the smart version and that button is replaced with “a little more”. Honestly, add a second button and have both functions available.
Ultimately I’m regretting this purchase. The app connectivity and voice control (not that you can find any of the commands listed) are utterly useless and the one cool function I would have used, phase cooking, is missing. What a waste. Just get the 900 for a hundred less and let Breville figure this out.

EDIT: I’ve had the over for a few months now, indeed we never use the smart features and find autopilot confusing and annoying to cook with. The over is awesome though, overall. That said, after a few months all the stainless around the door has started to discolor and Breville support says that is normal. They did offer to swap the oven out for a new one but said the same issue would occur. Crazy that an oven this expensive should have such an issue, dropping the star rating for this reason. It’s really bad.

I was very upset to find out that the interior has a non-stick coating. We all know about the health risks of it at this point. Two weeks past delivery date and sure enough it started peeling where the racks are sliding. Next I’ll be spitting out these particles with my food. Considering the price, it’s a piece of junk.

I have a makeshift kitchen in a basement “apartment.” This toaster oven air fryer does more than replace a full sized oven. They have marked in the glass the rack positions to make it idiot proof. For me having the app with detailed instructions and videos was invaluable. I wish there were more meal recipes vs baking and more low carb but I’m sure the recipes will keep growing. The auto pilot feature is ridiculous. My steak was PERFECT! Veggies were perfect. I hate to cook and now I’m actually kind of having fun just to see what all it can do.

Living in a basement I was worried about ventilation. I have an air purifier that jumps about 20 points when my roommate uses the oven upstairs – or more. It’s rare the Breville affects it all and it’s a few feet away. It doesn’t heat up the room either. My tv heats up the room more!

It’s not loud. I love the light comes on the last few seconds to warn you it’s about time to check things out. Auto pilot is amazing. When I cook on my own I see if they have done some similar to see like rack position etc. It’s been easy to use and everything has cooked perfectly from actual toast to baking to air frying. I don’t have a lot of money so this was a MAJOR sacrifice for me but absolutely worth it. Love it

This oven is truly large, so be sure to measure your space first and consider that it is recommended by the manufacturer that you have space on the sides and back for air circulation and heat dissipation.
The instructions are easy to follow and provide plenty of options. My favorite setting is Proof. I really did not think that this function would work well because proofing can be tricky, but it has been perfect every time during my weekly bread baking operation. The air fry setting may not work as well as a single use air fryer, but it works decently and all the other functions make it a worthwhile purchase for our household. The outside gets HOT during some operations. The removable crumb tray is fantastic. The included pans all work well. Cleaning after preparing an item like chicken wings can be difficult, but that was expected. We love this oven!

Really disappointed in this oven. For $500, I expect a flawless product. I was willing to overlook a few things until I noticed a gap in the door. Why is there a gap, and why does Breville claim it’s the design? I don’t buy it.

Gap starts on the upper left hand top of the door, then the corner, and about 3/4 down the left side. Why? Why would the door not close all the way? I can see the corner gap being functional to let out steam, but why a gap where there is a rubber seal that should be flush against the door? Breville?

Had a cheaper version of this model for a few years and used it all the time. Wanted a newer model with a light inside. Broiled a rib eye steak as soon as I got it, came out great. I also use it to finish off microwaved baked potatoes. 7 minutes in the microwave 5 minutes in toaster oven soft inside crispy skins on the out side. Frozen pizza comes out hot and bubbly in just a few minutes. Hardly use my regular oven any more. Has many built in cooking cycles that make cooking a quick meal easy. Trust you’ll love this one. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t use it. Oh, easy to clean any drips with a pull out tray that I rinse off or pop in the dishwasher easy peasy. A bit pricy but well worth it in my opinion.