Even though it has smart sensors and controls, we found this overloaded toaster oven to be far from flawless and certainly not worth its $1,500 price tag when we reviewed the first generation of the June countertop oven a few years ago. We decided to give the second-generation June another go now that it’s available for the more reasonable (though still pricey) price of $500.
The June oven is what?
The June is, in a nutshell, a very functional countertop convection oven. It contains two convection fans and six carbon-fiber components to evenly distribute heat across the oven chamber. During cooking, the oven’s internal temperature is constantly monitored and adjusted by sensors to ensure that the food is cooked evenly. There’s a camera installed in the oven’s top that can identify certain meals and tailor the oven’s cooking parameters accordingly.
The June’s smart touchscreen allows you to choose from a wide variety of functions and programs, including toasting, broiling, dehydrating, and baking. After choosing a recipe, the oven will automatically adjust settings like cooking time, temperature, and rack placement. Moreover, you may set the oven to cook at a certain temperature for a specified amount of time.
The probe that comes with June may be used to bring the food to an exact temperature. If you hook up your oven to WiFi, you can use an app on your phone to check on things while they’re cooking and get updates on when they’re done. The Android version of the app does not include the app’s cookbook, which has about 150 recipes. The June can connect to Alexa and get software upgrades wirelessly.
What does the June oven feel like to the touch?
Compared to a regular toaster oven, the June is enormous. A dish measuring 13 by 9 inches will fit, as would a big chicken or turkey. It looks OK, but I was expecting more from such a premium piece of equipment. The front is made out of a glass door with black plastic trim, while the rest is made of silver-painted steel.
The interface is the thing that most impresses. On the oven door, it resembles an iPhone display and is equally easy to use. While food is being prepared, the screen shows the selected cooking program, the remaining cook time, and, if the probe is being used, the current interior food temperature. The meal will be ready to be served when you hear a cheerful music.
A ceramic nonstick baking pan, a stainless steel oven rack, a stainless steel roasting rack, and a crumb tray all come standard with the oven. If you’re willing to shell out an extra $200, you can upgrade to the Gourmet Package, which adds a third baking pan, three air fry baskets, a three-year membership to the company’s recipe newsletter, and an extra year of warranty coverage (as opposed to the included one-year warranty).
The June oven’s capabilities are unknown
The June is essentially a little convection oven designed for use on a kitchen counter top for roasting, baking, and broiling. Toasting, air-frying, dehydrating, slow cooking, reheating, and keeping food warm are just some of the other functions it offers. The automated nature of its programming is what sets it apart.
In certain cases, the oven can “see” what you’ve put inside and automatically adjust the temperature and timer accordingly. To have the oven recommend temperatures and cooking times for a wide variety of additional dishes, just tap the touchscreen and choose your selection from the menu. If your oven is WiFi-enabled, you may not only change the time and temperature from afar, but also monitor the cooking process on the screen of your smartphone or tablet. The app’s cookbook contains recipes, and if you follow them, the oven will be preheated accordingly.
1. Kitchen Convection Oven in June
Our Favorites
- It offers an elegant interface that is simple to use.
- Food may be remotely managed and checked on.
- A temperature probe is included.
- Automatic settings remove some of the uncertainty from preparing meals.
- Bright oven lighting allows for easy monitoring of cooking.
Dislikes of ours
- A lot of money is required
- Big stuff
- The area is tough to disinfect
How well does it function?
Bake
I had great success preparing buttermilk biscuits and chocolate chip cookies using both the automated program and by setting the oven to the temperature and time I thought they would be best. In the end, I decided that the baked products that I had programmed myself were superior since the biscuits and cookies were cooked more consistently. There was no preheating time built into the automated settings, so the biscuits and cookies baked much faster. A single layer of yellow cake baked up wonderfully, with a golden brown outside and a moist, delicate inside. The June may be used as either a main oven or a secondary one throughout the holidays without reducing the quality of your baked goods.
I prepared Chicken Piccata Thighs, which is essentially a sheet pan supper, and Spring Vegetable Frittata, both from the June cookbook, using the app. The recipes in both books were generally well-written and straightforward. Included videos demonstrated each step, and the instructions for placing the probe into a chicken thigh were very clear and useful. Both dishes came out looking and tasting great because the time was just right.
Roast
At this point, the thermometer should be useful. A roast chicken, for example, was too pale and its juices flowed pink when the display said the meal was at the right internal temp and the music started playing, so I had to keep it in longer. Although the oven indicated that the sweet potatoes were done, they were still somewhat firm. The pork roast with herbs turned up wonderfully cooked with a brown, crackling exterior.
While the oven may choose the cooking mode, temperature, and timing, ultimately it is up to you to determine whether or not the food is cooked to your satisfaction.
Toast
That’s what happens when you give them too many choices. It’s possible to manually adjust the Toast settings or use the automated programming method. You may also use a self-recognizing bread/bagel setting to have the oven automatically adjust the cooking time and temperature. The June toasts uniformly no matter which option you choose. For white bread, you can get a decent range of doneness from light to dark, but for bagels, you may need to add additional time.
Broil
Broiling boneless, skinless chicken breasts and New York strip steaks in my June left me feeling dissatisfied. Almost minimal browning occurred, and what little did seem to have been imparted by the heating components must have been transferred via contact with the browned drippings on the pan.
Slowly prepare
This traditional beef stew turned out well, with delicate beef and vegetables. The results of a patient slow-cooker!
Crispy Air Fryer
Upgrade to the Gourmet Package or pay $50 for a set of three air baskets to access the air fry feature. My findings suggest they are not cost-effective.
French fries and chicken nuggets, both store-bought and homemade from scratch, did not brown uniformly in the air fryer and were not crisp at all. June suggests using aluminum foil to line one of the baskets and then placing it on the lowest level (likely to prevent drips from damaging the bottom parts). This leaves you with just two functional baskets. It’s possible that the foil is obstructing airflow, which is leading to the disappointing performance.
Dehydrate
June recommends making use of the dehydrating racks that come with certain air fryers. I had great success making Dried Apple Rings according to the cookbook’s instructions. Putting 20 apple rings through the oven overnight seems like a waste of energy to me.
Warm Up/Heat Up
Despite the June’s best efforts, it took 20 minutes to reheat a serving of lasagna for two, by which time the cheese on top was virtually cooked and the noodles were dry on the sides. After two hours of keeping the lasagna heated, the temperature continued to rise for the first hour before gradually falling to serving temperature. The June may be used to heat and keep meals warm in a pinch, but we wouldn’t call it a selling feature.
Can you tell me whether the June Oven is straightforward to use and clean?
To put it another way, if you were up and running with your iPhone the second you opened the box, the June will be a breeze for you. On the other hand, you will be out of luck if you are the kind that, before using a new product, reads the whole manual and then often refers back to it for more guidance.
The instructions for using the oven focus mostly on assembly and maintenance, rather than actual cooking. Both the screen and the app will show you that data. The equipment and the accompanying software are, for the most part, easy to figure out, but there were a few occasions when I would have appreciated a handbook that detailed specifics like which rack position should be used for different tasks. Select the kind of food you’ll be preparing and then browse the digital menu to figure out which one to utilize. Assuming you’re in charge of the oven’s timing and temperature, you may put the rack wherever you think it would be ideal.
However, if you want to manually control the temperature, you won’t find a convection option or instructions on how to utilize the fans unless you’re using the Bake or Roast program, in which case you may click More Options and then choose to turn them on.
An internal light that stays on while cooking allows for a clear view of whatever is in there. I like that my phone beeps a minute before my dinner is ready and again when it is finished. I could be at my workplace or doing laundry and yet receive reminders that dinner was cooking.
It’s too bad that you can’t put any of June’s components in the dishwasher for easy maintenance. Oven cleanser is recommended by the manufacturer for cleaning the oven inside, however this is a product I had long since forgotten about and was not pleased to rediscover. Easy-Off Fume Free Oven Cleaner, however, did a fantastic job of returning my June to its original shine.
Warranty
There is a whole year of coverage on the June oven. The standard warranty is one year, but the Gourmet Package (which adds a third air fryer basket, an additional baking pan, and a three-year subscription to recipes) extends it to two years.
Feedback from home-based businesses
After 156 reviews, users have given the month of June an average rating of 4.5 stars on Google. Another owner said, “Cleaning the oven is a difficulty,” while one said, “The oven has been fantastic and has transformed me into a pretty darn good chef.”
The June owner closed Facebook group had over 2,000 members, and I decided to join. Members of this community generally rave about the oven’s performance and often post photos of their tasty results. However, many people are unhappy with the cleaning process, and there are infrequent instances of problems. Users note that June’s customer service is top-notch, and that the company often provides information on the status of new software and apologies to those who have had issues.
A cautionary note
Some users have reported that their Junes have started up and begun preheating without their intervention. June claims it has not heard of any such incidents occurring since implementing preventative measures in early September.
The manufacturer claims that preheat shortcuts have been removed and that users must now pick a cooking mode and temperature inside the app before preheating can begin. Disabling remote preheat may be done from the oven’s settings menu. Upon detecting that no food has been added to the oven after 30 minutes of preheating, June will automatically shut off the oven’s heating components.
Will you be able to survive the June heat?
The June oven is unnecessary if you already own a conventional oven and a toaster that fits on your countertop. Nevertheless, the June is a great but pricy choice if you need a second oven or are reluctant to “light” your oven for any number of reasons (including that it’s too hot, doesn’t operate well, or otherwise disrupts your routine).
The programming usually yields decent results, and it saves you from having to figure out a cooking temperature or program, and it proposes the very minimum cooking time, if you are a completely unskilled chef. Still, you’ll need a sense of how the finished product should appear in order to gauge when the dish is done.
