sunshineandpinot - we have the same one:) we have it out on the counter.
We have not had the above experience at all. Do you have the papers you can buy to catch drippage at the bottom? Or use foil?
I have this one too and it doesn’t get overly hot. We keep ours out on an open counter.
We love it and almost exclusively cook with it during the summer.
Huh. I guess there is a lot of variance in the performance of this product. That's frustrating. I think ours is worse than the oven on hot days because so much heat just leaks out around the door compared to the well-sealed oven. It stays hot on the exterior for a long time after too. What the heck, Cuisinart?! Way to let me down.
mofongo, do these papers go in the basket itself? I haven't encountered them. It's cleaning that stupid thing with all the grid holes that's most frustrating. I don't care so much about the discoloration I can't get off on the lower catch tray part. We thought about foil to cut down on cleanup but I think the manual advised against it. Given that it already seemed too hot and semi-sketchy, I wasn't trying to invite a calamity by disobeying the manual
I have the Ninja one that is the air fryer and toaster all in one. I previously had a Cuisinart Toaster oven that got a lot of use and getting one of the bucket style air fryers seemed like a waste to me. I use my Ninja pretty much every day and cook everything in it. Up until last week I hadn't even turned my oven on in months. I ended up needing my full size oven last week and it made my house so freaking hot.