Breville the Smart Oven Air Fryer (BOV860)

The Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer BOV860 is the most honestly-named appliance in this entire review. It is a smart oven. It has air fry on the function dial. Do not buy it because you want an air fryer; buy it because you want a proper countertop oven that can also do crispy chips when you cannot be bothered heating up the main oven. At $379 to $499 street price across JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman and Appliances Online, you are paying three to five times what a dedicated basket air fryer costs, and the justification has to come from the other 12 functions on the dial.

For anyone wanting to spend more, the BOV905 is the step-up in the same family (larger 30L capacity, 2400W instead of 1800W, sits at $699 to $849). If you are already leaning toward the BOV860 and often cook for 6+, it is worth a look. For most Australian households the BOV860 is the right call and the BOV905 is overkill.

What it is like to actually use

You get a 22L stainless interior, five independently-controlled quartz-and-ceramic heating elements, a convection fan, and a proper liquid crystal display (LCD) display on the front. The function dial on the left steps through 13 cooking modes: Toast, Bagel, Broil (grill), Bake, Roast, Warm, Pizza, Proof (for sourdough), Air Fry, Reheat, Cookies, Slow Cook and Dehydrate. The LCD tells you which function is active, the target temperature, the time remaining and the current rack position recommendation.

Element iQ is Breville's term for the smart heating algorithm that decides which of the five elements fires at what power for each function. On paper it is marketing; in practice the oven genuinely browns more evenly than a cheap countertop oven, because the elements above and below respond independently to load. A tray of scones that would be pale on top and burnt on the bottom in a $100 benchtop oven comes out evenly golden here.

Torture tests

Cook 800g of Woolies frozen chips to golden and crispy in one batch on the air fry function. 18 minutes at 220°C on the mesh tray, shaken once at halfway. Result: evenly browned, slightly slower than the 1800W Kmart Anko but markedly more uniform because of the larger chamber and dual-element heating. The air fryer basket does not have the edge-to-edge airflow of a dedicated drawer unit, so you do need the shake.

Reheat a full leftover pizza (6 slices from a 12-inch base) without drying it out. 6 minutes at 180°C on the pizza function, direct on the rack. Base crispy, cheese re-melted, no dried edges. This is the task that exposes the capacity difference versus the basket units: the BOV860 swallows the whole pizza at once, the Ninja Pro XL fits two slices, the Philips fits two slices, the Kmart Anko fits three.

Cook a whole 1.4kg roast chicken. 65 minutes at 180°C on the roast function, no flip needed because the convection fan circulates heat around the bird. Skin came up properly crispy on all sides. This is the task that justifies the BOV860 over any basket air fryer. You cannot do a whole chook in an AF181 or a Kmart Anko; you can in this.

Slow cook a lamb shoulder at 110°C for 8 hours. Slow cook function, lidded casserole dish, no stirring. Came out falling-apart tender with proper surface browning because the convection fan keeps the dry heat moving. This is the function that makes the BOV860 a genuine second oven, not just an air fryer.

The reliability picture

The BOV860 has been on Australian shelves since 2020. ProductReview and Whirlpool both show a 4.5/5 average across large review samples. The dominant long-tail failures: LCD backlight fade at the 4 to 5-year mark, convection fan bearing wear at year 5 to 6, heating element burnout at year 6 to 8. All of these are inside the ACL expectation window for a premium appliance and all of them are repairable at Breville Australian service centres with 2 to 3 week parts turnaround. Element replacement runs around $80 to $120 for parts, which is well under the replacement cost of the whole unit.

Breville's service network is the strongest in this review. They are an Australian brand, the head office is in Sydney, and they genuinely want to keep their customers. Contrast with Kmart (swap-or-refund-only), Ninja (pragmatic replacement inside 2 years), Philips (repair-network-based but centralised in Sydney).

Who it is for

People who want to replace or supplement their main oven, especially during summer when heating the kitchen is the enemy. Households that bake, slow cook, roast whole chickens, or make sourdough. Anyone willing to invest in a 10-year appliance rather than a 3-year one. Apartment dwellers who need one appliance to do the job of a proper oven because they do not have a proper oven. Skip this if you only want crispy chips and reheated pizza (any of the other four in this review will do that for less money), if your bench is under 50cm deep (measure first), or if you are not sure you will actually use the 13 functions (the whole justification for the price is the functional range).

Your rights under Australian Consumer Law: At $379 to $499, the BOV860 sits in the premium tier for countertop cooking appliances, and a reasonable Australian consumer would expect 7 to 10 years of working service from a Breville Smart Oven at this money. Breville's 2-year manufacturer warranty is the floor and a very short floor given the price, but Breville Australia's actual practice honours the longer ACL expectation. If a heating element fails at year four, if the LCD backlight goes dark at year five, if the convection fan motor bearings wear out at year seven, each of those is a consumer guarantee claim under the ACL. Take it back to the retailer that sold it to you (JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, The Good Guys, Myer, Appliances Online, or Breville Australia direct). In practice, Breville Australia's service network is strong enough that going directly to Breville (rather than the retailer) often gets the same outcome faster, because they fix rather than replace. But the statutory right under the ACL sits against the retailer first, and that is the lever you pull if Breville declines to fix it under warranty.