19 hours ago, AlaMoi said:came across one - VBENLEM Salamander Broiler
I'm not sure if you're still considering this or which model you are/were looking at, but, for both models, the reviews on Amazon mention that they're a 220v appliance with a 120v plug added. Avoid.
It sounds like you're settling in on the Breville. I'm not sure how far down the researching rabbit hole you want to go, but, if you really want to know how powerful a countertop broiler is- and if you want to compare it to your in wall broiler- or other countertops, it can take some digging, but find the wattage for the broiler. Just about every oven has broiler elements that can be replaced. If you can find the replacement part, it will almost always list the wattage. Sometimes specs for the whole oven will break down the wattage for the separate bake and broiler elements as well. Once you have the broiler element wattage, divide it by the lateral area of the oven to get watts per square inch. The higher the watts per square inch, the better the broiling ability.
Another way to compare broilers is to examine the coil- if it's thick and has plenty of loops/is tightly coiled, it will broil better than a less tightly coiled element. For instance, the VBENLEMs have a very respectable coil- if they were actually wired at 220v, they'd be pretty powerful. Obviously, though, a countertop that needs to be wired at 220v is no longer a countertop.
If you go the watts per square inch route, don't be surprised if your in wall oven beats the pants off of any countertop you consider. Or, if you do find a comparable countertop, don't be surprised if the inner dimensions are the size of a postage stamp- which might be fine for a pork chop, but, could be an issue for a long fish. A broiler is only as strong as the wattage going into it- and 120v receptacles can only provide so much.
