Tovala's Oven Is Only Cheap If You Eat Less Than Takeaway

The Tovala smart oven costs $299, or $349 for the Pro with steam, and drops to $69 or $119 if you commit to six weeks of meals. The meals cook themselves when you scan a QR code: $13.99 for a single portion, up to $35.96 for a family one, plus $10.99 shipping per order.

The discount is the product, so do the arithmetic before you decide how you feel about it.

At one meal a week, six weeks of food runs about $150, and with the $69 oven you have spent $219, less than the oven alone. At two a week it is $303, and you have already paid more than the full price while still owing the commitment. Past that, the cheap oven is the most expensive way to buy an oven. The shipping is what does it: $10.99 per order, whether that order is one meal or four.

Here is the comparison the pitch avoids. I do not cook. I forget, I get hungry, I order from a place near home and it costs about $13. That is the same price as a Tovala meal, before shipping, before the commitment, and without me having to put it in an oven.

So the question is not whether this beats cooking. It is whether a meal that arrives cold, that you heat yourself, that you had to schedule a week ago, beats one that arrives hot in twenty minutes at the same price. For me it does not, and I say that as exactly the customer this is aimed at.

So, do I buy it? Only at one meal a week, as a hedge for the night you would otherwise order in. Above that you are paying a subscription to own a worse microwave.