Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought this item because I was intrigued by the reviews of other buyers. I have to say that for the most part, I was not dissapointed. I will not repeat here what has already been said by others, but I would like to add a few observations of my own. Firstly, the item is extremely easy to use and clean. All the bread recipes included with it, come out very well. However, I would like to point out that what you in fact get, is a sandwich type bread. A very superior sandwich bread, but sandwich bread nontheless. The reason I mention this is that several people mention "crispy crust and tender crumb inside" especially on the french bread, which lead me to believe that this machine was capable of producing artisanal bread. This unfortunately is not true. The crust is a little crisp (certainly more crisp than a store-bought loaf), but this is NOT artisanal bread by any means (the kind that has rustic hard crust, and chewy crumb). I have tried many rustic recipes from other sources to achieve this type of bread in this machine, but thus far none have worked. Don't get me wrong. This machine might not have the capability to make a rustic loaf, but it still works extremely well with the type of bread it does make. In fact, when I can't make my own rustic bread by hand, I would much rather eat a loaf made in this machine than any I can buy at any supermarket or deli or even a bakery. The only store-bought loaves I actualy prefer are very fancy artisanal loaves from a specialty baker. Now, there is one thing about this machine that drives me absolutely nuts. The loaf pan is very vertical, so whenever you choose any size loaf other than the smallest, you get this ridiculously tall loaf, which I personaly find extremely annoying. A slice of this size loaf is basically 2 slices from a "normal" bread (it's as though you laid one loaf on top of another). This wouldn't be a problem except for two things: a)I don't always want to have 2 slices, and b)it's hard to slice. I would have really appreciated the idea of being able to make a big loaf that would last several days, but this is actualy so inconvenient here, that I end up making small sized loaves more often. This, however, is a relatively small inconvenience and I would still highly recommend this product. I also highly recommend using high quality flour. I find that the best flour is an organic flour that still has its germ. This makes a huge difference in taste (plus is very healthy), and it need not be expensive at all. Since I bake all of my bread now, I get a large 25lbs. bag, once every few months, from somethingbetternaturalfoods dot com for around $12, which comes out to less than 50 cents a pound. Lastly, I would like to address a concern I read in someone's review. I believe one person mentions that all they get is hard lumps instead of loaves. I believe that the problem here is probably the type of recipe used. When you use a bread machine, you must use recipes developed specificaly for baking in a bread machine. Machines use ratios of ingredients that are very different from oven recipes, and most of the time, a regular recipe will not work well in a machine. If this does not resolve the issue, then the problem is most likely that the internal settings of that particular machine were not set correctly at the factory, and an exchange for a properly functioning one will fix the problem. UPDATE: I have had this machine for 2 and a half years now. It is still going strong despite being consistently used every few days. I just wanted to add that I found it to be a great tool for artisanal bread making, after all. I don't bake my artisanal loaves in the machine, but I allow the machine to knead the dough for me on the pizza setting. It saves me time, wear and tear on my hands, and it produces great consistency dough.