Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Update 1/29/2018 - STILL works phenomenally well (after almost 7 years!) and far better than the price might indicate! I am a father with four young children, and I bake bread 2-3x a week. I bought this in the summer of 2011 (albeit not from Amazon) and have used it at least 100x or so. I bought it for $60, and I can hardly believe the consistently excellent quality that this machine turns out. I mean...seriously, for $60? You'd expect the thing to be sub-par and not up to the task. The key with this machine (as with any other, I'd imagine) is to work hard on getting the dough ball correct. That's the only part that the machine cannot monitor. Almost invariably, I have to add an extra tbsp or so of water, although very occasionally extra flour is needed. Once you figure out the right additions, you're ready for the REAL convenience of owning one of these - the timer function! Get yourself perfected on 5-10 recipes, and all you've gotta do is measure out the ingredients into the bread pan, set the timer, and presto! Wake up the next morning to fresh bread! The recipe for frozen berry jam is also excellent, although I HIGHLY recommend that you allow the berries to soften a bit before starting because the edges of hard frozen strawberries scratched the non-stick coating a bit. Cleanup is a breeze too. A small tip (which would apply to all brands of bread machine): Make sure to take the kneading paddle out of the bread immediately after you drop the loaf onto your table. It almost always comes out into the loaf, and a tool is included to make removing it a simple task. Once removed, place it into the bread pan but do NOT put it back onto the kneading cylinder. The bread around the paddle will be moist, and if it dries onto the cylinder, it can be nigh impossible to remove. I ruined an old machine because NOTHING would allow me to get the paddle off, not even soaking it in hot water repeatedly. Again, this applies to ALL bread machines, not just this one. For the price, there is simply nothing out there to compare with this machine. It outperforms more expensive units that I've used before as well. Cheers!