Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Updates, nine months later: still using it once or twice every week. Love the taste and smell of home-made bread. Tried some cake recipes, made doughnut and pizza dough a couple of times, came out alright (not my thing, but go ahead if it's yours). I go for the plain bread recipe (flour, water, oil, bit of sugar, bit of salt, and yeast). Easy to clean the baking tray, just let sit with some lukewarm water to loosen up the paddles and then gently wash with a bit of detergent. Rinse carefully so water does not reach the nuts and bolts on the pan's bottom, on the outside. Here are the issues: as of a month or two ago, I have to use "dark crust" setting because "normal crust" gives me bread comes just shy of not fully baked (very, very light color). "Light crust" tastes raw. Sometimes it gets very noisy while kneading the bread dough, the whole countertop vibrates. And it started to rust inside, even though I keep it very clean (regular maintenance with a wet paper towel, if dough sticks to the window; nothing else ever happens, because I don't use it for cooking). Worst thing, though, is some of the screws up top are completely rusted; and the bottom is full of rust stains I can't clean for fear of damaging the coils. Guess I'm going to have to use the warranty because I don't think I'm ok with baking bread in a rusty enclosure. Down to 1 star now because a $250 appliance should be good for more than 9 months. Initial review, right after purchase. Pro: Excellent device for making bread just the way you like it. My family expressed an interest in transitioning to whole wheat (for which you absolutely need to buy gluten flour); however, it tastes much better with a combination of 2/3 whole wheat and 1/3 cake flour, and I reduced sugar to 1-2 spoonfuls. Also, replaced butter with regular vegetable oil. Tried many of the cake recipes, works great. Definitely a good investment, bypassed all preservatives and I have the certainty of fresh, top-quality bread whenever I need it. Recipe book is easy to use, feel free to modify amounts of salt/sugar/nuts etc. according to taste. Keep proportions for flour/water etc. Con: delay start function should allow you to have fresh bread by the time you wake up. Problem is, the machine gets loud when kneading and 'punching' so I don't like to do that. If in use during 'awake' household time, it doesn't bother anyone. You do whatever works for you.