I love this bread machine. I spent hours online looking at the different choices and reading the reviews -- negative and positive. I put it in my cart so many times, then left it there and came back a few times before finally hitting the "buy" button. The negative reviews really had me apprehensive. But since I've never baked a loaf of bread before, I thought I'd start with this one, and if it was a dud, I'd try a more expensive one. This was really "plug and play". It's ready to go right out of the box. I took the advice found in the positive reviews which was (1) read the manual from start to finish before trying out the machine and (2) make sure your measurements are exact and you follow the instructions and do everything in the right order. Weigh out the ingredients first and have them sitting on the counter ready to put in the machine before you turn on the machine. I read the manual twice (not all at once). I decided to try an easy white bread first. I went out and bought "bread machine" flour and since I couldn't find "bread machine yeast" I just got some fast-rising yeast. The recipes say "vegetable oil or butter" and since I never use vegetable oil (or any seed oil -- only olive oil) I used unsalted butter instead. It was so simple it almost felt like cheating. As to all the things I was fearing from the negative reviews: The machine is really quiet, compared to a blender or vitamix or food processor. It would not wake someone up in the next room let alone disturb an apartment neighbor. The machine did not walk off my counter or fall on the floor. It has four rubber feet that keep it in place -- it moved about 2-3 inches a few times and I just pushed it back. (Intially I put it on a ribbed cotton placemat but I removed it after a while since it didn't seem necessary and it actually moved less without it. I could tell the bread was rising nicely looking in the top window. When it started the baking stage (last stage) I could smell it in another room and went to see if anything was burning, but no, it was just some some air vents in the machine that let out some steam. When the bread was done I let it stay in the machine for about 15 minutes. I took out the bake pan, turned it upside down over a wire rack, and the bread fell right out. Nothing stuck to the baking bucket. This unit doesn't come with a paddle removal tool, and the paddle did stay in the bread, so I took the screw part of a corkscrew and gently probed the bottom of the bread and it came out pretty quick with just a little hole in the bottom. I had set it on the medium crust level and the bread was browned perfectly. It rose really nicely. The bread was crusty on the outside and the white bread inside was not stiff or hardened. I sliced a piece off, tasted it and thought it had a really good, rich flavor. I put some peanut butter and jelly on it and put the rest in a plastic bag and left it on the counter overnight. This morning, I sliced a piece off, and it was still tender inside. (Meaning if you put you pushed your finger into it, it would create a small dent and then bounce back, or at least not tear). I cut it in half and toasted the halves. The toast came out great, evenly browned and I a scrambled egg on it. At dinner, a friend came over and tasted it and even though he's not a white bread kind of person, he thought it tasted really good. One of the reasons I went with this model was because it's dishwasher safe. But the pan was still so clean after baking the bread, all I did was take a dampen a clean dish towel and wipe the inside. Nothing stuck to the inside housing of the machine so I just ran the damp cloth over it and let the top up so it would dry fully. I know this is a long review, but I had so much angst from the 180 degree difference between the positive and negative reviews, I thought it might be helpful to another beginner like me who is struggling to make sense of the reviews. It's not that I disbelieve the negative reviewers -- I've certainly gotten appliances I thought had been previously returned or were duds for other reasons. But I am so happy with this machine so far, I really wanted to share it. I'm going to do rye bread next. PS If in the next 6 months, the machine falls apart or fails to perform properly or the non-stick surface comes off into the bread, I'll come back and update.
