Any recommendations on where (in the UK) is the best place to
build a home breadmaking machine?

I dont just want the best price either I want
- good customer service
- a good range to choose between and
- the best advice

And I dont mind paying a bit more for it either!


Ship
Shiperton Henethe

E.G. In my case I want to get something as good as the SD253 Panasonic
but which has a transparent lid so one can see what's happening
underneath!

1. None of the bread makers available are domestic, if domestic means
made in the UK or even made in the EU... All are made in the 'far
east' these days.

2. The 'best' brand available is the zojirushi, BUT this company does
NOT sell bread makers in Europe or Africa.

3. Look at
http://www.consumersearch.com/www/ki...nes/index.html
for a good review of machines available on the west side of the pond.

There are several brands sold in the U.K. Ideally you want one that is
programmable as the Zo is, or as the eSalton Breadman is... so that
you can go beyond the preprogrammed cycles when you need to. I have
NOT discovered one of those sold in the U.K. however.

Good luck with buying one in the U.K. You might want to see if you can
find a Zojirushi dealer in the U.K. and ask them if they can get a
bread maker for you. I suspect the problem is the plug and wiring, and
lack of approvals for the U.K. electrically.

FWIW

Rsh
---------------------------------------------------------
On 25 Sep 2006 11:59:49 -0700, "ship" > wrote:

>Any recommendations on where (in the UK) is the best place to
>build a home breadmaking machine?
>
>I dont just want the best price either I want
>- good customer service
>- a good range to choose between and
>- the best advice
>
>And I dont mind paying a bit more for it either!
>
>
>Ship
>Shiperton Henethe
>
>E.G. In my case I want to get something as good as the SD253 Panasonic
>but which has a transparent lid so one can see what's happening
>underneath!

OK Thanks

Out of interest- what in your view is so good about "zojirushi" ?


Ship



RsH wrote:
> 1. None of the bread makers available are domestic, if domestic means
> made in the UK or even made in the EU... All are made in the 'far
> east' these days.
>
> 2. The 'best' brand available is the zojirushi, BUT this company does
> NOT sell bread makers in Europe or Africa.
>
> 3. Look at
> http://www.consumersearch.com/www/ki...nes/index.html
> for a good review of machines available on the west side of the pond.
>
> There are several brands sold in the U.K. Ideally you want one that is
> programmable as the Zo is, or as the eSalton Breadman is... so that
> you can go beyond the preprogrammed cycles when you need to. I have
> NOT discovered one of those sold in the U.K. however.
>
> Good luck with buying one in the U.K. You might want to see if you can
> find a Zojirushi dealer in the U.K. and ask them if they can get a
> bread maker for you. I suspect the problem is the plug and wiring, and
> lack of approvals for the U.K. electrically.
>
> FWIW
>
> Rsh
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> On 25 Sep 2006 11:59:49 -0700, "ship" > wrote:
>
> >Any recommendations on where (in the UK) is the best place to
> >build a home breadmaking machine?
> >
> >I dont just want the best price either I want
> >- good customer service
> >- a good range to choose between and
> >- the best advice
> >
> >And I dont mind paying a bit more for it either!
> >
> >
> >Ship
> >Shiperton Henethe
> >
> >E.G. In my case I want to get something as good as the SD253 Panasonic
> >but which has a transparent lid so one can see what's happening
> >underneath!

> ship wrote:
> OK Thanks
>
> Out of interest- what in your view is so good about "zojirushi" ?
> Ship

If nothing else, the bucket is built to the standards of industrial
machinery, not the standards of imitation fake tinwork as with most
other breadmakers. ZJ also sell replacement paddles (at reasonable
cost) and buckets (at great cost, but see above ;-) )

ZJs have great programming flexibility.

Problem areas: no autolyse step or pause button; you have to shut down
the cycle and set a timer manually. And no USB port to allow
programming from a PC rather than pressing 8047 buttons on the front panel.

sPh

I've used both the Panasonic SD-253 and the Breadman Ultimate. There
are pros and cons for both of them:

The Panasonic's bread-bucket is a seriously chunky piece of kit while
the Breadman's is much lighter, although perfectly acceptable. The
Panasonic's non-stick coating seems a little less robust although the
odd scratch doesn't make any difference. The Breadman's bucket is also
tightly retained by two spring catches while the Panasonic's can rotate
a bit too much for my liking.

The mixing on the Breadman isn't as good as on the Panasonic, in that
it is easier to get pockets of dry ingredients in the corners so it is
a good idea to ensure you have a wooden or plastic spatula around to
scrape round if necessary.

The Breadman is much more convenient to use - the window is very
useful, as are the Pause control, the one-hour power-loss memory and
the user-definable programs. I haven't ever got round to using the Jam
facility on the Breadman but I will at some stage.

In my experience, the results with the Breadman are somewhat better but
that may just be subjective!

All in all, I prefer the Breadman Ultimate to the Panasonic (despite
what Which? has to say about it) - it's more versatile, easier to use
and gives me more control.

The killer is that the Breadman is also cheaper - Robert Dyass are
selling them on ebay at £55 delivered (Salton is Russell-Hobbs over
here). I assume that the arrival of the new Breadman model is causing
the discounting of the current (to us) model but I also hear that the
new "whizz-bang" model isn't much of a real improvement.

As for the "lack" of a USB port, I can't honestly imagine why I would
want to bother with such a thing (and I'm a Computer Consultant and the
Ultimate Gadget Man according to my friends).