Good news and bad (Breville Breadmaster)

Member Name: Hope

Product:	Breville Breadmaster
Date:	04/02/01 (1281 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use, wonderful results

Disadvantages: Very disappointing lifespan

The good news, as other dooyoo-ers have said, is that this breadmaker has excellent features and makes delicious bread. It is very easy to use, has a great choice of settings and a very useful delay feature. The accompanying booklet contains a variety of interesting recipes but could be improved if the misprints were corrected.

However, the really bad news is that my breadmaker began to go wrong after 18 months of only moderate use. At first I noticed that the rubber seal at the bottom of the bread pan had come loose. Consequently, some of the ingredients were leaking out during the mixing process, then baking hard and apparently stopping the dough hook from moving properly. The fact that the loaves were not rising properly I put down to this problem.

A quick phone call to customer services produced a new bread pan, with seal intact, for £8 including postage and packing. But it soon turned out that this was not the sole cause of the problem.

As the loaves were still not rising well, I started to check the breadmaker during use, at each stage of the process. I soon discovered that it was not getting nearly hot enough during the rising/baking cycle.

Another phone call to customer services followed and the outcome of this was that I have to send the machine in for repair. Although I would love to have my breadmaker working again, I am reluctant to trust it to the postal services. The cost of postage will be £8, and although I would pay this, I am concerned about the practicality of safely wrapping and sending such a heavy item. Worse still is the possibility that it could be damaged on the way back to me after expensive repairs.

I have been assured that I will be sent an estimate and repairs will not be carried out if their cost is approaching the price of a new machine. However, my dilemma is still whether to gamble on a successful repair or whether to go for a new (cheaper!) model from a different manufacture
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In the meantime, I cannot wholeheartedly recommend the machine to others. I think it is reasonable to expect more than 18 months use, and to be able to obtain repairs more easily.

Summary: