Buyer’s Guide
We put together this brief bread machine buyers guide in order to help people find the best bread machine for their needs. Bread machines come in all shapes, sizes and price ranges. You can pay as little as $50 for a bread maker or up to $300 or more. All of the various makes and models have different features and with more bells and whistles comes a higher price tag. However, for some people added features are viewed as a necessity and not just some useless function. Simply put, the best bread machine for one person will not necessarily be the best machine for someone else. There are a number of things you will need to consider before you make a decision about which one to buy and that is what this bread machine buyers guide is going to help you with.
One of the first things you should consider is how much bread you will need. Bread machines produce different sized loaves, generally 1, 1 1/2, 2 or even 2 1/2 pound loaves. If you are making bread for just one or two people a smaller sized loaf will be more than sufficient but if you have a large family a larger loaf size may be needed. A 1 pound loaf will give you approximately 8 slices of bread while a 2 1/2 pound loaf will give you approximately 20 slices.
Once you decide which loaf size is best for you, you can start looking at some of the other features that various bread machines offer and figure out which features are important to you. Some machines bake bread in vertical loaves and some bake horizontal loaves. The bread taste the same either way but if you want the look of store-bought bread you’ll need to go with a horizontal loaf. Another important feature that most bread makers have these days is a delay timer. Baking bread normally takes several hours so if you want to wake up to fresh bread in the morning or have a fresh loaf waiting for you when you get home from work, a delay timer is a must.
A lot of bread makers available today have a number of different programmable setting options. You’ll be able to make all different types of bread such as white, wheat, whole oat, gluten-free etc. Many bread machines also allow you to make dough for pizza and bagels, as well as making non-bread items like jams and meatloaf. These are the types of features that really come down to personal preference so it’s important to compare a number of machines and try to figure out which features are most important to you.
Once you have selected a machine that will cook the right sized loaves and has all of the various features that you are looking for it is important not to ignore the manufacturers warranty. Sometimes things go wrong and it your machine breaks down it is important to know that the manufacturer stands behind their product. Look for a machine that has a warranty of at least one year.
Once you’ve conducted all of your research and compared the various features and prices of different machines it is also very important to research some of the user reviews from customers that have been using the machines that you are considering. This is probably the most important tip we can give you in this bread machine buyers guide. If a lot of people are having problems it’s a good sign that you might want to look for a different machine. On the other hand, if everyone is raving about a particular machine you can make a purchase with confidence. Input and opinions of people that have already purchased and used a machine you are thinking about buying is incredibly valuable and is a great way to be sure that you are purchasing a quality machine.
