Sunbeam 5891 2-Pound Programmable Breadmaker

Comment: I ordered this bread machine for a vacation home that we own. I have a Cuisinart at my year-round home and it just has too many bells and whistles that I never use - and cost a lot more. The Sunbeam makes a great dough and was a great price.

Comment: The Sunbeam 5891 bread maker was purchased about a month ago to replace my 10 year old Sunbeam bread maker (that still works but is rusting). I bake bread about once a week, using flour that I grind from hard winter wheat berries and store in the freezer. I add no other flour and expect the loaves to be dense, which they usually are. However, this bread machine bakes the loaves even lighter and higher that my old machine did, and gives me the option of choosing the crust color. Highly recommmended - looks good, too.

Comment: Purchased this breadmaker about a month ago, made some bread (about 4 loaves) and pizza dough. The machine worked as advertised, i.e. it made bread and dough. Some vibration present during kneading, but that is expected, I like the fact that the pan is locked at the bottom and not by two flimsy tabs on the sides as some other machines are, less things to break later. The first loaf of bread fell but the subsequent loaves came out looking great, the trick here is to use bread flour instead of plain white, I think. The pizza dough came out really good. I would recomend this machine to people who don't do fancy breadmaking but make about 1 or 2 loaves a week. It is 1/4 of the price of the fancier machines and does the job that it is made to do.
Gave it 4 stars because I only had it for short period of time. Don't know how well it will work after a year yet.

Comment: I'm surprised that no one has raised the issue of Teflon in these products. DuPont maker of Teflon had to deal with huge lawsuit related to it, and eventually agreed to pay the penalty. Search the google, it's easy to find. You'll find info like this for example:
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Teflon
The coating on non-stick pans used in millions of kitchens throughout the world has been linked to birth defects in humans. Chemical firms face claims that perfluorinated organic chemicals such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) are a health threat. PFOA was first used in 1945 and is in Teflon and oil and water-resistant coatings.

DuPont, which makes Teflon, has to answer accusations in the United States that it had evidence about dangers posed by PFOA but deliberately and illegally kept it secret. The US Environmental Protection Agency says that DuPont concealed its own 1981 research showing that its pregnant workers were passing the chemical to their unborn children. In addition, in 1991, it failed to report evidence that the chemical had contaminated the water supply to 12,000 people.
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Teflon (a brand name of Dupont) is a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) that is supposed to be safe, but when heated to high temperatures are known to give off toxic gasses. One of these toxic gasses is perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA or C8) and is thought to be a likely carcinogen (causes cancer). Other gases given off allegedly will kill small birds and cause polymer fume fever in people (flu like symptoms). The temperature for these gasses to be emitted was reportedly very high and Teflon (PTFE) was deemed safe for cooking.
However, the safe temperature may not be that high. There is a lot of research in the works to measure just how low the temperature has to be for Teflon to start giving off toxic gasses at an unsafe level.

I don't consider any of these bread machines safe until they phase out Teflon. There are actually very viable alternatives. But I talked to Zojirushi representative and they are not even willing to consider alternatives.

Now, anyone reading this has background in manufacturing? :)

I have a great idea for much better bread machine. And it's not that difficult to make.

Comment: Although it comes with an excellent booklet, giving all types of tips to ensure a good loaf...and step by step instructions, the machine is a "toy." It vibrates during the kneading cycle, causing the unit to shake visibly. None of the loaves of French bread have come out properly. On the "light" color, the bread is not done, and the top is not fully cooked. I kept it because I threw away the box, and will still use it for white bread and dough cycle.