Breadman TR875 2-Pound Breadmaker, Stainless Steel
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Breadman TR875 2-Pound Breadmaker, Stainless Steel
Customer Review: A month old and still goin' strong!
Summary: 5 Stars
It seems that some folks have a problem with their Breadman machines (Breadmen?) in that first 30 days. I have had *NO* such problem with mine. It arrived, I unpacked it, read the Getting Started bits, wiped everything down with a damp paper towel and ran it through a cycle to burn off any remaining manufacturing oils. That first cycle was very strong-smelling, and still noticable as a scent when I baked my first loaf (a boxed mix of Krusteez white bread - worked like a charm), but had no apparent effect on the bread. It was still noticable on the second loaf baked (egg bread, as noted in the Biggest Book of Bread Machine Recipes), but again, there was smell while baking but NO taste of it in the bread itself.
In the past month, I have baked about a dozen loaves of bread, mostly egg bread, but a couple of boxed-mix breads (Hawaiian sweet bread), and I have not been disappointed with ANYTHING out of my breadmaker.
Be certain that you use yours on a firm, inflexible surface. When that knead cycle gets going, it's like an unholy union of hula dancing, belly dancing and breadmaking! It shimmies. It rocks. It wobbles. But boy-howdy, does that dough get kneaded! I ran it, the first time, on top of my dryer. There was severe wobbling and walking on the breadmaker's part. Now, I run it on the kitchen table, at the place setting we don't use, with a non-skid pad underneath the cutting board it sits upon. It does its little knead-dance, but doesn't stray from where it's been put.
The beeps are good and loud, and quite startling if you're not expecting them, and more than once has the knead cycle startled my mother-in-law, who was unaware that a loaf was In Process.
I recommend picking up a nipple-brush for baby bottles in order to clean out the inside of the paddle (where the paddle sits on the post in the tray). And if the paddle doesn't want to come out, cover it with hot soapy water for about 5 minutes, to saturate (and disintegrate) whatever baked-on goodies are holding it secure.
I haven't tried making any gluten-free breads, yet. I'll get around to that, eventually.
(Edit: Added December 2009) It's still running great! it gets used at LEAST three times a month, sometimes 3 times in a week. Nothing has broken (that I'm aware of), and it still makes a great loaf of bread.)
(Another edit: December 2010) Still running! No complaints!
Customer Review: TR8752 vs. TR875
Summary: 5 Stars
Several thoughts, the first being that this model (TR8752) appears to be the exact same thing as the slightly more expensive TR875. I ordered this one, but received the TR875. The fine print for both products reveals that they both, indeed, have the same model number. Also, I chose free shipping and received the product in five days (GA). Amazon is good about that. Packaging was suspect both by the manufacturer (bread pan not secured for shipping) and Amazon (they packed the box in upside down despite the clear "this side up" label). HOWEVER...the machine turned out a perfect loaf of bread which, as my hubby says, is all that matters.
I was loathe to part with my first Breadman when it died and to adjust to a new one...this one is noiser, hotter to the touch, and makes a differently shaped loaf (pan dimesions are 7 x 5.5 x 5)...but, again, it turned out a great loaf of bread. Just have to figure out the best place to start cutting.
The recipe I use is one a friend gave me and is actually a tweaking of the Golden Corral rolls, the recipe for which is available online. I use freshly ground wheat, however, so you'll need a mill to make my recipe (hubby has high triglycerides). Here it is in the order in which the ingredients are placed in the breadpan:
1 1/4 cup water
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup raw honey
1 egg (optional)
1 tsp. salt
scant 2.75 cups hard wheat berries, ground to flour (I use a Wondermill)
2 Tbl. soybeans ground with the wheat (optional)
2 Tbl. freshly ground flax seed (optional...must use a coffee grinder for this)
2 tsp. yeast (jar of regular Fleischmans works fine)
I used option 3 (whole wheat) on the menu, 2lb. loaf, light crust. Pushed start and didn't do a thing to help it along. On our first machine we would set the timer to have a fresh loaf first thing in the morning, so I'm sure that will work fine on this machine too. If you have a mill, this recipe is awesome. We either use hard white or hard red wheat (hard red gives a nuttier flavor) or a combination of the two. We all love this recipe, including my four kids...especially hot out of the machine. By the way, I get my wheat from the Bread Beckers.
I will ammend my review if I run into any problems.
Customer Review: Too noisy to keep
Summary: 1 Stars
I have owned this breadmaker for about 10 minutes. I read the book, and saw the first thing to do is to run a rapid cycle to burn off the manufacturing oils. So I put the empty bread pan in the machine, and decided to add the paddle. I noticed there seemed to be baked-on bread on the inside of the paddle. Was my machine and paddle already used and refurbished? I put in the paddle anyway and started the cycle. It sounds like a power generator. A rattling motor sound is continuous whenever the paddle is moving, but it stops when the paddle stops.
This will be our third bread maker (we make bread once or twice weekly and our old machine was showing wear and tear). I wanted a new, sturdy machine I could use for years. My two older machines made very little noise, this is clearly unacceptable. Even if this machine worked well for years, there is no way I could listen to this terrible noise in my kitchen twice weekly!
I'm giving this product 1 star because this example is unacceptable and will need to be returned. If you order one for yourself I hope you get a new and reliable one, which might be a 5 star machine, but this example is not that. I've come to the conclusion the Breadman TR875 is not a reliable brand. Judging from my experience and other reviews, it appears they regularly refurbish defective bread makers and sell them as "new".
Update: I called the customer service line the same day I received this machine, but their wait time was so long I left a message. It didn't get returned (I gave them 48 hours) so I called them again. This time I got a live person, but he just gave me the run-around, telling me it was Amazon which sold me a used machine. What? They expect me to believe Amazon took back a defective machine, and took the time to repackage it as new? And then they sold it to another customer? Do I sound that gullible on the phone?
Anyway.... they said I have to send it back to Amazon, they don't handle customer service calls in the first 30 days. Judging from the service I got, if I kept it for 30 days and then tried to get a replacement, they would give me the run-around again. It's easier to suck up the return shipping and send it back to Amazon.... and then not buy this unreliable brand again.
Customer Review: Very easy, great results
Summary: 5 Stars
I was a bit wary reading the negative reviews, but I made sure the vendor was amazon.com, not some other vendor and trusted amazon not to give me a refurbished machine. I got my brand new machine quickly and have used it about 6 times since then and am highly satisfied with the product. I have Silestone countertops, so I don't have to heed the warning to have something under the machine to insulate the countertop from the heat. The machine is quiet and does a great job of turning out beautiful loaves of bread. The only suggestion I have to those new to the machine: READ the manual, not just the very first page or two. MY PROBLEMS WITH MACHINE: I've found that if I accidently bump the OFF button when checking the dough to see if all the dry ingredients have been stirred out of the corners or if I'm moving the machine over on the counter, the machine turns off and resets itself when turned back on to the very beginning - and I cannot get it back to the proper spot in the cycle it was in, which for me has been between the times it kneads the dough and lets it rise (think it does this three times). Instructions say if power is interrupted like an outage, machine "remembers" for 7 min. where it is and will re-start properly when power is resumed, but my machine, if bumped OFF accidentally, will not resume at the correct place. SO... I started the machine on the KNEAD (only) cycle, let it knead it once or twice (depending on how many kneadings it had before I shut of machine accidentally) and then I turn the machine OFF and let the bread rise -- it's about an hour to an hour and 15 min. and it looks like a nicely risen loaf. THEN I start the machine on the BAKE (only) cycle. BUT you'll note the minimum BAKE time is 1 hour which is too much... so after 40-45 min. on BAKE (only) I "thump" the loaf with thumb/finger and if it's a nice hollow sound, bread is done. YOu can tell by smell and color also, but thumping is the way to tell. SO...my one wish is that the OFF button wouldn't reset to beginning just by a mere bump; I'd suggest a 5-10 sec. of holding it down to make machine stop (and reset). I'M A KLUTZ, SO DON'T WORRY ABOUT ACCIDENTALLY TURNING OFF MACHINE AS I DO. LOVE THIS MACHINE AND ENJOY TRYING DIFFERENT BREAD MIXES and variations adding in ingredients.Customer Review: We LOVE it! Great Breadmaker @ an affordable price!
Summary: 5 Stars
This was our first breadmaker. We reseached breadmakers for a few months and read most of the reviews here on Amazon for the different models. I can't exactly say what it was about this model that triggered our purchase, but the positive reviews were a plus. We received the breadmaker after a short delay (it was out of stock) and immediately started making bread. It's super easy to use, and the bread was excellent. The menu has 10 preset bread recipe choices, and options for different crusts (light, medium, dark) and it can make either a 1.5lb or 2lb. loaf. The first loaf we made was Menu option 1, classic white bread, 2lb loaf. We used all purpose flour, vegetable oil, and normal over the counter ingredients (salt, sugar, tap water). The yeast was Fleischmann's. Water, and everything else but the flour and yeast go in first. Then flour, then yeast on top. Press Menu button 1, then the loaf button to select 2lb loaf, then select the crust you want. Press Start. That's it. Makes a 2lb. loaf in about 3hrs. 10 mins. The only time I interacted with the machine was to gently push loaf residue off of the sides of the bread pan during the initial mixing. I don't know if that's necessary or not, but I didn't want dough remnants on the side of the pan, so I helped out the mixing process with my spatula.
The baked loaf comes out of the pan really easy, and sometimes the mixer paddle is trapped in the bottom of the loaf, but it's easy to remove. The pan comes out really easy and its a snap to clean it. You need to clean the mixer paddle carefully before you store the machine after using it, dough will work its way inside the D shaped motor shaft hole and probably ferment. I used a very small bottle brush and detergent to get that hole sparkly clean for storage.
We've made 5 or 6 loaves of bread with this machine by now. We tried a 1.5lb French Bread (Menu #2) with all purpose flour, olive oil, medium crust. And it was delicious.
We paid about $10 less when we purchased it off of Amazon last month, when it came back in stock, the price appears to have jumped about $10. But, given the chance again, I would buy this machine anyway.
Good value for the money, and it makes great bread.