Sunbeam 5891 2-Pound Programmable Breadmaker, White
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List Price: Our Price: $51.63 You Save: $34.42 (40%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $40.00 (click here) Category: Kitchen See more product details |
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Sunbeam 5891 2-Pound Programmable Breadmaker, White
Customer Review: A great bread machine for the price!
Summary: 5 Stars
I "accidentally" bought this machine for myself. It was actually supposed to be a Christmas present for my sister-in-law. I found out later that she already had a bread machine so I ended up keeping it. Wow! I'm so glad I did! This machine does every thing it says it does. When I first started using it I would allow the machine to run full cycle and bake the bread in the machine. The result was fine but the odd shape of the loaf made the slices hard to use for normal-sized sandwiches. I find that now I only use the "dough" setting so that I can shape the bread into more conventional loaves and bake them in my oven instead. Either way, the taste, texture and overall food value is excellent. This product is well worth the money. I've had mine for about four years now and I'm very satisfied with it. In fact, our family has stopped buying store bought bread altogether. I bake my own homemade bread about twice a week and if I need sub-sandwich rolls, hamburger or hot dog buns all I have to do is shape the dough and bake. It's already paid for itself in the money I've saved.
There is one or two things to watch out for though:
Number One, since bread baked at home has no preservatives, you'll need to store any bread more than a day old in the refrigerator to avoid molding.
Number Two, when the dough is being mixed at the beginning you'll need to stand by with about two or three ounces of water and add it little by little if the dough ball appears to be dry, flaking and generally not cohesive. If you overwater it you can sprinkle some more flour into the dough ball until you get a nice consistency. With a little practice it becomes second nature.
Happy Baking!
Customer Review: Very happy!
Summary: 4 Stars
I just received my new bread machine. Quickly washed parts and made my first loaf in the new machine, using a recipe from the instruction book.
My loaf sunk. Immediately threw out that loaf and got out my bread machine cookbooks and found one of our favorite recipes for zucchini bread. Bread turned out wonderfully - maybe it was a recipe error on the first loaf.
I am impressed with how much quieter this machines runs from our old machine (different brand - think it was a BreadMan Ultimate). If I wanted bread when we woke up in the morning I had to set the unit out in the garage because it was so noisy.
The whole machine seems smaller as well. It will take up less space in my appliance garage at the bottom of my pantry.
It has a large viewing window. I liked having all the controls on the top of the unit (old machine), easier to read, but I think once I am familiar with this machine this won't even be an issue.
The price seems good as well, about 1/2 the price of the Breadman. (The Breadman lasted less than 2 years!) Local appliance repair shop said he couldn't get parts for the Breadman, had to throw the machine out. I do believe this is one of the brands the appliance guy can repair - if necessary.
This does not have the little compartment for adding nuts etc, but I found that to be a pain on the Breadman - forgetting I had put nuts in the compartment and I'd open the lid to check how things were being mixed and I'd end up with nuts all over EVERYWHERE but in the bread! I stopped using that compartment and just threw the nuts in!
I am liking this machine enough that I am ordering one as a wedding shower present!
Enjoy!
Customer Review: Received a dud
Summary: 1 Stars
I've had many years experience making bread by hand and using a bread machine. I've had to rely on the bread machine more these days due to wrist problems. After my old machine was accidentally dropped, I purchased the Sunbeam to save some money. Bad idea. While I believe others have had good experiences, given the wide variety of ratings, I'm starting to believe Sunbeam is having problems with consistency in their production. My machine handled the first loaf, a simple white bread sandwich loaf, okay -- though I didn't care for the smell of burning plastic on first use. The problem arises when any amount of whole wheat is used, despite this machine having a whole wheat cycle. The first time I added whole wheat, just about 1/2 cup to majority bread flour, the machine made a LOUD horrendous clunking, clattering, or whining sound whenever it was mixing. Though the dough looked and felt perfect to the touch, I added some room temp water to lubricate things a bit, and it did not help. It was so loud it brough DH down from upstairs. I tried various recipes over the next 10 attempts, with varying amounts of whole wheat, trying basic and whole wheat cycle, working with moisture, and this awful noise never stopped. In addition, I noticed the crumb on all my breads were coming out exceptionally thick, and occasionally a 2 lb loaf wouldn't rise and a 1.5 lb would try to lift off the lid! As I said, I'm an experienced baker, these were not new recipes and I know how to watch a dough while mixing and rising to make adjustments, but this was off the charts unpredictable. I am returning this product, and will be spending the extra money to purchase the panasonic.Customer Review: Great machine at a great Price ...
Summary: 5 Stars
I have used the sunbeam 5891 for three years now, and feel that I am an experienced user.
First of all, the instruction book is very clear about using the machine. Each setting has a single recipe to use. These are all very good basic recipes, and most people will stick to these. They make good bread when you follow the instructions. So wait until you have a bit more experience before you buy a bread machine recipe book. By then, you'll know what you want.
The machine is easy to use, and works well. Additionally, I appreciated the Jam and Cake settings, so you can use this for much more than just bread. It even has a "quick bread" setting, for things like banana bread! So it is very versatile!
I appreciated the bread slipping easily out of the pan (I've had a bad experience with a different breadmaker), and the accuracy of the settings. All in all, it works well, and I do recommend it.
One caution if you have never used a breadmaker - measurements MUST be precise! In normal breadmaking, you add flour or water until you get it to the right consistency. With a pre-programmed maker, you need to be more precise. I also recommend checking the bread after the first knead, and adding water or flour. Once you are experienced with a particular recipe, you will be able to skip checking it and can do the "overnight" bread we all love to wake up to.
Probably the worst "beginner" mistake I made was forgetting to put the knead paddle in the machine. In case you can't figure it out, it works WITH the paddle, but doesn't do anything to stir or knead the bread when you leave it out. (blushes)
Customer Review: It's the walking bread machine!!
Summary: 2 Stars
We received this machine for christmas (2007) to replace our other bread machine that died after 8 years. We returned this machine in January of 2008.
Con's:
-It is not weighted down enough to keep it from moving around the counter.
The first time we used the machine it moved around the counter so much I thought it might fall off the counter. It had turned a 90 degree angle before I walked in and saw it towards the edge of the counter. (After that we started anchoring it between two other large appliances to use it, it still moved around quite a bit.)
-Results are not consistant. I have been using a bread machine for 8 years. I know how to put the exact ingredients and I know how our local environment affects the baking process. This machine made the first loaf beautifully. Unfortunately, that was the only one it got right without me having to babysit it, and turn it off before it started the bake cycle to allow the bread inside more time to rise again before I'd flip it to the bake cycle. I did not start the babysitting process until loaves 2 and 3 that we made did not turn out. After the fifth loaf I made I took our sunbeam back to the store for a store credit. I have a large family and no time to sit around babysiting my "automatic" bread maker.
Pro's:
-Despite this I thought the design was very nice.
-It was very inexpensive as far as bread machines go - I like affordable things.
-Great features
-Easy to set features up.
Overall -
The pro's did not out weigh the cons for our family and we did return it.