Customer Reviews

Breadman T4000 Ultimate Dream Machine, 2.5 LB.

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Litmus test: I nailed a great loaf on my first attempt.

This machine is in a different league from my old Sunbeam. It comes with a bunch of preset cycles, but you can set the duration of individual stages (e.g. "3rd Rise").

The manual is well written. Not only is it full of useful information, but it is also a pleasant read; manuals nowadays are often very poorly translated into English, and you have to spend a long time trying to figure out what they're trying to say. This one is great in comparison.

So far I've had no problems with belts, or anything else. It really works well. That said, a couple of suggestions:

1) Stick around for the first few minutes of kneading. You may have to push some dry ingredients off the corner of the pan with the handle of a wooden spoon. The pan is longer than in most breadmakers, and dough may stick furthest from the paddle. Once the machine develops the ball, though, the problem goes away.

2) If the machine is not in a very well-lit area, you may have some difficulty seeing the LCD panel and seeing the bread inside the window. I fixed that by keeping a $1 flashlight close to the bread machine.

3) Pay attention to the table in the manual with equivalences between different kinds of yeast. That may make the difference between getting a loaf to be proud of and a loaf to be scared of...

I recently purchased the Ultimate Dream Machine and have been using it a few times a week since that time. It is very easy to use and makes a wonderful loaf of bread. I've made several different varieties and all have tasted great. Both the texture and flavor are far superior to anything you pick up in the bread aisle of your local grocery store.

The bread pan is not exactly what I would consider heavy weight so I wouldn't bang it around in the sink when you are cleaning it. However, the mixing blade itself is very sturdy and easy to remove from the pan after baking. The interior of the machine has needed very little cleaning. Just a damp paper towel to wipe out any flour that has puffed out of the pan during mixing.

As a single person, I have primarily been using the 1.5 lb loaf size. I usually still have some left overs at the end of a week and give those to the birds. I would think that the 2.5 lb loaf would be a good size for a family with the 2.0 lb size being perfect for a couple.

I would recommend this machine for it's ease of use, benefit to cost ratio, and consistent superior results.

Amazon has it as the T4000 i guess they just forgot to put the R in there. They are selling it for $99.00 while everybody else is selling it for $217.00-$250.00. This is really a ultimate bread machine. You can put your own recipes in the memory or change the kneading,resting, or baking cycles to really fine tune your bread. The touch pad is really user friendly. All you have to do is touch the pad and pull up a recipe, no looking it up in the book. It's all there on the LCD screen. I bought this for making sourdough bread from my own sourdough cultures. There is several sourdough recipes in the book but they use yeast in them so that's not true sourdough bread. I have my own cultures some i started myself, and others i bought from sourdoughs international great website. I also picked up Ed Woods book " Classic Sourdoughs" available here or at his website that has a ton of info and has many hand and sourdough machine recipes and techniques in it. I'm really loving the flexability of this machine. You can program anywhere from 2 - 48 hrs rest for your sourdough to rest and ferment. This is a true sourdough machine and so much more. Comes with a short video that's helpful in the use and features of the machine plus a big recipe book and a really nice usermanual.

I was initially concerned over the heavily discounted price of this machine, but now that I have it, it really is a dream machine. The controls are easy to use, yet still allow easy customization. I would definitely recommend this machine to anyone looking for a high quality bread machine.

I bought my Breadman T4000 about 3 months ago. Everything seemed great until during the kneading cycles the machine would squeak very loudly (early on it only squeaked during one way of the knead, later it squeaked during both directions of the knead. I contacted Salton for repair. Customer service stated that they don't repair or carry this unit anymore. Would advise on buying another unit. It was nice while it lasted.

I am writing a review of the Breadman TR2200C, but I'm afraid the review by "Costume Designer" is the one that prompted me to write.

I have had my Breadman for four years, and I have baked a lot of bread by hand as well, both before and after I got the machine. However, I have just sent for another one, after all this time. I know about bread too, I wouldn't be considered an expert, but I think the Breadman Ultimate is a wonderful machine. Sure, the rise time is fixed by the machine, but you can override it if you want to. I've used it for mixes, as well as for recipes from scratch. The machine is great for people that want to go do other things, and not worry about it. The options that "Costume Designer" mentions would be nice, but if you put all those options into the machine, it would drive some people crazy. I am really glad for the help with the kneading. Machine kneading has been rated very well by others (notably, Cook's Illustrated), even better than hand kneading. You do have to watch the corners and push the flour back to the blade, but that doesn't bother me, I enjoy the final results, and it takes only a minute. And you don't have to look at the machine again. If I really want good, gourmet bread, I make it myself, but if I just want good bread, without the worry and the effort, I use the machine. It works great.

I think that "Costume Designer" understands about bread. Because of the yeast, bread not as simple as some people think, but she should loosen up a bit, and realize the limitations of a machine. She can probably find one that will do all the things she wants, but it's going to be pretty expensive.

By the way, I'm giving this machine 4 stars, because some people think all the 5 star reviews are written by people that work for the company, I don't. I really like my machine though.

Just received my Breadman TR4000 and quite honestly, I am very disappointed.

I made the basic white bread recipe first, as recommended, and had to get a flashlight to see the LCD panel of instructions. I also scraped the unmixed flour out of the corners of the breadpan during a pause as recommended and could not remember having to do this on my much less expensive now long gone bread machines that I had purchased in the past.

The first loaf of bread was somewhat of a shock as I lifted it out of the breadmachine and carefully slid the bread out onto the cooling rack. The bottom and sides were done beatifully but the top was a pale color and wrinkled and funny looking. While I made the 2lb loaf, it had risen above the pan and pushed against the glass window. I was certainly glad I didnt attempt the 2.5lb loaf.

The size and shape of the loaf was also disappointing. The loaf was as tall as it was long and when it was barely cool enough to slice I got out my electric knife and my bread holder/slicer to test the inside of the loaf. Perfect! The bread was evenly baked and the textue was perfect. I grabbed one slice, buttered it up, shared it with my husband, and we enjoyed a very good piece of bread. I laughed tho as I looked at the slices. I mused that I could cut those slices in half width wise and make regular sized slices of bread with no crust on one side. That could be a solution to this very oddly shaped, taller than it was long, loaf of bread.

Next day I pulled out all the ingredients for banana walnut bread. What a disappointment that was. I carefully followed all the instructions, and during the pause, lifted the pan out of the breadmaker and folded in A LOT of flour that had not mixed into the batter. I then reached into the sticky batter as instructed and pulled out the paddle, placed the pan back into the breadmaker and touched the resume button. The bread came out very heavy, and took much much longer than quick breads normally take. I sliced off a couple of pieces and found there were lumps of unmixed flour chunks scattered throughout the bread. Now I fully realized that I may have done something wrong to create a too dense, too heavy quick bread, but this bread was anything but quick, and the unmixed chunks of flour were the fault of the machine, not me!

Why Salton, after all their years of experience making bread machines would design a state of the art machine with an odd sized bread pan and only one paddle to mix an area that should obviously have two paddles is beyond me. Another very irritating feature is the LCD pad. Make sure you keep a flashlight right next to your breadmachine!!

Don't waste your money on this one.

Earlier this week I returned my second TR2200 to my local department store. That's my second return within 5 months! Why? Because both machines broke down. The first wouldn't turn off. The second - after only one month's use - wouldn't turn back on! Now I'm a person who treats equipment well, and to instructure. (My food processor, which is used at least once a week, is over 15 years old. My 35mm camera lasted 25.)
I give the TR2200 two stars because when it worked, it worked well. True the display was nearly impossible to read, but the bread tended to mix and bake to expectations. I'm bummed that the machine ended up being so fragile.

I am so inpressed with the T4000 bread machine and all that it can do. I used to have a bread machine made by procter and with it the dough would be too heavy for the motor. Now with the T400 I don't have that problem. I really like the fact that you can pause it when you need too and also store your own recipes into the unit.

my family hasn't had store bought bread in over a year since purchasing the breadman. there's nothing like waking up to fresh bread. the technology is simply amazing and the results are mouth watering.

we refined our ingredients over the first 10 or so batches. it probably helps if you have some breadmaking experience beforehand, but ingredients are cheap if you make a nasty test batch!

I think we paid over $300 when this came out so it wasn't as cheap as they are now.