I bought this bread machine from Amazon because they had a nice sale on it about two weeks ago. It seemed like a good price for what looked like a decent machine, so I ordered it. I'm so glad that I did! I have made six loaves so far, all of which have come out perfectly. I tried two other, hand-me-down machines before this model, both of which burnt or did other crazy things to the loaves and so required tons of monitoring and adjustments. With this machine, though, it really IS as easy as throwing a few ingredients in the machine and pressing a button! So far I have made french bread, whole wheat bread, brown rice flour bread, irish potato brown bread, and more. The recipes that came with the machine work well, but I also picked up a few bread machine cookbooks for more variety.
In addition to making great bread, I love how quiet the machine is (like another reviewer, I kept checking to see whether it was working the first time). I also like that it's a little smaller than equivalent 2 lb. machines and so easily fits under kitchen cabinets, and I love the way it looks in my kitchen (it's not a huge, hideous white box!). There's a helpful fruit/nut add-in beep, the shape of the loaf is nicer than the other 2 machines I've used, and the finished bread easily slides out of the pan.
Overall, I am extremely happy with my purchase. 5 stars!
Added 10/25/2007:
I am still so happy with this bread machine, so I had to come back and add to my review. Since I bought this more 6 months ago I have been using it often (at least 1 loaf a week) and I have never had a failure yet. In addition to loaves made with bread flour, I have made many loaves with 100% whole wheat flour (the majority of my loaves are 100% whole wheat) or other flours like spelt, rice, and oat, and all loves came out beautifully. This machine produces perfect, perfect bread! I now bring fresh bread to every dinner party I attend, and people are always so grateful.
In addition to homemade bread being delicious, I think it's much healthier, too: I love that I now know exactly what went into every loaf of bread I eat (i.e. no weird chemicals or additives, I can decrease the sugar or replace it with a natural sweetener like maple syrup, etc.). I would give this machine 10 stars if I could, I love it that much.
One helpful tip someone gave me was to buy The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook by Beth Hensperger. I use recipes from this book every time I bake bread, and they always come out beautifully. I'm sure there are lots of other good bread machine cookbooks, but this is by far the best one I've tried.
UPDATE 09/04/2010:
3.5 years later, I STILL love this bread machine! My Breadman TR875 is still going strong, as of September 2010 with no problems at all. I made a loaf of whole wheat bread in it just yesterday, in fact :) In 3.5 years of near weekly use, I've had zero loaf failures, and zero merchanical problems. The machine has held up perfectly cosmetically, as well. Overall this has been a truly excellent, reliable machine - I remain thrilled with my purchase, and would absolutely recommend this bread machine to anyone.
