I love this breadmaker.
583246
I purchased one seven years ago and used it constantly.  I bought another for my son last year, and they love it.  Now that my first one ran out its life, I bought another one for myself.  And I have now discovered making artisan breads.

The only down side is that the paddle sometimes doesn't get all the flour in the corners.  This is very easily remedied by pouring a couple tablespoon fulls of water in the corners when the fast mix cycle begins.

I definitely recommend this Bread Maker
1095111
Nice looking machine.  Viewing window is big.  Makes wonderful bread.
2883629
This is a wonderful bread machine.  Makes great bread from scratch or from the box.  So far, everything I've baked with it has turned out great.
3110562
Love it! I had one many years ago and now I'm making excellent bread with this one. I hope it lasts forever.
2078829
This is the fourth bread machine I have had and it is great!!!!  My husband's Italian grandmother Macaluso always made fresh bread so he really enjoys my homemade bread and this machine is perfect!!  It makes larger loaves, I can make the dough, put it in the little baguette maker and make those small round loaves he loves!!  Thank you for a great product!!!  When my other machine "wore out" I ordered from Amazon and it was here in just a few days making my husband happy he did not have to go weeks without his bread.
3622783
I am very happy with this bread maker.  I had a Panasonic several years ago.  Then I bought a different brand and never liked it as well, so I have been happy to replace it with this new SD-YD250 model Panasonic.  I would recommend this bread maker to anyone, looking for an inexpensive bread maker.
1593284
My husband bought this bread making machine for me and I am very pleased with it. We had another brand of bread machine before this one that had problems from the start. The bin never stayed firmly in place when kneading and it was too close to square in shape.  The size and shape of the Zojirushi bin is just right. It is also much quieter. The book of instructions and recipes is excellent and very clear. The process is easy and completes the bread in good time.  The one problem I have had stemmed from using bread machine yeast which caused the loaf to rise too much. I  found that using less quantity of this kind of yeast worked.  Then I used the regular active dry yeast as called for in the recipes and that worked too. I really appreciate the heating unit in the lid; it gives the crust a more even texture and appearance.

We are very happy to have purchased the Zojirushi and look forward to many years of excellent loaves of bread. It will be fun to try out the diversity of bread types included in the book. I have also been able to successfully adapt a recipe from another book.

Yes, indeed this bread making machine does meet and exceed our expectations.
2449880
My attempt at humor in the review title is somewhat misleading on purpose.  I am quite happy with this model breadmaker, and in my estimation it is a fine product.  It does, however, have some flaws that need to really be considered before purchasing.  I made my purchase from my local Bon-Ton, where the price was comparable with Amazon without the shipping cost or delivery time.

First of all, its a Large unit.  The machine is quite beautiul, completely done in brushed silver with black accents.  The viewport on top is large enough to see the action in the chamber, and the buttons/led layout is functional, if not a little old fashioned in design.  All the parts are quite sturdy and well constructed.  There are no worries regarding broken buttons or flimsy construction with this unit.  The 2lb bread pan clicks in place easily, and the paddle is quite small and amazingly gets the job done with its innovative shape and design.

The included recipe book is also well done.  I made a few of their basic recipies (whole wheat bread, plus a modified honey wheat using whole wheat graham flower instead of whole wheat)  I also made a delicious 2lb cinnamon raisin loaf I found a recipe for on about.com.

my main gripe with this unit:  I have two.  one is major, one minor. My major gripe has been addressed several times on this forum, and that's the crust consistancy.  When I made the recipes that came with the unit, the crusts came out as expected but a little hard.  My raisin bread was set to medium and actually burned the crust.  it was edible and quite delicious, but it was a little disheartening to open up the access door when the done buzzer sounded to be greeted with a billow of smoke.  I feel I can work around this by keeping the crust at low, and potentially taking the bread out early once I learn to judge exactly which cycles seem to burn the bread.

my minor gripe:  As another reviewer pointed out, The cycles are hard coded and there is no stopping one, starting another.  This doesn't affect me so much since I am a novice baker, and I basically stick to the recipies.

All in All, This is a good machine.  The burning crust issue is enough for me to consider a breadman unit, but I think I will do more testing with different recipes before giving up on this unit.  Today I think I'll make a rustic italian loaf and see how that gets.

***UPDATE***
Well its six months and change later.  How do I like my breadmaker?  I don't like it, I LOVE it.  I kept this model, and found it does the job well, even if I have to use a bit of brainjuice to determine what to set the crust time too...generally I put the crust to medium or light, and its perfect.  I use this model quite a bit to kneed dough instead of baking loaves, as I love making flatbreads and Foccacia.  Its a dream to drop the ingredients in, forget about it for an hour and a half, then come back and pick up the dough to use for my crust.

My first review stands, but I'd give an additional half star if I could.
4279121
i never thought i'd buy a breadmaker because i really enjoy the process of making, kneading, and shaping bread. what makes this breadmaker great is that it saves lots of time and effort, and produces great results.
we set the timer at night to wake up to fresh raisin bread in the a.m. (i use powdered milk, so there is no danger of spoilage). when i want to make 'artisan' breads i let the bread machine start things for me, while i'm making other things.
friends who own other breadmakers can't believe that our bread came from one; many of them stopped using theirs. this one makes great, chewy loaves, best on the 1.5 lb setting. i can't imagine not having one.
1750900
My first breadmaker ever, and I love it! I read reviews on so many breadmakers, and finally threw up my handles and "settled" on this one.  I certainly didn't settle, however--it's great! I have been baking fresh bread every other day since I purchased it (3 months ago), and every loaf is perfect!  I adapted the French Bread recipe into a simple wheat bread recipe (i.e. 1 cup white flour & 3 cups wheat, with everything else remaining the same)--and it comes out perfectly!
1201584
Wow! My last breadmaker broke so I had to order a new one...SO GLAD I ordered this one! It's large, but has SO many different functions...it is quiet, and makes AMAZING bread! We've made white bread, whole wheat bread, french bread, and sandwich bread, and each was AMAZING. Best bread maker I've EVER used!
1074659
Got this bread maker and I just love it.  It does a great job.  The recipes are great as well.  I would highly recommend it as a good buy.
4316023
I've had this breadmaker for maybe 3-4 months. I do love it. My favorite method is to make the dough only on cycle and then shape it any way I like, let it rise again, and then bake in my oven. I know it makes it easier because when I made the dough by hand, and so on, I would be quite exhausted. This does save time and energy with very predictable results. The recipes are excellent. For example, last night I set the timer for the bread to start about 7am. I just grabbed approximately equal portions and made rolls, baking maybe 25 minutes at 400 degrees. With the rest, I made pizza and a kind of crisp flatbread. The recipe for all this was Italian parmesan-yum.. It also makes good loaves on the automatic cycle. Of course, the paddles can get little scratches over time, but this is pretty much unavoidable. And on sale now for 55. Do not wait.
160874
After receiving this machine, I have loved it.  Makes really good textured bread, and much better machine than another brand that I used in years before.  I have made from purchased mixes and also made sourdough from "scratch".  The sourdough was excellent, raised all the way to the top of the pan and we throughly enjoyed! I love the twin kneading blades, as they seem to mix dough must more throughly.  The controls are easy to use and understand.  Thanks Westbend!
2268281
I received the Zo' as a gift in Dec 2004.  I had never used a bread maker before, nor had I ever made bread by hand.

I have used it about 6 times now, and made whole wheat bread each time.  The loaves came out nicely shaped and browned, and they all tasted great.  I followed the instructions to a T, and used precise measurements.

Before I used it for the first time, I read the reviews here, and was prepared for a possible dud loaf.  So far, the only problem I had was that the first 2 loaves got stuck and had to be "helped" out of the pan.  On subsequent loaves, I tried turning the paddle screws on the underside of the pan to loosen the paddles, and each loaf slid right out of the pan.

I am happy with this breadmaker, but since I have nothing with which to compare it, I've given it 4 stars instead of 5.
1418826
You'll love this bread machine.  As my old Panasonic was failing, after 20 years of weekly use, I tried several different brands, including Panasonic (now manufactured in China); none worked as well as my machine and some were horrid.  I decided to keep my old bread maker until it died, which happened last week.  I decided to bite the bullet and pay the much higher cost of the Zojirushi large loaf Home Bakery Virtuoso.  It bakes lovely loaves of bread and I couldn't be more pleased.  It's worth every penny.
4296538
I bought my first West Bend bread maker in 1997.  I absolutely loved it, but about a month ago the door finally fell off the hinge.  I make a lot of bread.  The only reason I'm giving this machine 4 stars instead of 5 is that the old machine had me spoiled.  It had a pre-heat cycle and this one doesn't.  Getting milk, eggs, and butter to 80 degrees is a bit tricky.  It also had an extended rise cycle on it.  You got a perfect loaf every time.  This machine is a great value and I would recommend it to anyone that wants to make bread.