When my Breville eventually stopped working, I was talked into this monstrosity by a Harvey Norman salesperson. "All our customers rave about it" was the sales pitch; (not if they're trying to make gluten-free bread I'm betting!). Well despite using the same bread mix and method I've used for the past 6 years, this thing has turned out a series of GF loaves with the consistency of house bricks (no matter what variations on the recommendations I try). The last loaf actually snapped the blade of my bread knife!! The GF bread cycle is only 1hr ...Read more

What a fantastic machine! I've been using the Breville Custom Loaf machine for a couple of years now but unfortunately it's breaking down so I thought I'd purchase something different to try. I can not believe the exact same recipe I used in the Breville which was ok in the Panasonic is fabulous. I don't use any fancy flour or add anything other than water, salt, oil, and yeast and it just works. Tried the French setting last night 6 hours... I was skeptical however I've just finished my second slice! I use my breadmaker everyday if not twice a...Read more

I have never owned a bread maker before so I can't compare with other machines but I believe this is a good product. I got fed up with kneading by hand so I borrowed this from a friend and I have never looked back! I have baked a loaf or made dough for rolls every 2 - 3 days for the last 3 months. t has worked exactly as promised every time.
I mainly make the wholemeal sandwich on program 10. And I've noticed a significant improvement when I added the Bread Improver marked 'optional' in the machine's recipe. So much more rise and fluffier.
I...Read more

I exchanged this a few weeks ago after being disappointed with another brand of bread maker. Funnily enough, while Breville features were good, if combined with the Panasonic model features I exchanged it with, they would almost have a winner. The build quality of the Panasonic is much better, the "rest" time on this bread MAKER is bureaucracy by bread making "idealists". This feature allows temperatures of all ingredients to balance out for better performance, but not really a problem in some climates. But, it does make great bread, but with i...Read more

This is another great breadmaker from Panasonic, the only brand that allows some time for the raw bread ingredients to get to the same temperature before the process starts - and this is its critical advantage!
BOTTOM LINE - BUY THIS, YOU WON'T GO WRONG!
I have had a number of Panasonic breadmakers, consider myself a bread machine connoisseur quite frankly, and only stepped up to the 2501 because I was intrigued at being able to make Jam or compote in the same machine. It has worked perfectly. All breads made with good, healthy (wholemeal mo...Read more

I'm very disappointed and frustrated about one really critical defect in this machine. Once the pan is loaded with the ingredients and the "start" button is pressed, the machine sits there doing absolutely nothing for up to an hour. In the manual, this is called "resting", but actually serves no purpose at all except to waste time. I complained to the manfacturer whose customer service people told me this is to allow the yeast to "activate". This is nonsense. At that stage, all ingredients, including the yeast, are dry, with the liquid (wa...Read more

First 6 loaves worked really great, absolutely faultless and very easy to use. Bread came out as well as my best ones when made lovingly by hand. The shape of the tin makes the loaves a bit tall, but some creative knifework still makes for very toastable slice sizes.

The 7th loaf also appeared to be a success however when washing up, I discovered that the paddle no longer attached securely to the spindle at the base of the baking tin. I tried the other (rye bread) paddle and found the same problem (there is about 30 degrees of play) so somet...Read more

Purchased this bread machine after reading all the good reviews. I have previously owned other brands and had issues with the bread coming out like hard dense bricks. I was sick of having a bread machine that was only good for kneading. This machine makes amazing loaves, I mainly only bake white bread so I cannot comment on the other types of bread. My first attempt was the basic white loaf, I made the XL loaf expecting it to be average sized as that is what I was used to with my other machines but boy was I wrong, it was HUGE, I actually had t...Read more