Gunluvver2 wrote:
A half an hour spent fixing a part that only costs $5 versus $5 for the part
and a half hour drive to the hardware store plus gas and wear and tear on the
vehicle. ??? I think I will stay at home in my nice warm shop; fix the problem
and keep my $5..

Then again...
I've got a breadmaker, it's on its third replacement.
However, it came with a 3 year warranty, cost very little, and I go to
the shop I bought it in every week.

The design seems to fail after around 3 sacks of flour.
It has an agitator on the bottom, which has a teflon labyrinth seal
protecting a sleeve bearing.
This is heated to around 170C every time.
For the first 40 loaves or so, it works fine.
After that, you can't use timer mode, as the water all drains out.
(but I never use that mode anyway).
Then it gets gradually worse until the agitator starts hitting the
bottom of the pan, due to the horrible slop in the bearing.

Certainly a POS, but at least I get the satisfaction of maybe convincing
the maker a little bit to upgrade the bearing.
Plus nice warm bread every day, that I know exactly what's in.

And I can't actually work out how I could make a seal that lasts "forever".
(say 5000 loaves, not 200)