On 1/31/2012 11:03 PM, Ook wrote:
I have four bread machines, and they are all candidates for the trash
can. One has motor problems, three have bread pans that don't last
(the shaft seizes). None of them have lasted me a year. Not
surprisingly, all of them are made in China.

So, what is a good quality bread machine not made in China? I'm
willing to pay a bit extra for it, I've certainly paid enough for the
junk machines I already have. I don't need bells and whistles, I just
need something that I can run 3-4 times a week. I seldom let it bake
the bread, I just use it to nead the dough. I prefer to take the ready
dough and shape it myself - I have a couple of nice Ecko french bread
shaped pans that work nicely.

Failing to find a good bread machine not made in China, can anyone
recommend a good bread dough neading machine? I'm not sure what they
are called - I've seen them from time to time, heavy duty mixers that
can make bread dough. Again - I want one NOT made in China.
I don't think you are going to find a home use bread machine that has
sealed, permanently lubricated, ball bearing type bearings. They all
seem to use some variant of rubber/plastic friction fit seals where the
shaft of the beater blade penetrates the bread pan. I've had 2 cheap
bread machines each last more than 8 years by (1) minimizing the amount
of water soak time I use (generally about 5 minutes) to soften the
residual crust around the shaft and seal after each bake job, (2)
manually rotating the shaft by inserting the blade and rotating it for
about 1 minute after drying and before storing, and (3) repeating step
#2 immediately prior to adding ingredients for another loaf. I
generally make 5-6 loafs/month. Although the shaft sometimes starts
with considerable friction, a minute or so of manual rotation always
seems to free it up. If the shaft is really seized, put a small puddle
of cooking oil in the bottom of the pan and let it soak for about 20
minutes, pour out the oil, put on the blade and try to force the shaft
to rotate.

If all else fails, I found that even after I badly damaged a seal by
using WD-40 on the underside of the pan, to the point where the shaft
was vertically loose, there was no leakage when preparing a loaf if I
added most of the dry ingredients before adding the water to the pan.
Even early in the kneading process, the dough is too viscous to creep
through the damaged seal.

My main gripe is that after using each new machine for only a few
months, the finished loaf tears from the beater blade when you dump the
finished loaf out of the pan. Well lubricating surface of the blade
with cooking oil doesn't seem to help. Very mysterious given that I
don't see any surface defects in the "no-stick" coating on the blade.