Breadman TR2200C Bread Machine
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- Max Loaf Capacity: 2 lbs
- Timer Capability: With Timer
- No. of different Programs: 110
- Jam Function: With Jam Function
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1710
Ultimate, Schmultimate: I want my Zojirushi back
Pros
lots of cycles, automatic fruit and nut dispenser
Cons
lousy documentation, non-working features, unnecessarily complex programming, flimsy construction
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
Keep your bells and whistles and give me a good, solid bread machine!
Some time late last year the Ms (bless her pointy little head) decided that my hoary old Zojirushi bread machine was due for retirement. It was, after all, about fifteen years old and had survived three cross-country moves and thousands of loaves of bread. Perhaps she was right: the pan was scratched and stained, and that all-important paddle was starting to loosen on its shaft... Be that as it may, she did her research (here at Epinions, BTW), found a good deal on a Salton Breadman Ultimate 2200C over at Amazon, and had it nicely wrapped for me under the tree come Christmas morning. "Yippee!" I cried.
Now, my old Zojirushi was a different kind of animal from the Breadman Ultimate; one of the old style machines with a tall, square bread pan and a front-mounted control panel. The Breadman boasts that its pan is shaped like a grocery-store loaf of bread, meaning it's shaped more like a long, shallow trough. The control panel is also mounted to the side, not the front. Otherwise, the two have pretty similar footprints on the counter and are about the same weight - if you're keeping track, it measures 16x12x10.5 inches, and weighs in at about twenty pounds - pretty standard for a consumer bread machine, in fact.
Where the Breadman Ultimate differs from my old machine is in its wealth of bells and whistles. The old one had five or six cycles and a timer - nothing else. This thing has, eighty-six, count 'em, eighty-six! different cycles, a cunning little bin in the lid that automatically releases fruit and nuts at the correct point in the kneading cycle, and a timer. Of course, it really only has nine cycles: you get white, whole wheat, French, batter, or fruit and nut bread; jam, dough, pizza dough, and "bake-only" cycles. All the other settings are just permutations of the loaf size (1.0, 1.5, or 2.0 pounds), crust choice (light, medium, dark) or regular vs. rapid cycle.
In addition to eighty different cycle, loaf size, and crust choices, you can also set a timer for up to twenty-four hours in ten-minute increments (yes: you have to punch the button over 100 times to advance it to 24 hours) and specify that you want the little dispenser in the lid to dump its contents - raisins, nuts, whatever. And last, but not least, for those (few) among us who are both programming geniuses and world-class bakers, you can store up to six of your own "personal recipes," although I'm inclined to call them "baking instructions" instead of recipes.
The first thing I noticed, after I'd carefully packed that ol' Zoji away in the basement, was that the Breadman's bread pan is rather... diminutive... considering that it's supposed to be good for two-pound loaves. Although bearing a non-stick coating, it's also made of a grade of steel that's considerably flimsier than I'm used to. The second thing I noticed was that the included manual/recipe book, frankly, stinks. It has no index except an "index of recipes," which is actually a table of contents. Some usage instructions are interleaved among the recipes, and the troubleshooting section is difficult to find. Programming instructions are also rather vague, and details of using the timer are difficult to find. There's also a five-page chart of the various cycle times, but no instructions for high-altitude baking (other than the telephone number for the Colorado Extension Service. Most of the instructions are in standard English, though a few things do get lost in the translation.
The included recipes tend to be somewhat strange. Instead of simple recipes like white, whole wheat, or buttermilk breads, the book runs heavily to oddball things like dill bread, bloody mary bread, and soy herb bread. Hey, I just want some toast in the morning and a little sandwich bread, OK? On the plus side, most of the selections have recipes for all three sizes; on the negative, they seem to like weird ingredients. Oh, and there are five low-carb bread recipes, all of which call for liquid lecithin, vital wheat gluten, and whey powder - time to hit the health food store.
Baking with the Breadman has, sadly, proven disappointing. My tried-and-true recipes have not baked well, especially those containing honey or molasses (my favorite pumpernickel and anadama breads, for instance). Two-pound loaves are invariably too tall for a standard toaster (and almost too wide), though one and one/half pound loaves seem to fit better. One-pound loaves are, from what I've heard, not a particularly good idea...
Programming tends to be fairly clear but tedious. If you set the timer - meaning you've pushed up and/or down arrows for a minute or two (accompanied by an annoying beep) - and then decide to change the loaf size or crust setting, the timer automatically resets itself. Trust me, you learn quickly with that beep assaulting your ears.
I'm also unimpressed with the lid-mounted bin for fruit and nuts. It's never opened when it should, automagically converting all my attempts at raisin bread into ordinary white bread. The problem appears to be a design flaw: the door is tripped by a switch on the side that doesn't mate properly with a little plunger on the main unit. Given that it would have to go back to Salton for repairs, it's probably not worth the trouble.
Overall, I prefer that old Zojirushi because:
•
The Zojirushi's heavy-gauge baking pan distributes heat more evenly, and the small cross-section of the pan also means that the paddle sweeps all the ingredients into the mix. The Breadman isn't so talented, sometimes leaving flour and other ingredients in the corners.
•
The ten-minute increment on the Breadman's timer makes setting a chore (Zoji uses half-hour increments).
•
The Breadman's instruction booklet lacks an index and hides instructions and troubleshooting information among the recipes.
•
I might like the Breadman's fruit and nut compartment - if it worked
I'm seriously considering bringing the Zojirushi out of retirement, beat-up bread pan and all...
UPDATE (12/17/05): The Breadman has been relegated to the basement and the Zojirushi brought out of retirement. This after the third time that the lightweight pan rocked itself out of position and presented me with a loaf of flat bread. Yes, a two-pound loaf of pumpernickel two inches tall now sits in my compost bin and the Zojirushi has returned to my counter. Feh! to Salton!
Now, my old Zojirushi was a different kind of animal from the Breadman Ultimate; one of the old style machines with a tall, square bread pan and a front-mounted control panel. The Breadman boasts that its pan is shaped like a grocery-store loaf of bread, meaning it's shaped more like a long, shallow trough. The control panel is also mounted to the side, not the front. Otherwise, the two have pretty similar footprints on the counter and are about the same weight - if you're keeping track, it measures 16x12x10.5 inches, and weighs in at about twenty pounds - pretty standard for a consumer bread machine, in fact.
Where the Breadman Ultimate differs from my old machine is in its wealth of bells and whistles. The old one had five or six cycles and a timer - nothing else. This thing has, eighty-six, count 'em, eighty-six! different cycles, a cunning little bin in the lid that automatically releases fruit and nuts at the correct point in the kneading cycle, and a timer. Of course, it really only has nine cycles: you get white, whole wheat, French, batter, or fruit and nut bread; jam, dough, pizza dough, and "bake-only" cycles. All the other settings are just permutations of the loaf size (1.0, 1.5, or 2.0 pounds), crust choice (light, medium, dark) or regular vs. rapid cycle.
In addition to eighty different cycle, loaf size, and crust choices, you can also set a timer for up to twenty-four hours in ten-minute increments (yes: you have to punch the button over 100 times to advance it to 24 hours) and specify that you want the little dispenser in the lid to dump its contents - raisins, nuts, whatever. And last, but not least, for those (few) among us who are both programming geniuses and world-class bakers, you can store up to six of your own "personal recipes," although I'm inclined to call them "baking instructions" instead of recipes.
The first thing I noticed, after I'd carefully packed that ol' Zoji away in the basement, was that the Breadman's bread pan is rather... diminutive... considering that it's supposed to be good for two-pound loaves. Although bearing a non-stick coating, it's also made of a grade of steel that's considerably flimsier than I'm used to. The second thing I noticed was that the included manual/recipe book, frankly, stinks. It has no index except an "index of recipes," which is actually a table of contents. Some usage instructions are interleaved among the recipes, and the troubleshooting section is difficult to find. Programming instructions are also rather vague, and details of using the timer are difficult to find. There's also a five-page chart of the various cycle times, but no instructions for high-altitude baking (other than the telephone number for the Colorado Extension Service. Most of the instructions are in standard English, though a few things do get lost in the translation.
The included recipes tend to be somewhat strange. Instead of simple recipes like white, whole wheat, or buttermilk breads, the book runs heavily to oddball things like dill bread, bloody mary bread, and soy herb bread. Hey, I just want some toast in the morning and a little sandwich bread, OK? On the plus side, most of the selections have recipes for all three sizes; on the negative, they seem to like weird ingredients. Oh, and there are five low-carb bread recipes, all of which call for liquid lecithin, vital wheat gluten, and whey powder - time to hit the health food store.
Baking with the Breadman has, sadly, proven disappointing. My tried-and-true recipes have not baked well, especially those containing honey or molasses (my favorite pumpernickel and anadama breads, for instance). Two-pound loaves are invariably too tall for a standard toaster (and almost too wide), though one and one/half pound loaves seem to fit better. One-pound loaves are, from what I've heard, not a particularly good idea...
Programming tends to be fairly clear but tedious. If you set the timer - meaning you've pushed up and/or down arrows for a minute or two (accompanied by an annoying beep) - and then decide to change the loaf size or crust setting, the timer automatically resets itself. Trust me, you learn quickly with that beep assaulting your ears.
I'm also unimpressed with the lid-mounted bin for fruit and nuts. It's never opened when it should, automagically converting all my attempts at raisin bread into ordinary white bread. The problem appears to be a design flaw: the door is tripped by a switch on the side that doesn't mate properly with a little plunger on the main unit. Given that it would have to go back to Salton for repairs, it's probably not worth the trouble.
Overall, I prefer that old Zojirushi because:
•
The Zojirushi's heavy-gauge baking pan distributes heat more evenly, and the small cross-section of the pan also means that the paddle sweeps all the ingredients into the mix. The Breadman isn't so talented, sometimes leaving flour and other ingredients in the corners.
•
The ten-minute increment on the Breadman's timer makes setting a chore (Zoji uses half-hour increments).
•
The Breadman's instruction booklet lacks an index and hides instructions and troubleshooting information among the recipes.
•
I might like the Breadman's fruit and nut compartment - if it worked
I'm seriously considering bringing the Zojirushi out of retirement, beat-up bread pan and all...
UPDATE (12/17/05): The Breadman has been relegated to the basement and the Zojirushi brought out of retirement. This after the third time that the lightweight pan rocked itself out of position and presented me with a loaf of flat bread. Yes, a two-pound loaf of pumpernickel two inches tall now sits in my compost bin and the Zojirushi has returned to my counter. Feh! to Salton!
