I've never used a breadmaker before, but was keen to have a go. I have tried a few of the different recipes included in the booklet that comes with this product. The first was the Italian Herb Bread, the second was an ordinary white loaf, and third was the orange and cranberry loaf. All came out well, using various crust settings and sizes, although I think some practice and tweaking is required to get a perfect loaf. They all seem to come out fairly dense, particularly at the bottom, which isn't particularly to my taste, so it may need to rise more which should be possible on one of the custom settings as you can adjust the timings.
It's very simple to use. You simply put in your ingredients (in strict order), select the programme, crust setting and size of loaf (according to your ingredients) and press start. It then takes a few hours to go through the programme of kneading, rising and baking, and at the end you get a delicous smell of home-cooked, fresh bread. Yum! There is a little light so that you can have a look through the window on the top of the machine and watch it doing its stuff. It isn't very heavy and although it is sturdy, when it is kneading the mixture it does seem to rock about quite a bit on the work surface, so you need to make sure it has a firm standing.
It's very easy to clean. The pan just twists out and you can wipe it clean. It shouldn't be soaked as there is a spindle which holds the paddle and water can damage it. The paddle seems to come out in the bread and needs to be removed before you eat it, but I understand this is not an uncommon feature in breadmakers. It can be removed easily with the end of a spoon.
On this model there is a nice little dispenser on the top to drop fruit or nuts etc automatically into the mixture at the right time. This is great because it distributes them evenly so you don't get a big lump of fruit in one place.
The lid completely lifts off to make it easy to get the bread out and for cleaning purposes.
This is a nice product to use and the bread tastes nice. It just needs more practice to get it right. You can also use the breadmaker just to mix the dough and do all the hard work for you, and then put it into your own oven for cooking.