Grace Wagner writes:
>
> Hi,
>
> I have a Welbilt machine that I've not had problems with but I am seriously
> considering buying a Zoji (sp?) because my Welbilt only makes the smaller
> size breads and I see so many delicious sounding recipes here but they're
> for the larger machines. Also, 1 lb. of bread barely gets through a family
> meal (yes, 2 teens, how did you guess?? :) )
> [...]
> Does the Zoji live up to its reputation. Please reply either to the list
> or to me privately if you think this question has been asked too many times.
>
> Thanks very much.
>
> Grace
>
I had a 1.5 pound R2-D2 style Welbilt. It worked fine for me for a year or
two. It made good bread. Then one day I pressed "start" and the start light
came on, but nothing else happened. I tried lots of different options, from
pressing buttons to calling the manufacturer, and I found that:
1) it was really and truly dead, and
2) nobody in my city repairs Welbilts. (In fact, a local small appliance
repair company went so far as to lecture me for buying an appliance without
first researching whether or not it could be repaired in my area. <sigh>)
After some unsuccessful attempts to see if I could fix it by taking it
apart to replace a burned out fuse, I gave up. I gave its dead hulk to a
friend, and lived breadmakerless for far too long. Then finally I bought a
Zoji from Mr. Irwin H Franzel (Irwin@prodigy.com) of Delta Rehabilitation.
It's a nice machine. And Delta Rehab was wonderful about providing the
machine promptly, at a great price. They even included several pages of
their own breadmaker tips.
I expect that the Zojirushi company wll be MUCH better about any repairs
if the machine ever needs any. But truthfully, I find the bread my Zoji
makes is about the same as what came out of my old Welbilt, or maybe even
slightly inferior.
Zoji advantages:
* Likely to be better about repairs. Can't be worse than Welbilt was.
* Delta Rehab is cool.
* Programmable cycles. Cake cycle. Jam setting.
* You can load the pan anyplace in the kitchen and *then* put it into the
machine. My Welbilt had to be loaded with the pan already locked down
inside the machine.
Zojirushi disadvantages:
* My Zoji makes denser loaves than my Welbilt did.
* The Zoji pan is somewhat harder to clean thoroughly (see below).
* It's harder to remove the loaf from the pan. The Zoji paddle is very
firmly attached to the pan, so you have to rip the loaf off the paddle
while it is still in the pan (when you can't reach the paddle). Sometimes
this makes a mess of the loaf. The Welbilt paddle always came off into
the loaf when I took the loaf out of the pan. Then it's easier to take
the paddle out of the loaf, because you have direct access to it.
* The Zoji sits and waits for a while before it starts mixing, to let the
ingredient temperatures equalize. I suppose that's a good idea, but it
means I have to stand around the kitchen and wait until it starts kneading,
so I can check the consistency of the dough in case it needs more water or
flour. The Welbilt started mixing the ingredients right away, so I could
get back to (oh no!) sitting in front of the computer sooner.
So, I'm not really convinced that the Zoji was worth the extra money. Your
mileage almost certainly will vary.
Bonnie Briscoe writes:
> Valerie asked:
> >Hi -- I was wondering if anybody had experience with putting their
> >bread machine pan through the dishwasher. I have a Zoji, with a non-stick
> >pan. The instructions say not to put the pan through the dishwasher, but
> >in general I've had good luck putting all kinds of stuff through the
> >dishwasher even when you're not supposed to. I would expect water to
> >collect in the indentation at the bottom of the pan, but hopefully that
> >wouldn't cause the pan to rust. Has anybody tried this?
>
> Why on earth would you want to do this? I've never seen anything easier to
> wash by hand than a nonstick bread machine pan.
>
> Would you buy any other top-of-the-line equipment -- a car, or computer, or
> camera, or appliance -- and then purposely try to ruin it by doing the
> opposite of what the owner's manual tells you to do?
>
> Please don't abuse your Zoji -- you are fortunate to have one and you
> should try to take good care of it, even if it means you have to spend
> three minutes washing and rinsing the pan by hand.
>
> Bonnie
>
>
There are several reasons why I would like to put my Zoji breadpan through
the dishwasher.
1) I agree that washing the breadpan by hand doesn't take much time. But
after cooking and eating a meal and loading all the rest of the dishes in
the dishwasher, the last thing I want to do is haul out the soap and sponge
to wash the breadpan by hand. Usually I leave the dirty pan sitting inside
the machine until the next time I want to make bread. And that next time
takes longer to come around, because having to wash the dirty breadpan
before I can use the breadmaker is a definite disincentive toward making
bread. I agree that it's not a huge chore, but evidently it's enough of a
hurdle that I *don't* do it.
2) Maybe it's because I'm terrible about washing the breadpan right away,
but when I go to wash it, my breadpan always has remnants of the last loaf of
bread encrusted on the screws and hidden under the paddle. It's supposed to
be a nonstick pan, and yet soaking and serious scrubbing often aren't enough
to get the crud off the screws. It's been like that ever since I got it;
I don't think it's that I've scraped off the nonstick coating from the screws.
And it's impossible to wash under the paddle. I'd hope that the dishwasher
would be better able to deal with some of this than hand washing does.
So that's why I want to put my breadpan in the dishwasher. It's easier,
more prompt, and more thorough than hand washing would be.
-Valerie