Well, I've been through this myself in the past few months so I'll let you
know how it went for me:
Have a KA 5qt - used it quite a bit but then I had that second baby and . .
. . well I fell out of the habit. So when I stumbled across an abm [2 lb
capacity] for $18 at a clearance sale I bought it and got right back on the
bandwagon - haven't bought bread since :) BUT it broke after a year, and I
haven't been able to find one I'm happy with since - I tried a welbilt fr
$40 - junk - couldn't get a decent loaf [and I'm not clueless about how to
'fix' them]. Then another and still unhappy - lusting after the Zojirushi
that Kingarthur sells . . . for $150.
But the ones I wasn't happy with were ALL vertical pans - never again for
me. I found a Zo - same one as in king arthur, for $94 on clearance and
grabbed it - it's great - two holes but it doesn't tear big holes at all -
just a small one that affects maybe one slice each [it's horizontal with 2
paddles] I'm very happy with it - haven'thad a bad loaf, everything goes
smoothly and it's good for 2 lb but you don't have to do 2 lb loaves - just
my .02 - I'd never get another vertical pan - cherie