I don't have that machine BUT I've had 2 others in the past. Some are
not perfect at baking specific parts of the bread but the breads are
great anyway.
My Oster bakes pretty evenly but the Whole Wheat cycle doesn't work
all that well. So, if I want to bake Whole Grain loaves I use either
the dough cycle or the French cycle, which is similar in that it has
more rise cycles.
I don't know why you would exchange your machine (a Zo) for something
lesser in quality, all because the top didn't brown right? I would
try some of the other cycles and see if they brown right before doing
that. My first machine made a horribly dark top so I changed the
crust color to a lower cycle and it worked well. My second machine, a
Breadman, made pretty dark loaves so I had to use the Light color for
most. Even Medium was too dark most times.
My Oster I use the light cycle for almost all breads as it gets too
dark. Did you try this with the Zo?? If the top was too light, maybe
you should've tried the Medium Crust or the Dark Crust to see the
difference before returning.
I hope someone has a Cuisinart Convection machine to hear about. I
have a $40 Oster that I bought at Costco and I love it. It makes
great bread. The only problem is it only goes up to 1-1/2 lb loaves.
If I want to make a bigger loaf, I can make the dough on the dough
cycle and then bake it separately. It also has a bake only cycle for
those times when I make the dough somewhere else or I use the dough
cycle, and then turn it off. A few minutes later, I use the Bake Only
cycle (when I want Whole Wheat for instance). The most expensive
machine I ever had was my DAK and my parents paid $120 in 1994. It
lasted 2 years. I used it quite often. My Breadman cost $74 and it
lasted one year - made horrid noises and then died, but it made amazing bread.
So, I hope you can get a machine you are happy with, but make sure to
test out the different crust cycles to make sure that it doesn't
brown the way you like.
I don't care if the top is lighter than the sides as long as the
bread tastes great. Just my 2 cents...
RisaG