Bread Machines

IF you have not already looked at this site I would recommend you do. It has several different brands talked about. www.sonic.net/webpub/breadmachine I had a American Harvest with 2 pans for 5 years and it just recently died. After much research I selected a ZoV20. I have had it less than two months and with a week's vacation and a week in the hospital and then catching up, I still have not gotten as comfortable as I would like but am getting there. Sort of like getting a new car; the old one was so comfortable you didn't have to think what you are doing, The one thing I have had a few snags with is that the bread seemed to crumble sooner than with the old machine. After not being able to figure out why, I called the King Arthur hot line. The man was most helpful. He told me that all newer machines cook at a higher temp than the old ones because people wanted darker crisper crusts. He suggested adding leachtin and potato flour to all recipes and then spraying the finished loaf with one of their products to seal in the freshness. I have not ordered that product but have used my regular cooking spray. All of this has helped. My new machine also has the sandwich setting which is a shorter baking cycle and that helps lessen the drying out time. I purchased my Zo on the web and have been pleased. I just need time to play with it more. Hope you will find some of this helpful to you.