Panasonic YD-205
The Panasonic YD-205 is the top of the line machine from Panasonic. Nevertheless, as far as features go it is a mid-range bread machine. It can make 1-1/2 and 2-pound loaves. The pan is horizontal, but is it also one of the oddest shaped pans I have seen. It also has a yeast dispenser that drops you yeast in at the proper time. However it was so noisy everyone in the room jumped when it went off.
The YD-205 features 10 cycles, including; Basic/White, Rapid Basic/White, Wheat, Rapid Wheat, Multigrain, Raisin, Sandwich, Cake, Dough and Rapid Dough. It is also lacking crust color controls. I do have to say that it is a nice looking, small, compact machine. It is a little on the noisy side, but not as noisy as some.
I made many loaves of bread with it and it had no trouble with whole wheat or multigrain breads. The single kneading blade pan also did a good job of getting the goodies out of the corners of the pan. In this area, the machine really shines. I also like the kneading blade, because it didn’t leave a big hole in the bottom of the bread.
Overall, the machine did well. However, I don’t like four things about this machine. The lengths of the cycles are way to long, 4 hours for basic/white and 3 hours for the rapid basic/white. The other cycles are also much too long. The lack of crust color control while not to critical is something that I think all machines should have. The odd shaped pan makes of course odd shaped loaves that are hard to deal with for sandwiches and for toasting. The price is just too high it sells for around the same price as the Zojirushi BBCC-V20 and is only half the machine
If you were looking for a mid-range bread machine this one would not make my top 5 list, my bottom 5 yes. However, if it were at the right price say $50 to $80 it wouldn’t be too bad, but frankly, this machine just has too many negative points for me to really recommend it. As for the yeast dispenser, don’t let this one feature be the deciding factor, I don’t think it is an overly useful feature as I have never had any problems placing the yeast on top of the flour. To me the yeast dispenser is a gadget and not of much real use.
Purchase: The Panasonic YD-205 has been discontinued.
Can you pause a cycle, then resume? Our first breadmaker was a Panasonic and we really liked it’s quality and replaceable wearing parts. But a pause cycle to remove the paddle before final rising is essential to our bread happiness.
Will March 14th, 2009 at 2:41 pmI have the yd-205 bread maker but I have lost my recipe book do you know how I can get hold of another one or get the recipe for the basic white bread that was in that book?
Barbara Krause September 13th, 2009 at 1:17 pmI’m looking for reviews on the Panasonic SD 257. Are they available??
Sherry Martin April 30th, 2011 at 10:05 pm