The Welbilt, ABM-6000 is a nice machine with modest features. However, it has one of the largest footprints we have seen in a bread machine. So make sure you have plenty of space.

We were unable to locate a price for the 6000. It has 5 main cycles with 29 variations. Main cycles include basic, rapid, wheat, French, and dough. The 6000 can make 1-1/2 and 2-pound recipes and you have crust color controls for light, medium, and dark.

The 6000 has a large view window, however as with most view windows in bread machines it is not that useful. The inside is so dark with the lid closed that you really can’t see anything.

The pan on the 6000 is an odd shaped horizontal. Moreover, it sports one kneading blade. The 6000 also includes a 14 hour timer. The timer allows you to have fresh baked bread when you get up in the morning or when you come home from work. The timer requires you to calculate the number of hours between the time you program the machine and the time you want the bread done. For example if at 8 pm you set the timer and you wanted the bread finished at 7 am the next morning you would set the timer for 11 hours.

For those of you that like to add raisins, nuts, herbs, etc. to your breads you will be disappointed in the lack of an add ingredients beep function. In addition, there is no power failure backup. Once the power goes out, that is it. You will have to start the process over again.

The 6000 does have a keep warm cycle that will keep your bread warm until you can remove it. This part of the cycle however doesn’t keep the bread from getting a soggy crust. It is advisable to remove the bread from the pan as soon as possible. Otherwise, the escaping steam from the bread will be trapped in the pan and make a soggy crust. You can however use this to get a softer crust. Just leave the bread in the pan for 10 minutes and then remove.

The 6000 doesn’t make a lot of noise. It seems to be about average in that department. We were impressed with the quality of the machine. It is well made and solidly built. We did find that most of the time the kneading blades didn’t stay in the loaf of bread. As for getting the bread out of the pan, we have not had any trouble with that they have all slid right out.

You get an average manual and there is no video introduction. You do get around thirty recipes, which gets you started.

When we test a machine, we make three types of bread. We make a plain white bread, a 100% whole wheat bread and a batch of dinner rolls. We always use the recipes that come with the machine.

The white bread tells us how the machine kneads and what the texture and crust is like. The 6000 made a very even loaf with a slight dome on top. It had what we consider a light thin crust. The inside was light, moist, and tasty. The bread rose to just above the lip of the pan.

The whole wheat bread tells us how well the machine handles heavy dense dough and whether or not it kneads it well enough to get a good rise. The 6000 made a slightly rounded loaf. The crust was a little thicker than on the white, but not bad. The inside was heavier than the white was, but not dense. It was moist and had a good taste. The loaf rose to the top of the pan.

The dinner rolls tell us how the machine does on the dough cycle. We used the white bread recipe for the dinner rolls. They came out great. They were light, moist, and golden brown.

Overall, everyone here was very impressed with the 6000. It performed very well. If you were looking for an entry level machine with a modest feature set this wouldn’t be a bad choice. The only glaring problem is the lack of an add ingredients function.

Purchase: The Welbilt ABM-6000 has been discontinued.

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