Testing Your Machine

Plugging in the Machine

If you plug the machine in and nothing happens you, have a problem. All bread machines no matter how simple have some sort of light or they make some sort of beep when they are plugged in. If nothing happens and it is a new machine, you need to return it and get a replacement. If the machine is used or was given to you by a friend, well you are pretty much out of luck.

Machine Test

Now assuming that when you plug-in the machine it does something you are ready to move on to the decisive test. You need to go to the grocery store and get a boxed white bread mix. You can get them in the baking isle with the flour, etc. It doesn’t matter what brand you get. You do need to check the box for the expiration date; you want one that hasn’t expired. Don’t forget to get the rest of the bread making ingredients you will need for making bread from scratch. For more information what you need for this take a look at Basic Ingredients.

Now following the directions on the mix, make the bread. The reason I use a store-bought mix to test new and used bread machines is simple. They are designed to work. If the bread doesn’t turn out and you followed the directions, you have a bad bread machine. If it is a new machine, return it and get another one. If it is a used one or was given to you by a friend, then what you do with it is up to you however, it is broke!

Now if the boxed mix came out fine (most store mixes only make 1 pound loaves) then you can be assured that you machine is in working order.

NOTE: If you have one of the true horizontal machines like the Zojirushi BBCC-V20 or the Breadman Ultimate TR-810 you will need to use two 1 pound box mixes to test the machine. These dual paddle machines (all dual paddle machines) will not make 1 pound loaves. So keep this in mind when getting the mix for testing.

The Replacement is Defective Too!

This can happen sometimes a problem will be batch wide. In other words a batch of machines made at a certain plant will have same problem and because the store you bought from got many machines from the same batch they all have the problem. If your replacement machine is also defective take it back and get a refund and try another store. With luck they will have gotten some from a batch without the problem. These types of problems thank goodness are few and far between.

Tags: bread machine

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