<<Disclaimer:  Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>
 
There are many new list members from Germany where breadmakers are not as
common as in the U.S. Therefore I would like to tell them my experiences
I gathered concerning breadmakers. As far as I know there are only two
different models available on the German market, the Panasonic breadmaker
(about 600 DM) and a breadmaker distributed by the Neckermann Versand
(about 300 DM). In the U.S. such machines sell for 80$-200$ and one might
think about importing one. The big problem is the difference in voltage
in the U.S. and in Germany. One would have to get a special
transformer for the breadmachine. The price for such a transformer is
high enough to make such an import uninteresting, since the bm needs a
strong electric current for the baking process. Better don't try to run a
U.S. bm with a 10$ adapter which is supposed to double the 110V to 220V
and can be bought in some U.S. stores. If you have a close look at it
then you will regonize that those devices "cheat" and don't transform the
voltage correctly which will lead to the death of the bm (personal
experience). My next step consequently was to have a look at both
machines available in Germany and I recognized that the
construction of the Panasonic bm is much better than of the Neckermann
bm (--> price difference). The Panasonic machine needs about 4 hours to
make a bread whereas the Neckermann one is already done after 2 hours (if
I remember correctly). Somehow that made me suspicious because during my
visit in the U.S. I collected some experience with my now broken U.S.
breadmaker which needed between 3 and 4 hours to make excellent bread.
Since I am not an expert and since I have never used the Neckermann bm I
can't give an objective statement about the quality of the bread made with
this bm (--> please post if you have any info).
I decided to buy the Panasonic bm and since then I have been quite happy
with it. With about 5 min of daily work I have a fresh bread every
morning which lasts for about a day. I can only recommend buying a
breadmaker to everybody who doesn't own one yet. Friends of my family also
bought a Panasonic bm and are very satisfied with the results. Since bm
make FRESH bread available whenever one wants to have it they
significantly improve life with cd. Again I want to state that I don't
warn against buying the Neckermann bm since I have no personal experience
concerning it. Furthermore I want to state that I am not affiliated with
any of the brands I named above.
 
Oliver