Seriously thinking of getting one. I make bread every two or three days but a friend says they're less messy and the bread's just as good. Supermarket bread has too much salt in it and also nearly always milk as well and I often have visiting vegans, so making my own has always been useful and cheaper. Also I can add stuff like sesame or poppyseed. I do a lovely cashew and date wholemeal loaf and all.
It's certainly true that all that kneading is getting more tiring with every passing year and flour gets all over the kitchen table.
I don't think it would end up unused as I make bread often anyway. There is a good bakery about twenty minutes walk away but they charge £6 for an 'Artisan' sourdough loaf and it's not very big either! Not that I make sourdough bread anyway. Anyone notice that 'Artisan' just means a working-class job done by someone who went to Eton and charges a fortune?
I was originally put off breadmaker bread after going round a friends, seeing the hole left by the dough hook and thinking it had been eaten by mice!
I've looked at the Panasonic ones but phew! Not cheap.
Apparently Lidl have one in once a year that's meant to be good. Anyone used one of those? I don't want to spend a fortune.