Problem with breadmaker

Another Panasonic fan here. Usually works absolutely fine, even wholewheat loaves which other breadmakers fail on. It’s normally my fault if I get a brick - having forgotten something, usually salt. If the flour has got a bit damp whilst in the pantry at this time of year, that makes a difference I find. also important to get ingredient quantities correct - problem before when scales weren’t working properly.

I always used to make my own bread and in fact won WI competitions and demonstrated bread making but when i was unable to stand bought a Morphy Richards bread maker. After some years when it packed up I bought a small Lakeland one. This has been working well for six years. I make dough because i sometimes make rolls. Also make fruit loaves and buns.

I always test my yeast first by putting the sugar & water (at 110 degrees) into the pan, stir to mix, then sprinkle the yeast on top, cover with a cloth and leave for 10 minutes. If the yeast froths up, all is good and I then add the rest of the ingredients (salt last). If it doesn't froth up, discard and start again. Less waste of ingredients and time. I've had a few bad sachets of yeast recently. I usually make bread rolls so only take it to the dough stage.
My machine is a Morphy Richards, which replaced my Cookworks from Argos. The pan needed replacing but you cannot get them for Cookworks machines.

Have you been opening an outside door in the room where you have the machine while the bread maker is working? Perhaps a cold blast of air affected the rise/ bake.

I had an Asda bread maker some years ago. It made rather a large hole in the base but loved their recipe for banana nut loaf. I have a Panasonic but it does not have a window which I would like. The comprehensive recipe book includes gluten free and spelt recipes.

Pisceslady.
It seems that your ingredients are added in the opposite way to mine. Water 200 ml, and salt go in first, then flour, spoon of sugar spoon of dried milk, then butter and lastly the yeast.
Just make dough. So far no problem with yeast. Sainsburys sachets.

I am sure that the breadmakers save you a lot of time etc but I have only every made my own by hand. when I had a family at home made a lot but the best loaves where when I was really mad at some politician or the tax form or whatever. How great it was to really thump the dough around and give it a good bashing. relieved my feelings no end and good bread and home made jam to follow. sorry it doesnt help your query though but just made me think it would a good idea to have another go myself. There are quite a selection of politicians that I can enjoy thinking of when I am bashing it!!

My partner found my breadmaker on the kerb ! Someone had left it as a freebie
It even had a book of handwritten bread recipes inside The writing was in pen & very old school Bought it home gave it a good clean & it made fantastic spelt bread for 5 years before fading away. Just bought a new one & going to christen it today 🙏💗🙏

That happened to me once. Turned out it was the flour. A new bag of flour sorted the problem!

We hardly used our panasonic breadmaker as DH no longer able to eat bread. Decided to offer it to family with no takers. I asked all the neighbours again no takers. Eventually put on local facebook group no taker however a local charity took it as they had a person able to check electrical goods. Phew!

Everyone who says they're had more than one machine, can I ask why you had to buy a replacement? How did you know it was time to give up on your current machine? I'm asking because we have had similar issues to the OP, odd shaped loaves, not risen properly etc but sometimes it's fine & sometimes it isn't. What made you decide you needed a new one ? Just wondering if I should cut my losses with this one.

The pan of my Cookworks machine started to leak where the paddle fits and I was getting black bits in the dough. At least I can get replacement pans for my Morphy Richards.

We also have a Panasonic and love it, we make rolls, white and seeded malted loaves. They all turn out well with a bit of trial and error. When it turned out a couple of bricks we mistakenly thought it couldn't have been the yeast as it was in date and just opened. We was wrong. It turned out to be the yeast,

I think we're on our second or third Panasonic machine and we had to replace our old one because of a spindle bearing.

Can anyone specify the actual Panasonic model they use please? I've been checking them out but there are a number of them.

Keep opened yeast in the freezer

The trouble with old machines is getting spare parts

I keep my yeast in the fridge.

My Panasonic is quite old, the model is SD-2500

Update: DH cleaned out the bread maker and oiled the moving parts. I tried making a loaf and I put the oil in first, before the water, so the oil was on the stirrer and it made one of the best loaves the machine has ever produced. Admittedly, I made a small one but we may have solved the problem. When it really goes I am going to buy one that makes ‘landscape’ loaves (two stirrers) instead of a ‘portrait’ one.