Problem with breadmaker

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.

I keep my yeast in the fridge.

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

Keep opened yeast in the freezer

The trouble with old machines is getting spare parts

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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 🙏💗🙏

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!!

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

Gave mine away soon after purchase, no self control just kept eating the delicious bread.
Now I buy good sliced and eat from freezer. Much healthier for us two here.

I'm another Panasonic fan - we've had ours for years and it's still going strong. It's worth checking on 2nd hand local websites - eg Facebook or Gumtree - you'd be surprised how many people have a breadmaker lurking at the back of the cupboard and never use it, so there are always some very good - often hardly used - second hand ones. I bought one this way for my daughter.

I’m on my second. I can’t remember exactly went wrong with the first but it was quite old and very much used. Number 2 is equally good and “Nanny bread” is very popular with my grandchildren. I do give it regular cleans inside.
The only time I made a hard loaf was when I forgot the salt.
Imarocker you could try another loaf and keep a close eye on what the breadmaker is up to at each point in the process. If it fails to knead properly you can take it out, knead the dough manually and prove it in the breadmaker pan. Then try baking it on No. 18 on the menu.
Good luck.

My guess is as others have said that it could be that your machine is worn out.My other suggestion is is your kitchen very cold as my bread is more solid when my kitchen is cold although adding more water helps to some extent.

It can be the flour, we had a Panasonic for about 10 years and had the same problem, tried a new packet of yeast and had another bad loaf.

We bought a new Panasonic and the first loaf was the same as the old machine, so we bought fresh branded flour and all has been well. We were so upset we'd got rid of a perfectly good machine as we had no idea that the flour could be responsible for a dodgy loaf.

I, too, love my Panasonic. However, it does occasionally require a thorough clean. I remove the pan and clean out any seeds which have escaped from the pan, and then give it a good wipe out. So far it has worked every time.

Another Panasonic fan .Have had mine for five years baking four loaves a week.I now buy my whole meal granary flour in sixteen kilo sacks from a mill in Suffolk via Amazon prime.The bread is so good always works perfectly.I keep the flour in a big lidded plastic bin. I

I’m almost loathe to post this, but my Panasonic is over 23 years old and is used twice or three times a week - I love it! Recently I have had the odd failure- usually in the form of a brick. I’m not sure whether it’s me or the machine. I know once I did forget to put the butter in and I blamed that, but other times I’ve followed the recipe to the letter and it hasn’t worked. But this morning’s loaf was almost pushing the lid off of the machine, it had risen so much 😳. So I’ll keep going with it for now, I much prefer to know what’s in my bread, there are so many additives in shop bought bread.