Hamilton Beach Programmable Bread Machine Review

Calling everyone looking for a high quality, cheap bread maker!

The Hamilton Beach Programmable Bread Machine is a sleek machine that’s easy on the eyes and your wallet.

Compact, robust, and versatile, this is a machine built for those with little kitchen space or those that just want a snazzy breadmaker, and the many benefits can easily outweigh the flaws.

But there are a few flaws with the Hamilton Beach, as you’d expect from a bread machine at this price — namely that it’s not so reliable on larger 2 lb loaves as it is on smaller loaves.

We’ll get into all that later…

Hamilton Beach Bread Machine: The Details

In a Nutshell

• Weight: 12.75 lbs
• Dimensions: 16.38 x 12.38 x 12.75 inches
• Loaf Capacity: 1.5 lbs and 2lbs
• Settings: 12 settings, including 1.5 lb and 2 lb express
• Stand-Out Feature: Removable parts are dishwasher safe

Features

Settings

The Hamilton Beach bread maker comes with 12 settings, suiting a variety of tastes and sweet and savoury cravings.

These settings are:

• Basic
• French
• Gluten-Free
• Quick
• Whole grain
• Sweet
• 1.5 lb express
• 2 lb express
• Dough
• Jam
• Cake
• Bake

The Express cycles promise to deliver your loaf in 58 minutes, although the company do warn that the size and quality may be lesser in comparison to what you’d get with the Basic cycle.

The range above is pretty standard for breadmakers these days, but that doesn’t mean we can’t mark a tick in the pro column for the Hamilton Beach.

12-Hour Delay Timer

Having a delay timer allows you to pop all of the ingredients into the pan, pick your setting, and leave the Hamilton alone to do its job.

Unfortunately the timer can’t be used with the following settings:

• 1.5 lb express
• 2 lb express
• Jam

Developed for Nutrition

The Hamilton Beach bread maker was designed with the idea of mixing and cooking thicker doughs in mind, like those you get with whole grain or gluten-free breads.

This means that this machine has paddles and settings built for working dense mixtures, and cooking settings carefully tailored to cooking those rich doughs properly while not drying them out.

All of that makes it easier for you to eat healthy, yet still delicious loaves of bread.

Recipe Booklet

As with most breadmakers, the Hamilton Beach Breadmaker recipes are custom tailored to this specific machine.

We were impressed by the number and variety of recipes included. As well as all your traditional breads, they’ve also included ingredients lists for more exotic offerings, like Italian Parmesan bread, Light Rye bread, Devil’s Food Cake, Cornbread and many more.

This is a real benefit and not always seen in bread machines as cheap as this.

3 Crust Colors and 2 Loaf Sizes

As well as choosing from the 12 bake settings, you also have the option of choosing between light, medium or dark crust colors and whether you want a 1.5 or 2 lb loaf.

Non-Stick Bread Pan

One of our favorite things about the Hamilton Beach bread machine is how easy it is to clean.

The bread pan is non-stick and all removable parts of the machine are dishwasher safe. Booyah for less washing up!

Hamilton Beach Programmable Bread Machine: Review

A machine made for smaller kitchens and healthy diets, this is a good buy for anyone looking for a less costly breadmaker that can still work some baking magic.

This low price and smaller size does come at a cost, however, and the Hamilton can struggle with larger portions of dough.

Let’s get into it…

The Positives

Good Value for Money

This is a highly affordable machine at any rate, and considering what the Hamilton Beach bread maker has on offer, we think it represents excellent value for money.

Even if you’re only baking one loaf a week, you’ll begin to see a return on investment within a few short months with this cheap bread machine.

Gluten-Free Setting

Given how pricey decent gluten-free bread can be, this machine is a lifesaver and a bank saver in creating excellent bread.

The Hamilton Beach Programmable Bread Machine makes this easy with a gluten-free setting and a number of gluten free recipes in its manual.

Lightweight

Coming in at just 12.75 lbs, this breadmaker can be relatively easy to shuffle around in the kitchen, while still heavy enough to stay put during the kneading process.

It will still give your biceps a workout, but it’s not as heavy as some machines, which makes this a definite win.

Sharp Design

Built to be sleek and with a smart interface, the Hamilton looks as good as the bread it produces. Sharp, clean lines with a plastic exterior help it stand out from the crowd and look fancy while doing it.

If you like having your appliances fit a certain aesthetic, then this is a mark in the good books.

Ease of Use

Pairing a simple interface with the detailed cookbook, this is a relatively easy breadmaker to operate – whether you are a beginner of an expert in using breadmakers. Great as a no-fuss kitchen appliance!

Easy Cleaning

Nobody likes standing over a kitchen sink full of hot, soapy water, which makes the fact that the paddles and pan are dishwasher-safe a fantastic plus.

The bread pan itself has a non-stick coating, ensuring that you won’t be scraping off bits of food that the dishwasher has missed.

Heat Resistant Exterior

The plastic exterior is heat resistant and cool to the touch, even while running.

A safety win, especially for those with children who have curious hands!

The Negatives

Machine Vibrations

When making 2 lb loaves, this machine’s smaller size can work against it. At times, the Hamilton Beach will rock and rattle while the dough is being kneaded as it simply doesn’t have the weight to firmly stabilize itself.

It’s a good idea to firmly set your machine in the center of the counter, away from the edges, if you aren’t around to supervise.

We didn’t find that the machine ended up walking around our counters, but we definitely thought it might occasionally as the vibrations were so intense.

As such, we’re not sure how durable this bread maker will be with a lot of heavy use.

This is backed up by the kind of flimsy plastic exterior of the machine — it looks good, but there’s always a chance of cracks from wear and tear in time.

Dough Troubles

Again, the Hamilton’s size and power works against it when you want to make a 2 lb loaf. It can struggle with mixing and kneading large quantities of dough, especially the thicker kinds like gluten-free or whole grain.

We had absolutely no problem with 1.5 lb loaves, but found reliability slipped when we tried out the 2 lb loaf recipes.

First Bakes Aren’t Always Great

With some models, it can take a few bakes for the Hamilton Beach bread machine to break in, as it were.

The paddles can be stiff or creaky and scrape the bottom of the pan at first. Brand new, these parts should work right out of the gate. The fact that they don’t with every model is concerning, since you have a chance of buying a lemon.

We were lucky and had minimal teething problems with the model we were delivered, but it does seem to be a bit of a lottery.

Loud Beeping

Besides the rattling when mixing up 2 lb loaves, this machine also has no volume control over the beeping noise it will make when it shifts between stages (like kneading to baking).

If you like running your machine through the night and are a light sleeper, this is not the machine for you.

Overall Verdict

If you’re on a budget and looking for a cheap bread maker than can handle gluten-free loaves, then the Hamilton Beach programmable bread machine could be ideal for you.

It’s not the most reliable machine on the market — especially for those large, 2 lb loaves — but it’s certainly more than serviceable and it’s hard to argue with that low price.

Students and small families are likely to be the best audience for this bread machine. Just cross your fingers that the vibrations don’t send it walking off your kitchen counters!

Hamilton Beach Bread Maker Tutorials

We love a good video tutorial, and there are loads of YouTubers whipping up exciting recipes with their Hamilton Beach programmable bread machines.

Here are some of our favorites that we’ve spotted.

Where to Buy the Hamilton Beach Bread Machine

One thing’s for sure — this cheap bread maker is popular.

You can find the Hamilton Beach bread machine in a variety of household stores and online retailers.

Check out these for starters:

• Walmart
• Overstock
• Target

And, of course, it’s available on Amazon.

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Have you tried the Hamilton Beach Programmable Bread Machine?