If you’re looking for a high quality breadmaker that doesn’t cost the earth, it’s worth exploring exactly what the Panasonic SD-YD250 Automatic Bread Maker with Yeast Dispenser can offer you.
This is one of the most popular mid-range machines on the market; enjoying superior features over budget brands like Oster but lacking some of the bells and whistles of the premium machines from Breville and Zojirushi.
This Panasonic SD-YD250 review will explain everything you need to know about this most trusted bread maker, and whether it’s a good compromise between budget and premium.
Let’s take it away…
Contents
Panasonic SD-YD250 Automatic Bread Maker with Yeast Dispenser: In a Nutshell
- Weight: 15.4 lbs
- Dimensions: 13.5 x 14 x 9 inches
- Loaf capacity: Up to 2.5 lbs
- Settings: 6 different bread types, 4 baking modes, 3 dough modes, plus 3 different crust colors
- Timer: 13 hour delay
- Stand-Out Feature: Automatic yeast dispenser
Let’s take a tour around the features:
- LCD screen
- Loaf size selection button
- Crust color selection button
- Timer delay preset button
- Non-stick pan with handle
- Machine body
- Automatic yeast dispenser
SD-YD250 Automatic Bread Maker: Features
Despite its relatively low price, the Panasonic SD-YD250 has plenty of features available for bakers.
Loaf Size
The Panasonic offers you the choice of three different loaf sizes:
- Medium: 1.5 lbs
- Large: 2 lbs
- Extra Large: 2.5 lbs
Such a large capacity means that this machine is a great choice for families and other bakers who need a lot of bread quickly — ideal when you simply haven’t the time to bake more than one loaf a day.
Most bread makers at this price point only offer loaves up to 2 lbs, so this feature actually rivals more premium brands like Breville.
Automatic Yeast Dispenser
The unique automatic yeast dispenser is on the lid of the unit.
It’s designed to automatically add exactly the right amount yeast at the optimal point in the kneading process to produce perfectly risen, tasty bread.
Settings
There aren’t a huge amount of settings to choose from with the Panasonic SD-YD250 Automatic Bread Maker with Yeast Dispenser, but there’s certainly enough to satisfy most family kitchens.
Here are the different bread types available:
- Basic
- Whole wheat
- Multi grain
- French
- Pizza
- Cake
There are also 4 baking modes to choose from too:
- Bake only: good for quick breads made without yeast, like banana bread and tea cakes
- Rapid Bake: for basic and whole wheat loaves in under 2 hours
- Raisin: good for loaves when you want to add various mix-ins
- Sandwich: this creates loaves with a soft crust
Plus 3 dough modes:
- Pizza
- Rolls
- Raisin dough
You can also select the crust color you desire: there are three different options from light to dark to choose from.
No Viewing Window
This might, at first, seem to be a disappointment — who doesn’t love watching their bread rise as it bakes?
But it actually turns out that the lack of viewing window in the Panasonic SD-YD250 is actually a genius design decision. This way, no heat is lost during the baking cycle and so your bread will be baked evenly throughout with a beautiful uniform color to match and crunchy crust.
Even the Breville BBM800XL could take some pointers from Panasonic here.
Non-Stick Baking Pan
The non-stick coating on the inner bake pan makes it easy to remove finished bread from the machine with minimum fuss.
It also makes cleaning the unit far easier.
Fruit and Nut Beeper
For those of us that love their multigrain, fruit and nut breads, the beeper is a god send.
When you select ‘Raisin’ as your bake mode, this will prompt the bread maker to loudly beep when it reaches the optimal moment for you to add the mix-ins into the mix.
This isn’t quite as impressive as the Breville where you can fill your fruit and nut dispenser beforehand and the breadmaker will automatically mix in the ingredients for you. It’s still pretty good though.
13 Hour Delay Timer
One of our favorite features on the Panasonic SD-YD250 Automatic Bread Maker with Yeast Dispenser is the timer function that allows you to delay baking for up to 13 hours — ideal for those of us with busy lives who simply can’t wait around to remove bread from your breadmaker all day.
We like using this function before we go to bed at night so we can wake up to the smell of fresh loaves in the morning, and also use it in the morning to program a loaf that’ll be ready to go by the time we get home from work at the end of the day.
LCD Digital Display
An easy to use soft touch control panel with an LCD screen graces the top of the SD-YD250 bread maker.
It’s intuitive, easy to select options and clear what settings you’ve opted for on the display screen.
Panasonic SD-YD250 Review
The Positives
High Quality Loaves
The most important function of a bread maker is, of course, how well it actually bakes bread.
We’re pleased to report that it reliably churns out great loaves time after time.
We were a little skeptical at first that the absence of a viewing window could really improve the integrity of a loaf, but the even color and consistency of the loaves quickly converted us!
One way that it shines over budget brands like Oster is the fact that its 1.5 lb loaves are just as good as the much bigger 2.5 lb loaves. It’s certainly reliable.
The automatic yeast dispenser also helps to ensure the quality of the loaves, not allowing the yeast to mix in with any other ingredients until the exact right moment, ensuring a perfectly risen loaf.
Easy to Use
The automatic yeast dispenser also avoids users having to tinker with one of the more technical facets of bread making. When to add the yeast is a timing issue that even the most experienced bakers sometimes struggle with, so having it done automatically can only be a good thing.
Panasonic have also made things easy with their LCD screen on the top of the machine.
While it isn’t as large and high tech as the Breville one, it’s certainly easy to read and intuitive to use — even for the most technophone among us!
Removing the bread from the machine is also easy-peasy. The non-stick coating of the pan allows the bread to essentially slide straight out and on to your wire rack to cool.
We remember the days when we’d be digging our loaves out with a spatula…
It’s Great for Families
One of the first things that struck us with the Panasonic SD-YD250 is just how family friendly this is.
From the ability to make huge 2.5 lb loaves, to being able to set the delay timer for just as the kids get home from school and even the so-simple-even-a-child-could-operate-it machine itself — we’re not sure that there’s another machine at this price point that’s so well set up for families on the go.
And Also Beginner Bakers
While there aren’t a huge number of settings to explore on the SD-YD250 automatic bread maker, it’s certainly a simple and easy set-up for a beginner to get to grips with.
And when you are ready to experiment, the included instruction manual that contains around 40 different recipes in it, will be your bible.
Not only can this help you understand the fundamentals of baking, it will allow you to go much further in creating tasty and unusual breads, cakes and even pizzas in the machine.
It Runs Quietly
While not totally silent, this bread maker runs impressively quietly given its large size.
This is an underrated but really valuable feature: we love waking up to fresh bread in the morning, but only if we haven’t been kept up the whirring and loud kneading of the bread maker all night!
Other Things We Love
- Rapid mode also creates reliably good bread
- It feels very sturdy and robust
The Negatives
Of course, there are always a few compromises to be had with a bread maker at this price point. Here are the few niggles we have with the Panasonic SD-YD250 Automatic Bread Maker with Yeast Dispenser.
Not a Lot of Settings
The only loaves you’re going to be making with this bread maker are your standard, basic sandwich loaves — perhaps with a few quick breads and pizzas thrown in for good measure.
If you’re looking for a bread maker that you can experiment with and extend your repertoire with as an experienced bread maker, we think you’ll probably be a little disappointed.
The SD-YD250 automatic bread maker is a practical machine, not a tool to be creating unique artisanal breads with, unfortunately.
Good for families? Check. Good for beginners? Check. Good for experimenting with new breads and doughs? Not so much.
No Gluten Free Option
In tandem with the point above, this bread maker is unlikely to be the first choice for people who are regularly baking gluten free bread.
Not only is there no setting available for gluten free flour, but there aren’t even any custom recipes in the instruction manual for it.
While we don’t necessarily expect a boat load of settings in a bread maker at this reasonably low price, the gluten free diet is only becoming more popular so we do expect more machines to cater for it.
Alas, not the Panasonic SD-YD250.
It’s Pretty Big
One of the things we really like about this machine is how sturdy and robust it feels.
The flipside to that, however, is that it’s large and quite heavy: over 13 inches wide, 14 inches tall and 9 inches deep, weighing in at a hefty 15 pounds.
For people with small kitchens and not a lot of storage area, this could be a deal breaker.
Vertical Loaf Pan = ‘Tall’ Bread
Hear us out for a second.
Unlike many premium machines which bake the loaves in a horizontal pan as they would be baked in a standard over, the SD-YD250 automatic bread maker bakes them in a vertical pan — hence the reasonably tall height of the machine.
What this means in practise, is that your loaves come out of the machine as, well, tall. Taller than normal.
This is really only a problem if you object to the aesthetics of a slightly taller than normal slice of bread. Our major beef with it was that it meant it was difficult to toast a whole slice at once.
No Viewing Window
As already stated, we actually think that this is a positive rather than a negative, as it keeps all the heat within the machine and produces evenly baked and colored loaves.
Some people, however, miss the viewing window as they like to watch their bread rise during the baking process. With the Panasonic SD-YD250, the end result is more of a surprise.
This is unlikely to be a deal breaker, but it’s worth knowing about nonetheless.
Overall Verdict
This is a user-friendly bread machine that consistently produces tasty, evenly formed, fresh loaves.
Its simplicity makes it a great choice for people who are new to bread making, and the size of the machine makes it a practical choice for families.
At a mid market price, it is leagues better than similar models by other brands of around or just under the same price — and in our opinion that makes it great value for money and a worthwhile investment.
>>> Check current price on Amazon now
SD-YD250 Automatic Bread Maker Tutorials
Here’s a couple of our favorite video tutorials using the Panasonic automatic bread maker:
Where to Buy the Panasonic SD-YD250 Automatic Bread Maker with Yeast Dispenser, White
The SD-YD250 is a popular machine and so is available to buy at various online stores, including the following:
And, of course, it’s available on Amazon.
And that’s the Panasonic SD-YD250 Automatic Bread Maker with Yeast Dispenser!
Will you be trying it out?
Panasonic SD-YD250 Rated
MBAH Verdict
This mid-market bread maker is the perfect compromise between a quality machine and a low price. It produces excellent loaves and is ideal for families with its large capacity and ease of use.
It doesn’t have that many settings and can’t do gluten free baking, but it’s a fantastic, simple bread maker that’s otherwise hard to fault.
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Loaf Quality
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Variety of Settings
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Ease of Use
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Design
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Value for Money