When it comes to finding a breadmaker that’s talented, reliable, and unimposing on your kitchen counter, your options are often limited to a ritzy machine with a matching price tag.
However, the Sunbeam 2-Pound Programmable Bread Maker is a fantastic cheap alternative, with a trade-off of a few downsides that may or may not be a deal breaker, depending on your needs.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Sunbeam Bread Maker — from its fantastic features to areas where it could use some serious improvement. Let’s begin…
Contents
Sunbeam 2-Pound Programmable Bread Maker: The Details
Built with a sleek design, this bread machine’s white color scheme ensures that it blends in easily with your other kitchen appliances.
Though if you’d prefer it out of sight, beware that it’s a little bulky to be tucking under your cupboards.
In a Nutshell
- Weight: 12.8 lb
- Dimensions: 14 x 19 x 13.5 inches
- Loaf Capacity: 1.5 to 2 lb
- Settings: 12 baking programs, 3 crust shade selections
- Timer: 13-hour timer
- Stand-Out Feature: ExpressBake setting bakes within an hour
Features
The Sunbeam comes with all the top features you need to start baking bread at home, along with a few extras to help both beginners and experts get better results than some other bread machines of this price.
12 Bake Settings
Bakers can make a variety of breads, cakes, and jams with this machine. The Sunbeam features 12 different bake settings which might interest creatively inclined bakers with a small budget; though casual bakers will also find they will get a lot of use out of it.
These settings include:
- Basic
- French
- Whole Wheat
- Quick
- Sweet
- ExpressBake (1.5 lb)
- ExpressBake (2.0 lb)
- Dough
- Jam
- Cake
- Sandwich
- Bake
With all these features, you can spend less time fiddling around with the settings to get a quality bread – and more time eating it.
3 Crust Shade Selections
Another feature of the Sunbeam is the crust shade selection, which allows you to choose the shade of the bread crust, varying from light, medium, to dark. So if you prefer a certain shade while your family likes the contrary, there’s no need to pick and choose a bread machine to suit you: the Sunbeam 5891 accommodates all.
The “Light” setting actually toasts the crust a bit darker than we would usually see. This is only faintly noticeable, but might bother bakers who like their bread to look as good as possible.
13 Hour Delay Timer
The delay timer allows you to prolong the baking sequence for up to 13 hours, giving you the freedom to bake according to your schedule.
You can leave it overnight and wake up to a fresh loaf of your favorite bread, or get it started in the morning before work and come home to the delicious aroma.
Many users will find the Sunbeam convenient to use without needing to reschedule their busy lives, making it great for families.
Non-Stick Pan
The baking pan makes it easy to remove your bread and clean the unit.
Since it’s dishwasher friendly, you can easily throw it in with your other dishes if you don’t want to wash it by hand.
Viewing Window
Whether you’re a kid or an adult, let’s be honest: watching the breadmaker work can be fun to do while you are waiting for it to finish.
You can always monitor your dough through the viewing window to see the progress on your loaf.
2 Loaf Sizes
Depending on your needs, you might want to bake different sizes loaves.
The Sunbeam can handle up to 2 lb or it can make a smaller 1.5 lb loaf. If you are feeding just one or two people, you can bake a 1.5 lb loaf, while the 2 lb setting is great for sharing with friends or bringing to a large dinner.
Keep Warm Mode
Perhaps you are not in the room when the machine is finished baking and won’t be available to remove the completed product. Rather than coming back to a cold, lifeless loaf, you can have the machine set to Keep Warm Mode, so your bread stays hot for an hour.
A saving grace when you are running a few minutes later than normal!
Recipes Included
Rather than having to browse for recipes online or try to adopt your old favorites to the new machine, the Sunbeam 5891 comes with a few recipes in the back of the manual to help you get the feel of this breadmaker.
Great news for beginners who want to expand their baking repertoire.
Sunbeam Bread Maker Review
The Positives
Great for Daily Use
The Sunbeam 5891 Bread Maker is great for producing a steady supply of bread for families or small households.
Its durable build means you’ll have years of use, no matter how frequently you set it to the task.
If you hate kneading, don’t want to educate yourself on the nuances of bread making, or just don’t have the time, the Sunbeam will take care of that for you and save time.
Easy to Use
We do like our breadmakers to be straightforward, and the Sunbeam is just that.
Even the most apprehensive baker will find that the Sunbeam is very user friendly, making it ideal for the beginner or someone who doesn’t want the muss and fuss other breadmakers require.
Seriously, this machine requires little more input than tossing in the ingredients, choosing your settings, and pressing start.
If you prefer studying an instruction manual before you get into your baking, you can read the Sunbeam 2-Pound Programmable Bread Maker’s user manual here: sunbeam-5891-bread-maker-user-manual
Cleaning is a Snap
Sure, the bread is great, but the cleaning can be a nightmare with some bread machines. That’s not the case with the Sunbeam 5891 bread maker.
Another quality that makes it shine is its easy-to-clean build, so even if there’s a spill on the inside, it’s as simple as using a sponge and only seconds of your time. No heavy scrubbing needed!
Even through frequent use, this machine stays relatively spotless thanks to its non-stick interior.
Flash Baking
One of our favorite features of the Sunbeam is the ExpressBake function, which the machine can bake a loaf with within an hour. It’s great if you find that your loaves have been disappearing faster than normal and need to bake more soon.
No embarrassing delays during a dinner party!
The Negatives
It Can Wake the Dead
The breadmaker can be very loud during the kneading cycle, especially with heavier breads like whole wheat, so if you want it kneading throughout the night, be sure to place it somewhere it can’t disturb you, like a back room.
Bakers who live in small apartments or share a house might need to think carefully about the location of their bread maker.
A few owners have reported that the vibrations were so severe that the breadmaker could walk itself off the table.
We haven’t experienced this with ours, but it’s definitely worth knowing about as a potential hazard.
Bad Recipes
The recipes listed in the manual are riddled with errors that could ruin your bread.
For example, many of the recipes require too much yeast, which can cause to bread to fall in the middle. We recommend you look online for recipes if you are baking with the Sunbeam 5891.
No Gluten-Free Setting
More and more bakers are getting into making their own gluten-free bread, so it’s unfortunate that there is no gluten-free setting for the Sunbeam 5891 Bread Maker.
Gluten-free bakers will have to go through a little more effort if they want to use this machine.
Overall Verdict
Cheap and reliable, the Sunbeam 5891 Bread Maker is a fantastic machine for beginners who are looking for their first bread machine, or for avid bread lovers who don’t pay a premium.
However, if you’re not willing to do your own research for recipes or can’t stand the noise, you should look elsewhere.
The Sunbeam is a great option for bakers looking for a reliable machine that can get the job done and produce high quality loaves, with just a few quirky downsides.
Sunbeam Bread Maker 5891 Tutorials
We can’t get enough of our favorite bread maker tutorials, and thankfully there’s a wealth of videos on YouTube to satisfy our cravings.
Here’s a couple of recommended tutorials for the Sunbeam 2-Pound Programmable Bread Maker:
Where to Buy the Sunbeam 5891 Breadmaker
Thanks to its low price and popularity among many baking families across the USA, the Sunbeam 5891 can be readily found in both homeware stores and online.
Here’s a few places where you can pick it up on the interwebs:
And, of course, you’ll find it on the virtual shelves of Amazon:
Have you tried the Sunbeam Bread Maker yet?
Sunbeam 5891 Rated
MBAH Verdict
The Sunbeam 5891 Bread Maker is cheap, cheerful and reliable. It produces good quality loaves up to 2 lbs, is easy to use and easy to clean.
More experimental bakers may find it a little basic, and there’s no doubting that it’s a loud machine, but it’s very popular with families and other bakers who want something simple, cheap and reliable.
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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