SD253 breadmaker - malfunction workaround

spareparts

Hello breadmakers

After 18 months of perfect loaves (mainly straightforward wholemeal medium) my machine went into rapid decline and produced consistently lop-sided and sunken offerings of dense, sticky, just-about-eatable bread. A bit of phoning around got me to a local panasonic service agent who told me that a new printed-circuit board would be needed (struck me immediately that such an efficient phone diagnosis surely indicated a 'known' fault) and that it would be cheaper to buy new than have it serviced out of warranty.

A google-group search turned up a 'John Smith' who reported identical difficulties and now that my partner's own 253 has independantly developed this fault, I am more than ever convinced that there is a quality control problem with this machine - some will suffer it, others (perhaps the majority?) won't...lucky them, for this makes great bread when it works properly.

I would like to challenge panasonic on this matter if it becomes clear that many other owners might have drawn the same short straw but in the meantime - here is my workaround for getting the bread to rise again - as I say, it's only the plain wholemeal (or wholemeal/white mix) that this is relevant to.

Use the normal 5 hour 'basic' programme. After 2 hours, lift the lid, and notice (almost invariably with my machine)that the dough looks poorly risen and lower at one side - always the side where the two sides of the heating element enter the baking chamber (the R.H. side). Unplug the breadmaker for 10-15 minutes (this clears its power-fail memory). Turn the metal bread-basket through 180 degs so that the low side is now on the left, plug the machine back in and reset it to the 'rapid bake' cycle of 3 hours. That's it.

This has worked every time for me, nice loaf, 90-100% fully risen.

I'd be interested to know if other disgruntled 253 owners find this does the trick for them too since I would then feel more inclined to ask Panasonic why this should happen!!