My folks got one of the 2 lb. horizontal ones and loved it. I had looked but been turned off by the prices (trying to figure how many loaves it would take to pay for it). Also, living alone, I didn't eat that much bread anyway.

Then I found a nearly new one some recently-weds were selling at a garage sale for only $20 and was for a 1 1/2 lb. loaf (plus a recipe book also). Haven't bought a loaf of bread since. I haven't tried all that many recipes, but have got my favorite multi-grain loaf. I'm like some of the others--I like the convenience of the machine doing it for me.

A take-off song got to running through my head a while back, to the tune of Let Us Break Bread Together On Our Knees, but never got completed.

Let us bake bread together in our machines. Etc. Maybe something about rising the yeast.