I bought one a while ago, used it for a bit then it sat in the cupboard - I went back to buying bread. Reason being is that the recipes used are relatively specific to bread makers and I found that they weren't great, ie. for the extra time involved there wasn't a great deal of return.
At the start of the year I got back in to baking and starting making bread myself - and it's been fun trying different recipes etc. It's almost October and apart from buying an 'emergency loaf' for the freezer, I've made bread all the way through so to me, that shows that I must be seeing a return.
Making bread is relatively simple with just the kneading and shaping being the involved bits, the rest is just waiting. I found kneading a real pain, not due to the actual physical side of things but the cleanup. This is where my breadmaker came in to its own. Took it back out of the cupboard and use it to knead everything now. It's pretty good as long as you don't use dry/heavy doughs or require more than a single recipe mix.
If it broke I'd probably pick myself up a good stand mixer which I've been meaning to do for a while but as a kneader, it's great.
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