Repair Parts, Zojirushi Virtuoso

Table of Contents

• Updated Post
• 2022 – Pan Replacement
  • Drive Shafts
  • Replacing the Pan
• 2025 – kneading blade failure
  • No Blades
  • Compatible Blades
• 2022-25, Bread Machine
  • Loading the Bread Machine
  • Recipes
  • Vital Wheat Gluten
  • Proofing Box Feature
• Oven Baking
  • Effort and Costs
  • Oven baking
• Sodium
  • Less is better
  • Instant yeast
  • Reduction formula

Updated Post

This post was first published in 2022 and revised in 2025. It will have been republished in 2025.

2022 – Pan Replacement

Drive Shafts

My Zojirushi Virtuoso (model BB-PAC20) bread machine, purchased in 2020, stopped working on June 27, 2022. The pan would not seat on the drive connectors in the base of the machine. One of the 2 drive shafts was seized. The drive shafts are attached to the pan, a manufactured assembly of parts. There was no way for me:

• to remove the shaft, the bearing and the seals, or
• to have the pan serviced and the shaft and bearings serviced or replaced anywhere in North America, or indeed, the world.

A user can try to replace a bread machine pan, if the manufacturer is still supplying replacement pans to its sales and service agents. Zojirushi’s machines are not unique in this respect.

The pan was already loaded with unmixed ingredients. I emptied the pan into a mixing bowl. I mixed the ingredients, kneaded the dough, and baked the dough in the oven. I set the oven to 350 ℉. I guessed time, and kept baking until the loaf was done. It had not risen properly, but it was edible.

Replacing the Pan

Zojirushi sells its branded bread machines through select retailers. On Vancouver Island, the retail distributor was Healthy Kitchens, an e-commerce store in or near Duncan BC, the successor of a retail store in Cowichan Bay or in Duncan – not far from Victoria. In 2022, the online store advertised the newer Zojirushi Virtuoso Plus, model BB-PDC20, and a replacement pan for the BB-PDC20. It did not list a replacement pan for a BB-PAC20 as available. In 2022 Zojirushi’s Canadian service/parts agency, Beaver Creek Electronics, in Richmond Hill, Ontario (in the Greater Toronto area) was selling replacement parts online and arranging delivery. It had:

• 8-BBP-P080 pan assemblies for the BB-PAC20 Virtuoso,
• BX167810A-00 pan assemblies for the BB-PDC20 Virtuoso Plus (“V+), and
• kneading blades (Zojirushi’s term for the paddles or dough hooks in the pans) for both the BB-PAC20 Virtuoso and the BB-PDC20 V+.

Both pans are the large horizontal pans that will hold and bake a 2 pound loaf. The pans look the same. I ordered the pan for the BB-PAC20 from Beaver Creek in Richmond Hill. It arrived July 5, 2022. I did not order new kneading blades at that time.

With hindsight (or more knowledge) it would have been better to order a BX167810A-00 (V+) pan assembly, and kneading blades manufactured as replacement blades for a BB-PDC20 Vi+. The pan for the V+ fits in a Virtuoso. The main difference between the pan assemblies was how the drive shafts fit the kneading blades. Kneading blades have a limited service life, and should be replaced after 100 weeks of service of 1.5 to 2 loaves a week.

2025 – kneading blade failure

One of the 2 original Virtuoso blades failed in July 2025. The result and sign of the failure was that there was some dry flour in a pocket in the loaf at one end, when the machine stopped after the loaf had been baked. The machine had run. The machine had mixed most of the ingredients, kneaded dough and baked the loaf. The drive shaft had not moved the blade on the drive shaft at the end of loaf where I found the flour.

Upon a very close inspection, the flat area of the socket of one of the blades had disappeared, leaving a rounded socket that did not fit the drive shaft and did not rotate with the drive shaft. I took this picture. The blade at the top of the image is worn but still only points away from the flat portion of the drive shaft. The blade at the bottom of the image, completely worn, can be rotated around the shaft.

Another picture of my old blades . The blade that still works is at the top. There is still material visible in the socket to form a functional flat section. of the shaft. There is nothing left of the flat section of the socket of blade at the bottom:

The flat section of the socket of the blade is only about 3 mm. long. It does not run the full height of the socket.

No Blades

By 2025, there were no replacement blades for the Virtuoso BB-PAC20 available from any vendor in Canada or the USA. True replacement blades would be made of the same metal as original manufacturer’s blades, with the manufacturer’s no-stick coating.

Compatible Blades

There was a listing in the Amazon.ca market for “LEDBarz 8-BBP-P070 Bread Machine Kneading Paddle(2Pcs) Compatible with Zojirushi Bread Machine BB-PAC20”. The listing said “It is recommended to apply some cooking oil to the kneading paddle before use to enhance your baking experience, this is a top of the range replacement part that is compatible with Zojirushi bread machines such as the BB-PAC20 model”. The vendor was a “brand” which offer several other small parts for various device – evidently all shipped from China. It had negative or lukewarm reviews:

The new paddles for my Zojirushi fit but they do not have a non stick coating so consequently when removing the bread from the pan, big chunks of bread stay behind, stuck to the paddles. Very disappointing.

xxxx

They’re lacking a non-stick coating of any kind and are just highly polished instead, which means there’s a tendency for them to take divots out of the bread as it bakes very firmly onto them. But even the original paddles sometimes did that, so they’re a perfectly adequate substitute.

The LEDBarz blades fit on the drive shafts. They are made of different material. A blade weighs about 30 grams. They lack any no-stick coating.

The manufacturer’s advice to coat the blades with cooking oil was dubious – a few drops of oil would be absorbed like oil added as as ingredient, as the machine mixed and kneaded. I tested whether the blades, coated, would work when used only as dough is placed in the pan to rise and bake. The result was that dough baked onto the blades, which tore holes in the loaf.

The blades fit, allowing a user to mix, knead, rise and bake bread. The loaves are fine except for the holes.

I tried to “season” the blades by heading them, coating them with flax oil and baking the oil. This is the way to season cast iron griddles and frying pans and carbon steel woks. The oil baked onto the blades, but this did not alleviate the adhesion of dough, and the result that bread baked onto these blades.

I bought a V+ pan assembly and a set of V+ kneading blades. Not cheap, but it s worked to loaves out of the pan without leaving those divots.

2022-25, Bread Machine

Loading the Bread Machine

The Zojirushi machines take fluids first, at the bottom of the pan. The “Operating Instruction & Recipes” booklet by Zojirushi USA, with the machine when I received it says: “Precisely measure the ingredients and add them to the baking pan in the following order … :

1. Water (liquid)
2. Flour – make a mound of flour
3. Sugar, dry milk, salt and butter
4. Make a depression in the middle of the flour and place the yeast”

The booklet did not say or suggest that this order saved the kneading blades or any component from any risk of damage.

I routinely loaded ingredients that dissolve or suspend in water in the liquid before the flour: salt, sugar, honey, molasses, maple syrup, milk, milk powder and butter.

I began to use table salt instead of kosher salt, which I used before 2022. As I have been measuring by weight, this has not made a difference in results. Kosher salt has larger crystals and can be used to replace table salt when measured by weight. Both kinds of crystals are small enough that they dissolve in water during the rest and mix/knead phases in a bread machine.

Bread machine manuals warn against using the time feature for a delayed-start timer with milk products, because of the risk of spoilage. I rarely set the timer on my bread machine.

Recipes

I stopped trying to put recipes online. I put my recipes into spread sheets that showed ingredients by weight and volume, and allowed for calculation of Bakers’ ratio, sodium content, and other details. This has allowed me to work on how much salt to use to get acceptable gluten development, and how much yeast and water are necessary to get a dough that flows, rise and springs without ballooning, collapsing or developing a dimpled or cratered top crust.

Vital Wheat Gluten

Before the pandemic, it was possible to buy vital wheat gluten (“VWG”) in grocery stores in Victoria. Some stores stocked a brand milled by Millstream Natural Foods. Others stocked Bob’s Red Mill brand Vital Wheat Gluten. I was not able to find Millstream in retail stores or online. That supplier may have ceased offering it. Bob’s stopped offering the product under that name and ny 2022 offered “Gluten Flour” which is its new name for VWG. For a few months neither version of the product was in stores in Victoria. VWG is still being milled, and marketed the Market Stores in Victoria as of 2025, but not Loblaws, Save-On, Walmart or any other grocery store chain. People who have bread machines or who bake certain recipes at home may need it. But, there is a movement against gluten which may be making decision makers nervous that stocking the product harms the brand reputation of the company

Proofing Box Feature

The Zojirushi Virtuoso and V+ models uses the heating element to bake the ingredients, and also to:

• warm the cold ingredients in a period of “rest” before the machine mixes and kneads the dough, and
• raise the temperature in the pan to 91-95 °F (33-35 ºC) in the “rise” periods before baking when the yeast is fermenting the dough producing gas that inflated the dough.

This effect can be compared to using a proofing box. a device to keep dough warmer than room temperature (during primary fermentation or proofing)

None of the bread machines on the market surveyed by Beth Hensperger in her Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook (2000) were said to have worked that way. The machines on the market at that time had timers setting the “rest” times. The dough was warm and moist after kneading (the action of kneading makes dough warm). The machine kept the heat and humidity by shelter inside the pan in the machine under a lid. The possibility of heating the unmixed ingredients and dough was not mentioned in that book. The development of a proofing box function involved different control chips and switches. It is a feature on the Zojirushi Virtuoso, the V+, the Zojirushi Supreme and some other Zojirushi machines. I think it was a feature on my Panasonic, although it was/is not discussed in the Panasonic material. I don’t know if a heated “rest” or “rise” phase has become common or standard in the industry or the market. I haven’t researched this.

Timed warm fermentation is a feature when that aids the machine to produce a predictable loaf in the set time. Artisan bakers extend and delay fermentation by mixing pre-ferments, and by refrigerating pre-ferments and doughs.

Oven Baking

Effort and Costs

I had not hand mixed and kneaded, used my stand mixer or made no-knead bread 0ften since I began to make bread in a bread machine. The bread machine makes good sandwich bread, if I get the flour, water, salt and yeast right. The bread machine and pan do not require the cleaning that mixing bowls and tools require.

I had, at one time, a stand mixer with a 7 quart bowl. I did not use it much and sold or donated it a few years ago. A stand mixer is a specialty appliance. Its main job is mixing and kneading bread dough.

I have a Bosch Compact stand mixer. Like other Bosch mixers, it is a multi-function device that powers a food processor, a blender and other powered accessories. It is smaller than most other stand mixers made for American consumers. It has a 4 quart bowl, big enough to mix and knead dough with 8 cups of flour – enough for two 9 inch x 5 inch loaves baked in oven baking pans. The motor is rated at 400 watts. Bosch’s larger (6.5 quart bowl, 18 cups flour capability) Universal stand mixer has been down graded by American Underwriters Laboratory from 800 watts to 500 watts.

A stand mixer reduces some of the labor of mixing and kneading, and the effort of cleaning up bowls, utensils and working space, but not as much labor as bread machine.

Oven baking

The first hot spell in 2022 ended the day the bread machine broke, but it was followed by other hot days. I only tried a few oven loaves on cool days. I found the dough rose slowly, and did not rise after I had put dough in bread pans for secondary proofing (final fermentation). I wondered about possible causes:

• my low yeast/low salt approach,
• my kitchen was to cool those days,
• I was not giving the dough time, and/or
• I handled the dough roughly.

There were several more hot days in August and early September 2025. I avoided oven baking. I thought I would experiment in the fall and winter. But I did not follow up until 2025. In 2025 I grew a mother starter (a culture of yeast and bacteria grown without using modern industrially grown baker’s yeast) and made some dough with sponges and starters made from the mother starter.

Sodium

Less is better

Baked bread, sold in stores and bakeries, is high in sodium due to the amount of salt used in baking, and sodium in some other baking ingredients including baking soda, baking powder, milk and powdered milk. Home baked bread is high in sodium due to the amount of salt in most recipes in books or on line. Bread machine bread, made with standard recipes, is high in sodium. For instance, a 1.5 lb. medium bread machine recipe for lean white (“French”) bread or for white sandwich bread may specify 1.5 tsp. salt and 2 tsp. instant yeast (the yeast may be similar to 2.75 tsp of active dry yeast). Both require 417 g. bread flour (3 cups). The water requirements will be different, but in a range from 237 g. (1 cup) to 1.5 cups.

Sodium is a micronutrient, but a healthy adult only needs 500 mg. daily.

1.5 tsp of salt is 8.5 g. This amount will contribute 3,360 mg. of sodium to a loaf. 1 moderately thick slice from that loaf will contain about 300 mg of sodium. Assuming 16 slices per loaf and 2 slices per sandwich, a sandwich will contain 400 mg. of sodium. While that sounds ok, 4 sandwiches in a day means 1600 mg. before counting any sodium from any other food. This makes it hard to restrict sodium consumption to the daily limits advised by agencies or or follow a DASH diet with sodium limitation. Agencies and recommendations:

• the USDA – 2,300 mg.,
• the WHO – 1,500 mg..

A 1.5 lb. medium bread machine recipe

• for a multigrain loaf with bread flour and whole wheat flour may also specify 1.5 tsp salt but the yeast may be higher than 2 tsp. instant yeast. The water and water based fluid will be higher.
• for a pure whole wheat loaf may specify 1.5 tsp. salt and 3 tsp. (1 Tbsp.) instant yeast. It may specify more than 3 cups of flour and 1.5 cups of water.

Each recipe may require or suggest a different program, and the mixing/kneading programs vary between machine brands and models. The set time for mixing/kneading, primary fermentation, bench rise and baking vary.

I have made bread with 50%, 33% and 25% of the salt in a standard recipe bread a few changes in crumb and the taste of the bread.

There are a few recipes for no-salt bread and no-salt bread machine bread online and in specialized recipe books.

I tried recipes from the Zojirushi Virtuoso Operating Instruction & Recipes booklet:

• a medium bread machine loaf that uses equal portions of whole wheat flour and bread flour, which I adjusted to less than 1¼ tsp. active dry yeast for a 2 lb. large loaf, scaled down to a medium loaf¹converted to instant yeast, and metric weight 3 g.;
• a medium bread machine loaf that uses bread flour zero salt, and 1 Tbsp. of vinegar, and 2.16 g. (75 tsp.) instant yeast.

These low salt and zero-salt loaves worked. The results contradict the rule of thumb I have been following for reducing salt and yeast, and started a process of developing numbers for workable weights of yeast and salt for Virtuoso machines.

Instant yeast

I used SAF Red instant (dry)yeast until I had used up a 454 g. (1 lb.) bag in 2021. I had tried to weigh and average 1 tsp. samples. I thought 1 tsp. SAF Red instant yeast weighed 2.8 g., but sources said the standard for instant yeast was 3.12 or 3.15 g. I purchased a small bag of instant yeast (Red Barn stores brand) locally. It appeared to weigh 3.2 g. per tsp. I ordered another bag of SAF Red and tried to verify what 1 tsp. weighed to check on my recipes.

King Arthur or its shipping contractor stopped shipping to Canada in 2023, and Red Barn stopped packaging and selling instant yeast. I found that Fleischmann’s make a product called IDY, an instant dry yeast, in 454 gram (1 lb.) bulk foil bags, available locally in Victoria. It works fine. In retail grocery stores in 2025, yeast, including yeast by Fleischmann’s is still marketed in glass bottles or very small (less than 1 Tablespoon) foil packets, labelled as active dry yeast, fast rise yeast, or bread machine yeast. Such is the belief of yeast growers and marketers in the value of names to sell things.

Reduction formula

A rule suggested by Beth Hensperger in the Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook (“BLBMC”), is to reduce salt and yeast proportionately by weight is a rule of thumb. It works with wheat flour (bread flour and whole wheat flour) loave). There must be yeast or a leavening agent to make a dough that rises and can be baked into leavened bread. It is a good idea to have some salt. Salt affects hydration and gluten formation (a reaction between two proteins found in wheat flour). The amount of salt in most recipes is higher than what is necessary for gluten formation.

Following the BLBMC rule starts to produce loaves that do not flow and rise enough – the dough is not fermenting enough or is losing gas. I have reconsidered my approach to how much yeast and water to use to balance medium loaves.