I recently purchased a Kenmore Automatic Breadmaker Model #238.48487. 
The instruction manual was missing (I bought it at a yard sale) I
didn't think I would have a problem finding the manual.  Boy was I
wrong.  I cannot find a website for Kenmore, I have called Sears and
they are no help, I was given this number 877-692-9358 from a Sears
employee, but I can't get an answer.  If you could help it would be
appreciated. I only paid $4.00 for the breadmaker so that is what I am
offering for the price of the answer.
Thank you and Good Luck.

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Request for Question Clarification by denco-ga on 12 Oct 2005 16:45 PDT

Howdy vjk-ga,

As I had mixed results with interacting with the Sears service people, I am
going to post this as a Request for Question Clarification.  Nice people to
deal with, so this should be relatively painless.

Please call the Sears service department at 1-800-469-4663 and you will be
navigating their phone system for the "parts" department.

Once connected to them, you will want to ask for the manual by your model
number (238.48487) and they will first tell you that they don't have it
listed, but they should (encourage them to do so, if they don't) check
further for the manual.

They have the manual in stock, well, at least that is what they told me,
and it runs $3.39 plus (around) $6.50 for shipping, handling and taxes, so
just under $10.00 total.  They quoted a shipping date around a week away.

If the above works out for you, please tell me so I can then post this as
an answer.  Thanks!

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

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Request for Question Clarification by denco-ga on 13 Oct 2005 10:52 PDT

Howdy vjk-ga,

I have found a way for you to order your manual online, but as the cost is
more than what you paid for the breadmaker, again, I will post the procedure
as a clarification request.

Also, please note that your breadmaker is model 238.48487/KTR2205SPR and the
manual below is for model 238.48480/TR2205SPR but as this ordering information
came from Sears Parts Direct, it might be a compatible model.

First, go to the following Sears web address:
http://www3.sears.com/Paul/model_search.asp?model_num=238.48480

- Click on the "Continue" button
- On the next page, click on the "Continue" button
- Click the "plus" sign to the right of: "OWNERS MANUAL (TR2205SPR) ..."
- Click on the "View Cart" button
- Click on the "Check Out" button
- Go through the "Sign In" and "Registration" process
- Go through the rest of the "Order" process

For me, the final charges were going to be $3.39 for the manual, shipping &
handling of $5.99 and tax of $.27 for a total of $9.65.

If the above works for you, please tell me so I can then post this as an
answer.  Thanks!

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

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Clarification of Question by vjk-ga on 13 Oct 2005 17:18 PDT

Hello Hello denco-ga,
Thank you so much for your efforts in answering my question.  I will
try the Sears number tomorrow.  I have also received your second post
giving me the website to order manual.  So yes you have answered my
question.  Thank You!

Kenmore Automatic Breadmaker       $4.00
Answer to question                 $4.50
Instruction Manual                $10.00

Fresh Baked Bread                 Priceless!

Howdy vjk-ga,

Thanks for accepting this as the answer to your question.

There appears to be two ways you can obtain the manual for your
breadmaker.

First, is to call the Sears service department at 1-800-469-4663
and navigate their phone system to the "parts" department.

Once connected to them, you will want to ask for the manual by
your model number (238.48487) and they might first tell you that
they don't have it listed, but they should (encourage them to do
so, if they don't) check further for the manual.

The second method is through the Sears "Parts Direct" web site.
http://www3.sears.com/Paul/model_search.asp?model_num=238.48480

- Click on the "Continue" button
- On the next page, click on the "Continue" button
- Click the "plus" sign right of: "OWNERS MANUAL (TR2205SPR) ..."
- Click on the "View Cart" button
- Click on the "Check Out" button
- Go through the "Sign In" and "Registration" process
- Go through the rest of the "Order" process

For me, the final charges were going to be $3.39 for the manual,
shipping & handling of $5.99 and tax of $.27 for a total of $9.65.

If you need any clarification, please feel free to ask.


Search strategy:

Google search on: Kenmore 48487 manual
://www.google.com/search?q=Kenmore+48487+manual

Also researched the Sears Parts web site at: http://www3.sears.com/

Mmmm, fresh baked bread!

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

Thank you! My researcher did a great job finding the missing
instruction manual that I needed.  I will use Google Answer again and
recommend the service to friends and family.

I found a forum which points out that Kenmore is just a brand of Sears
and the all sorts of people manufacture Kenmore-branded appliances. 
Supposedly, the first 3 digits of the product # represent the
manufacturer but I haven't found how to decode them.  Even if you
could, quite likely the manufacturer couldn't supply a booklet for an
old model.

In any case, you can probably do without.  There are lots of bread
machine recipes on the web to experiment with.  I searched on "bread
machine recipe" and the first hit looks pretty good
http://www.qis.net/~champion/bread/main.html

Things you need to watch out for
- find recipes for the same size of pan as your bread machine
(probably only important if your machine is specially small)
- use strong bread flour (what the site about calls "bread machine
flour" but actually it's just bread flour) NOT ordinary plain
(all-purpose) flour, or it won't rise
- use the flour to separate the water and the yeast.  The site above
tells you to put the water in first and the yeast at the end, and my
bread machine (Panasonic) instructions say the opposite, but anyhow
it's important to keep the water and yeast apart until the machine
mixes them, especialy if you have a delay function which lets you load
the ingredients in the evening and the mixing/cooking cycle start in
the middle of the night so the bread finishes in the morning

In fact, having written all this, I found this site
http://www.breadmachinedigest.com/beginners/generic_instructions.html
which looks to me like exactly what you need, isn't the web wonderful,
sorry researchers I didn't mean to take the bread out of your mouths
(well the four bucks).

Much thanks for the very kind words and the 5 star rating, vjk-ga.

My pleasure!

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher