Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have had a variety of ice cream makers over the years, but only made limited use of them because of the hassle of having to cook a custard made with eggs, milk, sugar, and cream; and having to wait for the custard to chill; and then having to deal with the rock salt and melting ice while the ice cream churned. This ice cream maker dramatically changes all if that. This turns ice cream making into a quick, fun family activity with a lot less cleanup. Pros: - No cooking a custard, significantly less prep time. Ice cream is ready in less than 25 minutes from start to finish (churn time is 10-12 minutes) - Handy unit includes the churning bowl, dispenser all in one unit - it also has a 3 compartment dispenser for chocolate chips, sprinkles, or other toppings - very little mess to clean up compared to traditional ice cream churns Cons: - the freezer bucket is a pro and a con. It's a pro because you just take it out of your freezer, pour in your ingredients, and turn it on. No messy ice or rock salt. It's also small compared to a traditional ice cream maker. These features are also one because you have to keep the bucket in your freezer so it's ready, so it does take up freezer space. Because of its small size, it realistically only makes less than a quart of ice cream. Then again, it's easy to just wash the freezer bowl, referees, and make more ice cream (or sorbet) the next day. - The freezer bowl isn't cole enough to really let the ice cream set up quite to the consistency of soft serve ice cream you would buy, and this makes it easy to over churn the ice cream and make it buttery textured. The directions say to check the ice cream at 10-12 minutes. My experience is that 12 minutes is too much and the ice cream turns to a buttery consistency and mouth feel, but is properly set up to dispense into a cone. Likewise, 10 minutes is too short for the ice cream to set up and it's still too soft, but has the right consistency. I have been transferring the ice cream out of the freezer bowl at about 11 minutes and then putting it into the freezer so it sets up like regular ice cream. I'm going to try reducing the amount of cream by 1/3 cup and adding 1/3 cup more whole milk instead. - The dispenser for the sprinkles has a small opening, so you need to use mini chocolate chips or mini M&Ms instead of regular ones. - There is a little mess when you remove the freezer bowl from the unit. It has an opening in the bottom for the ice cream to go into the dispenser, so when you lift the bowl out of the unit, some of the ice cream will drop into the upper part of the unit and into your counter, though it's reasonably easy to clean up. - the price has increased significantly since last summer. It's nearly double the cost now