Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought this unit about 2 weeks ago and have used it 3 times in that period. Each time it successfully made a thick ice cream in 20 minutes. There are some things people must consider when using the unit to help ensure success. #1 Freeze the unit with the bowl upside down. As the unit starts to thaw during use the frozen portions are toward the top edge of the bowl where the opening to air is located Having this portion with the base of the frozen gel helps during ice cream creation and causes the gel to naturally move around helping to prevent cold spots. #2 The freezer you chill the bowl in must be set to a deep freeze temperature. This means that things you take out that are frozen are really frozen solid. IE: Ice cream is difficult to spoon out of carton or bucket. A warmer temperature means the gel does not reach it's maximum low temperature and is not as effective in creating your ice cream. #3 Initially run the unit for 2 minutes and let it set for 2 minutes. (do this 2 to 3 times) this is a trick I learned from my mom who said that constantly churning the ice cream concoction doesn't make it freeze any faster. Allowing it to sit a couple minutes initially will allow the bowl to chill the ice cream mix faster (the churning activity naturally creates friction aka heat which works against the process of freezing the mix) Allowing a couple initial cycles without movement during the initial phase allows the freezing to get a head start and substantially reduces the time needed to complete the process. #4 Cover the hole on top of the unit. This seems to be silly but for some odd reason Hamilton Beach put an opening at the top of the unit. I put a small cardboard circle over the hole to keep warm air out. In South Florida the normal 80-ish inside temperature isn't conducive to ice cream so I have to use all the tricks I can. #5 When you initially put the mix in the bowl and start the unit make note of how many beater blades are exposed from the mix. You will know you are being successful if the number of bars slowly start to be covered by the mix in 5 minutes. ,Note don't expect a lot of progress initially, but if you see the mix crawling slowly up the sides you are succeeding in making ice cream. If by 8 minutes this doesn't start to occur, turn the unit off for 2 minutes and process for 2 minutes (do this twice) you should see improvement afterward within 2 to 4 minutes after. #6 Note to follow their directions precisely if you haven't made ice cream previously, particularly do not add the heavy whipping cream until you are ready to process the mix. I don't understand the science about why it makes a difference, but it does. I didn't want to put the mix in the fridge overnight to chill so I used a salt slurry with ice in a bowl under a metal mixing bowl I was making the mix in. It chillled the mix quickly so I could skip waiting for it to chill in the refrigerator. Note if you use eggs to ensure the mix is heated sufficiently (170*F) to destroy any bacteria kept at temp for 3 minutes. The instructions do explain how to temper the eggs so they don't scramble in your mix. Their directions worked spot on. I used the unit formula for making ice cream which I expected to just barely fill unit when processing was completed. I was wrong. When completed the unit bowl was virtually completely full with the mix going all the way to the top of the beater bar and very little area for any mixing remaining. As I said this occurred in approximately 20 minutes without problem.