Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

If you're expecting to dump some ingredients into the hopper, push a button and automatically get yogurt in 8 hrs, you will be disappointed. However, this unit is very good at keeping your yogurt mix at 100 degrees until you unplug it. Period. You still have to heat the milk to 185 and cool it to 110, add starter, plug in the unit, pour the mix into the container, remember to come back 4 to 12 hours later, unplug the unit and put the container in the fridge. If you've made yogurt before, you probably know how to do all that. Since I was making yogurt with a heating pad (that turned itself off in exactly one hour and had to be turned back on once per hour for the whole 8 hours) and towels to hold in the heat - this is a big improvement for not much money. It makes 1 qt of yogurt. It doesn't take up much room on the counter and is easy to clean. Other containers (like wide mouth canning jars and used sour cream containers) will fit into the unit and shouldn't be damaged by the low heat, though I haven't tried them yet.. You get the heating unit with cover and a covered yogurt container. To get started you need a half cup of already made yogurt (recommended) or starter powder, and milk. You'll still need a double boiler set up and an ice bath to prepare the mix. As far as I know there isn't any other home unit that does the whole cycle for you. I knew what I was getting into and this unit is half the price of other units so I'm very happy. Just finished my first batch and it's perfect. A few weeks later... I'm making about 3 batches per week and have got the process down to about 10 min of prep from milk jug to yogurt maker. I let it go for 10 hours because I like tangy yogurt, cool it overnight, then strain it through a (clean) men's handkerchief for half a day. Wonderful cream cheese. The unit works like a charm and I leave it on the counter all the time (so good thing it's compact and attractive).