Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

When the shipment arrived, I was really looking forward to some good homemade ice cream, but the fedex shipment was missing the motor which had apparently been pilfered in transit. The flimsy white mountain packaging makes this easy to do. I was sent a replacement which had all the parts; however, the canister had a rather large ding in the bottom as if someone had whacked it good with a nail punch. It was so close to the seam that I had to send it back. The third shipment had a badly off-center screw holding the beech wood paddles into place on the dasher. Amazon allowed me to combine the best parts from the second and third shipments. I have made ice cream 3 times so far, and this last time some grease leaked down from the motor bearing into the ice cream as it was churning. I had to ask myself "Am I being poisoned by some hydrocarbon that they will never check at my autopsy?" The ice cream was still good; however, I can't really enjoy it at the prospect of being slowly poisoned. I had sent the loudest motor back, but the one I kept is still so loud that hearing damage could occur without using the proper ear muffs. I owned a White Mountain when it was USA made. China has no quality control to speak of, and it really shows. I would predict that White Mountain's time of resting on their laurels is fast coming to an end. I would give it 1 star rating, but the ice cream is still really good ( even at the prospect of being slowly poisoned by motor lube grease). Addendum 2/22/16 - Some months have passed since my review; however, I feel compelled to add a brief explanation of observations I made while continuing to use the ice cream freezer. This one should be a deal breaker for any health-conscious person. It must have been my 5th or 6th use of the freezer when I saw a grayish streak across the very top of the vanilla ice cream after I removed the container top. In retrospect, I had for the first time made the maximum of 6 quarts. Since I had never made the maximum ice cream before, I finally realized what had happened. The top of the so-called stainless steel container is some kind of metal plated material. During the process of freezing, the container grinds against the inside of the top. This leaves a metal residue that is picked up by the churning ice cream when it expands to the point of contact with the top of the container. Apparently, the electric motor's vibratory motion influences this. I'm no expert in metallurgy, but this seems to be yet another quality control issue from China. Who knows what long term affects to a person's health that this metal plating residue could cause? On a broader scale, if I was smart, I would no longer use anything manufactured in China for food preparation or food storage. I now give this White Mountain Ice Cream maker only 1 star. If I could give it zero stars, then I would. You get my point. This item should be removed from the market. Prototyping is a lost art in the manufacturing process. Please see photo.