Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've read all the reviews and will give you some real concrete reasons not to buy this. I didn't expect this product to do all of the work for me and I understand the reasoning behind some of the directions, such as cooling the mixture before pouring it into the freezing bowl (the bowl will thaw out if you don't!!!!!!!!)I received this and a Cuisinart ice cream maker as gifts at the same time. I decided to keep the VillaWare since I Knew they made industrial machines. I made three batches in my VillaWare, one ice cream, one non-dairy "ice cream" and one sorbet. I just kept thinking "Is this really how it should look?". I was following all of the directions (which aren't as big of a hassle as some would make them out to be!) and I ended up with mildly frozen slush which I had to put in the freezer to make it even remotely firm enough to eat. So, I broke out the Cuisinart that I was going to return and made the exact same sorbet recipe that I had made the previous day. Good thing I did, The Cuisinart batch was more frozen after 5 minutes than the VillaWare after 20 minutes. It produced a nice sorbet that was still soft but firm enough to eat right out of the freezing bowl. These machines operate under the exact same concept so from what I could tell the problem is this; The Villaware bowl doesn't seem to be quite as cold and the paddle that is supposed to scrape the frozen mixture from the side of the bowl isn't close enough to the bowl to scrape enough off to freeze the whole batch. The paddle on the Cuisinart sits right against the side of the bowl and allows the entire batch to freeze and be scraped off and mixed in. I'll be returning the VillaWare now Save yourself some time and hassle and buy a Cuisinart