Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I'm going to be critical in this review. Take it or leave it. I purchased the Cuisinart ICE-21 for $49.41 in July, 2014. I was happy with it, and I had absolutely no issues except for enjoying too much ice cream. I gave it to a friend, which is why I no longer have it. When I decided to reacquire an ice cream maker a little while ago, I wanted a Cuisinart. I figured, why not get the slightly bigger one with extra buttons despite the ICE-60W costing twice as much at $118.98 in April, 2016. About a month ago, I used the ICE-60W for the first time. (See photo of the perfect ice cream.) Its operation was essentially the same as the ICE-21. I stood nearby watching it churn the ice cream. I discovered that it starts beeping a few times after a certain length of time passes. For some reason, I was misunderstood in thinking that it would stop after a pre-configured time had elapsed. It does not. I suppose that if the ice cream wasn't finished, it could be annoying if it stopped on its own. But then, I could easily push the start button again if I need prolonged churning due to ambient temperatures or due to the container being not as chilled as it should be. I would prefer beeps, and then automatic ceasing of churning. Today, I made my favorite: faux matcha ice cream. I create green tea powder by putting cheap sencha green tea leaves in a coffee grinder (not used for coffee), and sieve the powder to remove the hard stems and such. This then goes into the standard vanilla recipe. (For why I call this faux matcha ice cream, ask Dr. Google or check out the page on matcha on Wiki. Good, expensive matcha powder should not go in ice cream, unless if money grows on trees for you.) While listening for the machine to start beeping, I was a few rooms away. I heard the first set of beeps, and I went to check on it a few minutes later. Since I got the ICE-60W, I've been wondering why there's a drain hole at the bottom of the main body where it receives the chilled container. I found out why today. Ice cream expands as it's churning, which totally makes sense. What doesn't make sense to me is why Cuisinart didn't make this machine bigger. Even after following the vanilla ice cream recipe from Cuisinart, the ice cream overflowed outside the chilled container and made a mess. Had I been standing nearby, I would have been able to stop the machine before it got too messy. The photo doesn't show all of the mess, by the way. The clear plastic lid was caked on the inside. Of course, this mess is not the end of the world. I've been in much stickier situations in my life. ;) But now that my future plan is to use the Cuisinart ice cream recipe for the 1.5 quart ICE-21 machine, my question is, "why did I pay double of what the ICE-21 costs to make the same amount of ice cream?" Here's another design issue. In essence, the mechanism of how the clear plastic lid secures to the body is the same between the ICE-60W and ICE-21. The machine turns the chilled container, and the gray churning piece in the ice cream ingredients in the chilled container turns the plastic piece which has three little knobs, forcing the knobs into notches on the top of the body, and holding it all in place during operation. I don't remember ever having issues with the ICE-21, but with the ICE-60W, the clear plastic part does not want to go into place very easily. Without the clear plastic part secured, the gray churning piece does not remain in proper alignment. If I paid double for the ICE-60W, shouldn't the machine be at least twice as better or smarter, make twice as much ice cream, or last twice as long? Durability seems to be about the same between the two, the ICE-60W only makes 0.5 quart more ice cream than the ICE-21 (if you're willing to make a mess from overflow), and forget the Gelato mode or the Sorbet mode because all it does is turn at different speeds. You can make the ICE-21 work. At today's price ($114.98 vs. $49.92), you're better off buying an ICE-21 for yourself and a second ICE-21 for your neighbor, save $10, and borrow your neighbor's ICE-21 when you want to make more than 1.5 quarts of ice cream. With this, you could have 1.5 quarts each of two different flavors. I, on the other hand, would only ever have one flavor, although I must say, the faux matcha ice cream is pretty tasty. :D