Recommended. Produces wonderful yogurt. I prepare yogurts for SC diet (SCD) by leaving the milk 24 hours in the machine.
Comes with an analog temperature needle and a sack for making cheese.
I use one cup of Oikos Greek yogurt as a starter.
Note that it is just an incubator. You will still have to work to make the yogurt.
Start by boiling 2 liters of milk while stirring (check the temp to 180F). This would kill all bad bacteria.
After boiling, cool it down to 100F (green area). I use the kitchen sink to do this (fill it up with cold water and ice).
Add the yogurt cup in the container, pure cooled milk slowly while stirring and keep in the machine for 24 hours.
Your yogurt is now ready (but warm). Cool it down in the refrigerator for a few hours and enjoy!

We have had two of these Yogourmet Yogurt makers going for well over 10 years, and finally one of them developed a crack. It still works, but heck, I figured it had earned a well-deserved retirement. (The other one is still going strong!)

The new replacement is now made in China, but looks and functions identically. There's not much to go wrong with these, so I wouldn't worry about quality differences old vs. new.

Each Yougourmet machine makes half a gallon of yogurt at a time, quickly and easily. We use these for the SCD diet, and run them for 24 hours instead of 4 hours. What that does is it consumes all the lactose, resulting in lactose-free yogurt. This makes it a bit more tart than normal yogurt, but that's what honey is for. :)

These are very easy to use, and the included thermometer is very easy to read.

1 - Add some water to your yogourmet machine and plug it in.
2 - Heat up the milk to the sterilization temperature.
3 - Turn off the heat and let it cool into the green temperature range.
4 - Pour it into the included yogurt container.
5 - Add some starter - either powdered starter or some yogurt from the store - and mix it up.
6 - Put it into the Yogourmet water-bath.
7 - Let it incubate for 4 hours for normal yogurt, or 24 hours for lactose-free yogurt.
8 - When it's done, put it in the fridge to cool.

Tips and Tricks

If you use a non-stick pot, any burned milk is easy to clean up. (We all get impatient and turn up the heat, or walk away and have to deal with kids etc...) Use a plastic putty knife to scrape the burned milk right off of the non-stick pan.

Glass yogurt containers are readily available for these, or you can use the included plastic one. It can be handy to have an extra container so that you can make a new batch before the old one is completely used up.

This is the second one I've owned. Gave the first one away. This one works the same as the first. Don't really like the CBA starter, and I DEFINITELY don't follow the instructions, which are conflicting at best.
There is one primary reason I own this: to make yogurt with more live probiotics than commercially available (in the US). To do this, you need raw, un-pasteurized milk. Of course, you DO NOT heat it to 180 degrees, that would ruin it and defeat the purpose. You only need to heat it to about 114 degrees, pour into the container and mix 1/2 cup of your favorite organic (if you like) Greek, if you prefer, Stoneyfield plain or vanilla yogurt. Make sure the water is at the proper level, put the container in the yogurt maker plug it in and about 14 hrs. later, you have nice creamy smooth, relatively sweet tasting yogurt about the consistency of commercial french or swiss style yogurt, without powdered milk or gelatin.

I love this yogurt maker. I followed the instructions faithfully and haven't yet had a bad batch. Been using the probiotic starter that came with it and raw whole milk. Also have been keeping it going for at least 24 hours.
To speed the process, once the milk has been at 180 degrees F for 2 minutes and needs to cool for the starter, place the covered pan of milk in a clean dishpan filled with water and ice. Or, if you've got a lot going on and need an hour or 2, just let it cool to exactly the temp on the included thermometer before mixing a small amount with starter, then mixing that thoroughly with the rest of the cooled milk.
The lid on the inner container will close tight and it's great for storage. After removing some yogurt use the back of a spoon to smooth out the remainder in the container - that will keep liquid from forming. Also, it's easy to transfer remaining yogurt to another container to make more and never run out.

I used the yogurt maker with the little glass jars and 2 things I didn't like: there were 7 little jars - I needed more than that; it took 8 hrs and seemed to make the kitchen hotter than I thought it should. Yogourmet is perfect for me: makes 2 liters at a time; tested the waterbath midway and it was 110 F; done in 4 1/2 - 5 hrs (prefer 5.) My only thing to still work out is I prefer glass to plastic and haven't found a 2 liter one that fits - even the Anchor-Hocking mentioned in a cust. question (tried 2 types and too large.) So I use an old qt glass mayo jar and one pkt (1/2 strip) of starter that came with it. I've learned to use stainless pan so it cools down faster. My recipe: bring qt of milk to 180 F; remove from heat and let cool to 'green zone' on thermometer** that came with set; sprinkle pkt into jar and strain 1/2 cup milk into jar and swirl to blend; strain rest of milk into jar to fill up; cap and put into Maker. Because of qt size being smaller I added a little more water in water bath to meet half-way up jar. 5 hrs later remove and cool on counter then refrig without disturbing jar too much. Next day I enjoy my yogurt. I find the quality of milk also makes a difference - my choice is Costco Organic Whole Milk with this maker for good quality yogurt. **For accuracy, take temp. in middle of pan.