Perfect for frequent home use!

Bought this ice shaver a month ago, and have used it daily since we got it. Exactly what I was looking for, and I looked for a long time. Our toddler is potty training, and we don't like to give her much juice, but she loooooooves ice! Every day, sometimes multiple times a day, she asks for her "snow ice" and we happily oblige. It's too loud for her to be comfortable in the same room, unless she has on the earmuffs I got her for this purpose. The cord is long enough so I can bring the machine over to the freezer to fill it up with ice over and over again. Between uses, I take the cover off and store it upside down on the counter to dry. It's small and lightweight, and I don't feel unsafe having it on the counter around my young daughter (as I did with the huge, heavy countertop machines with a super scary sharp blade). Everyone who comes over loves to have a big cup of snow ice. It's just great to have here in the AZ desert; I expect it will really improve our quality of life this summer!

I just had to order additional blades from the company website, as our original one has dulled to the point that it shaves MUCH more slowly now. Do wish an extra blade had been included with the machine, given how quickly it has dulled. 6 blades at $1.50 each, plus $4.11 shipping, came to $11.61 total.

I will update my review if I encounter any problems.

We have used this sno cone maker now for going on almost 2 years. We love it, it's quick and it's easy to use. At my daughter's birthday party children as young as 5 were making their own (with supervision!), and it was used for hours that day without a glitch. We looked into renting a sno cone machine instead, but I'm so glad we went with this instead. A great price for a product we've been able to use over and over again.

I'm a sucker for snow cones. I love the finely shaved stuff that you get at the fares for $5 but those machines are thousands. I know because I have looked them up. With this machine, using just normal ice from your fridge, once you get the blade adjusted, you can get the shaved ice about 90% as fine as the best quality stuff anywhere. Hypothetically you could probably get it as fine as the best quality shaved ice assuming you tinker with the blade enough and use more appropriate ice sizes. The other option move the blade to the most fine shaving setting in order to match the best shaved ice quality and then having plenty of time and patience accept a slower output where a cup would take a couple minutes to make. My only complaint is I wish I could put more ice in the machine.

This is awesome! It is noisy as all get out but it makes really good snow cones. I suppose the proper name is "shave ice" but I call it a snow cone. This is actually like snow. We use distilled water frozen in a regular ice cube tray, drop 6 or so in the hopper and press the top down and this thing spits out fluffy ice like crazy. We have used it daily and have made a ridiculous amount of shaved ice in the couple weeks I have had it. They charge $5.00 for one at the beach! These are EXACTLY the same, even the brand name syrups can be purchased. AWESOMENESS

Love this shave ice maker! I had a hard time deciding which machine to buy since there were so many mixed reviews as to whether each machine made fine snow or coarser snow cone type ice. So glad I took a chance on this one! Before using it, we immediately adjusted the blades per the instruction manual because we wanted the fine ice like you get with Hawaiian shave ice. It's super fun and easy to use - add ice cubes then press the center of the lid. We used a large bowl to collect the ice, and actually held it right up underneath where the ice came out (rather than placing the bowl on the counter). It probably would have been okay to leave the bowl on the counter, but as the ice piles up in one spot, you'll want to rotate the bowl so it doesn't overflow. Filling the machine with ice cubes gave us enough to make three lightly packed bowls of shave ice. The machine was loud, but not as loud as my Nutribullet or blender. The cover comes off, but other than that, there's nothing to disassemble, so make sure when you're done, dump out any excess ice/water and drain it upside down to avoid mold.

UPDATE: After using this for a few weeks I've discovered that output dramatically slows down once you've used up about half the ice in the machine. I recommend refilling the machine with ice once it reaches half empty. Rather than using a large bowl to collect the ice, we now just hold the small serving bowl directly under the machine where the ice comes out (not placed on the counter). Also, if you use a spoon to pack the shaved ice down firmly in your bowl, it won't completely collapse when you pour the juice over it.