I like this little machine. It is easy for the little ones to use. The only con is that you need to freeze it overnight before using

We love ice cream but are very picky about what's in it. This little machine makes a nice batch for the two of us and we know exactly what's in it. Only drawback is it is extremely loud. A tip for others, the manual doesn't tell you to start the motor before putting the ingredients in, our old one did. That way the milk doesn't freeze solid before you get the paddles running.

Mine arrived with a dented canister, but since it is made of such thin aluminum I was able to reshape it with my hands. The book for this mentions that the motorized top will automatically shut off after the ice cream gets to soft serve consistency, and says that the average time is 45 minutes. This was not the case with the ice cream I made, and I ended up shutting it off after 2 hours, assuming that something was wrong. I then attempted to use the hand crank, which is recommended to thicken the ice cream up a bit more, but the ice cream at the bottom was a bit thicker than the top, and the internal blade would not spin when cranked (it intentionally doesn't spin when using the motor, only the canister spins, but when cranking the blade and canister are supposed to spin in opposite directions). When I would try to hand crank, it seemed like the top of the axle that the blade is on just kept slipping out of the port is supposed to be in.

Other than the above problems, the 3 batches of ice cream that I made came out awesome after placing them in the freezer to freeze solid. I'm used to my grandmother's old ice cream maker that makes a much thicker ice cream right out of the ice cream maker, but for the price this is not a bad option.

My one recommendation is to make ice cream with this at least a day in advance, since it will most likely need to freeze overnight. If I had just assumed it worked as my grandmother's did, I'd have had a bunch of disappointed friends on the 4th of July.

Oh, and my bucket was perfect. I never had it leak.

Read all the reviews, well alot of them, and will say I was a little worried. It arrived just in time for my trip up to my parents house. All the pieces were in one piece unlike some of the unlucky folks reported, that would have been a damper for the 4th of July weekend.

I didn't read the instructions, Didn't have to with my parents in there 70's and have used one of these things a many of times. Took it out, soaked it and cleaned it out, no leakage from bucket by the way. Made up the batch of just plain Van. Ice cream from old family recipe and it came out great. The next day made up a recipe of peach ice cream which even did better. All this was done using the electric mixer.

Back home I wanted to try the manual handle and that's where my friends kids were and who was gonna be turning the handle, not me... Well my friends daughter who was just dying to get at that handle and we were all laughing, she weighs 65lbs soaking wet, and saying we will see. Well I be dog if 35 minutes later the Ice cream was made and she did it all by herself, she wouldn't let her big brothers help.

To the folks that may have had problems or thier ice cream not coming out as planned. Make sure you use plenty of rock salt. I did read some of the instructions when I got home just to make sure my parents hadn't forgot somethings. We never did as the instructions said about cooling the tube and mixture for an hour. I just mixed it up in a bowl and poured it in the ice cream maker using plenty of salt and ice. 35 minutes later I had some good homemade ice cream.

I only have given it 4 stars because I have only used it 3 times and a lot of reviews says it breaks around that. If I get 10 out of it I will suspect it is the users and upgrade it to 5 stars and it will be worth the money I paid for it.

Oh almost forgot, unless I read something wrong the machine doesn't cut off by itself so you need to be back around the machine 30 minutes after you start it or you may burn up the motor.

****Update****

I'm dropping these product down to 3 stars. Around 10 batches of Ice Cream the plastic gears started stripping on the motor. The hand crank still works fine. I was able to fix the motor by taking it apart and pinching the metal together forcing the gears to come into contact with each other more but figure this will only work for a couple more batches.

I looked and you can not find replacement parts for this machine, or at least I couldn't. I paid $70 for it, now I see it's up to over $100. I would spend the money and get a White Mountain before I bought another one of these though.

It was fun and brought back some old memories and the kids and family alike had a great time for when we used it. It is what it is though, a piece of junk from china that is made cheap and to break. If it was cheaper I would recommend it but not at $100.

Just got my ice cream maker and so far -- having made mint ice cream and now lemon sherbet -- I love it. It's easy to set up, easy to use and not too, too loud. It is a bit noisy but you can leave in the kitchen after the dishes are done. When the sherbet is ready, I plan to make Mocha ice cream. ;) I LOVE that I can make up my own flavors!

Here are a couple of qualifiers.
1. It does not freeze the ice cream/sherbet solid. Of course not. If you ever watched a video of how ice cream is made, you know that even the manufacturers hard-freeze the ice cream AFTER they make it. What the ice cream maker does is combine the cream, sugar and flavorings without ice crystals forming. If you just mixed those together and put them in the fridge, they would be icy when you to them out. But the churning process prevents that.

2. You cannot leave the bucket in the freezer longer than 48 hours. And it take 24 hours to freeze. So the best way to use it is to plan to make several ice creams, one right after the other. What I'm doing is using it (the instructions say it takes 15-30 minutes but on videos most say for up to an hour), then washing it, DRYING IT (very important) and putting it back in the freezer while I prepare the next batch.

3. You should pre-mix your ingredients. The shoot is only for adding things like chocolate chips or fruit slices when the mix is half-way done. Anyway, you want to make the sugar is mixed completely or you may end up with some parts too sweet and some not sweet enough. Also, this gives you chance to taste the mix (especially if you like to make up your own flavors, as I do).

I don't know how long it will last. But if it's anything like those old Frosty Cups, we're talking years. :D