Average Rating:

It seemed that overall the new fancy ones with the bowls you freeze rarely do freeze and people were doing all kinds of extra steps to ensure a good texture for the end product. Most of the reviews I read about the old fashioned looking ones with a wooden bucket (also more expensive) leaked like crazy. I decided to take a chance on going cheap and less stylish. I mean, at the end of the day, it's not how it looks, it's how it makes ice cream right?

I took the plunge and found a hot pink one at my local WalMart for $16.99 (no other colors were available). We made our first batch of vanilla today using a recipe out of the manual and it was awesome!

You can definitely find a more attractive and much more expensive ice cream maker but I doubt you'd find one that makes any better ice cream. It performs exactly as promised. We had soft serve when the motor kicked off after about 40 minutes and after 2 hours of freezing it was quite firm with an excellent smooth texture and great homemade taste.

Sure you have to muck around with the ice and rock salt but it truly can't be any more of a pain than having to freeze a bowl for two days and still not end up with a good product. The ice is really no big deal and it's not even messy - there's no leaking and you just dump it in the sink when you're finished.

If you want great ice cream you can't beat this model! The low cost is an added bonus. The biggest shock for me with this little adventure is realizing just how expensive whipping cream is. A pint runs about $2.50 these days and most recipes call for 2 pints (to make a gallon). They have tips in the manual regarding reducing the fat, which look promising, but I wanted to go all out for our first few attempts. Weight Watchers starts another day. We love it!