Cheep but Works Fine!

I love making homemade ice cream for my family and friends in the summer. I found a good base recipe and enjoy trying to make new flavors. I borrowed an ice cream maker the first couple of times but soon decided I need to get my own. I really did not want to spend very much on an ice cream maker so I decided to check out Wal-Mart. They had this model on sale and I liked the size of so I made my purchase. For the price that I paid, I am satisfied.

The unit consists of the bucket for the ice, the cylinder shaped bowl for the ice cream, a paddle for churning, a lid and the motor. To put together and use you fill the bowl with your ice cream mixture. You have to place the paddle into the center of the bowl and put the lid on top. There is a hole in the top of the lid for the “handle” of the paddle to come out through. Also the lid locks into place by turning clockwise. Once you have this together you place the bowl into the center of the bucket. The motor then has to be aligned and locked into place. The head of the motor has a square notch that fits into the top of the paddle. You have to kind of “feel” and get the notch aligned. After you get it aligned you lock the motor onto the top of the bucket. There are notches on each side for doing this. Last but not least you pack ice and rock salt around the bowl and you plug the motor in. There is no on-off switch you simply plug and unplug.

The above procedures are not complicated. Aligning the motor with the paddle can sometimes be a little annoying, but not difficult. Taking it all out/apart is very simple and easy to do.

The bowl has a fill line on the outside. Total it holds about 4 quarts. You don’t want to overfill it because the ice cream will expand some as it freezes.

As far as freezing goes… It takes about thirty minutes to freeze a full bowl of ice cream. You run the motor until the mixture become too thick for it to handle at which time it will stop turning the paddle. The ice cream at this point is basically soft serve. I always then just scoop it out into another container and finish freezing, until firm, in a regular freezer. When the motor is running it is pretty loud (that in combination with the bowl turning in the ice) so I personally run it in my garage so that I don’t have to listen to it the whole time. One thing if you do this… don’t forget to check on it often. When the motor stops turning the paddle you want to unplug it as soon as possible. I am assuming that if you left it running for too long in idle you cold burn the motor out. Of course that being said, mine has sat like that for a minute or two and been fine.

The paddle and lid is dishwasher safe. The bowl is too large to fit but is easy enough to clean. The bucket simply needs to be rinsed out.

Some tips for use…. First of all you want to make sure you get the lid “locked” onto the bowl. If it is not on securely there is a risk you could get rock salt or ice in the ice cream, which would ruin it. Secondly, put the bowl into the bucket and get it all secured before adding the ice and rock salt. It all fits together pretty snugly, with the bottom of the bowl sitting on the bottom of the bucket. So, if you got ice underneath you have a hard time getting it settled into place.

This is definitely no Cadillac of an ice cream maker. It is noisy. Has to be put together and aligned just so. Is basically cheap. All in all though, cheap has gotten the job done for me. This is one appliance that I did not feel I needed to go all out on and so far I have been satisfied with job that this particular ice cream maker has done. I have used it now for three summers (and many a batch of ice cream) and it is still running fine. If you are looking for something fancy, don’t buy this one. However, if “cheap but gets the job done” works for you than you will be happy with this ice cream maker.