Nostalgia Electrics 4-Quart Blue Bucket Electric Ice Cream Maker, ICMP400BLUE

I was hesitate to order this machine because all the other plastic makers I have had or looked at were pieces of junk. This ice cream maker is very hard plastic like the old ones, freezes quickly, and is a lot quieter than others I have had in the past.

After reading a few reviews I decided to buy this ice cream maker and am glad I did, becuase it works great. I'd like to address some of the issues the other reviews had. 1) Ice cream comes out like soft serve. I'm. Not sure if people don't read instructions, but it very clearly states that the ice cream will come out that way and will need to be in the freezer for 4 hours afterwards. Even my ice cream cookbook (which is not associated with the ice cream maker) states that all of the recipes need to frozen for at least 4 hours. 2) The ice cream maker is loud. It's a metal cylinder scraping against ice, so it's going to make noise. Overall, if you read the instructions and use common sense, you shouldn't have any problems with it.

I've used this twice since getting it 3 weeks ago. I used one of the recipes included for the peanut butter ice cream. It was great. I've had an issue with it not stopping after around 30 minutes like they say, but I'm always right there, so I stop it myself. I thought the issue might be that I didn't use enough ice or salt, so I used more the second time. The ice cream did thicken more that time, but the machine didn't stop itself. To me that's not a huge deal because I make sure I'm right there in case of ice jamming, etc. My kids love the homemade ice cream. Does it save money? Maybe because you are making a gallon. One thing for sure is that you know exactly what's going in it and you always have the option to find other recipes if you want to make it healthier.

There are many ice cream makers on the market. I chose this one as a birthday present to a kid based on the reviews I read online. It was a great choice! The very first batch turned out great, and everyone was pleased. The process was easy and so was cleanup. I think it will be used frequently.

I purchased this electric ice cream maker to make my own ice cream with real ingredients. I am very happy with my choice of this compact maker. I've had a manual one in the past and found the hand churning a chore after a while. The Nostalgia Ice Cream Maker works very well, just as described, by following the directions as given and using the recipes included as your starting point. The ice cream comes out creamy, has a thick consistency right out of the machine and tastes like the best store-bought minus the gum, fillers and E stuff. I do slightly cook the egg base before churning as suggested in the recipe booklet. I find the directions true and the machine auto stops when done after about 30 minutes. The noise is like that of any mixer. The ice and salt layering is easy to do. I usually add some of both once during the process. Since it makes a gallon of ice cream and I like to vary flavors, I divide up the soft ice cream into 4 parts after churning to add flavors and mix it up, one with peppermint candies, one chocolate chip, one pecan etc. To get really hard ice cream, it goes in the freezer for about an hour. It keeps easily a week or more, if not eaten up before then.

Bought this on sale so the price was good otherwise i think it is on expensive side. I cqnnot think of anyone using on daily basis. I bought as fun for the kids. Everythig is plastic so handle gently and with care otherwise if something breaks it will be useless. So for durability can't say as I have used only once and owned for a week that how ling the motor will last. There is on ON/OFF button so just plug and it starts. Comes with a booklet having some recipes. We used the first, the simplest to ckeck the working and how the icecream would turn out and it was all good. Use the guidelines for ice and salt and setup and have fun. It takes 30-40 minutes of running time and then freeze the icecream for harder consistency. I believe anything could be made. I make mango milk shake and kids love that so next time after crushing the mango with milk I will put the mixture in this and make an icecream. The motor turns the canister not the dasher, so it produces more sound when the outside canister rubs against ice and salt. If it is the otherway, I think the noise could be reduced. In this icecream making keeping the contents cold is the key so use real cold ice and water mixture to keep the icecream cold while churning. We all liked the icecream and kids loved and gathered to see the whole process. Fill the bucket with ice according to the volume in canister. Have fun and enjoy home made icecream

I looked at the higher price Ice Cream machines and decided to purchase the little blue machine because I will probably only make ice cream a few times a year and did not want to invest a lot of money. This little ice cream maker worked great for me and my husband.

I chose this maker as my first ever ice-cream maker. Could not wait to make some home made ice cream for my family! The kids had a lot of fun with the look and ease of use. The instructions said the machine would cut off in about 30-40 minutes. After an hour of two kids watching, drooling and questioning "when is it gonna be ready", I decided to turn it off as it looked like it might be ready anyway. It was really yummy and the texture was perfect. I will just have to pay attention to the time each use and manually shut it off. The motor got really hot because of the over use. I am gonna keep it - too inexpensive to complain about an issue with a simple fix.

We thought we were buying a large Ice Cream maker from the size pictured of this item. We were surprised to find out it isn't all that large at all, the outside contain is large because of the amount of ice needed to make this item preform well. 6 to 8 bags of ice for each batch! We would ad there is nothing quick about this process, after reading the instructions we are really disappointed about the time required to make a single batch of ice cream. We will NOT be recommending this product to anyone, & may I ad we will probably not use this product all that often. We were thinking this would be a cheap easy way to make large batch soft style ice cream around the home for family & friends. However we found out it not only is an expensive endeavor it takes a long time to produce a little more then a quart of ice cream. Additionally there weren't even recipe's included in with the instruction pages.

I was really excited to get my ice cream maker, and after reading the excellent reviews I was sure it wouldn't let me down. . . . Unfortunately it did. After mixing my ingredients together and following instructions very carefully I plugged it in and excitingly watched as it started to churn. My excitement was short-lived when after a whole minute it ground to a stop and smoke started coming out of the motor! Not wanting to waste all the ingredients I had just mixed together I blew on the top to cool it down and after 5 minutes plugged it in again. And the cycle continued. One minute of churning, stop, smoke, rest for 5 minutes, start again. Sadly I will be returning it. It's possible I may have just got a lemon, but I really don't feel like taking a chance on another one.