This is truly a top of the line item. We have made several recipes and each have turned out perfectly. The ice cream is smooth and silky. The motor is loud so it's best to make your ice cream early and then pack the freezer for later consumption, that way the noise doesn't interfere with conversation.

Yes, it makes ice cream but you can't eat it.

Inside the container where the mixture is poured, there is a beater which stirs it as it freezes. The sides of this beater are thin wooden slats connected onto the cast metal beater by a few, cheap metal screws. These screws get wiggled back and forth while the container spins around in the ice. When it finished I was scooping out the ice cream and I found black streaks in it. You had to look closely but they were there. I don't like the idea of aluminum.

This was a very cheap and not well thought out way of connecting the wood to the metal. Poor workmanship. Not recommended.

Ice cream making is a tradition in my family. I searched all the local stores for a white mountain ice cream freezer before turning to the web. The first bowl of ice cream from this freezer was worth all the trouble. It was frozen to a soft serve consistency (not at all runny) in about 20 minutes (we only made 2 qts the first time) but the motor had no problem turning the crank and the ice cream was very smooth. I am the first in my family to get one with a motor but it was worth the extra [money] to be able to just turn it on and go on making dinner and have it all be ready at the same time. If you want quality ice cream and lots of it, this freezer can't be beat!

I'm a novice to Ice Cream making. My family and I did own and operate a Baskin Robbins for about 6 years and I got to visit the dairy where they made the Baskin Robbins Ice Cream. For my money, even though this was an expensive purchase, the White Mountain ice cream maker provides the closest reality to taste and texture that commerical ice creameries produce, given the right recipes. The quality of the paddles or solid and designed to last a VERY long time. True the machine is loud, it also works hard to mix any type of ice cream wanted and does it very, very well. We've made about 20 batches so far and with the exception of 2 of them they all turned out perfect. The 2 that were bad, were pilot error. We also invested in the Ben-n-Jerry recipe book, which I also recommend. It covers everything from Vanilla Bean (yummy) to Cherry Garcia (double yum). For the money you'll end up buying 2-3 of those [inexpensive] ice cream makers and wear them out in no time. We have a large family for get togethers so we use the full 6 quarts, but it will do smaller batches for just 2-3 people with no problem. It cleans up easily with the cylinder being Stainless Steel and the wood paddles add a sense of realizime I love, plus it doesn't taint the ice cream, just like the pro's. A+ to White Mountain.

This is our first ice cream maker and it has worked well for us. I liked the ice-free machines that didn't require storing the bowl in the freezer, but they were too pricey and had small capacities. This machine has more than enough capacity (we have yet to make a full batch) and dealing with the ice and salt is not that much of a hassle. My only complaints are that it is noisy (like a mixer on high speed) and it seems expensive for an electric motor, a stainless steel container, metal mixing paddle, and a wooden bucket that leaks unless you keep some water in it to swell the wood). The noise is not extreme, but you do have to raise your voice a bit to be heard. The manual only has 3 or 4 basic recipes in it so I would recommend getting a recipe book as well (we use Ben and Jerry's).