The unit is easy to use and makes just enough for a week’s worth for a single person. I have a hard time getting the paddle out and scraped off before the gelato begins to melt. Suggest buying a book of recipes to stimulate your creative thoughts. Won’t replace supermarket purchases entirely but can definitely expand your horizons.
This is a great ice cream maker. I debated for awhile because of the price, but it’s totally worth it. Because it has a compressor, I don’t have to plan ahead and freeze a canister ahead of time to make ice cream. It’s super easy to make delicious ice cream and I am looking forward to trying different recipes. I trust the Cuisinart name and know if anything goes wrong, I can trust customer service to help me out.
Ice cream is easy to make and the machine overall works well. However, on use number 2 it started squeaking during churning, very loudly. It has continued doing that on each churning.
I chose to make some cookie dough ice cream as my first try and nobody noticed that it was homemade...but that's exactly what I wanted. I had other ice cream machines before and it was usually "too soft" or "too icy" and using those makers required me to add tons of ice and salt to even get those results. Getting store quality (talking high store quality too) results but with my choice of flavors and add-ins is a dream come true. This was fantastic to use and super convenient. I'm even considering getting a spare bucket/container so I can experiment with some swirled ice cream soon.
I have made ice cream, gelato and sorbet, and every one turned out great. It's easy to operate and to clean. The only drawback is that it's somewhat noisy.