COWSAR 1.6 Quart Ice Cream Maker Machine with Built-in Compressor, Fully Automatic and No Pre-freezing, Frozen Yogurt, Keep-cooling and Timer, Stainless Steel

What a great ice cream maker! My first batch was excellent. In only 45 minutes I had a perfect batch of ice cream. This machine is a great value. Well constructed, and easy to operate. So my initial thoughts are "Buy it". I can't yet speak to longevity yet, but as I said it is well constructed.

This arrived a week earlier than expected. I washed everything, put it back together and made ice cream the same day. It worked exactly as it said it would and in 60 minutes I had very frozen ice cream! Next time I may wait 5 or 10 minutes before removing to a freezer container as it was a little bit of (slightly messy) work to remove all the ice cream off the blades. It does prove that this is truly real ice cream and not soft serve slush. Very happy with all aspects of the machine itself; the 4 stars reflect the not so perfect product manual.

Easy to use, fairly easy to clean, decent instructions for use.What I liked most was that I could make several batches in a row, without having to refreeze the bowl, thanks to the built-in freezing function.Not super quiet but not terribly loud either - I'd say it was OK as far as noise goes.Just what I needed, a way to consume even more calories in a day! But it's worth it for delicious homemade ice cream, just how you like it!

I finally got myself to the point that I could give this machine a try last night, having received it earlier in the week and not, until then, having the time to go fetch the required ingredients that were needed. Backing up just a bit, I will say that I wish that the included recipes use both metric/international measures and standard imperial/U.S. measurements (cups, ounces, etc., vs. grams) A quick internet search resolved that issue for me though and helped me get the sample included recipes converted to one that I could measure ingredients for and actually make.I love that this ice cream maker has built-in freezing ability. No need to pre-freeze a mixing bowl or anything like that. I've had (my first wife had gotten one) one of the units that has the freezing bowl that must be placed in the freezer. It was OK but the bowl got ruined because it was run through the dishwasher when it shouldn't have been (ooops!). While the stainless steel bowl for this ice cream maker shouldn't be run through the dishwasher, that is fine. It is definitely easy to clean up and take care of.Noise level for this is a bit more than I might have hoped for but certainly not intolerable. I loaded the ingredients (mixed up as instructed in the recipe) into the machine, started it up and let it whirr away. It hummed and whirred and you could hear it churning along as it was freezing the ice cream and making a delicious batch of vanilla ice cream for me and my Mrs. to share. The included recipe resulted in a serving for each of us and enough leftover ice cream to put into a pint size (give or take) container and save in our freezer for later consumption.Functionality for this unit is really simple and easy to enjoy and use. Touch screen menus are easy to understand and make use of. A few touches/button presses and off it goes to make ice cream pretty quickly. While the estimated time (in the recipe) was 60 minutes and that is what I set the machine for, it actually took less than that because of the hardness/softness setting that I had selected. While I could have let it get more firm, it was good as it was and was a bit easier for me to get out of the bowl and serve up. If it had gotten to more of a hard freeze getting all of the finished ice cream out of the bowl would have been harder. The included ice cream spade helps to make it easy to scoop out the contents of the bowl, very nice to have that included.On the size front, this unit is a little large compared to the frozen bowl style ice cream makers. It takes up more counter space since it has the built-in compressor/freezer components. To me it is well worth taking up that counter space. I am very much looking forward to more usage though will have to ration that usage out so I don't wind up consuming too much of the good stuff and make my own personal weight issues that much harder to deal with.

Bought this as a gift for my daughter’s birthday. Her old one, purchased at Goodwill, finally gave out. She just messaged me to say they just made their first batch of ice cream with their new machine, and it was the BEST ice cream they’ve ever had! I’m thinking now… maybe I need one of these!!

Very easy to assemble and use, and it works. I started with a warm mix and had gelato firm enough to eat in under 40 minutes. It's a nice slow churn so it works really well for gelato I think.Designed for easy cleaning. The paddle connects semi-loosely to the lid/motor assembly -- that's a feature, not a bug. If you take the lid off to check the ice cream after it's firmed, the paddle will disconnect but that is better than stressing or breaking something. Just fit the hole back over the paddle and reconnect the lid carefully.Obviously this machine is not designed for industrial use, so use it with care and common sense. When the mix gets stiff and the motor is working hard, it should turn off automatically but you can turn it off early and you can serve something soft, or put it in the freezer and firm it up (or put it into popsicle molds which works great)

I bought this machine because I can't eat dairy and the vegan ice cream options in the stores are limited and costly. I picked this kind of machine so I wouldn't have to rely on ice and salt to get the job done. I already have one of those old-school ice cream makers in the house and I don't want to be bothered with having to freeze the bucket before using it. So far I have made mint chocolate chip and coconut ice cream. If you chill your mix for at least four hours in the refrigerator, it will take 30 minutes to make ice cream. If you use your mix immediately after making it, the time is 60 minutes. I am still learning how to properly attach the churner to the motor and make it lock just right so it will work. If the churn does not move when you start it, you need to stop the machine and make sure it's connected in the right way. I had to do this a few times with each batch so I'm learning how to get it right the first time. It's not too big or heavy and the controls were easy to understand with the booklet. I can make one and a half quarts of ice cream, which is so much cheaper than 5-10 dollars per pint. I love being able to explore lots of different flavors instead of being limited to the same commercial options. I also plan on using it to make yogurt at some point too. Cowsar covers the machine for one year and you can reach out to them if you have any problems. I purchased the extended warranty and I am so glad that I did. This ice cream machine is one of the best decisions I made this year.