Is getting an Ice Cream maker worth it? I was thinking about picking one up today

I haven't used mine much since discovering nicecream.

>I did it wrong and it tastes bad.
Kys.

I used to have a very good yet surprisingly cheap one until my cleaning lady washed the basin in hot water, ruining it forever. Friends bought me a much more expensive one (the one in your pic) and it's not nearly as good as the one I used to have.

I tell you this because if you're buying from a store, make sure you ask about their return policy in case the machine doesn't make ice cream as well as you'd hoped. I can't return mine because I feel like a heel asking for my friends to gimme the receipt so I can do that and am now stuck making sub-par 7/10 ice cream when I used to make 9/10 ice cream.

It's a meme machine. Bought one years ago and hated it. Learned to make no churn ice cream which turned out just as good:

2 cups heavy whipping cream, 1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk, 2 tbsp vanilla extract, pinch of salt.

Beat cream to stiff peaks (whipped cream). Pour condensed milk into a separate bowl and add vanilla. This is where you would add any other mixings as well. Chopped candy, melted dark chocolate, nuts, anything you want. Fold in whipped cream and pour into a bread loaf pan. Freeze for 6 hours or overnight. No need to buy meme machine or storebought again.

I've been using one for at least 10 years. Make my own cones too. It impresses plebs who visit your house over the summer

Depends on what you mean by "worth it". You won't really save much $. Plus the extra time you spend making it makes it even less worth it. But the great thing is it lets you make ice cream using exactly the ingredients you want. I got my machine because I wanted ice cream with NO sugar or fake sweeteners, which is impossible to find in a store. That alone made it worth it to me. Also I use coconut milk rather than milk/eggs.

It's worth it for the sole reason you get to see how many pounds of sugar (aka poison) are in a gallon of ice cream since you have to follow a recipe. You'll do it once, become horrified, and throw the machine in the trash so a dumpster diver can find it and get $10 by pawning it.

An expensive lesson but well worth it in the long run.

Do you have anyone to share it with? If you're like most of us here, along and helpless, then it's not worth the effort.

I literally have that exact same ice cream maker because when me and my wife were engaged eight years ago, she insisted that it be one of the things on our wedding wish list.

You know how many times we've used that thing over the past eight years? ZERO! Highly-specialized kitchen contraptions like this are a complete waste of space, imo.

I have one. I used to have a hand-crank White Mountain ice cream maker and I regret parting with it for the little electric Cuisinart model I have now.

It makes good ice cream, but the hand-cranked version was a lot more of an adventure...

I LOVE ice cream and I own an ice cream maker - but I hardly get to use it.

Problem 1: homemade ice cream doesn't turn out as smooth as store bought (sometimes turns out rock hard after freezing). Without using special additives, be prepared for a very different end product. Although you don't get too much overrun with homemade, you indeed have a much different size of ice crystal.

Problem 2: Homemade ice cream is a trial and error process especially depending on which flavors you want to make. This could mean many scrapped batches and thus money waste,or in inability to create your dream flavor. (Or only after many wasted batches)

Problem 3: Although it is easy enough to create a simple standard vanilla, I imagine you don't want to buy a ice cream maker just to make vanilla ice cream. Making special ice creams like sugar-free or vegan change the structure - fats and sugars actually prevent larger crystals from forming so eliminating or changing those ingredients will alter the end product (again, potentially resulting in many wasted batches).

Howdy. I posted I've owned four machines now.

My first one seemed to completely disregard your first issue: it made ice cream smoother than the top brands available. It was amazing. Didn't freeze into a solid chunk, either. The ice cream somehow still maintained a soft, scoopable texture. Of the remaining three, one didn't freeze ice cream properly (had to resort to the whisking method, which made shitty ice cream), another was pretty good but only made 500ml at a time and the last isn't that smooth but the ice cream itself inexplicably remains soft and scoopable. That's the Cuisinart one in the OP.

As for issues two and three, with some basic knowledge of how different foods behave in cooking one with another, you can't go wrong with making ice cream. My first batch of ice cream ever was cherry. I made up the recipe and it was fantastic. The only failed batch I had was the first one I tried to make after the cleaning lady ruined that good ice cream maker I used to have.
But then, I ain't fancy. I've never made ice cream with mix-ins, like chocolate swirl or bits of nuts or anything.

what did the hot water do to ruin it?

There's a type of ice cream maker which uses a double-walled basin. Between the two walls is a special liquid/gel thing. It freezes at a temperature well below water's normal freezing point (0C/32F). However, with exposure to direct heat, such as when washing with hot water, the liquid will somehow no longer freeze at all in normal home freezers, making the machine useless.

I have an old school cranker ice cream maker. Has both an electric motor and the hand crank to chose from. I use it a lot in the summer. You can get creative or traditional as you want. You won't save much money if you use top quality ingredients, you just get the best ice cream in the world. That's a good thing. Anything else is just a hipster kitchen decoration.

>I just have a thyroid condition
kek

>I ain't fancy
>the cleaning lady

Could have figured it out at "I've owned four useless expensive appliances".

could be fat as hell and on disability. then they've got the money laying around to buy too much shit and pay to have someone clean up their mess for them. i've seen it before

im trying this soon, thanks

Please read these:
icecreamscience.com/science/
icecreamscience.com/cuisinart-ice-100-vs-breville-bci600xl-vs-whynter-icm-200ls/
thesweethome.com/reviews/best-ice-cream-maker/
If you want commercial-grade smooth ice cream you need to buy one with an integrated self-refrigerating compressor like the recommended Whynter & Musso models listed in the above (looking at $200+ for one) to chill down the custard base as fast as possible. This duration is known as Residence Time. The less time it takes to convert the liquid base to a solid the less time available for ice crystals to form, grow, and create icy non-silky smooth ice cream. Another feature is how powerful and smooth the churning action is. If it whips too much air into the product (called Overrun) you end up with a diluted non-rich product that is subject is easily melt (because there is literally pockets of space peppered inside that makes it not a wholly solid cold dairy mass to resist ambient temperature heat absorption.

Barring that OP then this is maybe your next best bet.

I'm that guy.
Not nearly as expensive as you'd think. We're talking 'cleaning lady,' not 'housekeeper' or 'maid.'

Maids do all household work, even beyond cleaning. This is a full time job for one employer and are expensive, around $35K+ per year in the US. I ain't givin' half my salary for full time maid service.
Housekeepers rove from room to room cleaning things as they go. They don't do other household work, like grocery shopping or light cooking. This is a full time job for one employer and are pretty expensive, around $20K annually in the US.
I ain't givin' nearly a quarter of my salary for housekeeping service.

Cleaning ladies are far, far cheaper. They're hired as needed. This is either part time work for many different employers or, alternately, full time workers hired as needed by different people through a cleaning service. They're pretty cheap. Mine is now $210 for six hours of work monthly in two, three-hour shifts every other Monday. It's mostly tidying, sweeping, laundry and counters with the occasional mopping, toilet/shower duty and sink of dishes I didn't have time to put in the washer before work. I said that she's $210 /now/ because the first day or two you have one will cost more since she'll need to work hard to get the place to a manageable level. From then on, it's cheaper because it's just simple maintenance and the occasional mess.
If you're looking into hiring one, YMMV on cost since your place is likely larger than mine.