Hamilton Beach Electric Automatic Ice Cream Maker & Frozen Yogurt Machine, Makes Custard, Sorbet, Gelato and Sherbet, 4 Quart, White (68330N)

1st, a great value. If you get cream at a bulk store, 6 bucks for a 50 pound sack of rock salt, ice from your freezer, and a few pennies for the other ingredients (sugar and vanilla), you're looking at a gallon of high quality ice cream for 5 bucks or less. Figure you're saving 5-7 bucks a use. That means this unit pays for itself if you use if 6 times, maybe 10-20 times if you're spending a lot on added ingredients.2nd. Simple to use. Really well designed. Can't for the life of me understand people sticking plastic orange juice container parts to "fix" it. If it doesn't work, bring it back! Otherwise, top only goes on one way, and there's a locking feature that means that the unit must be properly assembled to fit correctly.3rd. For people saying "it uses a lot of ice, and I had to run to the store . . . " my lord people, are we that helpless? You own a freezer, right? Make your own ice. All it takes is just a bit of planning. Just a bit people, not invading-Soviet Russia level planning. If you have an auto ice maker on your freezer, just empty it into a very large zip lock 2 or 3 times and you're good to go.4th. The unit stops spinning when the ice cream reaches a given viscosity. I've made several batches of several different types and the only time the ice cream was "runny" was when I didn't break up the cookies and they clogged the mixer holes and caused the unit to stop prematurely - my fault. The other batches all came out about the same - like a very thick yogurt consistency. Into the freezer, and a day later it's getting there and 2 days later it's the same consistency as store bought. If you're getting runny ice cream, you're doing something wrong. BTW - if you use more crushed ice and/or salt, the mixture gets colder quicker, and you'll get more-crystally ice cream. If you use regular ice and/or less salt, the mixing takes longer and you get a creamier texture - adjust to desired consistency!5th. As for using Ben and Jerry's recipes, be aware that this can affect the mixer. Maybe BandJ's recipes require a higher torque motor. We have made several types of ice cream from the instructions that came with the mixer, and they all work great. If you load the ice cream with pretzels and what not, this might not be a powerful enough mixer.Great unit. Highly recommended.EDIT - It's now late July and I've used this mixer one or two times a week since we bought it in March, which means we've done about 30 batches (lots of kids and friends and such). Still on the same 8 dollar bag of rock salt. Have made a dozen or so of the recipes that came with the book. Love it, recommend it even more than I did a few months ago.2nd Update - It's now November, 2012, and the mixer motor is still going strong. Alas! The plastic bucket has a crack in it because a very zealous ice cream making person pounded on it to try to get some sticking salt/rock out after a run (argghh!). The new unit has just arrived. No issue whatsoever with the unit - it made a fantastic batch of vanilla with chocolate chips and walnuts right before its bucket was injured. I suppose I could have attempted to seal the crack, but at this price, I just decided to get a new one and use the old motor as a back up.Regarding some of the negative comments, it's very clear that some folks have unrealistic expectations from this machine. "It's made out of plastic, so it's cheap." The space station has a lot of plastic on it, as do Mercedes cars. "It's too big." Really? The volume of ice cream produced was not concealed! "It never froze the mixture." You're either not using the enough salt rock and ice, or you're putting warm ingredients in - everything must be very cold prior to putting them into the mixer (cream, milk and egg mixture, and so on). "The paddle wasn't stirring because it has to be firmly pushed into the motor." True. The paddle does not stir using magic - it must be affixed to the motor. "Ice cream was not completely frozen." Correct - it's a slurry to somewhat solid when it's done. Mix a bit by hand, then put in freezer until solid! "It doesn't make Ben and Jerry's flavors." Too much stuff in the mix will hinder the mixer - go buy Ben and Jerry's. This machine works well, but it's not an industrial ice-cream maker, nor is it intended to be. Used properly, it will provide you with gallons of home made ice cream with the ingredients you choose and without chemical preservatives! Great deal.

When I discovered I must have thrown out my old ice cream maker sometime in the past 15 years, I read a lot of reviews and decided upon the Hamilton Beach 68330N. I actually bought it from Bed, Bath & Beyond because my little guy was impatient and we had a coupon.We washed the pieces and put the freezer bowl into the freezer. The directions say up to 24 hours, but after about 6, I could have used it as no liquid sloshed. We made our custard and set it to chill overnight, since it was bedtime for the little guy. This morning, we assembled the unit (ridiculously easy: just place the bowl onto the base, the mixer blade into the bowl, pop the lid over all and give it a little clockwise turn), turned it on and poured in our custard. The machine was not loud, as some reviewers have complained. Certainly not as loud as my Kitchenaid mixer or an electric can opener - maybe as loud as the white noise from a box fan on low.At the 10 minute mark, we had a very thick, rich-looking ice cream - about the consistency of Dairy Queen soft serve. But the instructions said 20 minutes, so we decided to split the difference and go another 5 minutes and I'm glad we did - it firmed up even more. The texture would have been perfect right then, but we hadn't eaten breakfast yet, so we made do with a taste or two and froze it for later.Some reviewers complained of their ice cream rising over the top of the freezer bowl and making a mess. If you decide to use a recipe not from the included booklet, just make sure to size it correctly. The booklet recipes all contained 1 cup of milk and 2 cups of cream, so 3 cups of liquid. I'm guessing the overflowing recipes were larger quantities.Alcohol never freezes and could keep your ice cream from firming up. Our recipe said to add our vanilla extract after the custard mixture had cooled. Obviously, it would be best to use a vanilla bean instead of extract, but who keeps vanilla beans on hand? Not us. I wanted to add the vanilla to the hot ice cream base, like I do when making pudding, but was curious, so I followed the recipe. One teaspoon of vanilla extract, and the alcohol contained therein, had seemingly no effect on our ice cream's texture or firmness.Some reviewers mentioned the paddle doesn't completely scrape clean the edges of the freezer bowl. It's true. I simply stuck a rubber spatula down into the bowl to scrape the frozen hard mixture from the bowl every once in a while during the freezing/churning process. I can't be sure, but I believe doing so helped speed up the process by moving the frozen parts back into the middle and allowing not yet frozen mixture contact with the freezer bowl.The hardest, by far, part of the process was scraping the ice cream off the blade and bowl into the freezer container. In the couple minutes it took to remove all the ice cream from the blade and into the container, the ice cream around the edges of the freezer bowl had frozen solid to the bowl. I scraped out as much as possible with the rubber spatula, then used a hard plastic serving spoon to scrape off the hard frozen portion. I pushed plastic wrap onto the surface of the ice cream before putting on the lid and putting it into the freezer. It would be simple to store the ice cream in the freezer bowl in the freezer, but I wanted it to be ready if we wanted another flavor before the 1st batch was gone. Also, our ice cream scoop is metal and I didn't want to risk scratching the interior of the freezer bowl.We will continue trying new recipes and I will update this review if any problems with the machine arise.

Muy bueno pero muy grande para mi gusto