Review on Whynter ICM 200LS Stainless 2 1 Quart Silver by Antonio Ashton

Received 20th April 2018. Bought as a 41st Birthday gift. Review postponed as I wanted to get closer to the return date before making a decision. I read most of the reviews before purchasing, so I had mixed feelings before purchasing. Also read reviews of competing models to get an idea of these ice machines. Here is my conclusion. Make sure it stays in its final position for at least 24 hours to ensure all liquids are where they should be. The operation of the device is quite simple. Pour into bowl and blender. Pour in the mixture. Run the default 60 minutes or change the timer. Click Start. Approximately 10+ batches made within a 30 day window. Vanilla, rich chocolate, strawberry, strawberry sorbet and cinnamon vanilla. Winter has an online recipe guide. There are also tons of ice cream recipes on the internet. We largely avoid recipes that call for eggs, preferring to stick with the Philadelphia style. Haven't stacked anything worse or better than store bought or ice cream shop. The creaky noises mentioned by some reviewers weren't present. On several occasions my cup got stuck in the device. Thought it was frozen and only allowed to thaw a bit before coming out. One reviewer suggested that perhaps vegetable oil could be applied to the outside of the bowl to keep the bowl from freezing to the unit. As this has only happened a couple of times I will only keep this fix in mind if it happens again. I also paused the cycle a few times and didn't start again until the cycle was complete. I had to turn off the machine and set another cycle to stop beating. Not sure if it went into cooling mode after stopping which prevented it from starting again. I have my doubts about this. I read a few reviews that had problems with the machine and Winter sent instructions on how to open the machine. That worried me. Who does it? Checked their warranty. You take the delivery back to them within the first two months. After that, the customer sends the goods. That can get pretty expensive. In my case, I checked the shipping cost online and it would cost me at least $70-$80 to ship the device back. In addition, the guarantee states that all original packaging material must be kept for return shipment. Also had concerns about the lifespan of the mixing blades. Also, I worried about the mixing bowl after it got stuck and before I realized it was probably just frozen to the appliance. One reviewer stated that his blade failed after about 100 charges and he couldn't find replacement parts and couldn't get the manufacturer to respond to his email. Looks like Winter isn't selling any parts at all. You can buy parts in ambient stores (ambientstores.com). I'm pretty sure the two companies are related, having checked the State Department/BBB. Found a common name between the two companies. The blending knives cost $10. The $20 aluminum bowl shown on their website was shown as "Sorry, this item is currently unavailable". It has been said since I bought my block. I have a feeling it will no longer be sold with the version 1 blend blades. They have a $40 stainless steel bowl. So since you need to use your paddles and bowls to make the device work, I wanted to make sure problems with those items didn't turn the ice maker into a doorstop. Went ahead and bought 3 versions 2 mixing blades and 1 stainless steel bowl. Which along with paying with a credit card which doubles the manufacturer warranty as well as purchasing Squaretrade's 4 year warranty should be fine with me. While I think the department is doing pretty well, I just don't have a warm and casual relationship with the company. I wanted to make sure I did everything I could to protect my investment. Also bought 4 of these sundaes. They work very well. SUMO ICE BUCKET: The insulated ice bucket is perfect for homemade ice cream, ice cream or sorbet. Dishwasher Safe, 1.5 Liter Capacity [Blue, 1 Pack] So given the cost of the unit, Squaretrade Guarantee, 3 paddles / 1 stainless steel bowl and four ice buckets, we bought these for $356. This is quite a significant investment.