Ice Cream Maker Machine & Yogurt Automatic 2 Qt. with Built-In Compressor, LCD Digital Display & Timer, No Pre-Freezing, ICM-220SSY, Stainless Steel

For anyone who is concerned about a TLDR review: the Whynter 2.1 Quart Ice Cream Maker is wonderful. For the rest of you, here’s my review. I’ll start with Why. Buying an ice cream maker is all about the quality of the ice cream. The ice cream I can buy in the grocery store is ok, but generally the flavors are a bit weaker than I’d like them to be and the texture tends toward too much overrun (incorporated air). Premium ice creams solve some of this, but once I’m willing to put that much money into each serving it’s time to think abut better solutions. Making it at home accounts for all of that. Once I decided to make ice cream at home I had to choose between pre-freezing a bowl or a machine with freezing capacity. I don’t want to devote the space in my freezer to a bowl and having to plan to pre-freeze the bowl. If I’m relying on that, then I’ll be heading to an ice cream shop when I want to have premium ice cream (plenty of experience on this). Integrated freezing capacity reduces the planning required. I can decide to make, prepare, and freeze the ice cream all in one day. The Whynter looks nice (which is irrelevant) and has a 4 foot cord providing flexibility to find a spot on a kitchen counter, island (if you have one), or table and plug it in from there. On the flip side, it’s 16.75” W x 11.25” D x 10.25” H. If you intend to keep it out all the time, it’s taking up a lot of space. Mine gets stored in a closet in between batches. The cycle time for cooling and churning a batch defaults to 60 minutes. Since purchasing I’ve made several batches using 3 different recipes and 2 different batch sizes. The longest any of the batches took was 35 minutes. The Whynter has a motor protection feature and stops the churning once the ice cream is hard enough to risk damaging the motor. The cooling unit remains on if the motor stops in those conditions. These two features together mean that I don’t have to watch closely. I can check on the progress after 20 to 30 minutes and see if it’s still churning. If the motor stopped, the batch is ready. And it doesn’t matter if it stopped 30 seconds before I got there or 10 minutes earlier, the batch is still cold. (I have chilled my ice cream base for all the batches so you will probably experience longer batch times if you are using warmer base.) The motor does get a bit louder before stopping but starts at its normal volume with the next batch. I attribute the louder volume to the extra work involved in churning the nearly frozen ice cream. Batch frequency is another great thing about the Whynter. I decided to try some new recipes so I made a batch of unflavored custard base with ½ sugar and ½ Truvia (to lower the sugar calories). I divided it in two and flavored one as coffee ice cream using the Starbucks medium roast instant powder and flavored the other as Thai Iced Tea using loose Pantai Thai Tea mix. I let them both rest overnight in the refrigerator because the tea needed to steep to infuse flavor in the custard. The next morning, I strained the coffee custard base, put the base in the Whynter and started the batch. While it was churning, I started straining the Thai Ice Tea base (I expected this to take a lot longer than the coffee base and it did). I put the finished coffee ice cream into a storage container, cleaned the churning bowl and dasher, put them back in the machine and churned the second batch. The total time between the batches was less than 10 minutes. That’s not something you can do with one pre-frozen bowl. That success also came with a lesson. The half size batches were a little too small. If I do that again I’m probably going to make a 150% sized custard base so each of the recipes is a 75% batch. As the 50% sized batches froze the dasher was able to carry the entire batch around and the churning became ineffective. That never happened with the full-size batches so I blame me for creating the conditions with the 50% size batches. On the other hand, both flavors were good first experiments and the texture was fine. I didn’t see anything in the instructions to guide me on minimum batch size, but there is a warning for maximum. No embarrassing story here but based on watching one batch get close to the top I’d say their advice for maximum is correct. Overall, the Whynter promises to make ice cream, custard, sorbet, etc. It does this quickly, allowing for recipe flexibility, mix-ins (which I haven’t tried), and more spontaneity than freezing a single use ice cream bowl. I’m glad I bought it.

This is a fairly expensive appliance. You can make ice cream more cheaply than this. I have the kind that requires you to freeze the bowl. It sort of works. Usually. I have one that uses a semiconductor called a Peltier element to provide its own cooling. It's ok, and if you can't fit this one into your budget, that one is a whole lot better than the frozen bowl method. Then I got this one. There are other compressor models on Amazon that are cheaper. I honestly can't tell you anything about them. They may be every bit as good as this one; I simply don't know. What I can tell you about this one without reservation or hesitation is that, based on my experience, this ice cream maker is worth every. single. penny. This ice cream maker is amazing. It will make 2.1 quarts at a time although I'm experimenting with different recipes so I haven't gone for volume yet. I get a quart of ice cream in about 45 minutes and frozen yogurt in about 35 minutes. The machine can detect when the mixture is too thick to churn and then goes into a cooling-only mode. This feature is invaluable. From everything I've read, all of the ice cream makers produce a mixture that is in a "soft serve" state. You can certainly eat it at that point, but if you want it firmer than that you need your freezer to take it the rest of the way. This phase is critical to the texture and finish of the end product. The ice cream already has tiny little ice crystals in it, and if they stay tiny, it's great. You keep them tiny by dropping the temperature as quickly as possible; a slow drop allows them to grow. At best you would wind up with a grainy texture and at worst you end up with a block of flavored ice. That means you have to get the ice cream from the churning bucket into the coldest part of your freezer (at the bottom in the back) as quickly as you can. The Whynter's cool-only mode buys you time. Time to transfer the mixture from the churning bucket into its container - and for the love of Mike don't use cardboard! You still have to work fast, but at least what's in the bucket isn't warming to room temperature. Beyond that, this unit is very solidly made. It has real buttons as opposed to membrane, there's nothing flimsy on it - even the clear plastic cover is sturdy - and both the compressor and churning motor sound like they're working well within their design limits. I know that last may sound a little odd, but you know how some things that you buy have a whiny or hollow sound and you really wonder if it's going to last? This doesn't have that; it just _sounds_ well made. And on that topic I was a little surprised at how quiet it is. Since the churning blade is plastic (actually it's probably some sort of nylon affair but I don't know) I'd ordered an extra one of those. It arrived before the machine did, but once I had it in my hands I was fairly certain that the original would never need to be replaced; it's very sturdy as well. The frozen bowl method is a novel idea but is an iffy process at best. After it failed on me a couple of times, I was very frustrated. The semiconductor machine was a nice little stop-off, and I was familiar with the technology so I was willing to give it a go. It may be exactly what you're looking for, but it still just wasn't what I was looking for. I normally kind of stick to the middle of the road, but I was at the point that I was finished with the nonsense and wanted results. I looked at reviews, looked at the Whynter website, decided they know a thing or two about making things cold, and went for it. Again, I can't tell you about other brands, but I am highly impressed with this machine. In two weeks I've produced over two gallons of ice cream a quart at a time and this machine performed flawlessly each time. I'm not a cook, so while mixing some cream and sugar together is well within my wheelhouse, making a custard for a French style ice cream most definitely is NOT. Having confidence that my stress-laden concoction isn't going to be biffed at the end is quite valuable to me. That's why I can tell you that this device is worth it. Every. single. penny.

So far...it's AWESOME. I have been shopping (and wanting) an ice-cream maker for over a year now and finally setttled on the Whynter Automatic 2.1 qt unit because I wanted something with a built-in compressor for the easiest process. I've only had it for less than a week and, so far, I have made two flawless batches of gelato. The first batch was dark chocolate gelato (with pieces of dark chocolate), and the second batch was pumpkin pie gelato (with pieces of buttery/cinnamon graham cracker crust throughout). Once it was unboxed, it was ready to use - after thoroughly cleaning of course. It has a relatively small footprint on my counter, which is nice since my kitchen is super-small. The machine is pretty quiet so far, definitely not loud or annoying. I found some great gelato recipes online (Recipes from Italy) despite the maker coming with a recipe booklet, and followed the instructions provided. Once I added all the ingredients, I followed the simple two steps, turn on the machine and set it to making ice-cream. It's that easy! Both batches of gelato were done in a relatively quick period of time, less than 40 minutes and it was ready to eat. The gelato is super smooth and delicious, probably some of the best gelato I've had, including what I ate when touring Italy several years ago. There were no ice crystals, no chunks, no surprises...just cold, creamy, and delicious gelato! I'll update my review if anything changes, but I'd definitely recommend this to anyone wanting to make ice-cream, gelato, or sorbet at home. UPDATE: After a few weeks of ownership, this Whynter ice cream maker is AWESOME and so is their recipe booklet included. The "custard base" recipe is so creamy and delicious. There is no reason for me to buy ice cream from a store ever again! With lot's of recipes online, the possibilities are endless. I've made several batches of gelato (recipesfromitaly.com) has delicious recipes. I also made a fantastic "bananas foster" ice cream, chocolate ice cream, and banana ice cream. I'm just getting started. It takes less than 60 minutes to make creamy and delicious frozen goodness in your own kitchen, gelato takes about 40 minutes. Enjoy!

I got this beautiful Whynter ice cream maker yesterday, July 31. My wife and my daughter just made the first Dark chocolate ice cream and it went smooth! We love this machine. I personally am not a fan of buying ice cream at the store, but now I will eat more home made ice cream. Thank you very much to Amazon for the amazing price and fast delivery. Way to go Winter!. My stars for this model.

I bought this product last year to replace my old lello gelato pro that was finally slowing down after more than 5 years of frequent use. This means I have a pretty good comparison of pros and cons of each, now that I've had much time to use the Whynter. The Whynter pros are that is less noisy, freezes well and has a nice sized opening on the top piece where ice cream additions are added. The pro of the larger opening is that it is much easier to make stracciatella (Italian chocolate chip, with melted dark chocolate and a bit of oil, my preference being coconut), allowing a good churn without a strong likelihood of a mess, a problem with the narrow opening of the gelato pro (was better to mix in by hand after, but didn't allow the nice even pieces). The cons involve two main issues. These are that the churning blade is just far enough away from the side of the freezing container and that the primary churning mechanism is from below the freezing bucket (lello gelato pro had the mechanism from above, allowing an ongoing churning even as the ice cream got more firm and with pieces of stuff added toward the end of the churning). With the Whynter, I have to stop churning when the ice cream isn't as quite as firm (knowing that ice cream will not be fully firm until after a number of hours in the freezer, of course), although this isn't much of a problem, as the ice cream still comes out well (more air and ice creamy than denser and gelato-like, but this is to be expected vs the "gelato" pro). The challenge of the churning blade being further away from the bucket edge is that it isn't quite as evenly mixed, a slight issue only, and that when pouring in "stuff" (ie nuts, cookie pieces, chocolate pieces, graham cracker pieces, whatever...) to add to the ice cream base toward the end of the churning cycle, it causes it to jam in seconds. This means that I now simply let it churn as a base flavor until I normally would put it in the freezer and then have have to hand mix in ingredients to the bucket after removing from the ice cream maker. This means I have to work quickly to get it mixed in fairly symmetrically, try not to make a mess and get it put into the freezer container I'm going to then use to store it in the freezer (and this includes putting plastic on the surface before putting a lid on, as air is ice cream's enemy). This isn't a deal breaker. It is just one more variable to consider depending on what each person likes. Personally, I try to look at how much easier it is to make stracciatella flavors, as this one of the main add-ins that really couldn't be done well after. Overall, it is a very good machine that I am generally pleased with. I just miss the power of the gelato pro. FWIW, the reason that I replaced the gelato pro was that the freezing process had gotten much slower after @ 6 years of regular use. The power of the churn was just as good. The problem was that I couldn't recharge it anywhere, other than sending it back in to the manufacturer, which would have meant paying for more than half the value of the machine simply to have it serviced, which didn't make sense. I was able to get a much better price on the Whynter on Amazon than I was a replacement Lello Gelato Pro, so I really can't complain. Regardless, once you start making your own, you'll never go back to store bought! Also, another tip for cost saving is to buy cream from Costco, Sam's Club, etc., as it is typically a whole lot cheaper than from the traditional grocery store.

This machine (2.1 qt) + the book “Morgenstern’s Finest Ice Cream” will instantly put you at ice cream making boss level. The recipes are perfect amount for this size. If you want to spend under $100, better stick with a smaller size ice and wait type because the bigger versions of those are underpowered motor and won’t finish a full batch. If you want a big 6 qt spend the $500+ on the ice type with the large motor on top. Did research on Whynter, seems they are reputable in the commercial market. So I gave their consumer machine a try. So far so good. No ice and salt to mess with, easy clean up, can make on the counter, has several features that are definitely real world useful.

This Whynter ICM-200LS is very identical to The Ariete - DeLongi Ariete - DeLonghi Stainless Steel Ice Cream Maker with Built-in Compressor, LCD Digital Display, 2.1 Quart and the Gourmia GSI400 Gourmia GSI400 Stainless Steel 2.2 Qt SleekServe Automatic Ice Cream Maker - Gelato, Sorbet and Frozen Yogurt Machine - Built-in Compressor and LCD Digital Display- Includes Free Recipe Book . Side note: I'll briefly compare these units to Cuisinart ICE 100 Cuisinart ICE-100 Compressor Ice Cream and Gelato Maker and the Breville BCI600XL Breville BCI600XL Smart Scoop Ice Cream Maker and the Lello Lello 4080 Musso Lussino 1.5-Quart Ice Cream Maker, Stainless toward the end of the review. The Whynter ICM-15LS and the Knox 1.5 are also identical with their smaller capacity of 1.5 Quarts (though the stickers say litres which I guess is technically about 6% more volume than the Quarts advertised) All these Chinese made units have the same company bringing the UL listing, specs, and design to market from the company Intertek. The lids are also identical as are the plastic paddles as are the mechanisms that attach to the bottom of the bowls/paddles. Regardless of the specs listed, I had access to a couple of these machines and they all weigh about 26 pounds according to my calibrated shipping scale. The dimensions are about 16 5/8 inches length x 11 1/16 inches width by 8 7/8 inches height. Since they seem to have the same motors that spin around 25 RPMs, the same refrigerant for the cooling action and the same interchangeable aluminum container that houses the mixture, what are the differences you ask? Well, the difference is mostly cosmetic with some differences with button controls on the LCDs. All the 2+ quarts makers (Whynter ICM-200LS; Ariete-Delonghi & Gourmia GSI400) feature a power button, a start/pause button, and a menu button. The Whynter ICM-200LS has two additional buttons to increase or decrease time. The two others (Ariete-Delonghi & Gourmia GSI400) have a round knob that you turn to incrementally increase or decrease time. Otherwise the built-in software and the LCD readouts are absolutely identical. You can toggle between the 3 modes of "ice cream" ; "cooling only" ; or "mixing only." When you power the units on, they all default to 60:00 minutes which you can toggle down if you prefer less time (either by turning the knob on some models or pressing the buttons on the Whynter) They all go to automatic cooling mode for 10 minute increments after the ice cream is finished churning for the prescribed amount of time. They all have the safety function to shut the motor off in the event of an overload should the machine not be able to muscle through the mixture if it freezes too hard while churning. The "Cooling only" mode is good if you want to pre-chill the bowl before pouring in your mix which could lessen the total contact time and make for a creamier end result... of course you could also throw the bowl in the freezer for 5-10 minutes to achieve this effect if you get a machine without this feature. A word about the warranties. They all seem to have a one year limited warranty except the Knox which is as unknown as the company itself. The real issue is that the warranty covers against manufacturers' defects. It is important to realize that these units are mini freezers which mean they have a compressor with sealed oil. If the units travel on their side or upside down, they need to be place right side up for at least 4 hours and preferably 24 hours to make sure all of the oil drips out of the sealed housing. If it is run with oil in it, it will break and though make noise like it is working, it will not cool a thing. This also means that if you store the unit on it's side or back, you have to wait many hours with it right side up to safely turn it on. If you turn it on and it doesn't get cold because there was oil in the compressor, it probably wouldn't be covered as a manufacturer defect. These units all make excellent ice cream and excellent gelatos. Since they spin at 25 RPM's per minute, you will never be introducing air into the cream like what is done with commercially made ice cream. More dense ice cream and gelato is the premium product we want at home anyway. Other differences between the units is that some user manuals are marginally better than others. Some give you more recipes than others. Some give you silly extras like a cheapy plastic scoop (with the Whynter) or a cheapy plastic measuring cup (with the Ariete - DeLonghi) or a cheapy plastic spatula. What about the Cuisinart, the Breville and the expensive 3x cost Lello? The Cuisinart is VERY similar, also built in China like the ones mentioned above, but does seem to have a slightly different motor as it spins at 26 RPMs. Cuisinart seems to have gone through their own certification and design process and did not rely on Intertek. Though if you turn the unit upside down, it is very identical in design of the rest with the exact same access points to get to the internals if need be. The interface of the Cuisinart is less robust and only has 3 buttons and very much resembles the software of the 1.5 litre Whynter and Knox. It will also default to a 10 minute "Keep Cool" cycle after mixing, like the above units. It is a 1.5 quart machine and It does not have the cooling only and mixing only functions so it is most similar to the Whynter ICM-15LS and mystery company Knox brand. It does have a different paddle design and in fact comes with 2 paddles, one for ice cream and one for gelato. This to me is a little gimmicky though as at 26 RPM's you'd be hard pressed to get any better whipping action (air injection) from the cream in the ice cream... again with the understanding that commercial units like Emery Thompson units generate RPMS closer to 200 with the intent of aerating ice cream. Gelatos are meant to be spun at low RPMs regardless so all these home units are excellent for gelato. The warranty is a whopping 3 years though I have never dealt with Cuisinart on a warranty claim. How about the Breville? It is proprietary and of good Australian Quality with it's own unique interface and software. The aluminum mixing tub is a proprietary size and is tall and narrow. It is on the smaller size of 1.5 quarts. The warranty is 1 year. The design premise is the same as the others mentioned. The proprietary motor is faster though... spinning at about 50 RPMs, so it should be able to aerate ice cream more if that's something you desire. Unfortunately there is no way to toggle the speed downward or play with the temperature... not that there is with any of these home units. The Auto interface on the Breville is really just able to reduce the time and slap a name on the adjusted time. gelato = less time; ice cream = more time. This could be such a great unit and would be worth the additional money if you could adjust the RPMs and cooling temp, but again none of these models can do that. The Lello is interesting as their design is based on a setup where there is no removable bowl. This inherently is similar to a sealed commercial setup that should allow the compressor to work more efficiently. -And in theory if you can freeze your mix more quickly, you should have less crystals and creamier ice cream. Of course commercial units also use the efficiency of gravity like front load commercial washing machines. The Lello is small and more of a pain to clean as a result and it does have an issue where the spinning pin can get fouled near the top if not cleaned very well. It is very well made in Italy with mostly metal components including the paddle and has a one year warranty. For my money, I think I would lean on the Ariete - Delonghi or Gourmia as they can be had for $199.99 at the time of this review. If the Whynter would be the same price, then it would be a toss up in my opinion. The Whynter has oscillated in price between $260 and $350 over the past year and the Cuisinart is a little more expensive with less features and smaller capacity though a better warranty. Except for the mystery brand Knox and unavailable warranty information, I do not think you can go wrong with any of the machines listed above. The machines are identical enough that your recipes will have the biggest impact, so you may be better served by being price conscious. To me the Lello is cost prohibitive at $700 and I don't care for the design overall as the efficiency doesn't do much to the end result. Similarly, I do not think the Breville which is $380 as of this writing has any advantages that warrant the price. Understand that all of these machines will make excellent tasting ice cream or gelato. You'd be hard pressed to tell a difference using the same recipe on any of the machines except in a side by side taste test where you're really trying to be picky about the perfect creaminess, aeration, lack of ice crystals, etc. Good luck on your purchasing decision.

High-quality DIY ice cream machine that runs on electric, with a compressor to provide ice cream base freezing. Love the electric/compressor features, which eliminates the need for a pre-frozen bowl! A couple of notes for new users: 1) the bowl inside is stainless steel, which is very nice, but the sides of the bowl can become a bit icy relative to the (meltier) texture of the ice cream, and 2) the handle of the bowl is nice, but it frequently gets in the way when pouring in your ice cream base, therefore creating a bit of a sticky mess. (It is also possible for the ice cream base to sneak behind the edges of the bowl and run down into the inset of the machine, or, if the ice cream base gets on part of the paddle where it attaches to the lid, that can cause some stickiness and resistence when churning.) For this, I'd give the machine more like 4.5 stars, as well as because of the lack of dishwasher-friendly components. Otherwise, my experience of this product has been that this is a very high-quality and affordable ice cream machine. It's nice to be able to save money by making dairy-free ice cream at home, and I've found that being able to add in any flavors/toppings you choose generally makes up for the softer, homemade ice cream texture and the extra bit of work required (with purchasing ingredients, light planning, and clean-up). A tip for newer users making ice cream in bulk is that, in theory, you can keep the leftover ice cream frozen in the machine with the chill setting on while you eat your ice cream; this gives you some time to enjoy it before cleaning up the equipment. (I used to try to serve everyone and then rush to clean everything up and put the leftovers in my freezer before enioying the fresh ice cream, to preserve the leftover ice cream, but that leaves a meltier experience for the first round. The chill setting is your friend.) Additionally, the paddle and scoop fit inside the bowl with the lid on for storage. I've only used this machine with dairy-free recipes, and they have all turned out pretty well, with a softer/meltier homemade texture than, for example, ice cream you would buy at the grocery store. The results are more comparable to soft-serve or frozen yogurt, so one should expect that going into the process. It is also worth noting that, for solid, add-in toppings, putting these in is generally best performed in the last few minutes before removing the ice cream from the machine. As a first-timer in making ice cream from home, while it may be tempting to add in the solid candy pieces early on in the churning process, doing so jams up the paddle. It's definitely best to wait until the ice cream is fully-formed to add solid pieces in. In summary, my favorite aspects of this product were: the high-end style, the 2.1 quart capacity for fresh ice cream + leftovers, and the compressor feature. I definitely recommend this product for those looking to either: save money, explore new (dairy free or allergen-friendly) options, or have a fun (social) time making ice cream from home. Thanks, Whynter! Edit: Contacted support to receive $25 gift card for providing review and relevant order information, incentive received.

I wish I would have purchased this years ago! Made a vanilla batch earlier today which was so rich and creamy and now I am making a coffee caramel batch. I can't wait to make some strawberry daiquiris and Greek yogurt. The whole machine is not that big all things considered. I do wish it made larger quantities. 2 quarts for a family of 4 goes by fast.

After almost a decade of using the freezer bowl style of ice cream maker, this machine is a delight. Heavy and bulky (as expected for something with a freezing unit in it) but quiet and effective. Noticeable improvement in the quality of the final product. Easy to assemble, use, and clean. I love being able to make multiple batches at once for layered or swirled desserts. Only downside is the paddle is annoyingly shaped and hard to scrape off completely. Lots of tight corners. But I think that's the case with most modern ice cream makers.

Tellement amusant à faire ! Délicieux, facile à faire , toutes variétés possible! Fraise , chocolat, yogourt glacé, etc. Nous l’utilisons régulièrement et tous nos invités sont épaté Facile à nettoyer

I have been waiting for an hour it doesn’t gets cold at all.