Whynter Ice Cream Maker Machine & Yogurt Automatic 2 Qt. with Built-in Compressor, LCD Digital Display & Timer, No Pre-Freezing, ICM-220CGY, Champagne Gold

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.

This ice cream maker is amazing!Our first batch was impromptu. We were eager to use the machine, so we just made vanilla ice milk. The results were fantastic, it is really great to have a machine that doesn’t require any pre-chill or pre-freeze time. Because of the recipe we used, it turned out a lot like snow cream, this was expected and not at all disappointing.The next batch was… premeditated… you know, like criminal activity. I walked in from a shopping trip to the hum of the ice cream maker, churning away in the kitchen. My husband had decided to get creative while I was away. He used heavy cream, milk, and a few other “secret” ingredients, and the results were phenomenal. The machine churned the ice cream to a wonderfully thick consistency in about 60 minutes. It froze fast enough that it was not icy, and the texture was so smooth and creamy.I wish he would have called to warn me while I was out shopping though, because this ice cream machine is so phenomenal that I might just need to buy larger pants.Needless to say, we may never purchase commercial ice cream again!Pros:- Packaging is sufficient to keep the machine safe from mishandling- Made with stainless steel for durability- Ample torque for churning even as the ice cream gains a thick consistency- Freezes and churns with no effort from the user- Easy to clean-Comes with a recipe bookletCons:- Delicious ice cream any time- Probably going to need to buy bigger pants

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.