Anyone have one of these? If so which one? How easy is it to use? Anyone got any good recipes?

I just have a $20 cheapie Rival, but it works GREAT. Got one of the fancy, expensive no-ice-just-freeze-the-bowl models and exchanged it for the cheapie - it didn't work at all. The best chocolate ice cream I've ever had is one that we made from the Alton Brown recipe on the food network website - use the super premium one, not the regular chocolate one. Next best is a recipe that someone (TW? I think it was TW...) posted for Guinness ice cream - it was FANTASTIC. I'll try to find the thread.

Bought my wife one for her birthday some 4-5 years ago, as she likes ice cream, frozen yogurt, etc. Electric model, too, not one that forces a lot of manual labor.

I thought she would really enjoy the chance to mix her own, make them to her tastes, etc. To date, she has used it approximately...never.

Sounds like the fancy schmancy Cuisinart model I started with. I like my cheapie MUCH better. The fancy one SAID that you just drop the ingredients in and walk away, but when you start reading the directions, it turns out that NONE of the recipes are "drop in and walk away" friendly. You still have to cook and chill the custard, you have to freeze the bowl hours ahead of time, AND ..... it didn't work. Much easier to skip freezing the bowl, cook the same custard, dump some ice and salt into the churn and THEN walk away. There will be ice cream when you get back!

Have a cheap one.......I got it out one day and looked at the ingredient required to make ice cream.

There were a lot of them......and also it seemed like a lot of screwing around.

I thought about this a while and then drove to the store and got a two gallon pail of cheap vanilla ice cream.

#5 That sounds about right. Of course, it won't matter a damned bit what kind it is if it never gets put to use.

I bought one off Amazon. I think it'll get used since the kids know its coming and all.

We bought one when our kids were little and used it every weekend. When they grew up, it left right after they did.

Homemade icecream is sublime. Buy a cheap one that spins itself, google a simple recipe, add rock salt, enjoy the **** out of all that icecream.

White Mountain is generally considered the Mercedes of ice cream makers.