Whynter ICM-15LS SNO Ice Cream Maker

The Good:

• Professional quality ice cream maker
• Makes premium ice cream in about 30 to 40 minutes
• Makes ice cream, sorbets, gelato, sherberts and frozen yogurt
• Built in freezer means you don’t have to pre freeze bowl
• Electric timer and LCD control panel
• Updated version of popular Whynter IC-2L

The Bad:

• Parts not dishwasher safe
• Add in chute a little small

The Bottom Line:

The Whynter ICM-15LS is a professional quality premium ice cream maker. It has a powerful self-protecting motor and a built in compressor, so pre-freezing the bowl is not necessary.   Save a fortune making your own premium ice cream in your favorite flavors at home.

Select Customer Reviews:

“I love making ice cream. Usually done in one of the inexpensive freezer bowl type machines. Hated to have to freeze the bowl. I have been looking at these self contained freezers for a number of years. Now that they are affordable, I purchased the Whynter. Recieved a few days later. Finally made some Ice Cream yesterday.

My machine arrived packed very well in two box’s. The unit came out in perfect condition. There is very little you have to know to use it. I skimmed the manual for two minutes then i was on my way. You turn on the power switch and it starts to freeze. slide in the pot with your ice cream base, insert the mixer, then put the motor and lid on top. Press start and the timer defaults to 60 min. I don’t need to use the timer since the motor will shut off 30 seconds after the ice cream thickens to the point that motor can not turn the mixer any longer. I did not wait that long. I removed the ice cream before it became that frozen. After removing the ice cream to a bowl and into the freezer i poured a new batch into the machine and imediatly made a second batch.

I loved being able to freeze ice cream as soon as i wanted.
The unit worked perfectly. When done the only parts i had to clean was the mixer and the freezer bowl. The lid and motor were untouched by any ice cream.

I had an absolute great experience. Now i hope to see the unit work problem free for a long time.”

E. Calcagno – Mandeville, LA

 

“The Whynter Sno is a fully contained 2 liter ice cream machine. It will both churn and freeze a mix to create:

- Frozen Custard
- Ice Cream
- Ice Milk
- Gelato
- Sorbets
- and even icy beverages (think Margaritas and the like.)

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The Pros
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It Works!
^^^^^^^^^
(Yes, this is a big deal. How would you like it if you plunked down $200 only to find your ice cream mix comes out soup or filled with chunky ice cubes?) This machine definitely gets the job done; It makes ice cream.

It is surprisingly quiet.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
While you wouldn’t want to use it in a library, this machine is actually pretty quiet. Most of us who don’t have any experience with an Ice Cream Machine can only relate to the beasts they have at the local Ice-Creameries (You know the ones: Buy One, Get One Free on certain days…) These industrial behemoths are LOUD. This machine (not being an industrial behemoth) is not loud. It **IS** louder than my refrigerator (barely,) but not quite as loud as my washing machine. It’s NO WHERE NEAR AS LOUD as a Blender, Food Processor, or Stick Blender (if those are your only gauges of relevance.)

You can make your own concoctions.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Some local ice-creameries will make you a custom blend of ice cream. For example, if you want chocolate chips in some strawberry ice cream, they’ll do that. (Probably not nationwide chains, but the local shop might.) But ask them to make anything crazier than that, and you’re probably out of luck. Rosewater ice cream? Sorry. Green Tea ice cream? You’re probably out of luck.

With this machine, you can make whatever flavors your heart desires, and that’s pretty cool. (Just don’t save me any Alligator Sherbet, ok?)

Ease of Use / Capacity.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This thing is EASY to use. For example, to make a simple vanilla ice cream, take 2 cups of half-and-half and POUR IT DIRECTLY INTO THE MACHINE’S MIXING BUCKET. DO LIKEWISE WITH 1/2 CUP OF SUGAR. Add a tablespoon of vanilla, and run the machine. About 45 minutes later, you’ll have medium soft serve ice cream. NOTE that I do not say “Bring this mixture to a boil,” nor do I say “Mix it,” nor anything like that. In fact, when I tried this mix, I could even hear the churn running over the grains of sugar in the churning bowl. But, 45 minutes later, nothing but super-fine ice cream.

The other plus side is this machine’s capacity. It’s nice to be able to make a larger quantity of a mix if the mix is a bit more complicated (ie: a custard, which may require the incorporation of eggs, and possible cooking of the eggs.) This way, you can make a larger batch of mix, followed by a larger batch of ice cream.

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The Cons
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It’s NOT dishwasher safe!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
While I won’t say “Cleanup is hard,” (there are really only 2 things to clean: the bowl and the beater,) you still can’t just toss them into the top rack of your dishwasher to get the job done. You’ll also need to wipe off the top plastic cover with a sponge, dishrag, etc… because it’s permanently attached to the motor (which doesn’t lend itself to easy cleaning.) The same thing holds true if your mix overflows the bowl and gets into the machine itself. (Don’t worry, it’s easy to clean, but again, you can’t put the whole machine into your dishwasher [it's electrical, y'know,] so you’ll have to clean it with a sponge or dishrag…) In other words, it would have been nicer if the freezing bowl (into which the mixing bowl sits,) the mixing bowl, the churn, and the plastic cover all been removable and dishwasher safe. They’re not, but, to Whynter’s credit, they are pretty easy to clean.

The label came off
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Petty? Yes. But it’s an indicator as to the design of the machine. The label is a stiff label affixed to the rounded “tub” area of the machine. Had the machine been designed with a flat areat onto which the logo could be affixed, the label would still be there. (Mind you, this is “straight out of the box.”

Little or No Documentation
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The documentation isn’t bad (for what there is of it, but there aren’t any recipes that come along with it. Also, there’s no indicator as to the Maximum Fill Level of the Churn bucket. Overfill it, and you’ve got an ice cream that won’t set properly, or have enough air mixed into it; or worse: ice cream base spilling into the freezing chamber. NOTE: You **CAN** go onto the website and download some recipes, but it would have been GREAT if they would have spent the extra $.38 and printed out some copies of at least a simple vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry mix recipe and thrown it into the box.

“Add-Ins” chute too small
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Do you like “Add-Ins” (ie: gelatin-based fruit-flavored candy animals and the like) in your ice cream? Well, you’ll need to stop the machine, open the top, add the Add-Ins, then restart the churn (which, ideally, you’d wait 6 minutes for, since the compressor doesn’t like to start and stop without a 6 minute breather.) The current model has a chute large enough for sprinkles and MAYBE very small cookie crumbs, but not chocolate chips. Again, not the worst thing in the world, but… hey! You know.

It can be slow
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This machine COULD conceivably turn out a batch of ice cream in 30 minutes, but that’s only if the mix is nearly frozen to begin with (<38 degrees.) If you just cooked up a custard and it’s still 170 degrees, it may well take this machine a few hours to turn your hot ice cream soup into ice cream. Having said that, even a 2 liter batch of cold mix won’t be ice cream in anything less than 45 minutes to an hour.

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Other “Stuff”
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If you’ve never had an ice cream machine before, this machine is pretty good. (Ok; it’s pretty GREAT.) But there are a few things you need to realize BEFORE buying ANY ice cream machine:

1 – NO ice cream machine will ever make ice cream for you that is rocket hard. The best you can ask for is the consistency of a firm soft serve, or a pint of super-premium that’s been left out on the counter for too long. Any good ice cream maker will tell you that once you’ve made your batch, put it in a container, then throw THAT in the freezer for a little while to get hard (and let the flavors mature.) Of course, if you like soft serve, you’re in good shape.

2 – DON’T expect to buy this machine and make ice cream for the whole neighborhood. You won’t, for example, be able to host the desserts table at your next block party equipped with only this machine and some raw materials. At best, this machine could crank out about 8 servings of ice cream (with a very cold mix) in an hour, which won’t satisfy the needs of some 50 ravenous neighborhood kids. If you NEED to supply your neighborhood with ice cream, you have 2 decent options:

A – Buy this machine, make the batches a day or so in advance, and let the ice cream harden (and mature) in the freezer ’till the big day.
B – Forego this machine, and make “Nitrogen Ice Cream” (The Nitrogen, Dewar rental, and all ingredients will cost LESS than the price of this machine. The only caveat is that you HAVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING! Nitrogen makes people unhappy, especially as their skin, tendons and muscles flake off revealing only bone after they suffer a nasty liquid Nitrogen burn [ok; not really, but still - it's nasty, painful stuff if you don't treat it right.]) Google “Nitrogen Ice Cream” for recipes, caveats, sources, and ideas. ADDED BONUS: Nitrogen Ice Cream puts on a cool show!

3 – You can’t adjust the air mix in this machine. Ask a serious ice cream maker, and she / he will tell you “it’s all about the mix.” Even the Food and Drug Administration say that “Ice Creams” are classified by the amount of air (or “Overrun”) in the mix. More air = “fewer calories,” but also a less satisfying ice cream. “Super Premium” ice creams have less air. (But don’t worry: This machine is more geared towards “Super Premium” more than “really light and fluffy.”

4 – DON’T expect this machine to save you money. (Yup – You heard right.) Sure, the price of 4 servings of super premium ice cream may be $3, but the cost of half-and-half, sugar, and flavorings (among other things) plus electricity to run the machine would likely put you in that same $3 range. (Ok, let’s face it: Ice cream isn’t a high-priced commodity.) The only good reason to get this machine is:

A – If you have special dietary needs
B – You’re REALLY into fresh cooking
C – You want to impress someone [ie: the kids, the neighbors, the in-laws, a date, etc...]

So there you have it. My review of the Whynter Sno Ice Cream Machine. If you’re an ice-cream maker newbie who has the cash, you should DEFINITELY consider this machine. If you’re a little low on cash, but still want to churn-your-own, try one of those units where you first FREEZE the churn bucket then make the ice cream. If, on the other hand, you have a few extra thousand lying around… well… check out “Batch Freezers” instead of Ice Cream Makers. (They’ll make a LARGE batch of ice cream in 8 minutes, instead of 60, but they’re also MUCH noisier [and costlier.])

Hope this helps!”

- Mike Z.

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