The theme with this product is too many steps... there's too many steps to set this up, to make the ice cream, and to clean the machine afterwards. With that said, if you use it and you wait patiently for the ice cream you can eat a freshly made dessert that tastes amazing! I would not personally go out of my way to buy one of these, but if I were receiving it as a gift I would love it and actually use it... because I have it. Overall it does a good job and it's fin to use and experiment with! I'm super happy with it!