Overall, we are happy with our ice cream maker. I chose this one because it has a gellato setting which gives a longer mixing cycle. I have modified some recipes to come up with a vanilla, low fat, low sugar coconut milk ice cream that the family thinks tastes better than what we are able to find in the stores. Being able to experiment with the ingredients was paramount. Our only complaint is the fussiness of the lid. If you accidentally touch the lid while pouring in the ice cream base it you have to immediately stop and fix it. Depending on where you are in the pouring, you may have to clean out the freezer bowl and try again. That is very aggravating! For this reason it gets a 4 star instead of a 5. It's a Cuisinart! You guys should be able to do better!