We Tested 8 Ice Cream Makers and These Were the Best

Dash Mini ice cream maker: As adorable as this $40 half-pint-sized ice cream maker is -- the Dash actually makes half of a pint at a time -- it's also not practical. It takes the full 25 minutes to churn, but what you're left with is essentially one large single serving of ice cream, sorbet, frozen yogurt or gelato. It worked well and won't take up much space making it a good choice for tiny kitchens, RVs or dorms.

Hamilton Beach automatic ice cream maker: This was the cheapest full-sized model we tested and it performed accordingly. The Hamilton Beach made one batch of good vanilla ice cream and then puttered to an early demise. Once it died, it never came back to life -- not exactly a great showing, even for a $50 machine.

Beautiful by Drew Barrymore 1.5-quart ice cream maker: The aptly named Beautiful ice cream maker was one of the nicest looking in the bunch and it is priced right at $50 from Walmart. The build felt somewhere flimsy and took slightly longer to solidify than other frozen bowl machines we tried.

Hamilton Beach 4-quart old-fashioned ice cream maker: I don't have much bad to say bout this $70 old-school ice cream machine. It came together easily and worked well. Ultimately, it just takes longer to make ice cream this way and keeping the bucket filled with ice and salt is a pain.

Elite Gourmet 4-quart electric: This $60 old-school rock salt and ice machine looks the part (old school) and feels well-built. As with others on this list, gathering the ice and salt needed to churn just doesn't seem worth it when there are simpler ways.

I put all ice cream maker models through their paces using the same vanilla ice cream recipe and a non-dairy vanilla ice cream recipe with a cashew milk base. I set each machine up according to instructions and followed the directions to make a single batch of ice cream using those common recipes.

Most of the ice cream makers I  tested instructed us to check the custard at 20 minutes and churn it further if needed. I looked to see how far along each batch was after 20 minutes and how much subsequent time was required to reach ice cream consistency. I noted other qualities such as an ice cream maker’s ease of operation and setup, and how easy it was to clean, take apart and store. I also noted how loud each machine was while operating and if the machine seemed sturdily built or flimsy to the touch.

I repeated the same steps using the vegan cashew milk recipe. Here, I looked for consistency and texture above all since vegan ice cream recipes can be trickier to properly thicken. I noted the consistency each batch of ice cream was in after the amount of time suggested by the user manual, but for each machine, I churned longer if I felt it needed more.

Making ice cream can is full of variables including room temperature and recipe variations that can affect any individual model’s performance. In short: I didn't deduct many points from any one model if it took longer to make ice cream than the instructions projected. I was only looking for great results.

I repeated the same test with a lemon sorbet recipe (lemon juice, sugar and water.) Because of the water content, sorbet is susceptible to ice and a machine's ability to churn a smooth, iceless sorbet was paramount for this test.

After each churning session came the all-important taste tests. Texture is the key to any frozen dessert and I looked for a substance that emerged with good structure, a creamy and consistent texture and no apparent ice. Properly made ice cream has good pull without being loose but is free from true solids or icy bits.

Ice cream maker type

There are a few basic types of ice cream makers. 

Frozen Bowl ice cream machines are the most common and require the user to freeze the inner bowl. From there the automatic churning paddles or a rotating inner bowl that pushes the custard up against the paddles will do all the work. You’ll only get one batch batch out of each before you have to freeze it again or you can purchase stock multiple inner bowls 

Compressor Ice Cream makers: These pricier models use freezer technology to chill the inner bowl on demand and thus don't require any planning or manual freezing. The big draw here is that you can make batch after batch without having to wait. The downside is that compressor ice cream makers cost more and are larger in stature, requiring more space on your counter or cupboard. 

Editor's note: For this round, we only tested mostly pre-frozen bowl ice cream makers but will be testing compressor models and adding a compressor ice cream maker pick to the list. A few popular compressor machines include Breville's $600 Smart scoop ice cream maker and Whynter which makes a handful of well-rated compressor models ranging from $200 to $600. Cuisinart also makes a compressor ice cream machine that's smaller than others and clocks in at $300.

Ice and rock salt ice cream makers. Theseold-school machines may remind of the old days and use a bucket with ice and rock salt which actually makes the ice colder point to keep the inner bowl chilled instead of a pre-frozen bowl or custard. There are only a handful of options in this category as they are slower and require a large stock of ice to operate. On the plus side, these models don't demand a pre-frozen bowl so you can make ice cream at a moment's notice.

Blender-style ice cream makers. This is a new style of ice cream maker and there’s really only one: the Ninja Creami and its subsequent iterations including the Creami Deluxe. This method of ice cream making reverses the order and requires a frozen base that is spun quickly and forcefully into ice cream rather than a chilled bowl which does it slowly.

Size and capacity

Ice cream makers turn about one and a half quarts of ice cream per batch which amounts to roughly three pints, although our top pick -- the Cuisinart Total Indulgence -- churns 2 quarts or four pints at a time. If you need to make more than that in a given session you'll want to opt for a compressor model or the Ninja Creami which can make multiple batches as long as you're able to freeze the custard ahead of time. Salt crank machines typically hold more, around 8 quarts, since there is no need to find space in the freezer for a frozen bowl.

Price and budget

At its core, ice cream makers are simple machines requiring only an inner chamber that spins slowly and a simple paddle to turn the mixture. You can find decent ice cream makers as cheap as $30 or $40. High-end compressors go for anywhere from $300 to well over $1,000 for professional-grade units. 

You can make ice cream parlor quality desserts with one of the $50 or $100 models and there is no need to spend more unless you want to. Pricier ice cream makers don’t necessarily make better ice cream, they just do it faster and with less prep (bowl or base freezing).