a good risk taken--a 4 PLUS

I had seen mixed reviews, but took a chance- we are very happy. Haven't had it long enough to decide where I'd rank it between 4 and 5 .
1) SET-UP: this was clear and straighforward. The only difficulty I had was early in use, when I was trying to re-assemble the clear chute back under the lever which opens the ice-cream flow; I had left the lever down and was stupidly trying to jam the chute back in for a good minute before I figured out that the lever handle must be up to create adequate space.
2) MAKING the ice cream: Overall process is simple, intuitive. The liquid may drip through when you initially pour it into the canister, so we start with a bowl under the opening and dump it back in if it's more than a spoonful. We used the basic vanilla recipe with a few variations--there has always been plenty of chill in the frozen canister to make a full recipe without a problem. Even on New Year's Eve, when we made additional ice cream (we had 9 people, incl 5 kids) by adding more liquid in 6-oz amounts as the supply of made ice cream dwindled, we didn't exhaust the freezing capacity of the machine. One can peer in through the open top at the ice cream as it's being made and easily monitor its consistency. The add-in apparatus was a huge hit with the kids. We used mini M and M's, choc. jimmies and rainbow sprinkles.
3) CLEAN-UP: no problems.

The soft serve ice cream maker works great. I only wish it would come with more thatn one freezing bowl so that you could make more than one batch at a time. It is a good value for the price for making small batches of soft serve at home.

Fun item.

Before purchasing this, I was concerned about some of the negative reviews. Now that I have used it, I don't understand them at all. I assume that those folks didn't allow enough time, or too much time, or something. The only complaint about the product that I have is that too much use of it will make me fat. The first time that I used it, it did take a bit longer than the instructions said, but only about ten minutes. It was probably my fault for not using colder products. I have had to adjust to more difficult things in my life. I am glad that I bought it.

Soft Serve that actually works

I bought a cheaper version of a soft serve ice-cream maker a year ago. The ice-cream was okay but there was no way it would ever come out of the spigot. Bought the Cuisinart hoping for the best and it didn't disappoint. Makes great soft serve and actually comes out and makes a curl on the top. Would reccommend this to anyone.

Great present!

My husband just loved this present for his birthday. Our 3 sons love helping make icecream for dessert. It works great and we've never had any problems with it.