We Tested 20 Ice Cream Makers to Find the Best Ones for Churning Ice Cream and Sorbet

Few culinary techniques feel as magical as transforming a custard base into ice cream. A good ice cream machine is all you need to experience this alchemy at home. It lets you churn your favorite flavors and swirl in any number of mix-ins (chopped cookies, fresh fruit, dollops of lemon curd...you name it, it churns it). 

To find the best ice cream makers, we tested 20 of them. We wanted a machine that made smoothly textured ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet, and that was easy to use and clean. We tested both canister ice cream makers, which require you to freeze the bowl before churning, and self-freezing models.

After about seven years of testing and use, our favorite ice cream maker from Cuisinart holds up. We recently re-evaluated it alongside more models, and it still snagged the top spot.

What Are the Different Kinds of Ice Cream?

Because we’ll mention many of these ice creams and frozen desserts below, let’s briefly go over what they are. While churned the same, they have different textures thanks to their base ingredients. 

• American-style ice cream: This is rich and high in fat. American-style ice cream can be made with just milk and cream, as with Philly-style ice cream, or it can also have whole eggs or yolks, like New England–style frozen custard. Its unique ratios, distinct from crème anglaise, give it a high percentage of overrun, making the ice cream lighter. This style is also held at a cooler temperature than gelato, so it’s firmer, for nicely formed scoops.
• Gelato: An Italian style of ice cream made with milk and cream, yielding a relatively lower-fat product. It also has less overrun, which makes it feel dense and rich. Gelato is served at a higher temperature than ice cream, between 8°F and 10°F (-13°C and -12°C), to emphasize its creamy texture.
• Sorbet: This contains no dairy, owing its texture to sugar and the pectin and starches from fruit purées. Sorbet is dairy-free and can be made with any kind of fruit (strawberries, mangoes, plums).
• Sherbet: Akin to sorbet, but often made with milk or cream for a velvetier texture.
• Frozen yogurt: While frozen yogurt is mostly yogurt, it typically contains milk or cream. Still, it’s lower in fat than ice cream and has an icier texture because of this.

The Tests

• Vanilla Ice Cream Test: With each model, we made the double vanilla ice cream recipe from Stella’s cookbook, BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts. This ice cream base contains egg yolks, is high in fat and sugar, and is meant to have a high percentage of overrun so it’s light and easy to scoop from the freezer. We churned two quart-sized batches in each machine and measured the amount of overrun and the time it took to churn each batch, then evaluated the texture. The ice cream was tasted both immediately after churning, while at the soft-serve stage, and after being in the freezer overnight.
• Frozen Yogurt Test: We made frozen yogurt to see how the ice cream makers handled a lower-fat frozen dessert.
• Pineapple Sorbet: To channel some vacation vibes, we made pineapple sorbet. Kidding! It was to see how the ice cream makers did with something dairy-free.
• Mix-Ins Test: We made a second batch of American-style vanilla ice cream, but added peanuts and ribbons of caramel to the ice cream right before it finished churning to see how evenly distributed they were.
• Usability and Cleanup Tests: Throughout testing, we evaluated how easy it was to set up, how simple its control panel was to navigate, and what cleanup was like.
  

What We Learned

How Do Ice Cream Makers Work? 

All ice cream makers produce ice cream the same way. First, the ice cream base is poured into a canister fitted with a paddle. Then the cold canister chills the base from the outside, freezing it, while the paddle turns, scraping the frozen bits up and stirring them evenly throughout the remaining ice cream base. This distributes and keeps the ice crystals small while incorporating air into the mix.

What Are the Different Kinds of Ice Cream Makers?

Exactly how a given machine chills the canister differs depending on the style. There are three main types of ice cream makers (our testing lineup included all of them):

• Canister Ice Cream Makers: This style of ice cream maker comes with a removable coolant-lined canister that needs to be frozen solid at 0°F (-18°C) before use. Once frozen, the canister is cold enough to freeze the ice cream base. They do require more forethought; in addition to chilling your ice cream base in advance (which is recommended), you also have to freeze the bowl that inserts into the machine ahead of time. Because of the added step of freezing the bowl, canister ice cream makers are often cheaper than compressor ice cream machines.
• Compressor Ice Cream Makers: These units are self-chilling, getting down to a below-freezing temperature without requiring ice or pre-freezing any parts. They can get as cold as -22°F (-30°C); however, it can take a while for compressor models to reach such chilly temps. A fully frozen, coolant-lined canister will start cold, resulting in a faster churn time. That said, they're often more expensive since they include a built-in chiller.
• Salt-and-Ice-Chilled Ice Cream Makers: Adding salt to ice lowers its freezing point, which creates a solution that hovers around 8°F to 12°F (-13°C to -11°C), which is cold enough to freeze ice cream. Today’s models mirror the design of old hand-cranked salt-and-ice ice cream makers but instead come fitted with a motor that turns the paddle.

Proper Churning Ensures Great Ice Cream

There’s more to making ice cream than just freezing sweetened milk and cream. Ice cream’s smooth, melting texture is the result of countless tiny air bubbles worked into the base, and a mix of fat and ice crystals too small to detect on the tongue. The smaller these ice crystals, the smoother the texture of the ice cream, while air keeps the mixture from freezing as hard as a rock. The amount of air churned into an ice cream base is called "overrun." Overrun is the percentage increase in the volume of the base after churning, and it determines the final texture of an ice cream or frozen dessert.

Other factors besides the machine itself affect the texture, such as fat and sugar content, as well as the viscosity of the base. Even so, a perfectly made ice cream base won’t go far in a bad machine. A properly churned ice cream base should look thick and dense, requiring you to scrape it out of the bowl without any signs of greasiness or visible ice crystals. If the base is pourable, either it was improperly made to begin with, or it hasn’t been frozen in the machine long enough.

A Good Ice Cream Maker Needs to be Chill

A good ice cream maker gets cold and stays cold. If it doesn’t get cold enough, then the ice cream base will form crystals of ice as it freezes, resulting in chunky ice cream. Our favorite compressor machines ensured proper chilling, since they have a chiller built in. Canister-style machines are more finicky in the sense that you need to ensure they are properly frozen before you get started. However, our winning ice cream maker is a canister-style one, and once it was cold, it stayed cold and whipped up smooth, consistent, and creamy ice cream.

When we made American-style vanilla ice cream, the machines took anywhere from 20 minutes to over an hour to freeze one quart. We expected the models that took longer would have poorly textured ice cream with large ice crystals. This was true of the ice cream makers that took over 50 minutes to churn, but we found that all the ice creams that spun in under 50 minutes were the same, regardless of whether they took 20 or 45 minutes.

Outside of the units with longer churn times, one model struggled to churn an evenly textured ice cream due to the shape of the paddle, which failed to combine and distribute the base evenly.

A Well-Designed Paddle Was a Must

We already mentioned this, but it’s worth reiterating that an ice cream maker must have a good paddle. When we made frozen yogurt and sorbet, we found that asymmetrical paddles were better at churning these bases in an even swirling motion, incorporating more air. This resulted in a slightly higher overrun and softer texture.

Our mix-ins test further illustrated the importance of paddle design: The paddles with an asymmetrical design more evenly distributed the mix-ins. Others took so long to incorporate the peanuts that the caramel over-mixed into the ice cream, losing its distinct ribbons.

The Best Ice Cream Makers Were Easy to Use

As with any appliance, we wanted ice cream makers that were easy to use, with parts that were clearly marked and quickly assembled, and that featured a user-friendly interface. Effortless cleanup was a must, too. Only one of our winners, the Musso, had a base that wasn’t removable. Otherwise, all of our top picks have bowls and paddles that come out for easy cleanup.

We also made sure our favorite models had warranties of at least a year (some of our top picks have three years), considering many ice cream makers are rather expensive.

Compressor vs. Canister Ice Cream Makers

A compressor ice cream maker allows you to make ice cream whenever you want. As long as you have time for your base to cool, you're golden. It also means you can churn back-to-back quarts of ice cream in a single day. Of course, this type of ice cream maker is expensive, heavier, and bulkier to store.

Pre-Freeze Times and Churn Times for Our Favorite Ice Cream Makers
Ice Cream Maker	Style	Canister Pre-Freeze Time	Average Churn Time
Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker Machine	Canister	16 to 24 hours	20 minutes
Cuisinart Pure Indulgence 2-Quart Ice Cream Maker	Canister	16 to 24 hours	30 minutes
Cuisinart ICE100 Compressor Ice Cream and Gelato Maker	Compressor	Not needed	40 minutes
Breville The Smart Scoop Ice Cream Maker	Compressor	Not needed	40 minutes
Whynter 2 Qt. Automatic Yogurt & Ice Cream Maker	Compressor	Not needed	39 minutes
Lello Musso Pola 5030 Dessert Maker	Compressor	Not needed	30 minutes
Hamilton Beach Automatic Ice Cream Maker	Salt and ice	Not needed	1 hour

For those who churn only a few quarts every week, canister units are more than up to the task. However, you do have to remember to pre-freeze the canister—In our experience, a solid 24 hours is often necessary—and find the space in your freezer for that. We recommend shaking the canister before using it. If you hear the coolant sloshing around at all, it’s not ready to make ice cream.

The Criteria: What to Look for in an Ice Cream Maker

A good ice cream maker should, above all, make smooth, creamy ice cream without ice crystals. Getting the ice cream base cold is crucial, as is a well-designed paddle that aerates the custard. (Bonus points if the machine can churn out other frozen delights, like gelato and sorbet.) We liked machines that were easy to use and had wide openings for adding the ice cream base and mix-ins, too.

Our Favorite Ice Cream Makers

What we liked: This Cuisinart ice cream maker is incredibly easy to use: Just freeze the canister in advance, pop it into the machine, add the base, and start churning. It was quick, resulting in perfect, creamy ice cream in about 20 minutes. The asymmetrical style of the paddle promotes even folding and mixing, and nicely distributes mix-ins. We liked the single-button interface and wide opening that provides a great view of the churning action. Its simplicity and effectiveness have made this our winner every time we've tested ice cream makers. While the white version of this machine is currently unavailable, the red one is in stock.

What we didn’t like: The canister must be frozen until fully solid; the manufacturer recommends a minimum of 16 to 24 hours in a freezer set to 0°F (-18°C). It’s also important to keep in mind that all freezers go through thaw cycles, so if you attempt to churn ice cream immediately after a thaw cycle, the canister may not be chilled enough.

Key Specs

• Stated max capacity: 1.5 quarts
• Canister pre-freeze requirement: 16 to 24 hours
• Average churn time: About 20 minutes
• Dimensions: 9.5 x 9 x 11.25 inches
• Colors: White, pink, red
• Included components: Motor, lid, blade, bowl
• Warranty: 3 years

What we liked: The Pure Indulgence has a two-quart capacity and a stainless steel body. Like our favorite ice cream maker, it uses a pre-frozen bowl that churns creamy, airy ice cream in about 30 minutes. We were impressed by how well the ice cream kept, too: It stayed smooth and uncrystallized even after some time in the freezer. The machine is easy to assemble and cleans up fast.

What we didn’t like: Pre-freezing the canister requires some forethought. This machine also produced a lot of overrun, so if you’re planning on adding mix-ins, you might want to limit your liquid base to a single quart.

Key Specs

• Style: Canister
• Stated max capacity: 2 quarts
• Canister pre-freeze requirement: 16 to 24 hours
• Average churn time: About 30 minutes
• Dimensions: 8.25 x 8 x 11.25 inches
• Colors: Stainless steel
• Included components: Motor, lid, blade, bowl
• Warranty: 3 years

What we liked: This model has a built-in chiller, so you can just pour the ice cream base in and get churning. It has three buttons: power, timer, and stop/start. It took about 40 minutes to churn 1.5 quarts and has a "cool" function that'll keep ice cream chilled for 10 minutes. And, because it's got a compressor, you can churn batch after batch without any wait time.

The ice cream turned out wonderful, too, with good overrun and silky texture. A nice bonus was that there's no dowel in the bowl, so it's easy to scrape out the ice cream. The model comes with two paddles, one for gelato bases and another that is supposed to incorporate more air into the ice cream.

What we didn’t like: The gaps in the paddles got ice cream stuck in them and were messy to scrape off.

Key Specs

• Style: Compressor
• Stated max capacity: 1.5 quarts
• Canister pre-freeze requirement: N/A
• Average churn time: 40 minutes
• Dimensions: 16.73 x 12 x 9.33 inches
• Colors: Black, silver
• Included components: Bowl, gelato blade, ice cream blade, motor base, recipe booklet
• Warranty: 3 years

What we liked: Another good self-freezing model, what sets this unit apart is its "smart" churning. The Breville automatically stops churning once the ice cream has reached the selected texture by sensing the level of resistance against the paddle. Once the ice cream is ready, the unit alerts you with (optional) classic ice cream truck jingles. The churned ice cream can be held at the chosen texture for up to three hours. If you prefer to take control over your ice cream churning, the Breville also has a manual option.

The bowl on this model is easily removable via its sturdy metal handle, allowing for quick cleanup. The lid is also clearly marked, making it easy to slide into place. The wide opening on the lid lets you easily add mix-ins and keep an eye on the ice cream’s progress.

What we didn’t like: The shape of the paddle results in the ice cream spinning along the center dowel, unlike the folding and sweeping motion produced by the Cuisinart’s paddle. This motion resulted in unevenly distributed mix-ins and left a layer of unspun, hardened ice cream along the inside of the bowl. This model is also big, heavy, and expensive, requiring an investment of both money and counter space.

Key Specs

• Style: Compressor
• Stated max capacity: 1.5 quarts
• Canister pre-freeze requirement: N/A
• Average churn time: About 40 minutes
• Dimensions: 15.75 x 11 x 11 inches
• Colors: Silver
• Included components: Cleaning brush, bowl, paddle, motor base
• Warranty: 1 year

What we liked: Slightly more expensive than the Cuisinart compressor model, the Whynter is a half-quart larger. The best part, though? It made excellent, incredibly smooth and creamy ice cream and sorbet. We liked its brightly illuminated digital control panel, clearly labeled buttons, and built-in timer. Overall, it was easy to use and made really good ice cream.

What we didn’t like: It's expensive!

Key Specs

• Style: Compressor
• Stated max capacity: 2.1 quarts
• Canister pre-freeze requirement: N/A
• Average churn time: About 39 minutes
• Dimensions: 11.25 x 16.75 x 10.25 inches
• Colors: Champagne
• Included components: Bowl, paddle, motor base
• Warranty: 1 year

What we liked: This machine made exceptional ice cream: thick, creamy, and perfect. With just two switches (on and chill), the Lello Musso was easy to use, and we liked its well-made, sleek stainless steel construction. It has a timer and will run as long as you want it to, but it churned ice cream in just 18 minutes. We also liked the sorbet it made, which was smooth enough that a spoon glided right through it. It was also about as whisper-quiet as an ice cream maker could be. 

What we didn’t like: At 38 pounds, it’s heavy and expensive. Its bowl doesn’t come out for cleanup. Instead, you should pour a little hot water into the empty bowl, then wipe it out with a damp sponge.

Key Specs

• Style: Compressor
• Stated max capacity: 1.5 quarts
• Canister pre-freeze requirement: N/A
• Average churn time: 18 minutes
• Dimensions: 11 x 12 x 18 inches
• Colors: Silver
• Included components: Bowl, paddle, motor base
• Warranty: 1 year

What we liked: This affordable unit by Hamilton Beach lets you experience the old-school fun of a hand-cranked ice cream maker without the elbow grease: It uses a solution of ice and salt to freeze the base while a motor churns it. It has the largest capacity of the models we tested, holding up to a gallon of your favorite frozen treat. The ice cream was a little icy, but overall pretty good for a simple, cheap machine.

What we didn’t like: It had the longest churn time, averaging about one hour. Because this model depends on salt and ice to freeze the ice cream, it can be a messy process, best suited to backyards and patios.

Key Specs

• Style: Salt and ice
• Stated max capacity: 4 quarts
• Canister pre-freeze requirement: N/A
• Average churn time: 1 hour
• Dimensions: 15.3 x 12.5 x 11.1 inches
• Warranty: 1 year
  

The Competition

• Chef’n Sweet Spot Ice Cream Maker: While it’s not technically an ice cream maker, we did test it, and it did work well. Simply pour your base over the pre-frozen bowl, then use the dual spatulas to spread it thinly until it begins to freeze. You can then scrape the ice cream into rolls. We liked the experience (and the texture of the ice cream), but since it’s not introducing air, we couldn’t fairly rate it against our winners.
• Klarstein Sweet Dreams Ice Cream Maker: The Klarstein ice cream machine has a detachable motor located on the top of the unit that rotates the paddle. It can be tricky to set the motor on top and lock it into the paddle—we had to rotate the paddle with tweezers to line up the keyhole to lock the motor into place. Because the motor is on top of the unit, it’s difficult to peer inside the canister to monitor the ice cream churning. The opening for adding mix-ins is very small and located behind the motor, which makes it easy to spill sticky caramel and other mix-ins onto the motor. We worry that the combination of a detachable motor and an opening for mix-ins so close by could make this unit susceptible to breakage. It's currently unavailable.
• Nostalgia Electric Ice Cream Maker: The Hamilton Beach and the Nostalgia ICMP400 operate identically, with the same paddle, capacity, and churn time. We gave a slight edge to the Hamilton Beach because the plastic paddle has a metal dowel running through it, while the Nostalgia has an all-plastic construction, which felt flimsier.
• KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker Attachment: The churning paddle on the KitchenAid stand mixer ice cream maker attachment is square, reaching the very top of the bowl while not fully scraping the bottom. This design led to spills when adding the base and mix-ins; additions would bounce or pour off the paddle itself. Also, once the base thickened, the paddle appeared to be pushing the ice cream around the bowl, with little scraping or folding motion, rather than the more cyclical, churning motion of other paddles. This resulted in oddball textured ice cream: Both over-churned and greasy, and under-churned and icy. We didn’t have the same consistency issues churning lower-fat bases, such as frozen yogurt and sorbet.
• Ariete Ice Cream Maker: The Ariete Ice Cream Maker has a similar bowl, paddle, and lid design to the Cuisinart, our top compressor pick, and therefore performs very similarly. We ultimately went with the Cuisinart over this model because we prefer the simplicity of the control panel, smaller footprint, and lower price point of the Cuisinart. Its seems to no longer be available.
• Della Ice Cream Maker: The Della Ice Cream Maker is equipped with a yogurt maker function, which warms the milk and culture up to set it before chilling it. If you’re interested in an ice-cream-and-yogurt-machine combo, then this is your best bet. However, compared with its competition, this unit took the longest to fully churn the ice creams and sorbets, upwards of 70 minutes. The touchscreen panel is also not very sensitive; we had to press down hard to activate the buttons. It's currently unavailable.
• Whynter Automatic Ice Cream Maker: The Whynter ice cream machine performed well in our tests, producing smooth ice cream. We ultimately chose the Cuisinart ICE-100 as our top compressor model, for its smaller footprint and lower price, and another Whynter model that had a slight edge performance-wise.
• Beautiful by Drew Barrymore 1.5-Quart Ice Cream Maker with Touch Activated Display: We didn’t like that the top was opaque, which made it hard to monitor the ice cream’s progress.
• Ninja Creami: This isn't an ice cream maker, and even if it were, we wouldn't recommend it. It's incredibly big and loud and produced inconsistent results.
• Lello Musso Pola Ice Cream Maker: This is a great ice cream maker. We just favored the other Lello Musso we tried, which is hundreds less. 
• Ninja Swirl by Creami Soft Serve Ice Cream Machine: If you only want soft serve, you might like this ice cream maker. However, it’s huge and bulky, and its small opening makes it hard to add mix-ins.
• DASH My Pint Electric Ice Cream Maker: This top-heavy, single-serve ice cream maker requires you to hold its base the entire time it’s churning. After 42 minutes, the ice cream was still soupy. 
• Whynter Ice Cream Maker: We like this ice cream maker, and it’s a similarly priced alternative to the Cuisinart compressor model. However, the Whynter takes 60 minutes to churn ice cream.  

Recommended Accessories

With great ice cream comes great responsibility—to serve it right. Our favorite ice cream scoop and a cute ramekin (plus an array of toppings) make for a nice presentation.

After scooping gallons of ice cream, we landed on this simple ice cream scoop from Zeroll as the best. It's filled with food-safe, conductive mineral oil, which helps melt ice cream on contact just enough to scoop smoothly.

Who says ramekins are limited to soufflés? We love using them to hold a single portion of ice cream. Our winners from Dowan are simple and classic, and will make any scoop look good.

FAQs

How long does an ice cream maker need to freeze?

This depends both on the type of ice cream maker you’re using and the temperature of your freezer. The instructions that come with our top pick ice cream maker—Cuisinart’s ICE-21—call for a 16- to 24-hour freeze at 0°F (-18°C). This means you’ll need to plan accordingly for your ice cream-making endeavors. A word to the wise: If you shake your ice cream maker's bowl and hear any liquid sloshing around after freezing it, put it back in the freezer. It's not yet ready to make ice cream.

Is an ice cream maker worth it?

If you love ice cream and you have the space in your kitchen to accommodate an ice cream maker, then yes, it's worth it. Using an ice cream maker does take some planning and patience, but once you get the hang of your machine and the basic technique for making ice cream, you can go wild with flavor combinations and add-in ingredients.

How much is an ice cream machine?

Our overall top pick is about $90, while our favorite, splurge-y ice cream maker is about $500 (and we've got picks in between and beyond these prices). So, you can really spend what you want to.

Can you make ice cream without a machine?

No-churn ice cream recipes that don’t require an ice cream maker are definitely a thing, but don’t be surprised if the texture isn’t quite the same. The smooth, melting consistency of churned ice cream is the result of air incorporated into the creamy base, and while you can partially achieve this with a whisk attachment and a stand mixer, it’s tough to match the results of a well-designed, properly chilled ice cream maker.

Which is better: An all-in-one ice cream machine or a manual or freezer bowl ice cream machine?

While it depends on your needs and how serious you are about your ice cream, we think that all-in-one ice cream machines with built-in cooling systems tend to produce creamier, less icy ice cream. That said, the recipe you choose also affects results. So, in the end, you can still make great ice cream in a hand-churn or freezer bowl-style machine.

Is the Ninja Creami a good ice cream maker?

While it's much-hyped on social media, we didn't like the Ninja Creami. For starters, it's very loud. It also made inconsistent results, was large and difficult to assemble, and, overall, was far too expensive given its usability and performance issues.

Why We're the Experts

• Sohla El-Waylly has worked for some of New York City's best restaurants and is a cookbook author, social media star, video personality, and recipe developer for NYT Cooking.
• Sohla has written many equipment-related stories and recipes for Serious Eats, including reviews of ice cream makers and immersion blenders.
• Riddley Gemperlein-Schirm is the associate editorial director at Serious Eats. She’s been with the site since 2021 and previously worked at America’s Test Kitchen, Food52, and EatingWell. 
• Riddley's written numerous reviews, including air fryers. 
• For this review, we tested 20 ice cream makers. We also recently retested new models, comparing them to our favorite machines.
• This means that for about seven years, our favorite ice cream makers have been continually used and re-tested to make sure they're still the best.