I have purchased other ice cream makers in the past. What I liked about this one was that I didn't need salt and ice. The first couple of days I had this, I made four different kinds of ice cream. I used the receipe book that came with the ice cream maker and so far, they're not bad! I found that this unit works best if you mix up the receipe, place it in the freezer for a couple of hours and let it actually start getting set up. I then only poured half of the mixture into the machine at one time and it took about 15 minutes to make a really set up ice cream. I placed the other half of the mixture back in the freezer until the first half was done. I was then able to make the second half, without refreezing the base unit. I found that after the second batch, you did need to put the base back into the freezer for a couple of hours, before making any more.This worked very well and everyone at my house was pleased with the results. My 11 year old loved the chocolate mint ice cream. I of course loved the Chocolate peanut butter!!! We also made the Strawberry cheese cake, and I think that this needs more than the 1 cup of straberries, but we solved that by cutting up chunks of strawberries and mixing them in. We also made the Banana orange sherbert. This too was a really good flavor. You know it can't be all bad if an 11 year old boy will eat it!!!I bought this a few months ago and immediately gave it a test run with a basic vanilla extract recipe. The bowl froze well in 12 hours and the custard was ready to go, so I started it up and poured in the custard. About 10 minutes into it, the motor sounded like it was struggling and then a few minutes later, it just stopped. I went over to inspect it and I saw that the outside edge had frozen 1/4" to the side of the bowl all the way around but the middle was still completely liquidy. What had happened was that the stir paddle wasn't scraping the side of the canister so the ice cream just built up on the side until it got so thick that it finally hit the edge of the paddle and stopped the machine.So, I couldn't get the frozen ice cream off the side...frozen solid. So, I poured the liquid into a container and just slow froze it in my freezer--ice crystals galore. I figured I'd try it again later. Went through the whole process, bowl froze well and poured in the custard. The same thing was happening again. So, I tried moving the stir paddle to another position and nothing helped. So, I poured it out again into a container and finished it in the freezer--disappointing.Determined to not let this be a regrettable purchase, I tried a third time. This time, I literally held the stir paddle against the side of the bowl to force it to scrape off the ice cream...for 30 minutes until it thickened. Although frustrated, it worked. And that's what I've had to do every time I've used this thing.So, I thought maybe this was just a defect with my machine and I contacted Deni to see if this was a known issue and if they had a solution for it. The response I got from a Customer Service Rep, was "John [not my name], That is the way the ice cream maker works, in so far as the way the paddle fits. If you are experiencing the wall of ice cream against the side of the canister, you can simply stop the machine and scrape down the sides with a plastic or rubber spatula and start it back up, or, you can leave your canister out for about 5 -10 minutes prior to making ice cream so that the canister is less cold."Because the maker is called "Fully Automatic," I find this to be a poor attempt at covering up a flawed product. Akin to "you have to hold your iPhone a certain way to get reception." So, this ice cream maker is getting one star and I'm getting another ice cream maker.We've tried two different types of dessert in this ice cream maker. First we made a german chocolate ice cream with a recipe I got off of the allrecipes website. Soft serve is the best description and then it hardens up more in the freezer. Don't expect any ice cream to harden up more than soft serve. If you want hard scoop ice cream you will need to allow a couple of hours in the freezer for that. Very creamy with almost no ice crystals in it at all. We also made the espresso ice with the recipe from the instruction booklet that comes with the maker). It didn't freeze like you would think of an "ice". It was more of a slush. The machine locked up because of the ice that formed on the wall of the drum, which is what it is supposed to do to keep from breaking the paddle or burning up the motor. But, it left us scraping the ice off the sides and mixing it with the slush in the middle. It tasted fine, just wasn't an "ice". I would say if you are using this strictly for ice cream, it is a wonderful ice cream maker, but don't count on making other types of desserts. I love the top that it comes with so that you can just put the drum with the ice cream in it straight into the freezer to harden up. The design of the paddle mixes the ice cream up very well, one of the best I've seen. There are also lots of recipes that come with the instruction booklet, in case you are at a loss for what to make. I would also recommend Ben & Jerry's ice cream recipe book. Very good recipes.