Lello 4080 Musso Lussino 1.5-Quart Ice Cream Maker, Stainless – 110/120V 60 HZ Import To Shop ×Product customization General
- 1-1/2-quart capacity bowl freezes 3 quarts of ice cream or sorbet per hour
- Fully automatic: pour ingredients into bowl, press two buttons
- Timer controls operation for different frozen confections
- Housing, bowl, paddle made of stainless steel for easy cleaning
- 12 inches wide, 11 inches high, 18 inches deep; weighs 38 pounds
$739
Product Description
With the Musso Lussino frozen dessert maker, you can have delicious fresh desserts in minutes. These desserts not only include rich ice cream, but silky sorbets, Italian gelato, frozen yogurts, and refreshing frozen drinks.
Amazon.com
Fully automatic and precisely controlled by a timer, this machine takes the trouble and guesswork out of making ice cream, sorbet, frozen yogurt, gelato, and frozen drinks at home. Ingredients go into the bowl, the timer is set, two buttons are pressed and about 30 minutes later 1-1/2 quarts of a frozen confection are ready for consumption. Because the machine doesn’t require its bowl to be frozen for hours in a refrigerator’s freezer (like less expensive machines that only churn), it can immediately begin making another batch. If a batch becomes too hard the machine shuts off automatically. Not only does it work professionally it looks the part, as the housing, bowl, and paddle are made of stainless steel for sanitation and easy cleaning. The 100-watt machine measures 12 inches wide, 11 inches high, and 18 inches deep, and it weighs 38 pounds. Made it Italy, it carries a one-year warranty against defects. An instruction booklet with many recipes is included. –Fred Brack
From the manufacturer
Lello 4080 Musso Lussino
Easy to use, is the perfect ice cream maker to get professional results at home. Small, with a large bowl non-removable, stainless steel spatula and powerful and robust refrigeration system, the mini machine allows to reach professional performance without pre-cooling. Made of Stainless Steel, compact, attractive, it has a modern design and suitable for any room and kitchen.
Technical Sheet
Max ingredients capacity (L) 0,75 Bowl capacity (L) 2 Preparation time (min) 30/40 Dimension height, width, depth (cm) 27x45x30 Net weight (kg) 18 Power (W) 200 Paddle iduction motor (RPM) 80 Mechanic timer (min) 60 Standard current single phase 110/60 – 230/50 Refrigerant R134A Body Stainless Steel
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Specification: Lello 4080 Musso Lussino 1.5-Quart Ice Cream Maker, Stainless – 110/120V 60 HZ Import To Shop ×Product customization General
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10 reviews for Lello 4080 Musso Lussino 1.5-Quart Ice Cream Maker, Stainless – 110/120V 60 HZ Import To Shop ×Product customization General
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Joel D –
The Absolute BEST ! Buy It, You’ll Be Happy –This Ice Cream maker is simple the best, most professional one I’ve ever used. And I’ve used several. Admitingly, I never owned one of the industry standard ones (4k-10k ones), but for home usage, this one takes the cake EASILY. And honestly, it FEELS like a industry standard unit build wise and results wise. Extremely easy to use, literally plug and play, the best for clean up (IMO), AND THE RESULTS are finally ice cream parlor style, and just so well built I am very impressed.The design is VERY smart for cleaning, which is important for me. The bowl is not removable, and is literally part of the entire casing and lid (one molded piece of stainless steel ! So there is no way of leakage ! With removable bowls, you have the problem of ice cream, water, batter, debris, and funk getting below the bowl, or seeping down the “seam” that has to be there in a design as such. With this one that is not the case at all. This is what costs so much, the “cut no corner” design. ALSO, the entire top has a ridge around the whole unit. This again is ingenious as if a bunch of liquid get poured on top of the unit (for cleaning), it has no way of rolling down the sides of the machine. SO cleaning is as simple as after you remove your desert, just pour some hot water all over the top of unit and in bowl… wait for a few minutes, then wipe it all down with a sponge (rinsing your sponge from time to time). Then do a final dry dry with a paper towel or two and the thing polishes right back up. It is so helpful under messy situations. I get no mess anywhere using this due to its ingenious design (IMO).Not too much anymore do you see a product made that is obviously not trying to save money by a poorly built mechanisms, parts, and casings. Well this one takes the cake. Obviously they know how to keep things built right in Italy. Unlike here in the US. This thing is a BEAST, just like we USED to make here in the US back in the 60’s and 70’s before plastic and fake metal coatings (fake stainless steel) took over on ALL our products, and before we decided to get everything built or assembled in Mexico, China, etc.. This thing is HEAVY like it should be. This thing is ENTIRELY made of stainless steel ! (other than the buttons and knob). The gear, crank, rod, and paddle are extremely solid and well built. I can tell they will last forever. 100% stainless steel and fit to each other very well and secure. No loose movements or faulty connections. Its literally the best design and strongest design I’ve ever seen in a Ice Cream maker under 4k. The paddle is properly designed to fit onto the rod correctly so it practically would hold itself there fine by just setting it in its “groove” place, BUT on top of that, it then has a stainless steel screw knob that screws down and completely LOCKS that paddle in place. Absolutely NO room for error, breaking or damage later on. All these pieces are removable as well for easy clean up. And you can feel their well builtness by the weight they have. Seriously.Now onto the whole reason we buy these things. Making the Ice Cream ! Man, this thing is beautiful. I followed instructions to a tee, blended my batter correctly, made extremely smooth, etc… Then chilled it for a while in fridge (about 2 hours). I then poured it into the machine, turned the machine on and set the time for 60 minutes (manual says 30, but I was going to stop it at 30 if it was done, but wanted a hour on the timer just for the hell of it), and then I went to the sink to wash some fruit to eat it. By the time I was eating my fruit (5 minutes), I glanced over and I could see the batter inside already taking a “thicker” form. I was impressed, that was quick ! Then about 5 more minutes it was already looking like very soft ice cream. I was excited at this point. About every 5 minutes the batter took on a new form, looking more and more like professional ice cream. Then sure enough, on the dot of 30 minutes after I started it, the ice cream was DONE. It was THICK, but creamy. The paddle/gear had stopped cause the ice cream was so thick/perfect ! (This is also how I knew the machine was well built, it seems to have a gear in it that is meant to do this, I could tell no damage was happening to the motor or gear like usually would if a engine was on but getting stopped) — Anyway, I turned off the machine and couldn’t believe the results. SOOOOOOO much like ice cream parlor ice cream !! Nothing like the homemade ice cream that every other maker has done for me. No ice crystals, no harden places, no inconsistencies, just thorough creamy, whipped, ice cream that was slightly hard to scoop out with a ice cream scooper and held its “classic” scooper form perfectly !!! But was not too hard !!NEVER before has a ice cream maker done all these attributes of parlor style ice cream so perfectly. NEVER.The real test (to see how professionally it “whips” it) – I then got it all out of the machine, minus what I was eating, lol, and then put it in a airtight container and put it in the freezer. Came back the next day, and WOW !!! Unlike other homestyle ice cream makers, this ice cream was NOT overly hard ! It was still PERFECT. Actually even a touch better than after I first made it. It was truly like them buckets of ice cream at a parlor. For real. I don’t know if you know, but that is a big problem with other homestyle ice cream makers. Even if you do ever get a decent consistency with one, after you freeze it overnight, the ice cream is so hard you need a chisel to get to it. That is because the maker did not “whip” the batter properly, and freeze it to a professional temperature in the CORRECT amount of time. This is all physics.Ultimately, you will be VERY happy with this purchase. I understand it is expensive, but if you spend less, you will get A LOT less of a performance and A LOT less built of a machine, so honestly, this is the best bang for the buck. Save money now by getting a cheaper model, but spend it later buying a new machine ! On top of that, you will have a lot crappy ice cream consistency. So if you do the math, it really is worth the dough. Of course your choices are compressor auto chilled units like this one, or the older fashion kind with the bucket you got to freeze. Obviously if you go with the older fashion kind you are in another ballpark. They are so inexpensive that if you simply do not have the money for this one, and are less anal about professional results of your ice cream, then they are a better buy for you, cause jesus, they are very inexpensive and do crank out ice cream (bad consistency ice cream though). But my comparison was mainly this one again all other compressor auto chilling units. The less expensive models yield you FAR less results product wise and build wise than this one compared to the dollars you save. So they are simply not worth it at all. In the long run I would consider this one actually cheaper. Plus in the happiness return from how ecstatic you’ll be over your ice cream results !!All in all, as you can tell, this machine comes HIGHLY RECOMMENDED by me. Also Amazon shipped it instantly, it came in 4 days ! Free Shipping, and the lowest price. I am very happy with this purchase and the whole transaction. Some others having problems with this unit, don’t seem to be using it right, and not preparing their batter properly IMO.
Tog –
Doesn’t run out of coldI’ve had a few different ice cream makers with the removable bowl that you toss in the freezer. I’ve had a few disasters, too. These occur when the maker runs out of cold before the ice cream runs out of heat, usually because I’ve altered the recipe in some fashion. One of these occasions arose a couple days ago: 20 minutes had elapsed, the temperature of the mix was down to 28°, and yet there was no indication it was ready to freeze.This particular recipe of mine variation took another 25 minutes with a drop to 24° before, blessedly, ice cream appeared. Instead of the mix going down the drain after it failed to freeze in time, it went on to become a family favorite.I had always assumed the only real advantage of a refrigerated ice cream maker is that you get the better part of a cubic foot back in your freezer. The bigger advantage is that you’ll never find yourself pouring a new ice cream mix down the drain.Oh, and the Musso Lussin is built like a tank yet is half as wide as the competition. True, it’s twice as deep, but its prominent rear end slipped back beneath a cabinet in our kitchen into what would otherwise be dead space. That was my main reason for picking it out until I read the reviews and discovered that it also happens to be the best on the market.
A. Rebele –
19 years laterI bought this from Amazon in February 2003, and thought it was about time to testify to its durability.I’ve made hundreds of batches of ice cream over the past nearly 20 years with it. I have never had it serviced.In the early days, I was worried that the paddle was looking a little oxidized, so I contacted the manufacturer, and they cheerfully (seriously) sent me another, no problem. I kept both, and it turns out that my concern was exaggerated, and it was just a little discolored.I got a couple of scares with it in the last couple of years. Twice, the churn motor wouldn’t turn, even with no resistance, and I thought it had met its demise; however, rumors of its death were greatly exaggerated. It just needed to cool down thoroughly, and it ran again. I don’t understand how it still chills like it did in 2003.When I got it, my daughter had just turned 9, and would spend some of her summers with me. It was a great way to entertain her and give her a break from my otherwise healthy-food obsession. She’s now 26 and still wonders at the fact that I’ve still got this thing. Now I’ve got another batch of kids 9, 8, and 6, and they’re enjoying it just like their much older sister did.There’s a quirk about this machine in the manual. This was advertised as an Italian ice cream maker (and it is made in Italy), but the manual says about its name: “Lussino is the name of a beautiful island off the Istria Peninsula and the Dalmatian Coast. At the present time Lussino Island is under the Republic of Croatia, but it is part of the Italian Nation for tradition, heritage, language, and historical links.”
Paladin –
A Stainless Steel BeastThis machine is a beast among kitchen appliances. All stainless outside, a stainless metal churning blade (dasher), and it weighs close to 40 pounds. It is built to last, and is truly a mini-industrial appliance, as well as being beautiful kitchen art (it IS Italian!), with every external part clad in shiny metal – the only plastics to be seen are the clear lid, legs, timer dial and the two function buttons (and the provided scoop). It also does what it was made to do, flawlessly – make ice cream. And not just “ice cream” – gelato, soft-serve, hard cream, frozen yogurt, sorbet – every type of frozen confection. And it does it in about 15 to 20 minutes, average.Ice cream is, basically, a pretty simple confection – water/milk/cream, sugar, and other “stuff.” Mixed together and frozen. The “mix together” and “freezing” parts are where it gets complicated. The mixing and freezing make all the difference in the mouth feel, texture, workability (scooping, plopping on your ice cream cone, plate or cup), consistency, and overall perceived “quality” of the ice cream. No one likes ice cream with big chunks of ice in it, or hard in one spot, soft in another, or a titanium brick when you try to scoop it. This machine makes perfectly consistent ice cream, batch after batch, ready to serve out of the machine, or to put in your freezer. It does this by rapid churning and rapid cooling, making the smallest crystals perfectly blended, resulting in an even, smooth blend of ingredients, chilled to the perfect stage of completion.As far as the machine itself, in this age of Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity, digital readouts, iPhone and Android apps, it’s an absolute evolutionary throwback. It has three controls – a twist dial ‘click’ timer (which doesn’t go backwards – when you set it for 30 minutes, it will click down to 30 minutes until it stops), and two function buttons – one to turn on the churning blade and one to turn on the compressor (it’s a compressor machine that chills internally – no freezing extra containers, no ice, no rock salt). That’s it. The function of the timer is to power the buttons – when the timer is running, the buttons work. When the timer is off, pressing the buttons does nothing. The timer is actually probably redundant (there is no alarm), except as a reminder, or to make sure the machine is off when it stops, because you will be monitoring the final stages of your mix – ice cream mixes and freezes, as you probably know, at it’s own pace – it’s done when it’s done, depending on a hundred variables, even with the same mix. You’ll actually hear a change in the motor as the ice cream hardens, and the blades will move slower – in fact on this machine, when the ice cream is completely set, the blades will stop – time to take it out. For those who are particular about their ice cream and to reduce stress on the motor, most mixes are best removed when the mix reaches an optimum temp: 21F-23F (the “draw” temperature), which can be measured with a cheap IR thermometer. And I’ve never had a batch take more than 30 minutes, although I suppose there might be exotic ingredients that might take longer – but I can’t imagine any mix taking the full 60 minute maximum on the timer. Adding ingredients at any time is as simple as lifting the plastic mixing cavity cover and dropping them in.Cleanup is actually a breeze, in spite of the non-removable mixing cavity – it’s all stainless. Just scoop out the ice cream, remove the blade by lifting out after unscrewing the retaining nut (you do need to cover the exposed blade shaft to prevent liquid getting inside – I did it with a simple rubber spacer), and remove the remaining ice cream. You then just wipe out the bowl with soapy water after it warms up slightly, rinse with a damp towel and dry. Finished. You learn not to be messy (with any ice cream machine), and minimize drips on counter or self.The weak point of the machine is the 1 year warranty – and the cost. Well over $700, a 1 year warranty is nervous-making, although I don’t know how many have had to use it – I consequently highly recommend Amazon’s extended warranty, and I don’t usually purchase add-on warranties. You may never need it (and likely won’t – it’s really an industrial quality build), but nice to have on such an expensive machine. The cost is worth it, to me, because I bought the machine to do one thing – make ice cream. And it does this superbly. Highly recommended.
E-Shopper Musketeer –
Who knew it would be this good?This machine is nuts. Easy to clean. Easy to use. The only difficult part is finding which recipe works best for you. I’ve shared this with my family, coworkers, and a few neighbors. The response has been where did you buy this Ice Cream from. The shock that comes over them when I say I made it is priceless.I’ve combed this with some Pint size containers to give away at parties. Once I found an Ice Cream base I liked a lot. I modified it to start creating flavors. Espresso, Vanilla Bean, Chocolate Chip, Cookies and Cream, Strawberries, Raspberries, and the list goes on and on.It’s pricy, but it works so well and provides the smoothest ice cream I’ve ever had.Plus it look so retro almost like it stepped out of the 1950’s . Happy Creaming!!
J Jay Jensen –
Worth Every Penny For Frequent UserDid a lot of research and read a lot of product reviews in my quest for an authentic Italian Gelato machine. I’ve had the old Cuisinart home ice cream machine in the past, where you freeze the bowl first, and I didn’t want to deal with having to freeze the bowl again, I wanted a self-contained refrigerated unit, of which there are really only 3 of that I considered (this one, the Breville and the Cuisinart). There are cheap Chinese knock-offs that Amazon is pushing of course, just like every other product, and I refuse to buy any of that garbage. So despite the outrageous price I decided to give this one a shot primarily based upon the Italian manufacturing (not China) since I’ve had great luck with other Italian appliances. As noted in many other reviews, this unit is robust, heavy and powerful.To clarify on a couple of the most common “complaints” from other reviews I read – here’s my perspective:1) CLAIM: It’s heavy, so you need to find a place to park this an never move it. Hogwash! It weighs 38 lbs. not 138 lbs. I have it stored in my pantry and when I want to use it I grab it and set it on my kitchen counter right next to the sink, when I’m done I put it back in the pantry. Perhaps if you’re not capable of carrying 38 lbs. a few feet then it would be an issue (elderly, weak body type, etc.) but I’d say for most people it’s not going to be an issue. My wife can carry it no problem.2) CLAIM: It doesn’t have a removable bowl so it’s hard to clean. Hogwash! This is probably the easiest to clean appliance I own. The entire thing is stainless steel and the bowl and top are highly polished stainless steel, it doesn’t get any easier to clean than that. Here’s what I do to clean it. Make gelato. Scoop gelato out with a silicone spatula, leaving very little in the bowl. Leave the unit turned off and just sit for 10 minutes to let the bowl unfreeze. Take a paper towel and wipe out what’s left. Wet another paper towel and wipe the bowl out. Take a dry paper towel and do a final wipe of the bowl. It literally takes 30 seconds to clean this and it looks brand new every time. Just don’t try to clean it immediately when the bowl is still frozen, let it melt and then it’s a piece of cake.NOTE: You DO need to be careful when removing the blade to not get the threads of the bolt that holds the blade on full of gelato since it would be difficult to fully clean that off.I don’t have a long-term reliability perspective since I’ve only had it a short time, but I’ve made 10 batches of gelato in it now, and it’s perfect every time. I pre-cool the unit for 10 minutes by turning on the compressor before making the gelato. I always use fully chilled base in the fridge for at least several hours. Using it in that manner, my churning time is 15 minutes every time, and it comes out very smooth and perfect. I set the timer for 20 minutes, and when it approaches 15 minutes in I just listen to the churning, as soon as I start to hear the motor start to work a little harder I know it’s done and I stop there.THE ONLY annoying thing about this unit is the old-fashioned ticking countdown timer can’t be reset to 0 manually, once you turn it on you have to just let it count down, so even if you shut the unit off early before the timer is done it just sits there ticking and counting down until the time is up and then “ding” it lets you know the timer is done. It’s just and old-fashioned design, but at the same time it will probably last forever since it’s a very basic analog timer and not some fancy digital timer that relies on a computer chip.So I think the bottom line is if you want to make gelato frequently, and you don’t mind spending a few extra bucks on a premium appliance that you’ll plan to own for decades, this is worth it. If you start doing the “I can make the same quality gelato in a unit that costs less…..” comparison, then this isn’t for you. Maybe you can or maybe you can’t make the same quality gelato in the Cuisinart or Breville or the junky Amazon chinabdrand one, but you can FOR SURE make the highest quality gelato in this one and you’ll enjoy owning something this nice (and Italian).
gsxr –
Best home ice cream makerThis is priced higher than most other home ice cream makers. For form, function, and overall quality, it is completely worth it. It is an Italian-made, stainless steel product that looks beautiful on the counter. The top is all stainless steel and the bowl for making the ice cream is continuous and seamless with the top of the ice cream maker; there is no separate bowl to remove and clean, and no seams to leak excess cream into the housing of the unit or to gum up the motor or to smell if it gets old. Some home ice cream makers can leak around the bowl and even tiny amounts of cream that get inside the housing will eventually smell rancid and the units will then have to be disassembled and cleaned and reassembled. This unit should never have that problem. Cleaning the bowl of this unit is also not hard. After the ice cream or frozen dessert is ready, scoop out everything with a plastic or silicone spatula, slide out the ice cream paddle, and wipe it out with paper towels until it is nearly clean. Then splash in a few tablespoons of hot water and wipe it out again, and it looks pristine. Total clean up time is typically about 2 to 3 minutes or less.Operation of this ice cream maker is very easy out of the box. Plug it in, add ingredients, set the timer to 25 to 30 minutes, push the chiller and paddle buttons, and that’s it. In 25 to 30 minutes, you can scoop the ice cream out. So far I have made several runs of ice cream, ice milk, frozen yoghurt, and sorbet. Every recipe has come out perfectly. For example, chocolate ice cream, coconut ice cream, bananas foster vanilla rum ice cream, mango sorbet, and strawberry frozen yoghurt to name a few. This does well with sugar free ice cream for Keto friendly diets, for example, heavy cream, vanilla extract, So Nourished Monk Fruit Erythritol blend for sweetener, pasteurized powdered egg whites for thickener, and flavoring ingredients, for example fresh raspberries, is a nice very low carbohydrate fresh ice cream to make. Canned fruit such as Del Monte Diced Mangos can be used out of the can with a tablespoon of lemon juice and a small amount of added sugar to taste to make great sorbet.This unit has it’s own refrigeration unit, so ingredients can be poured in at room temperature or even warm and still make great frozen desserts in about 30 minutes. Many other units involve placing an element in the freezer for several hours and then providing only the stirring, and to make a second run of ice cream, the unit has to go back in to the freezer again, often for a few more hours. The Lello can make a new bowl of fresh ice cream every 30 minutes.Latest experiment, we took an old half gallon of vanilla ice cream that had been in the freezer for 2 months and was icy and glazed over the top. We let 3 cups of it melt and come to room temperature, poured it in the Lello for 30 minutes, and it came out brand new, fresh ice cream, even better than the original.This unit makes about 1 to 1 and 1/2 quarts of ice cream at a time. However it is good for smaller batches, usually we make about a pint at at time. This usually takes about 20 to 25 minutes. This is better because we like to make many different kinds of ice cream and frozen desserts, and large batches take too long to eat before going on to a new kind; also by experimenting with ice milks, frozen yoghurts, and sorbets, along with the monk fruit sweeteners, we keep the calorie count lower. For people who love ice cream and frozen desserts, this unit gives the ability to experiment with a number of low sugar and/or low fat recipes and make healthier desserts than can be bought in the grocery store, and with simpler ingredients.The only potential negatives for this unit is that for some people, it may be too heavy. It weights about 38 pounds, and that it is because it has a self contained refrigeration unit, and it makes a fairly large footprint on the countertop, though it is an attractive appliance.Overall, this has been a big hit with family and friends, and a great addition to our kitchen. Highly recommended.
Mike –
Better ice cream than any store-bought brand!Been making ice cream almost every week since receiving the machine almost 4 months ago; mostly Mexican vanilla bean, but also strawberry, pineapple, coffee, banana, and also lemon ice. All with superior results according to family and friends, usually in less than 30 minutes. Machine is easy to clean (just follow the simple instructions). Machine is a bit loud, but it’s a small price to pay for the consistently great results.
Bill Bennett –
Quiet, simple to use, works just finea. takes about 20 minutes. to freeze up a quart of ice cream.b. it is nice and quiet running… not like a hand crank, or motorized ICE & SALT unit.c. Tried 2 different mixes – both were creamy & smooth.For real SUCCESS: let the dry mix & milk/water mixture sit in the fridge for 2 hours after mixing – not to prechill, but to allow enough time for the mixture to really combine. there is NO short cut, no, a blender does not speed it up, just mix it up, stick it in the fridge, maybe mix it again after an hour, but, in 2hrs of “chillin’ in da fridge”, it’s ready to go – super creamy & smooth!For FAILURE: Mix it up, don’t taste test (daughter forgot to add SUGAR – ugh!), and don’t let it sit for 2hrs in the fridge to fully combine. What you’ll get is cream separation (yellow butter streaks & clumps), sugar lumps (even if you use a blender to really mix it – nope, we did that too).We went with THIS unit, because the paddle was METAL. I had worked on these big units before – replaced plenty of broken parts for various reasons (unit set too cold, usually). It cost more, but we expect it to last longer too.1.5qts sounds small – BUT, it’s done in 20 minutes. Guess what! A 2 quart machine… takes 30 minutes!The bowl doesn’t come out – yeah, you WIPE it out, wash off the paddle, and it’s clean.Downside: It takes up counter space, like every other appliance, where the heck do you STORE these kinds of things that probably get used on weekends…?—– updated —-We ordered the Whynter ICM-201SB, and the another unit about 2x the price.the Whynter ICM-201SB will freeze till it gets a little stiff, like milkshake consistency, and the motor peters out… a bit on the slushy or soft for a cone. OK, so we put it into the freezer – and the ice cream became a ICE-BRICK.If the freezer is working correctly, it will add AIR into the ice cream as it freezes, giving you in volume more, with the air whipped into it. That’s what makes it scoopable when it’s really frozen hard. This machine does not do that, because it bogs down. After freezing, you’ll have to let the ice cream “warm up” if you’d like to scoop it.We make Vanilla, Chocolate, Lime-Vanilla flavors, from 3 different companies, between the Whynter ICM-201SB and the Lello 4080 Musso Lussino 1.5-Quart Ice Cream Maker. Both are brand new, one was ordered by accident.Both machines got the exact same mix, chilled for 2 hrs before being put into the machines.Lello 4080 Musso Lussino – ice cream increased in volume, as expected, was very stiff, and after being put into the freezer, was easily scoopable, able to stuff into a cone, stack 2-4 scoops high, as expected. the machine was cleaned with a warm rag, the parts are all metal, probably last a long time. machine is quiet. Bottom line: It does exactly what we expected, FREEZES ice cream mix properly, not leaving us with slush.Whynter ICM-201SB – ice cream did not increase in volume, was quite soft when scooped out, and froze into a rock hard brick, which we chiseled apart to get it out of the container. right out of the machine, It was too soft to put into a cone without running all over. the machine was easy to clean, remove the bowl and wash it out, along with the paddle/stirrer. machine is quiet. If you want milkshakes – this is your machine, we were not impressed.
foiegras –
A nice product that does what it purports to doAmazon had a sale on this item at considerably less than list price, and I decided to take a flyer and ordered one. I paid a little extra, with Prime, for 1 day delivery, which is probably worth it when dealing with a product like this, because air shipping is probably going to subject an item like this to less potential “in-transit trauma” than going through the truck distribution system. It arrived in fine condition.The item itself looks very presentable and will fit in with a high end kitchen containing stainless steel appliances. From what you can see from the exterior, it appears to be well-built. The “instruction manual” that ships with the product is really not a manual at all; it has a page or two of instructions and the rest of it is a small recipe book. One comment on the recipes given for standard ice cream is that there is no reference to food safety, such as the need to cook the basic custard to a certain temperature to kill potential salmonella that might accompany the raw egg yolks called for in the recipe, so beware; you don’t want your purchase of this thing to make you sick. Maybe they don’t raise chickens in Italy the way they raise them in the US, so perhaps that was not a concern for whoever made the recipes.I have now made 4 different frozen desserts in the few days I’ve owned this product; 2 standard flavored ice creams, using the custard base recipe in the enclosed recipe book, plus 2 frozen yogurts from another ice cream book (“The Perfect Scoop”). All have come out very well, and have better textures and more intense flavors than even high end product you can buy in your grocery store. Frozen yogurt is especially easy to make as no cooking of the base is necessary before you put it into the machine.One note on recipes is that when you start using consumer recipes in books aimed at the general public, these recipes generally assume that you are using a much lesser device, often one without a self-contained refrigerated chiller, and as a result they can call for taking the base and chilling it in the fridge for an hour before putting the contents into the ice cream maker. With this Lello machine, you don’t really have to do that, you can just plunk the base right into the maker and turn it on; the machine will do the rest and it can deal with ingredients that are room temperature rather than pre-chilled. I would not, however, put a hot 170F degree base into the machine without letting it cool down to room temperature, even if the machine could overcome that.The purchaser needs to consider that there is no way he or she will ever amortize the cost of this appliance, because the ingredients needed to make a high end frozen dessert are expensive, and likely will add up to what you would pay for a premium frozen dessert in the grocery store. If the goal is to make a cheap dessert, I can assure you that a little searching at your local market will lead you to much cheaper product than you can make for yourself. Therefore, the only reason to go to the effort to make your own frozen desserts is that you value freshness and control over the ingredients used that can only come with something you made for yourself. Even if you have a large family to feed, this machine is not going to save you any money, no matter how many batches you make per day or per week. There is no economy of scale here, unless maybe you have your own dairy cow out in the back yard.My only reservation about this machine is that I do not think that they are really designed to be repaired, and I do not know how long you can expect them to operate before they end up in the dump. If I had paid $700 for this machine, then I would be very upset if I only got a couple of years of use out of it, however having gotten the product at a reduced price, I’m willing to take that risk. Everything I have read about machines in this class leads me to believe that unless you don’t use it often, a lifespan of 5 years would be unduly optimistic. I have friends who have owned several similar machines in this price range and who stopped buying them after they came to the conclusion that none of them will last more than a few years and that none of them can be economically repaired. The manufacturer of this machine has only a very token presence in the USA, through a distributor, and I have read “uncharitable” comments about them when it comes to repairs, albeit of different models than this one. So my advice would be not to buy this thing if you are expecting it to last for 10 or even 5 years, no matter how durable it might appear on cursory inspection. I would strongly suggest buying it with a credit card that will double the manufacturer’s warranty such as a Visa Signature card, and then to register the purchase immediately with the respective “warranty manager-type” service, to be sure that you will get at least 2 years use out of it for your several hundred dollars.With this caveat, I do recommend this item for purchase, and if it continues to work for me in the way it has worked so far, I will be very happy that I bought it.