Ice cream is one sweet treat that I cannot do without in my house. Yes, in the winter months I tend to not keep it on hand as often, but when the summer months come rolling around I tend to go out and buy quite a bit of ice cream. Well, that is what I used to do until I found out how easy it is to make my own homemade ice cream. Then I started to look a little bit more into the products and found the Breville BCI600XL Smart Scoop Ice Cream Maker. Well, with the price of the Breville mixer coming in at close to five hundred bucks I decided it was time to do a complete Breville BCI600XL Smart Scoop Review to help guide you to the proper ice cream maker.
Features Of The Breville BCI600XL Smart Scoop Ice Cream Maker
- Comes with 12 different hardness settings.
- The capacity comes in at 1.5 quarts.
- Has a self refrigerating compressor.
- Is a fully automatic machine.
- Keep cool setting can be completed up to 3 hours.
What Makes The Breville BCI600XL Standout
Okay, I have to admit figuring out what makes the Breville BCI600XL Smart Scoop Ice Cream Maker standout is one of the best features. What I found that really makes it standout in relation to the other ice cream makers that I have looked at on the market is the fact it is fully automatic in getting the hardness you want. This removes a lot of the guesswork you have with some of the other ice cream makers on the market, but also helps ensure you get a consistent production of ice cream each time you make some ice cream.
How Hard Is The Hardest Setting For The Ice Cream Maker
When you go to use the ice cream maker, as you will find with any of the homemade ice cream makers you are not going to get freezer firm ice cream right away. Even with the automatic setting set to the hardest level, the Breville, tends to only get it to be as firm as a harder soft serve. So if you want to get a super hard ice cream like you do if you go to the freezer section at Walmart and buy, then you will have to put the ice cream in the freezer after you have completed making it.
Does The Breville BCI600XL Automatically Cool Off
I have to admit the one thing that I did like is this is an ice cream maker that is able to cool down on its own. Now, the downside from what I have found is the cooling process and even the mixing is out of your control once you have hit the button. This means you could have ice cream that starts out at -7 degrees when you put everything in, but starts to warm up and does not go back to the lower temperature you were expecting.
Keep Cool Feature Is Great
Okay, I know from experience that making ice cream often means making sure you are around when the alarm sounds that the ice cream is ready. Well, that is one great feature I do like about the Breville ice cream maker and that is the fact that it has a keep cool feature. This feature does exactly like what you would think with the keep cool and it helps keep the ice cream cool for a set time period after it is done being made.
Breville BCI600XL Smart Scoop Ice Cream Maker Only Makes 1.5 Quarts
Making homemade ice cream from what I have seen is most of the ice cream makers will make at least 2 quarts of ice cream. However, one thing that I found here is it only makes 1.5 quarts. While this is a great feature I did find that for an entire family the 1.5 quarts is not that much and will actually be just enough ice cream to make you mad if you are like me with a house full of teenagers and a younger child that eats like a teen.
What Others Are Saying
One fairly neutral reviewer from Amazon, Camila Sato, had this to say. “Delicate appliance, can be a bit of a gamble”. This is talking about quite a few of the reviews that have mentioned that the compressor is delicate and if not handled carefully can actually lead to the machine not working right.
Another review on Amazon from David Logan, had this to mention. “It works pretty darn well”. That is a good review of the ice cream maker and overall from the reviews on Amazon which people mentioned that the maker did work well. They all tended to be very favorable of the ice cream maker.
What I Love About The Breville BCI600XL
The main thing that I love about the Breville is the fact that it is one of the few ice cream makers that has an internal cooler. The internal cooler makes it easier for the ice cream to freeze, but also removes the headache of having to put the bowl in the freezer for hours before you get the ice cream made.
What I Do Not Like About The Breville Ice Cream Maker
For people that are not mechanically inclined this may not make sense, but it is definitely an issue to consider. That is the fact that the bowl for the iced cream is right above the motor. Well, their is a gasket that is protecting the motor for the mixing paddle, but if you overflow your bowl then their is a chance the overflow could get into the motor. This could then lead to the ice cream that you are trying to stir up causing issues with the motor.
My Final Thoughts On The Breville BCI600XL Smart Scoop Ice Cream Maker Review
Okay, I have to say one daunting figure that I found with the Breville is the price. The ice cream maker is north of 400 bucks and while it does work it is also very delicate. The machine is one that does make it easier for you to get the ice cream and if you can afford the machine and want to get the ice cream maker then i would say go for it, but if you are like me and do not want to drop a ton of money on an ice cream maker, then I would have to say I would give the Breville BCI600XL Smart Scoop Ice Cream Maker a pass.
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