I bought this for a family holiday party, and it worked pretty well. My strong recommendation is that you use proper rock salt in the ice chamber, and use proper cream for the ice cream. Per the instructions you can use half and half in the ice cream and sea salt in the ice chamber, but when we did this it greatly increased the shaking time, and the half and half got more icy than fattier cream would have.
My daughter wanted to make ice cream in a coffee can. To me that sounded like a possible disaster, so I went to the local LLBEAN and purchased the ice cream ball. Directions were clear and store even sold the rock salt. We made great blackberry ice cream using half n half and jam.
After reading a few of the somewhat negative reviews online, I was a bit hesitant to order the quart ice cream ball. My 25 yr. old daughter took charge and made the ice cream, rolling the ball around with my nephew's 6yr. old and 9 yr. old boys outside on the porch of our country home. They had a blast and the ice cream turned out wonderfully. It was a huge hit!
