Customer Reviews

Hamilton Beach 68050 Icy Treats Ice Shaver, White

5 star:		(81)
4 star:		(39)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

We have purchased several snow cone machines over the years and this is my favorite!!! Each Spring, I make snow cones for 4 classrooms full of children (over 100 children). Using the Hamilton Beach Icy Treats Maker, this has been our best year! Also, we often will do snowcones out in the driveway after school and we'll have a dozen or so kids stop by.

I purchased two of these machines and had them running side by side in the classroom. I was able to make snow cones for 25-30 kids in 20 minutes. I love the cup/bowl that catches the ice. If you have leftover ice or want to make ahead, you can throw this bowl in the freezer to use the shaved ice later. Also the easy on/off on this machine is nice. If you put in ice that is the right size (some store bought ice is too big), then there shouldn't be too much trouble with jamming. Once or twice I had to arrange the ice because a larger piece was stuck. I LOVE that most of this machine goes straight into the dishwasher! Also, seems very safe to me. The kindergarten class was running both machines and had no trouble!

I'm not sure why a few other reviewers had problems with this item. It works perfectly for me.

Great design;

- Large container for collecting the shaved ice (with auto-stir).
- Very few parts to clean, and they all go right into the dish-washer.
- Uses regular ice cubes right from the freezer.
- Two settings (slushies and snow cones).

Like most ice shavers, you're going to have the occasional "jam", but it's quickly and easily taken care of. Not a big problem AT ALL! You can make enough shaved ice for two to three snow-cones in just a couple minutes.

If there was anything at all that I could see someone complaining about, it would be the noise. It does make a loud grinding noise as it shaves the ice. But hey, you're GRINDING ICE... what do you expect?

The Hamilton Beach Icy Treats Maker has the appearance of a real kitchen appliance, while other ice shavers in the same price range seem more like "toys". Keep in mind, this is an inexpensive device and isn't perfect. However, I believe the overall operation, design and end result (great snow cones and slushies) make it MORE than worth the asking price!

A note about the type of ice cubes I have used. I simply make ice cubes in a standard tray in the freezer (regular old semi-square cubes). These work great! If your cubes don't seem to work, you can pick up ice cube trays at most 99 cent stores, which might give better results. If you have really bad luck, and your cubes don't seem to want to grind, try letting the cubes set in the machine for a few minutes before turning it on. Also, if it jams, try moving the "slushies" and "snow cones" knob back and forth while the machine is running. Sometimes that will free up any ice that has accumulated near the blade.

I'm thinking about creating a few cubes from soda, fruit drinks, etc. The shaved cubes will already be flavored (and I can mix different types together)!

Lots of fun to be had with this excellent product! Also, I'm sure it has to be a lot healthier to be eating snow-cones than ice cream!

JM

I know it seems like a simple product, but the people who complain that it takes 10+ minutes to make a bowl just aren't using it right. Make sure the you twist the knob in the middle of the hopper to lock the chutes in place -- otherwise, there isn't enough downward pressure, and the cubes will just skim over the blade.

I've had at least 4 ice shavers before this one, and this is the best. Requiring a special cylinder of ice is a pain because you have to have the molds prepared ahead of time, and the molds eventually crack. I've used Rival ice cube versions, but the normal one spits ice pieces everywhere, and the deluxe one does a little better, but it still overflows because the shavings collect in the middle and don't spread out. Also, the lid warped in the dishwasher, so it was tough to turn on/off.

The Icy Treats Maker has none of those problems. I can make lots of shavings, and it's really quiet. I haven't decided which size shavings I like better (slushy v. snow cone). The only problem I have is jamming of ice in the chutes. My ice maker makes long, curved "cubes" that don't flow down the chutes all the time. Regular rectangular cubes work much better, but I can either break my cubes in half or shake the machine when I hear it stop making noise.

Length:: 0:22 Mins

Its easy to use and clean up. doesnt make much noise. and works fine using regular ice cubes. but its not super fine shaved ice like you can get with a commercial machine. watch the video.

REVISED REVIEW - PLEASE READ TO THE END!!!
I was very excited when I first received this machine! After all it is a Hamilton Beach, which is supposed to represent high quality and it did for the first month. Then it broke. I used this machine every day a couple of times a day for a month before the middle section of the stem broke. Hamilton Beach apparently uses a little plastic pin to hold together the entire rotating device, so if you get ice cubes that catch up on the blades, after a time it will break and render the machine useless. I gave this machine the benefit of the doubt the first time it broke and since it broke after the warranty was up with Amazon, I decided to buy another. It does shave the ice like fine grain snow, which is what I wanted for slushies. I purchased another one, and Amazon was nice enough when I called to complain about the first machine breaking, gave me an additional 15 day warranty. But, to no avail, the second machine broke 2 months after I had it.... again, after the warranty expired. I am contacting Hamilton Beach to complain about this design flaw with the tiny plastic pins...I am now on the hunt to find a heavy duty slushie machine that won't break 2 months after purchase. Please beware of these plastic machines. They are not meant to hold up to regular every day use.... 12/12/09 - Ok, I am revising this review because I contacted Hamilton Beach and I have to tell you they were great. I explained the problem and told them that I was very disappointed that these machines didn't work. I didn't expect them to do anything, because 1)I didn't purchase the machines from them and 2)my warranty had expired. But I was very pleasantly surprised when the very nice customer service rep asked me to give her the serial number on both of the machines. She said as a curtesy she would send out 2 replacement parts. She was very surprised that I had this problem and would make a note of the issues I had been having and she would pass them along to the tech dept. approx. 3 days later I had both of the replacement parts and my machines are working better than they did when I received them new. I am thinking that there was a bad batch of these machines that were sold. I am happy to say that I can now give this machine a 4 out of 5 rating and a rating of 10 to the Hamilton Beach company for doing the right thing by their customers.

I wanted a small inexpensive appliance that the kids could use to make slushies and snow cones. Started looking at reviews and came across this little machine. Ordered it based on reviews and the price. First weekend we had it was my son's birthday and the kids (mostly 12 year olds) lined up to use it. Worked like a charm, easy to use, does exactly what it says and is not overly noisy. I think this will be enjoyed all summer.

Bottom line....If you are looking for an ice shaver, look no further, why spend more when this one works perfectly.

Tip: Instead of buying store bought syrup, heat to boiling 2 cups of sugar and 3/4 cup of water. Let boil for a couple of minutes while stirring and simmer a couple of minutes. Remove from heat and add a pack of kool-aid. Cool and than pour in a squart type bottle for pouring. Makes better syrup than you will purchase in the store and you'll have so many flavors to pick from. I purchased some inexpensive bottles from Wal-Mart to store the syrup in. Once it has cooled and you have poured into the bottle, store in fridge.

I read the Amazon reviews before buying this product. Some said the product was great, others said it jams frequently and is very slow - so I was not sure what to expect.
I was pleasantly surprised.
1) It used ice cube from our Fridge ice maker without jamming
2) It produced shaved ice quickly
3) It was very easy to clean.
I am glad I bought it.

I bought this for Christmas for my husband and kids after we got into the habit this past summer of going out for snow cones each weekend. I thought they would have fun if we could make our own, and I was right! They wanted us to make some right away, and we figured it out quickly. It didn't take long to make enough shaved ice for the 4 of us and then we added different flavors and enjoyed the treat. There was essentially no clean-up since we added the flavor to the shaved ice in the cups afterwards, so we just had to take this apart and set it out to dry. We'll be getting a lot of use out of this! We did find that the ice shaved faster if we used the crushed ice out of our freezer instead of just the regular ice.

At first I was very undecided whether to go with this or the Snowman, then I read some good reviews about the Rival ice shaver too so it was very confusing. I decided this looked more versatile than the Snowman and it had better reviews than the Rival.

I'm glad I went with this one. As another reviewer said, it looks like a proper kitchen appliance, not a toy like some of the others. I got some ice cubes out of my fridge and gave it a go and it worked liked a treat. It was fast, efficient and we made two HUGE smoothies in no time at all. I was expecting it to jam and take a while but it didn't. It has two settings, snocone and slushie.

Another thing I like about this machine is that you can use regular ice, you don't have to use any containers that come specially with it, so you don't have to run out of ice to use, or lose the containers and have to replace them. I used ice from my ice trays, they're relatively small, haven't tried using the larger cubes.

All in all I'm very pleased with my Icy Treats machine.

we bought this ice shaver tonight, and we just love it, it is very easy to operate, all parts come apart easily, they are all dish washer safe. We have no problem with jamming, and we just used regular ice from the freezer.