Customer Reviews

White Mountain F69206-X 6-Quart Electric Ice Cream Freezer

5 star:		(151)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(48)

 

 

During the spring, summer, and fall, I make ice cream a couple times a month. It has been a family tradition for many years. In my youth, mom & dad made ice cream often and Dad had a hand crank White Mountain freezer that lasted for the better part of a quarter century. I have had 2 of the newer White Mountain electric freezers in the past 3 years and 3 replacement motors. What once was a well made American product, is now a Chinese made piece of junk, cleverly disguised as the old reliable White Mountain freezer. Two of the relacement motors stripped the gears on the second batch of cream. Stay away from this freezer until White Mountain decides it will make this high priced product of the quality it once was.

I love this ice cream machine! It makes enough ice cream (6 quarts! not 1 to 1-1/2 quarts like the others) for large gatherings or enough to store for future consumption. It's very simple to operate with the electric motor doing all the work and the Ice Cream is fabulous, smooth and creamy. I put it on a "rag rug" on the kitchen floor where I add the ice/salt. It's a bit noisy, but it's part of the fun. My only complaint is that very few recipes are included with the machine. Solution, purchase a book of ice cream recipes to supplement. Some good ones are: Frozen Desserts : The Definitive Guide to Making Ice Creams, Ices, Sorbets, Gelati, and Other Frozen Delights which gives DETAILED history/information and The Ice Cream Machine Cookbook by Melissa Clark which includes some very creative ice cream combinations.

Recently, a group my son was in had to make over 200 gallons of homeade ice cream. The group would go to local festivals and sell the ice cream to raise money. Anyway, we had about 14 six quart freezers, 4 of them being the White Mountain models. The White Mountain freezers not only froze almost 2x faster than the other models but the ice cream was much more firm. Also, after making all of the ice cream, many of the other models were literally "burnt out" but the White Mountain machines seemed to go on and on showing no signs of wear. These freezers have probably made over 30 gallons of ice cream and still are as good as new. I would highly recommed a White Mountain machine.

Twenty years ago when we got married we received a White Mountain Ice Cream Freezer as a gift. It was so different than any other ice cream freezer we had ever had. The ice cream turns out so smooth and the leftovers stay so smooth and good in the freezer, not turning hard like so many other ice cream freezers we had used. We have never had a problem with it at all, until a month or so ago our daughter dropped the motor on the ground and it broke--so we decided to purchase a new ice cream freezer. We would not purchase any other than the White Mountain. We have made many different flavors--the freezer works great with fruit and nuts, choc. chips,-anything. From the time our kids were little and still today as they are teenagers and beginning to leave home--we all look forward to the special days when we gather around and make homemade ice cream. It has become a tradition in our family. This is a great machine!!!!!

I'm a novice to Ice Cream making. My family and I did own and operate a Baskin Robbins for about 6 years and I got to visit the dairy where they made the Baskin Robbins Ice Cream. For my money, even though this was an expensive purchase, the White Mountain ice cream maker provides the closest reality to taste and texture that commerical ice creameries produce, given the right recipes. The quality of the paddles or solid and designed to last a VERY long time. True the machine is loud, it also works hard to mix any type of ice cream wanted and does it very, very well. We've made about 20 batches so far and with the exception of 2 of them they all turned out perfect. The 2 that were bad, were pilot error. We also invested in the Ben-n-Jerry recipe book, which I also recommend. It covers everything from Vanilla Bean (yummy) to Cherry Garcia (double yum). For the money you'll end up buying 2-3 of those [inexpensive] ice cream makers and wear them out in no time. We have a large family for get togethers so we use the full 6 quarts, but it will do smaller batches for just 2-3 people with no problem. It cleans up easily with the cylinder being Stainless Steel and the wood paddles add a sense of realizime I love, plus it doesn't taint the ice cream, just like the pro's. A+ to White Mountain.

I was fortunate enough to have an old White Mountain freezer my parents used for many years. Wanting to keep it in the family I purchased a NEW White Mountain Freezer with both Hand Crank and Electric. I can only repeat what others in this category have written. First the electric motor burned out after 4 uses and rather than spend the money on a new motor we were just going to use the Hand Crank. Well, then the tub started to leak as written by others. For a couple of times you can soak the tub but then the cheaply made metal bands stretch/rust and the tub simply begins to spread apart. The OLD White Mountain must be at least 30 years old and the tub still does not leak. Rival has ruined a good name. I actually still use the old unit once a year for tradition sake and have purchased a Cuisinart 2 Quart model with the tub you put inn the freezer. Less ice cream but just as tastey and no salt or ice!

I purchased the 6-Quart freezer in May 05 and I am very dissapointed for the following reason. Not long after we received it it started leaking thru the sides (seams) between the slats.. We contacted Amazon and they told us to soak the wooden tub in water for at least 24 hours, and the wood would swell to stop the leak..Well we soaked the tub for the 24 hours and after some time we got it out to use again and the side had separated about 1/4 inch between 2 of the slats. Needless to say it will not hold the brian now to make it freeze, so I guess it is totally worthless..Now to say the least I am very very dissapointed after spending all the money for this freezer.
Leigh Ferguson

After five uses, one of the parts in the motor broke and now it won't churn. It is less than a month old and has been used to make 5 single quart batches of ice cream. I can't believe that the manufacturer would allow such cheap parts to be used in a $200 "commercial grade" motor. When it did work, the ice cream was amazing. I'm just glad it's still in warranty.

Purchased the 6 qt White Mountain in July of 2005 and have used it maybe a dozen times and have treated it well. After trying to use it the other day after running for about 2 minutes the motor started slowing and smoking and then finally stopped. So here I was with a waste of about $12 worth of ingredients and ice. So I took the motor assembly apart as I am a fix it yourself kind of person and the gears inside the assembly were gummed up and rusted together and wouldn't turn so I took it all apart and cleaned all the gears and the assembly well and put them back together with new grease. It seemed to work OK until we tried with ice cream again and then after about 5 minutes the motor smoked and stopped turning. After doing some research on the net, seems this is a common problem so I called White Mountain and they said they would ship me a new motor for $87 plus shipping and that it is out of warranty. Come on White Mountain, a $200 freezer shouldn't quit working after only about 12 uses, I've seen the plastic $25 ones last for many years and gallons of ice cream. And no thanks to spending half the cost of a new one for a part that was obviously faulty. I would NOT recommend this product.

The White Mountain Ice Cream Freezer is worth the money. The ice cream had a very smooth texture and maintained freshness in the freezer as long as it lasted. (This wasn't very long, though) I bought the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream book, and used the White Mountain. My whole family was quite impressed.

One word of warning: The triple churning motion must really whip up the ice cream, because what was supposed to be a 4qt recipe made well over 6qt. I had ice cream coming out the top.

The whole product is quality. I have had other ice cream freezers in the past, but none as nice as this. The bucket is well crafted and the dasher is metal and wood and has considerably more heft than those plastic dashers you might find in a cheaper model. This thing looks very durable and I look forward to making ice cream for many years.