Pointless And Obvious Reviews, Vol. 2: My Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker's Agitator!

The Good: Generally durable, Does what it is supposed to
The Bad: Somewhat annoying to clean, Not indestructible
The Basics: It's a pointless product . . . until you destroy the one that comes with the unit, then it's nice to be able to find a new ICE-20PDL to make ice cream!


Every now and then, I am faced with a serious writing challenge and this time, I'm not sure how to meet it. I am a big fan of ice cream and I make my own ice cream using a Cuisinart ICE-20 ice cream maker (reviewed here!). I love that device and in advance of summer, I make so much ice cream using it, that I have found it necessary to purchase extra freezer bowls (reviewed here!) for the unit. But my latest accessory for it is one that might well be impossible to write about.

Because I have recently moved and my whole kitchen was in a complete state of chaos, I was moving my ICE-20 when I knocked into a counter and the agitator from the device ended up on the floor. The ICE-20PDL, the plastic device that sits in the freezer bowl to provide something for the rotating cream and other ingredients to be stirred by, landed on the floor and it was fine . . . until I stepped on it. In steel-toed boots. Hard. Yes, it was an accident, but as I stared down at the cracked device, I found myself horrified by the prospect of being without homemade ice cream. How would I get my fix of Chocolate mint with espresso jelly bean flavored ice cream?!

Fortunately, I quickly discovered that Cuisinart sells replacements for the ICE-20PDL and when I called the company for a replacement, I learned that mine was not even the worst horror story they had heard. So, what is this invaluable component to the ice cream maker?

The ICE-20PDL is a rigid plastic agitator specifically designed to fit into the freezer bowl of the ICE-20 ice cream maker. The top is a round wall that fits the top of the bowl. This part has fins on the inside so that when the clear plastic dome of the ICE-20 is put on, it can lock in. As a result, the ICE-20PDL technically remains stationary while the freezer bowl rotates around it. This bit of physics magic occurs because the bottom of the ICE-20PDL is a knob essentially, which fits into a groove at the bottom of the freezer bowl. Perhaps the best way to understand the way this works is by considering the ICE-20PDL like a toy top; instead of spinning the top, the ICE-20PDL is held stationary at the top, is pointed at the bottom and set into a rotating device, so the world revolves around the top, as opposed to the top spinning in the world.

Why is this at all necessary or important? When making ice cream, the ingredients need to be agitated (for volume) while being frozen (duh, because it is a frozen dessert). The freezer bowl takes care of the latter process while the ICE-20PDL takes care of the former. And how it works is because of the important stuff between the stationary top and the pivoting bottom.

The ICE-20PDL is essentially a series of connected spatulas or the hard-plastic equivalent of rubber scrapers. There are three fins that descend from the top to the bottom. They are angled so that the ingredients run into them and get mixed. They are connected at the bottom by a pair of fins - angled in opposite directions around the fulcrum - which also direct the liquid ingredient and help mix everything up. In order to prevent ingredients from sitting in the middle, the ICE-20PDL is cleverly designed with a fin in the middle which takes up only half the depth of the bowl. In order to connect this one to the bottom and side, another angled fin is used perpendicular to the descending ones, allowing for more agitation.

In the simplest possible terms, this is a series of interconnected fins that stir up the ice cream ingredients by having the ingredients rotated around it as opposed to having to stir the ingredients for half an hour by hand.

Because the fins go in so many different directions, there are a number of angles, corners and crannies that ingredients can (and do!) get caught in. This makes the ICE-20PDL annoying to clean by hand or with a washcloth. Fortunately, it can be tossed in the dishwasher and washed that way. Indeed, that might be the ideal way to clean it.

This is a remarkably specific product and there is no use I have yet found for it outside using it in the ICE-20 ice cream makers. It is a quality product and given how much it took for me to destroy one, I imagine most people will never need one. But if you do . . . well, they are available and they do exactly what they are supposed to.

For other Cuisinart product reviews, please check out my takes on:
Grind Central Coffee Grinder
Classic Round Waffle Maker
Supreme Grind Coffee Grinder

5/10

For other home and garden product reviews, please visit my hub here!

© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


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My New Grind: Cuisinart Grind Central Coffee-Grinder Fits In With My Decor, But Little Else.

The Good: Stylish appearance, Easy to use, Easy to clean
The Bad: A little bulky, It takes longer to make finer grounds, Problematic cord storage, Additional cleanup.
The Basics: While it looks (generally) good and works competently, the style aspects are overcome by substantive issues with how well it operates and generally poor operational design.


With my infrequent writing excursions outside the media categories, I've made it fairly clear to those who read all of my reviews that I am a lover of coffee and I am quite proud the look my kitchen is developing. It's all coming up stainless steel as far as the appliances go. The big exceptions have been my coffee maker (reviewed here!) and my very convenient Procter-Silex coffee grinder (reviewed here!). While I will doubtless not be in the market for a new coffee maker anytime soon, a friend's need to grind flax seed made me give up my coffee grinder. No, the old grinder probably isn't rated for flax seed, but it worked perfectly for my friend and it gave me an excuse to go out hunting for a new coffee grinder. In a rare stroke of luck and fortune, I found one on my first attempt that met my needs as far as the look went. It was the Cuisinart Grind Central Coffee Grinder.

The Cuisinart Grind Central Coffee Grinder is a pricey little gadget that looks like it's being marketed toward an upscale market, but I was able to buy it anyway. Unlike my discreet, former coffee grinder which used space quite efficiently, this is a coffee grinder that is big, bulkier and screams "Look! This person grinds their own! I'm a coffee grinder! Look how big I am!" With its top on (which is necessary to operate it and it's impossible to save more space by removing it) the Grind Central grinder is eight inches tall, four inches wide and four and a half inches deep. It leaves quite the footprint.

On the topic of how much space it takes up, the Grind Central coffee grinder has a supposedly retractable electric cord. The thirty inch cord is supposed to be able to fit into the base of the unit by nothing so sophisticated as shoving it into the base. Yes, there is no mechanism, just a hole in the side of the unit's base that - according to the manual - allows the cord to be shoved into the base. I've had my Grind Central grinder for less than a week and I've not yet gotten the cord more than 2/3 into the base. The cord is stiff, the hole is small and there is no guidance so the cord often seems like it is tangling itself up. At the very least, it is pushing against itself and it is definitely doing that because when it comes time to pulling the cord out there are similar problems. This function of the coffee grinder is a complete dud. In fact, I've stopped trying to get the cord retracted because I'm concerned it will damage the cord.

So, it's bulky and the cord does not retract easily. That's the negative. Everything else about this little device is pretty wonderful.

First, the look of the Grind Central is very modern and it will fit in with any current kitchen. Yes, the stainless steel looks great and even though the front of the device is a walking advertisement for Cuisinart (I wish my kitchen did not look like a billboard advertising every major appliance's stainless steel line) with its name in pretty bold relief on the cover. From all angles this looks like a very modern, very hip coffee grinder.

The Grind Central comes with four parts: the base, the cover, the grinding bowl and the storage lid. Everything but the base is dishwasher safe and as such ridiculously easy to clean. The storage lid is stored in the side of the box when first taking the unit out and Cuisinart is kind enough to point this fact out, suggesting they became tired of fielding calls for a replacement when people inadvertently tossed them. The lid is a simply black rubbery plastic lid, like what one finds on a tub of soft margarine. It is black and is designed to cover the removable stainless steel grinding bowl when it is detached from the base. It fits fine and has the explicit goal of keeping ground coffee fresh and it does seem to do that just fine. As well, it does not seem to retain the scent of various flavors of coffee, so this makes it wonderful for using even if one does not have a chance to clean it properly between grinding various coffee beans.

The base, as previously suggested, is a solid, sturdy bottom to the unit, covered in stainless steel panels. It rests on the countertop on four rubber feet making it difficult to tip or knock over. This is sturdy and good looking. The top of the base has a concave portion with the motor rod in the center. This indentation is where the removable bowl fits in. The bowl locks into the base with a quarter-turn once it is in the base. The base is marked with a simple arrow to direct users who might forget or need to detach the bowl.

The cover is just that. This plastic and stainless steel cover is a blockish segment that mirrors the base, but allows the user to watch the coffee being ground. This segment also has the button needed to activate the grinder. The Grind Central is operated by pushing down on a black button on the top front of the cover. It is spring loaded so when it is not being pushed down, it pops right back up to its off position. This is a decent security feature as it prevents the unit from operating without supervision. As well, the button adds safety to the device because the only way to easily use the Grind Central is to have the cover on. In order to use the Grind Central with the cover off, one would need a small, pen-like device to poke into the hole the cover's button utilizes. This makes it impossible to activate this device accidentally without the cover on.

As a final note on the cover, it is very easy to clean as it is dishwasher safe. I recommend wiping it out between uses because otherwise, after using it each time, the grinds get up in the top of the cover. If you simply set the cover back on the base after the bowl has been removed, coffee grinds will get into the base and gum up the works. My real problem with the cover is that it only has a 1/4" lip over the top of the base, making it a very flimsy connection. There is nothing that seals the cover to the base - the cover is removable by anyone quite easily - and with cats in the house, I'm waiting for the day they knock the top off. This is a legitimate concern because the cover comes off that easily and the worry is reasonable because the cover is made of hard plastic that looks like the type that would crack with a fall from the countertop to the floor.

This leads us to the stainless steel removable bowl. This is where the magic happens. This little bowl is like a mixing bowl, save that it has gradations on the outside - presumably the number of cups of coffee yielded by the beans ground up to that level. The MAX line is supposedly equal to enough ground coffee beans to make eighteen cups of coffee, but as I never need more than twelve in a day, I've not tested this too rigorously.

The bowl is like a mixing bowl with the exception that in the bottom of the bowl, it has a hole through which the rod which rotates the grinding blades is stuck and there is a black plastic base attached to the bowl reminiscent of a blender base. When attached to the base, twisted in, the bowl is solid and virtually unmovable. This lends itself to the impression that this is a very safe device to use.

And it is. When everything is attached (it took me one minute, literally, out of the box) it is simply the press of a button and coffee beans that are added to the bowl are being ground. Boom. That easy.

Sort of.

The Grind Central is poorly designed as far as functionality goes. Sure, it does grind the coffee beans and it even grinds them quite fine if you are patient enough to let it. Unfortunately, it takes forever to get really fine ground coffee and that's where the poor design comes in. The bowl is big and the widest point is at the top (because, you know, it's a bowl!). The blades are in the center at the bottom. This means that as the coffee beans are ground up, they become lighter they get buoyant and they have someplace to go; the upper edges of the bowl. For sure, the grinds accumulate and fall back into the blades, but a good number of them are simply mixed and not ground. The only way I got the best results out of the Grind Central was by removing some of the well-ground grinds and continuing to grind with the grinder until it became more fine. A well designed grinder uses gravity to encourage the beans to continue to go back down into the blades over and over, usually by using a dome shaped cover.

Which leads us to the last problem. The Grind Central is poorly designed as a matter of function with the bowl for more than just its primary function, which is grinding up coffee beans. No, the storage aspect of the Grind Central is buggered by rod going through the base which moves when it is no longer attached to the base. This means that when removed from the base and used as a storage bowl, the bowl will leak coffee grinds out the bottom. Cuisinart is classy enough to supply a storage lid, but didn't think of some sort of lid for the bottom. That's disappointing because everytime I take the bowl with grounds out of the refrigerator, I have to wipe off the counter and the shelf in the refrigerator.

Wow, that didn't go quite the way I thought it would. Sometimes, we start a review and don't know quite where it will end up but I'm sitting here looking at my Cuisinart with a bit of disdain now. I guess I miss my better-designed, less expensive Proctor Silex coffee grinder. Maybe I was just happy to have a coffee grinder that worked again after so long (since giving my preferred one away) that I overlooked all the flaws and extra work this Grind Central model had. Maybe I was just thrilled that it matched my Cuisinart Waffle Maker (reviewed here!), but in an objective analysis, this product is not all that wonderful.

For other coffee grinders and coffee-related reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Cuisinart Supreme Grind Coffee Grinder
Tim Horton's Fine Grind Coffee
Kahlua Mocha Coffee

4/10

For other home and garden product reviews, please check out my index page for an organized listing of all I have reviewed in this category!

© 2011, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Pointless And Obvious Review Theatre Vol. 1: The Cuisinart Freezing Bowl!

The Good: It does what it's supposed to
The Bad: Utterly pointless without the ice cream maker, still a pain to clean
The Basics: The replacement freezer bowl becomes an asset to those making a lot of ice cream or suffering power outages.


The Cuisinart Freezer Bowl replacement . . . this is the functional core of the Cuisinart ICE-20 Ice Cream Maker (reviewed here!). Less a bowl and more a central mixing column, this is a necessity for anyone using the ICE-20. So, why would you need a replacement? Well, if one were to foolishly crack open the one that came with unit, that would be a good reason to get a new one. I have no idea how one would even do that as this is easily the most durable part of the ICE-20 and it's impressive how much it can handle when it is frozen.

This is basically a sturdy plastic shell surrounding a metal center that is designed to help make ice cream by freezing liquids that come in contact with it (presumably your milk and cream from your ice cream mix). The bowl is seven inches in diameter and a little over five inches tall, so it fits in most freezers without requiring one to move around too much frozen stuff. As far as a functional vessel, this is not; because the frozen elements (it's a liquid) are between the plastic exterior and the metal interior and it has to remain solid for the half hour in the open air while making ice cream in the ICE-20, the usable volume inside the bowl is only a column five inches in diameter and less than five inches high.

The bowl is notched on the bottom to make it a functional part of the ICE-20.

If you haven't broken yours, why would you need another freezer bowl? Well, I've found two good reasons for mine (I'm actually up to three in my freezer now). The first is mass production of ice cream. Sure, using the ICE-20 is not the cheapest way to create frozen confections, but it is one of the most satisfying and it gives the user complete control over their dessert destiny. If you have multiple people all wanting to make multiple flavors on the same day, the added freezer bowls can be real handy.

The freezer bowl needs to be frozen solid in order to use. I simply stick the freezer bowl in my deep freeze (reviewed here!) overnight when I first get one. It's solid by morning. After that, the freezer bowl may be used once every eight hours. So, in my case, I had a time when there were several people making ice cream in a row (it was like a day camp) and so, by having three freezer bowls available, I was able to get six people in each day - three staggered half an hour apart, then three more eight hours later staggered in the same way. So, while one person was using the ICE-20, the next would be mixing up their ingredients. Only the agitator had to be cleaned and the next person could use the ice cream maker with their own freezer bowl virtually the moment the first person was done.

So, this is great if you have a large number of people making a lot of ice cream (like for a wedding, etc.) and you don't want to keep shelling out for new ice cream makers, this can be an affordable and practical solution.

It's also nice to have the spares because every now and again, I get sick of cleaning up the freezer bowl. The freezer bowl is designed to freeze any liquid that comes in contact with it. So, if you're using hot water and trying to get any stray ice cream, chocolate, etc. off the metal surface, it can be real annoying. The metal surface resists being cleaned by freezing the water that comes in contact with it. Moreover, it needs to be completely dry when it is returned to the freezer. This means, if one is too slow with the towel, they end up with a hairy interior to the freezer bowl because the freezing action will tear apart the textured towel. As a result, every once in a while, I will throw up my hands in disgust, fill the freezer bowl with water and walk away from it. This allows the freezer bowl to thaw and become much easier to use, but worthless (until frozen again) for making ice cream.

There's a secondary benefit to the replacement bowls, though it's a rather expensive way to achieve the objective. Because the freezer bowl is designed to resist heat and remain frozen, this is an awesome product for keeping food in a freezer frozen when the power goes out. Live in a place with outages that usually last hours, but not more than a day? This is a great solution! I moved my freezer bowls into my mediocre freezer (reviewed here!) when I had an outage and nothing much left in the deep freeze. My food kept and after a day and a half, the freezer bowl was still frozen! Since then, I've kept at least one in the upstairs freezer and I've never lost food to outages. This secondary use it very handy and I've had this little bowl save my small freezer's contents for over eight hours in the summer and almost two days during the winter (my house is pretty cold anyway). This might not be what it was designed for, but it sure works!

That said, I can't imagine most people would need one of these, especially if one does not have the ICE-20. But if you do and want to double your productivity, this is a wonderful product, despite the pain it is to clean!

For other Cuisinart and other kitchen appliances, check out my reviews of:
Cuisinart Classic Round Waffle Maker
Cuisinart Supreme Grind Coffee Grinder
GE JES1142SJ Microwave

5/10

For other appliance reviews, please be sure to visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Classic Waffles With Little Fuss The Cuisinart Classic Waffle Maker.

The Good: Good browning control, Makes consistent quality of waffles, Nice look
The Bad: Not the easiest to clean, Smaller waffles
The Basics: A quality waffle maker that generates decent waffles. Good for a cook who is busy in the kitchen and wants a waffle maker that clearly shows when waffles are done.


For those unfamiliar with my infrequent reviews of kitchen appliances, I have a love of stainless steel. I like the look, the feel, the ease of cleaning, the general sanitary quality, pretty much everything about stainless steel in the kitchen. A while back, when I reviewed my poor, confused Hamilton Beach waffle maker, I promised that I would review one worth recommending and it's no surprise that my preferred waffle maker is stainless steel. In this case, the look of the Cuisinart Classic Waffle Maker just happens to fit my decor, in addition to being a superior waffle maker in function.

This is one of the more discrete appliances in my kitchen, measuring only 10" long with the iron itself being less than 8" in diameter. This waffle maker is stainless steel with a black plastic base and handle to lift the top of the iron to open it. Like most waffle makers, the hinge is in the back. The browning control is on the front and is controlled by a simple slide button. The classic waffle maker has five browning positions and a red and green light that lets the user know when the iron is hot and when waffles are ready.

This Cuisinart is fairly easy to use. When the waffle maker is plugged in, the red light lights up to let the user know the power is on. This is handy because right up front, there is a strong visual indicator for those of us who get distracted in the kitchen. When this puppy is plugged in, a light will be on! When the waffle maker comes up to temperature, the light changes from red to green. At that time, the top cover may be lifted to put the batter in. The device is opened by lifting the black handle in front. It swings up easily.

The inside of the waffle maker is a black non-stick surface that requires a non-stick spray to insure that waffles do not stick to it. After the surface is sprayed, dump a ladle ful of batter in and close the top. When the top is closed, the light will go from green to red as the waffle maker comes back up to temperature and actually bakes the waffle. At this point, it's good to note that the browning selector - the slide on the front - actually works. Depending on what position the selector is in, the waffle will vary from barely baked (1) to crispy like it was left in a toaster a little too long (5). I've found setting #2 makes ideal waffles for me. I often make waffles en masse and freeze the ones I do not eat. When I reheat them, I use my toaster oven and they get only a little crispier in that, so it's a good setting. I have experimented with the various settings and found they actually do prolong the cooking time and make waffles of varying crispiness.

So, the batter is cooking at whatever setting you have it on and when the light goes from red to green again, the waffle is done. Simply open the front again and pop it out with a fork. It's that easy.

The resulting waffles are about seven inches in diameter and their cells (the compartments the syrup goes into) are fairly small, about a cubic centimeter each. I tend to prefer Belgian waffles, but this is not a Belgian waffle maker. That just means if your plan is to have waffles with things like strawberries you either need a different waffle maker or you need to accept that the strawberries will rest atop the waffle, as opposed to sitting neatly in one of the squares.

Others have complained that this device gets hot. It does. It's a waffle maker, so that's kind of a "well, duh" type observation about this product. The Cuisinart classic waffle maker gets hot on the iron, warm on the stainless steel top, but I've not found any of the plastic components to ever heat up. This means adjusting the slide control is easy and safe and opening the lid to put on batter or remove waffles is easy, safe and burn-free.

Once you've made waffles in the classic waffle maker, clean up varies some. The only reason the exterior temperature of this device truly matters is because of the cleanup. It's a good idea to let this particular waffle maker cool down. It cools down sufficiently in the time it takes to eat a waffle, so when your last waffle is done baking, unplug the device and eat a waffle.

Cleaning the outside is very easy. It's stainless steel and a plastic that is easy to clean. Wiping it down with a warm, wet cloth will clean this baby right off. The outside is ridiculously easy to clean, though the outer edge may have baked on batter if you fill it too much. This easily flakes or washes off, though. The place this is difficult to clean is the iron's surface itself. This waffle maker has a rather thin non-stick surface, so it cannot be cleaned with anything abrasive. Because the manual recommends against submerging this device, it's often hard to get the entire surface truly clean. As a result, (unless you've waited for it to cool completely and cleaned every nook and cranny out with a toothbrush) often there will be excess non-stick spray in some of the crevices of this device. More than once have I plugged mine in and the device smokes up a little as it burns off old grease (never enough to set off the smoke detector that is above it).

Outside that, it's easy to use and it creates rather satisfying waffles. Until Cuisinart makes an affordable Belgian waffle maker, I'm going to keep using this one! As far as storage goes, this is a small device and once the unit is cool, clean and dry, the cord wraps nicely around it. It makes it easy to store out of the way for those who lack the space.

This device has a three year warranty, but I've had mine more than three years (used an average of twice a month) and I've never had a problem with it.

For other waffle makers, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Westinghouse WST3037 4-Waffle Waffle Maker
Westinghouse WSTBW2 Waffle Maker
Hamilton Beach 26501 Waffle Maker

8/10

For other appliance reviews, please click here to visit my index page on the subject!

© 2011, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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I FINALLY Found The Coffee Grinder That Works For Me! The Cuisinart Supreme Grind!

The Good: Grinds coffee beans well, Style, Parts easy to clean, Easy to get ground coffee from
The Bad: Grinding chamber somewhat a pain to clean out
The Basics: After years, I FINALLY found the ultimate stainless steel coffee grinder to both fit my decor and meet my coffee grinding needs!


I will never be an apologist for Cuisinart. Indeed, after my experience with their loathsome Grind Central - which I am shocked in retrospect to find I rated as high as I did! - I was once again forced to search for a coffee grinder. My criteria for a coffee grinder were that it needed to actually work and I desperately wanted a stainless steel finish so it would match my kitchen's decor. The Grind Central had the look and was inexpensive enough that it did that, but I remember hating it for not grinding well enough.

A year later, Cuisinart redeems itself with the coffee grinder that will be - so long as this holds up - the last coffee grinder I ever have to buy! The new (and final) coffee grinder for my house is the Cuisinart Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill. This little number has the stainless steel look that matches all of my kitchen's big appliances as well as the black plastic to match my Hamilton Beach Coffee Maker (reviewed here!)! In other words, this has the look to be the perfect fit in my kitchen. Fortunately, it had much more than that.

Working my loathsome night job, I have been drinking a lot of coffee lately, which means I'm grinding coffee an average of twice a week. I tend to like my coffee very, very strong, which means the finer the beans can be ground, the better. The Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill lives up on that front. This classy little number has multiple settings that are easy to figure out and this was pretty much an intuitive coffee grinder to use, making it easy to proudly recommend to anyone who loves having fresh-ground coffee available to them.

Basics

The Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill is not a subtle device. Standing a foot tall, five and a half inches wide and a little over seven inches deep, this is a grinder that lets everyone know it is a coffee grinder! Affixed at the top is a plastic basket that holds over two cups of unground coffee beans. This is a grinder that screams to all who see it that the user is obsessed with coffee.

The base is made up of a stainless steel chamber that houses the motor with the clear plastic receptacle out in front to show where the ground coffee ends up. It is topped with the plastic basket (around the house, I call it the pre-fire chamber!) with a black plastic top to keep the beans inside when grinding and to keep anything else out of the chamber while it is sitting around. There is a three foot cord that comes out of the base. If one has a permanent position for the grinder near an outlet - or wants to have the grinder away for storage - the cord can be wrapped around two plastic tabs that looks very flimsy and brittle, but have held up so far on my unit.

On top of the base, below the basket, are the controls, right atop the easy-to-remove receptacle. The buttons are clearly marked, with a slide control dictating how much coffee is ground based on how many cups of liquid coffee one wants (from two to eighteen) and a starting bar beneath it to easily activate the unit. As well, the slide bar can be moved to off to prevent any unwanted grinding from anything hitting the activation bar without the user's consent.

Ease Of Use

The Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill is remarkably easy to use, in fact the controls make it seem more complicated than it needs to. First, it ought to be noted that there is one additional control; the bean reservoir turns a limited amount to offer seventeen options for how coarse the beans that come out of grinder are. In all honesty, the first day I experimented with this and there are huge differences in the coarseness between the finest and medium and coarsest settings, but some of the finer distinctions (i.e. prime medium to the medium one notch closer to coarse) are lost on me, even when I'm looking to see how well this works. In other words, I quickly found the setting I - and all who drink coffee with me - like; the most fine setting.

Using the Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill is truly, ridiculously simple: place the beans in the prefire chamber, place the black plastic top on, twist the base (if needed) to adjust to the coarseness of ground coffee one wants, slide the bad to the number of cups coffee one wants (I tend to just leave that on 18, so I can get two days worth of coffee out of it) and tap the "Start" bar and the machine will grind for a minute, spitting the grounds into the receptacle.

A full batch of the finest ground coffee takes less than two minutes to grind (I use that time to contemplate world peace . . . or defrost a bagel, cut it and stick it in the toaster oven) and the Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill is fairly quiet. My cats originally would be woken up but the unit or freak out at it, but after two weeks of use, the lazy one opens one eye, confirms it is the coffee grinder and goes back to sleep. The little one doesn't even do that! This is not so loud that it's going to be problematic in a house, but if one is living in a small apartment, in addition to the amount of space this takes up, it might be a little noisy. I find it to be one of the quieter units I've experimented with; I can talk on the phone in proximity to the grinder while it is running, in fact.

When the Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill is done, it turns itself off and all the user has to do is pull out the receptacle chamber, pop the top off (the top is brilliantly designed to keep the unit clean and to allow one to move the receptacle away from the grinder without fear of spilling coffee grinds everywhere!) and scoop out the coffee. Cuisinart even provides a scoop with a brush on it for the user!

It is hard to imagine an easier to use coffee grinder that actually effectively grinds coffee beans than the Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill.

Ease Of Cleaning

Cleaning is the Achilles heel of the Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill. This is a Jekyll & Hyde device as there are parts that are ridiculously easy to clean and others that are damn near impossible.

First, this device is stupidly easy to disassemble to clean. The prefire chamber, the grinding receptacle and the tops to both of those easily are detached from the base and can be stuck in the dishwasher. Let it deal with them! This works out wonderfully and after a few months of use, I have not found there to be any wear on the plastics from this. The bulk of the parts, then, are ridiculously easy to clean.

Second, the exterior of the unit can just be wiped down with a wet washcloth.

But then, there is the interior. The actual grinding chamber, where the beans are pulverized, where the blades are hidden and do their fabulous work (it is hard to argue with the results this unit gets!) is difficult to get to. For the first few days of use with the unit, I used the brush on the scoop Cuisinart provided. It reached down into the chamber where I otherwise could not reach. It broke up the fine ground beans that I could not simple tap out. Unfortunately, there was a lot that it not seem to get. In fact, I was irked when I found the next batch I did was somewhat contaminated by a noticeable enough quantity of grinds trapped in the nether regions of the chamber.

But then, I came up with the solution: air. For computers, there are compressed air canisters that are used to blow dust and dirt out of components, like keyboards. The Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill may not be as sophisticated as a laptop, but it turns out the same type forced air blast is ideal for blowing out the grinding chamber. Since I started doing that, my cleaning time has gotten down to less than two minutes for the grinding chamber and it is more effectively cleaned than when I tried to wipe the chamber out or brush it out. Blowing it out is the way.

Overall

Unfortunately, the Cuisinart Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill does not come with a little air blaster, but it ought to. That said, this unit might seem expensive with its $50 price tag, but the thing is, it actually works and it works phenomenally. Anyone who is serious about grinding coffee and might have different coffee grinding needs (like needing more coarse beans for recipes or such) will find this unit invaluable. I know I do. I looked long enough for the perfect coffee grinder and this might well be it.

For other kitchen product reviews, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Proctor Silex E160 Coffee Grinder
GE JES1142SJ Microwave
Chef's Choice 675 Electric Kettle

9/10

For other home and garden product reviews, please be sure to visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


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Ridiculously Easy Ice Cream, All The Flavors, All The Fuss: Cuisinart ICE-20

The Good: Easy to operate, Good directions/recipes
The Bad: Pain in the butt to clean
The Basics: Despite its flaws with noise and cleaning up, the ICE-20 does exactly what it promises and is a sturdy, reliable, wonderful ice cream maker.


As time passes, the truly great gifts rise to the top and the, well, less great gifts, get pushed aside. I mean, we all have that c.d. or DVD given to us by a loved one that now collects dust somewhere. How is that copy of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations (check out my review by clicking here)? Better yet, where is that mix tape your best friend gave you five years ago? After my divorce, I realized there were very few gifts I would be keeping. The primary one I have enjoyed is the Cuisinart ICE-20 Automatic 1.5 Quart Frozen Yogurt/Sherbet/Ice Cream Maker. This is one of those gifts that seems like I would have stopped using years ago, but it's retained my interest, mostly because the results are avidly consumed by friends, comrades and enemies alike.

The Cuisinart ICE-20 is a wonderful little ice cream maker that allows the user to make whatever ice cream they could ever want with about twice the expense and effort of buying prepackaged ice cream. When you accept, however, that your love of Chocolate Coconut Malted Milk Ball Ice Cream will forever go unanswered by Perry's, this becomes a much better idea and investment. This allows the user to make virtually any ice cream, frozen yogurt, or sherbet one may conceive and the operating manual is helpful enough to get the user started with a few very basic directions.

The ICE-20 is a pretty standard Cuisinart ice cream maker with a white plastic shell designed to accent kitchens that are white or neutral.

Making your own ice cream using the ICE-20 is fairly easy, as the main ingredients are heavy cream, milk, sugar and extract (whatever flavor extract you want!). Recipes become more and more complicated from there, but the average cost of those four ingredients - which will yield approximately 2 batches (3 quarts) of ice cream - will equal the price of four half gallons of brand name ice cream, when it's on sale. Yes, it's a disheartening thought to those who start out thinking "Making our own ice cream will save us so much money!" Let me tell you, it won't!

The Cuisinart ICE-20, then, is for people who don't like the flavors that exist in the world, people who loathe the preservatives used in commercially available ice cream, and/or people who love to cook to such an extent that they simply must make everything from scratch. It's not a time saver, not a money saver and at over a foot and a half high, certainly not a space saver. This bulky, white plastic monstrosity is one of the bright white eyesores in my otherwise stainless steel and black kitchen.

Then why do I love the ICE-20 so much? Well, Egg Nog ice cream is not available after New Year's, though I can make it year round with the ICE-20. It's all about control and enjoying the finer things in life . . . when I can afford to.

The ICE-20 comes in four parts: the base, the freezer bowl, the clear dome and the agitator. The base is an easy to clean bottom that somewhat resembles a blender base. The other parts set atop it and make the ice cream. The base is a glossy white plastic that is very easy to clean. On the back of the unit is the 3 ft. electrical cord, the front has the simple flip switch that activates the motor inside and the top of the base has the simple notched wheel that turns when the motor is on. The base is surprisingly durable, not terribly heavy and easy to store.

Without simply repeating the directions on how to make ice cream using the ICE-20 (it's in the manual when you purchase this device!), the freezer bowl is set atop the base moments before the mixed liquid ingredients are poured into it. This is pretty much idiot proof as the freezer bowl can only be set on the base in one fashion, as the bottom of the freezer bowl is indented to take the notched wheel. The agitator is placed in the freezer bowl, the clear dome is twisted on (this prevents the agitator from moving) and the power is turned on. The freezer bowl turns, the agitator remains stationary and when one pours the mixed liquid ingredients in, half an hour later you have ice cream.

Poof! It's magic. Basically, the freezer bowl is frozen overnight at first and then it's good to go every eight hours as long as when it is done being used it is tossed back in the freezer. The bowl moves the mix, the agitator resists it and this gives the ice cream its texture and volume.

It's hard to say how the Cuisinart ICE-20 works. It's one of those things that if you screw up the ice cream, odds are it wasn't the fault of the device. This device is simple, easy and generally efficient. You assemble it and flip a switch. If it's improperly assembled, it will fall apart (literally) or make ghastly noises. The worst I've ever done is failed to align the agitator with the clear plastic dome and then the unit would not even close right. This is a remarkably well designed product for ease of assembly and efficiency of purpose.

I've been using my ICE-20 for six years now and the motor has never even balked at how much I've used this.

Which brings me to the thing that this unit can be faulted for. Cleanup. The base and the clear plastic dome are easy to clean up. Simply wipe them off with a damp cloth. The other two parts are not so nice.

The agitator is a hard plastic device that has several sharp corners that have nooks and crannies that virtually anything may get stuck in if you're making complicated ice cream flavors. It's hard to clean cookie pieces, gummy bears and even strawberry seeds out of the parts of the agitator in no small part because of the fear of breakage. This piece has held up for me for four years and I'm not sure how. It's a plastic ring connected to basically two plastic blades that then are connected at the bottom with a bar. Were this to break anywhere, this piece would be worthless and the machine would not function. My paranoia when it comes to trying to make sure this is clean (after all, who wants raspberry seeds mucking up their chocolate mint gummy bear delight?) without breaking it has resulted more than once in me throwing it in my dishwasher. Because my dishwasher is exceptional at actually cleaning things, this works out better than hand cleaning sometimes.

The real thorn is the freezer bowl. On a good day, I can make three batches of ice cream: one when I first awaken, one eight hours later, one right before bed. The Cuisinart ICE-20 is fine with that, it handles the pressure no matter when I'm making ice cream. In order to keep up the rigorous ice cream schedule, I need to keep the freezer bowl frozen whenever it is not in use. This means clean up has to be fast.

The problem with trying to clean up something that is freezing is that it has to be done very quickly, lest water freeze in the freezer bowl. The rub is, it also has to be dry. Now, I hear you crying, why not use real hot water and a real dry towel? This is a precise operation, when one attempts to clean this device because, yes indeed this is how to clean the freezer bowl. However, if the water is not hot enough, it freezes to the bowl and you have to start again. If you're too slow with the towel (or it gets damp because you had to start again) you end up with frozen pieces of towel stuck to the inside of the bowl. Usually, it takes me three passes to get this fully clean and completely dry. Usually, this means I can hear the bowl's frozen innards thawing some and sloshing around.

Sigh.

Also, if you're into quiet, buy your own ice cream. The ICE-20 is a device that screams "I'm here! I'm making ice cream!" when it's on. Well, not literally, but the motor is loud and there's no way to keep it quiet when this is in use.

If you accept those things, this is a great device.

The other thing you'll need to accept should you chose to purchase this is that you'll also need to invest in some good plastic storage containers and a grease pencil (the grease pencil is to write the flavors on the containers with). Making the ice cream is great, but it definitely helps to have somewhere to put it when you're done. It takes less than half an hour to set after the ICE-20 is done with it.

In short, this is a fun little gourmet toy, but it's not a terribly practical device. Because, no matter how much I love Butter Rum Cookies And Cream With A Marshmallow Swirl, even I have to admit that's less practical and more of an indulgence.

For other kitchen appliances, please check out my reviews of:
Samsung Stainless Steel microwave
Hamilton Beach 727 Milkshake maker
Kidde 2 3/4lb. fire extinguisher

7/10

For other home and garden reviews, please check out my index page by clicking here!

© 2010, 2008, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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