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I would second MMcCart on the Kitchen-aid attachment....but measure your freezer. I recommended it to a friend of mine, and she couldn't fit it in her tiny apt. sized freezer above the refrigerator.

Otherwise....the Cuisinart is a great choice for a stand alone unit. They now make a couple of sizes, both in the sub $100.00 category. They are pretty much fool proof & compared to many other models, easy to assemble & clean. Deni makes an identical model which would be just as good.

In the higher end makers, Breville is good....and if you want to open your own dairy queen, sky's the limit...I've seen some traditional as well as soft serve units, marketed for household use, run into the thousands.

I have my parents ice-cream maker. They bought it sometime in the 80s. It is hand cranked and made by Donvier and they still manufacture one like it.

Hand cranking ice-cream is not that bad. It must be turned about every 3 mins. But I usually make ice-cream on a weekend morning while I am either cleaning up the kitchen or doing another project. So I have not found using this ice-cream maker inconvenient - and well, you can't beat free.

I have found that the ice-cream is always too soft. So I always put it in the freezer for at least 6 hours before serving.

My friend has the Cuisinart ICE-50BC, the one with it's own compressor. It is really nice. Especially because you can make multiple batches. However, it is so noisy you cannot really be in the same room when it is running.

Another really good manufacturer is "Musso" if you use Froogle or Amazon to find it, but its about $200 more than the Lello.

If price is absolutely no object at all... PacoJet. It will literally turn ANYTHING into ice cream or sorbet. Seriously.

http://www.pacojet.com/html/en/pacojet.htm

I LOVE the ice cream attachment for my kitchen aid- it is super easy to use. It only makes about 2 qts at a time, however, so if you're looking for large scale production you'll have to start a couple days ahead (the bowl has to freeze 15 hrs before using) or go for a bigger machine. I have a Rival electric model (like you'd get at Walmart or some other discount store) that will make 4 qts so if I need to feed a crowd I use it. I think the KA attachment makes a smoother product but I like what the big one produces, too.

Like JPerlow, I have an Il Gelataio that's 20 years old and it's still going strong. I have space for it on a counter and never enough space in a freezer for one of the portable units! I once had the Donvier put-in-freezer model and it didn't compare to the Simac, in either ease or quality of product. It's an initial investment, but it's paid me back many times over in quality sorbets, in particular. Guests are stunned by how much better sorbet is made with fresh fruit and less sugar than the commercial varieties.

I have a Cuisinart that makes a quart at a time, and I like it a lot. I don't know if it's foolproof, but almost everything I make in it (with or without a recipe to work from) comes out pretty good at worst. Last night, I made low-fat frozen pumpkin yogurt. Yum.