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I have the ice cream attachment for my Kitchenaid mixer and it works just fine! It's just me and my hubby in a small NY apt, so one little bowl that sits in my freezer is all the space I could afford. I've made ice creams and sorbets with great success.

I'll second the kitchenaid attachment, if you have a kitchenaid stand mixer. I store the paddles inside the bowl and the whole thing goes into the freezer and that's where it stays all the time.

I used to have one with the ice and salt, but always questioned what I was supposed to do with the salty water. I'm not sure why I couldn't put it down the drain, but apparently that wasn't good for something...Also, buying salt got to be a pain.

I also had one with an bowl that went into the freezer, but it was hand-cranked. I think that came from a garage sale, and it wasn't fun to use. As a novelty or when people were over and could take turns it was fine, but otherwise, no.

I've heard good things about the Cuisinart one, but you've got more to store. The bowl goes into the freezer and then you got the machine that's got to be stored. If you don't have a kitchenaid mixer, though, you're going to run into that storage issue with any brand.

I have both a Krups brand ice cream maker with the freezer bowl and the Cuisinart stand alone with the built in compressor. The Krups was very inexpensive($40 bucks I believe) and made plenty of decent batches of ice cream for me, though if my base wasn't cold enough my frozen bowl would warm up before the ice cream/sorbet was finished. The freezer bowl was quite large and took up lots of space in my freezer that I really didn't want to give up to an empty bowl all the time so I had to plan ahead at least a day or two if I wanted to make ice cream. I bought the much pricier Cuisinart ice cream maker ($299 at Williams-Sonoma...had a gift card to ease the pain) on a whim one day while planning a 4th of July party and wondering how I was going to make the 3 different types of sorbets we were planning on. One Cuisinart ice cream maker and about 2 hours later they were finished and in the freezer. Its extremely versatile and handy to have, but its heavy and loud and rather large to store away. I get a lot of enjoyment out of being able to just plug it in and turn it on...leads to a lot of experimentation. I would like it a lot better at $200 but I don't feel ripped off at $300.

I also have the less expensive Cuisinart icecream maker--the bare bones one that I got clearanced one fall at Wegmans for $30. Yep, $30, regularly $79.
If you can wait until fall clearance you might find some great deals out there, or perhaps even now if you're in a northern location.
I also have an old fashioned maker that uses ice and rock salt. I prefer my Cuisinart although I do have to set aside freezer space for 24 hours before hand for the freezer bowl. But it beats hand cranking and the salty ice water mess.

I have the same Cuisinart as chisai, and am perfectly content with it. It's also available basically everywhere.

Just make sure you thoroughly chill your mixture before you run it through the machine. Alton Brown also has a lot of good ice cream tips, which you can find on Youtube. And Foodtv.com is starting to load full episodes, though I haven't seen how far they go.

You might try craigslist. Ice cream makers are, sadly, one of those appliances people buy but never really use (or get multiples as wedding presents).

Cuisinart here too (Cuisinart ICE-30BC) cost me 45 bucks at Costco.
Costco">http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11278665&search=ice%20cream%20maker&Mo=0&cm_re=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&lang=en-US&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&Sp=S&N=5000043&whse=BC&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntk=Text_Search&Dr=P_CatalogName:BC&Ne=4000000&D=ice%20cream%20maker&Ntt=ice%20cream%20maker&No=0&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nty=1&topnav=&s=1>Costco link here
It is not expensive and investing in an additional bowl run you another 25 bucks. It was my third ice cream maker and I like it the best.
I spend whatever I want on whatever I want and thats my recommendation.
Costco carries them or you can try amazon.com.

I have a Deni ice cream maker, with the canister that goes in the freezer. I love it....I keep the canister frozen all the time, so it's easy to make ice cream on the 'spur of the moment'. I rec'd it as a gift, but I think they are reasonably priced at just about any dept. store...I've seen them at Sears by me for about $40.

http://www.deni.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.product&category_id=13&product_id=106

I like the KA bowl- it is always in my freezer just waiting to crank out a batch. I didn't want another appliance to store so I asked for the bowl for a birthday gift. My husband went bonkers trying to find it at local store- NO ONE had it so he finally ordered it online. I'm sure they're probably more readily available now (and cheaper, mine was $80) but don't tell him that, 'k?

Thanks to all who commented.

We went with a $50 Cuisinart from BedBath&Beyond. The same thing was $40 at Amazon, but shipping had to be added on top so I'm certain it netted out the same.