There are basically 2 kinds of ice cream maker (for home) on the market. The difference is whether it has a compressor built in or not, the compressor is basically the part that make your freezer freeze.
1 - the one without.
These are cheaper, generally Round £30. It basically comes at a bowl that has dual wall with a freezing agent inside, you put the bowl in the freezer over night and when you need to make the ice cream you take it out, put it in the bowl. The other part of the machine for is the motor that spins the arm, so what you paid for is basically a plastic bread maker thing with a arm that spins, instead of dough, you are spinning and turning custard into ice cream.
The plus side to these are they are cheap, and they work. Down side is you can make 1 batch and the bowl is done for until refreeze. The motor in some of these are also weak and prone to break.
2 - the second kind are the expensive kind, Gaggia makes he best home one no the market, it fluctuate between £200 to £300 on Amazon. It has a compressor built in so it is heavy and once it is in place, it doesn't like being moved because if you move it, you disturb the coolant inside which means you can't use for 24 hours. Once in place though, if you switch it on at the wall, after 15 mins the bowl in it is cold enough to make ice cream.
The plus side to these are you can make as much as you like, on the moment without planning ahead to put the bowl in the freezer. If you don't have lots of freezer space then option 1 will never work. The down side is costs and you need a worktop space for it to be there almost permanently.
I got the Gaggia, don't buy it to save money, buy it because you want to experiment with flavours, make ice cream of your dreams, you will never make your money back making your own, a tub of double cream will cost you £1' plus flavours ingredients like a bar of 80% cocoa is another £1, plus electricity, plus sugar, eggs and a shot of vodka (cheap) to act as a conductor it actually cost the same if not more to a tub of Ben & Jerry's.
However, there is nothing like fresh ice cream, you can't buy fresh ice cream anywhere.
The other plus is you can make ice cream as healthy as you want, replace full fat cream and milk with half fat, use real ingredients, not syrup for flavours, it's fun and addictive.
