Nostalgia Snow Cone Shaved Ice Machine - Makes 20 Icy Treats - Includes 1 Reusable Plastic Cup - Retro Red

I found comparing the various models available on the site a bit overwhelming, and ended up getting this "RSM702" in May 2017 mostly on it's seemingly small footprint and the excellent video another purchaser provided.May write a long/boring explanation later, but here are some of the highlights.==============================================================DOES IT WORK: Yes! (RSM702 circa May 2017.. Cannot speak for past or future revisions)DOES IT MAKE FLUFFY SNOW: No, not really. It is thicker than snow you find blowing about in drifts, etc.WHAT DOES IT MAKE: Large-ish snow "crystals" like you might find on your windshield by the wipers. Thicker than "fluffy drift-snow".DOES IT TAKE "FREEZER" ICE CUBES: Yes. But you are supposed to "let them sit" a bit to "melt/soften" them first.HOW MANY CUBES CAN FIT INSIDE: Instructions say 4-5 but can hold more. I was using 6, but was still room for more in the bowl.HOW LONG DID IT TAKE TO "CUT UP" THE ICE: Less than 30 seconds, but there is always some "ice residue" left behind.HOW DOES IT PROCESS ICE: There are 3 plastic "fins" in the bowl that spin and force the cubes over a small blade located in the front of the unit. This cuts the ice into little bits which fall down a hole near the blade and out the nozzle in the front.DOES IT HAVE AN ON/OFF SWITCH: No. You "turn the lid" to lock the lid in place which starts the plastic fins spinning. Unlock to turn off.IS THE "CONE HOLDER" REMOVABLE: Yes. It is held on by plastic pegs and comes "reversed" inside the bottom of the unit for shipping. You can leave it there if you want and just use a glass or something to hold the cones. Or use a bowl, etc.IS IT "LOUD": Depends on the person, but I would say yes. Inexpensive item = no sound insulation.DIMENSIONS: 7 3/4" depth; 7" width; 12" height.CORD LENGTH: About 31" not counting the plug.POWER: Varies. Says 30w on the unit. Kill-o-Watt showed it "peaked" at 27w as it began to grind into six cubes, but quickly dropped down to the mid-teens as the ice was processed away. If you let the blades spin while it's empty, the unit whirs along at 7.8 watts.WHAT IS IT MADE OF: Mostly plastic and phillips-head screws, along with the metal cutting blade of course. It has rubber suction cups on the bottom to "hold it" to a surface. Unfortunately the cups don't hold to the glass tray I am using, so will have to improvise.WHY IS CLEANUP A DOWNSIDE: There is a gap between the Plastic Fins and the surface of the bowl where the ice cubes sit. It is not a tight contact like between windshield wipers and a winshield, so a small amount of ice will always be left behind in the bowl since the fins cannot force all the crystals down the hole by the blade. Additionally some leftover ice may be found clumped inside the nozzle itself, but this can be knocked down with a sppon or something. The fins may also shoot bits-o-ice up between the lid and the top of the bowl, so there might be bit-o-ice clustered just under the lid.The trick is this - as this unit is All One Piece you cannot take it apart (without a screwdriver) so there will be bits-o-ice left inside the top of the unit after each use. Best way to cope with this is to place a bowl or something under the nozzle and let the remaining ice melt/drip it's way out. Once the ice residue has melted, you can dry what water is left in the bowl/lid area with a cloth/towel/etc. Just always be careful of where the blade is. The instructions say that there will be some water dripping out the nozzle after each use, and states "this is normal".Note: If you move the unit while water is still around the top, it could shift and drip inside the rest of the unit. So try to make sure the top area is dry before moving/tilting it. "Cleaning" is just moving a cloth around the fins and such. Unless you have at it with a screwdriver, looks like no way to clean the individual parts.Unrelated: There are some more expensive "all metal" units that appear to be able to grind up over a hundred pounds of ice without a care, and these have a blade which can be adjusted (screwdriver?) to allow thinner cuts and I guess, make "fluffy snow ice". These units are also All One Piece so cleaning is still just moving a cloth around. The all metal unit is also larger and I went with the RSM702 to save on countertop space. Finally I have just a regular freezer for making ice cubes, so unless I buy bags-and-bags of ice from a store, would never have over a hundred pounds of ice to process. I did process three groups of six-cubes-each to make a bowl full of ice, and all seemed well. I left another small bowl under the nozzle to catch the drips and came by later with a cloth after the ice residue had melted.Back Story: For two years I had been using a 2008-era Model X hand blender with chopper attachment to crush ice. I would stuff the chopper attachment with ice cubes and grind away. It would make "fluffy snow" ice but would also leave sizable pieces of ice untouched. Then the plastic gears in the chopper and blender itself started to fail, and finally died. Did some reading after the fact and learned that "can crush ice" translates in English to "can crush ice THAT HAS BEEN PRE-CRUSHED BY SOMETHING ELSE FIRST." So opted to get something that alleged to crush non-precrushed ice, and ended up getting the RSM702. Also ended up getting a low tech hand blender for simple mixing as the more sophisticated 2017-era models all have an annoying safety switch on top.

Cumplió mis expectativas, mis nietos han disfrutado su granizado

I love this. It makes enough to put into my iced tea, and it is nice and cold.

Overall the machine shaves the ice just fine, but if I had to purchase another machine it would not he this one. The machine seems sturdy overall except for the cup holder which is plastic. It also proved useless since the ice does not shoot toward it. The bottom has four suction cups which worked extremely well to attach to my cabinet, so well in fact I thought we were going to break them trying to remove it from the counter. I suggest you put the machine inside of a shallow baking pan or cookie sheet to keep the melting ice contained. When it grinds the ice, everything shoots out the left side of the bottom spout which makes it annoying to fill a cup or cone and completely misses the cone holder they designed for it. How the ice comes out I can get used to but the biggest issue for me is how you turn the machine on. You put the ice in the top and put the plastic cover on. You then have to turn that cover to the left and click the cover in place to start the machine. It is almost not a one handed operation to use this machine. Holding a cone and turning on or off is difficult. Most of the time I even up make more of a mess trying to turn the machine off. I would rather prefer a button or toggle switch to that. Because of the lid feature it does ensure that fingers stay out of the blades. Maybe after more use it won’t be so difficult to turn, but it is at least something to consider when purchasing an ice machine.

Buena comprar

It definitely is a pretty cool machine and can make nice shaved ice. I am pretty skeptical on how long this will last since it is made of 90% plastic and the parts seem a little flimsy. Looking down in the ice chute, the only metal thing I see is the blades. Those blades could snap off the plastic that’s holding them in place. I’d probably give this 4 starts if it were built a bit stronger, but you get what you pay for.

Lo recivi gracia

Here’s what I like: 1. you can use ice cubes right from your freezer instead of waiting to freeze water in a mold (like some other snowcone makers require) 2. It shreds the ice pretty quickly 3. It’s lightweight 4. Affordable 5. It does the jobDrawbacks (but no dealbreaker for me): 1. Some ice is shaved and some is crunchy 2. It bounces like crazy, so you have to hold it down while it’s shredding the ice 3. I don’t use the cone holder because I don’t have cones, and they would fall off anyway during the bouncing 4. You slide the lid of the ice container to turn on/off the grinder - this isn’t easy if you also have to hold the machine still because of all the bouncingMy verdict: I can manage the bouncing, and I love having snow ones at home, so I’m not sending it back