ALDI Lumina Ice Cream Maker

That’s okay – I bought this ice cream maker for a year already and it’s ok as you can actually make ice cream from that. But the thing is you have to buy all the ingredients before making ice cream and you have to freeze it after that. I think is actually kind of waste of time but one thing that is good is that you can mix whatever flavour as you like:)  Show details

Following instructions exactly still does not work – The Ice Cream does not freeze or set even when you follow the instruction perfectly. The instruction are simple and specific - still does not work. I suspect the idea is that it's so cheap people wont bother taking it back. Get what you pay for I guess. I am goin to spend $200+ and get somethinng decent. Another ALDI appliance that is terrible, I won't shop there anymore.  Show details

The best money you can spend! – It is an excellent machine!.. The icecream comes out very creamy, like the best ice cream you can get!.. Because of this fine and creamy consistency, anything you add to the ice cream, like berries and cocoa powder, blends in nice and smoothly. It is compact, but inexpensive, easy to clean and it has been working well after about 50-70 ice creams… Read more

we made in it. My husband was concerned that one day it could go and because we could not find another one in Aldi, we decided to buy another brand, which was a bit more expensive. However, the consistency of the ice cream in the more expensive machine is not nearly as creamy.. It is more ice than cream, like a sorbet... I am back to the lumina and loving it!..

Junk--Do Not Buy – I have made homemade ice cream for 40+ years. The engine started to struggle with only 4 inches of ice and salt in it. As soon as the ice cream started to thicken, the lid moved, but the can stopped . The design is that a bump on the lid makes the can turn. The bump is very slight. As soon as there is any resistance, the lid moves, but the can… Read more

will not move. this makes it that you will eventually have frozen mixture on the can and juice on the inside, but not whipped, which is the purpose of the paddles.

We ended up throwing away the ice cream mixture, along with the ice cream maker. If you want to waste $25 on a mixer and your ice cream mixture, this one is for you.

Aldi does it again!!! Lumina, compact and works well... worth buying – Aldi always seem to sell at good prices and backup their products with good warranties. this little beauty works fine but don't try large recipes... it can really only just do a litre and in my experience it is essential to chill your ice cream (or other) mix down quite a lot in the fridge before attempting to churn the final product. … Read more

Cleaning is easy and storage is compact. Electronics are good and simple with a timer that alerts when churning has stopped.

I used lite cream and achieved good results but found most recipes included too much sugar...as a rule halve the amount of sugar asked for.

Only con. was it refused to work with more than a litre. Just wouldn't thicken... maybe the lite cream had something to do with it.

Great little starter – I managed to purchase this machine on special at Aldi for a song! we have made raspberry frozen yoghurt- worked perfectly- although one problem the ice cream disappears too quickly after its made!! :) It was a little noisy but the excited children drowned out any noise from the machine! Cheap! Made icecream- No problems Some of the icecream in the corners didnt mix properly but all in all I would recommend!!

Excellent machine for a little price – This machine is wonderful in summer! I have made many types of ice cream and sorbet and it never fails me. Wonder why there's so many bad reviews, could it be that some people didn't do it properly? The only flaw is that recipes from the manual are not detailed enough, but we could always look up for some other great recipes from the internet.… Read more

Overall, very happy with the product! Very reliable, compact, easy to clean Recipes from manual are not detailed enough

Not perfect, but a good trial machine – I bought one of these At Aldi as I've never used an ice-cream maker before. Rather than spend big initially, it seemed a good idea to first try one out at a reasonable cost. It does take a bit of getting used to, but the only real downside is making sorbets. The wetter the mixture, the less likely it is to freeze adequately. It's fine for any… Read more

cream based mixtures though. All in all, a useful little machine for very little outlay. Just a word of advice - freeze the bowl overnight rather than the 8 to 10 hours recommended by instructions. small, compact, cheap very noisy, no good for sorbets

Good value. Works great – It wasn't the best quality (nothing is these days ;) but for $25 it's pretty good value. The mixing paddle's a bit flimsy and the motor's noisier than you'd expect - not loud but not silent. Mixing bowl does the job - just stick it in the freezer overnight then mix up the ice cream mixture, pour & churn. Tried several recipes successfully. … Read more

Doesn't make a huge amount but that's probably a good thing ;) (makes about 500mls). If you want something cheap go for it - otherwise shell out a couple of hundred for a quality IC maker w/ a compressor.

Hope this helps :) Cheap

Rubbish took it back – Purchased for Xmas, the instructions said to freeze bowl for 8 hours. Did not work. Froze bowl for 24 hours and put the mixture in the freezer for 2 hours before putting in the machine. Still did not work. No point of having a machine if you can only use it once a week because it takes that lone for the bowl to get cold enough to work! Aldi refunded the money no problems does not work as stated in the instruction book

won't freeze or thicken – Got this product for xmas today.. followed instructions strictly .. ran for 20 mins , nothing thickened or froze, ran another 20 mins ..same result ,ran a further 20 mins still liquid! now it's in the freezer for a 1.5 lt capacity the ingreds in recipe were lucky to get 1/2 soup bowl of ice cream .. disappointed. price followed all directions & recipe in booklet .after an hour it's still liquid, froze bowl for 9 hours before use as directed.

A badly designed piece of junk! – I decided to try the Lumina ice cream maker from Aldi after I dropped the bowl for my Crazy Scoops ice cream maker( by Breville) and it cracked. What a disaster and waste of my so hardly earned money. I used it for a few months but as the Lumina Ice Cream Maker model has got the motor on top of the machine, every time my mixture of ice cream was… Read more

over 1 liter, some ice cream would get into the motor. It was also very tricky to clean it without allowing water to get into the motor. After a while it became smelly from mixture that had got into the motor and I had to get rid of it. Didn't even bother taking it back because I was too upset to politelly explain why I had to take their junk back. Inexpensive and compact in size. Poor performance, the motor had not much power to churn the paddle that would get stuck quite often when churning dairy ice cream, in summer the bowl would get defrost before the ice cream could reach the right consistency

OK – If you want to try home icecream making and are not sure it is a hobby you will stick at, then I think this is ok as a starting a new hobby level product. For serious home chefs go for something with a built in freezing element. It is small so it doesn't need much bench space and it does the job at an affordable price. I would have had to pay 3x… Read more

as much to get a similar level product from Sunbeam or antoher reputable brand. It makes a tasy lemon sorbet. Doesn't freeze the icecream very solid. You need tot freeze the inner champer in advance for 24 hours which means a bit of pre-planning. It was a bit fiddly at first putting all the components together.

Worked well first time, but then – I bought this one because I wanted to try out making icecream before investing in an expensive one, and the first batch i made worked very well, but the second time it didn't freeze all the way, and the third one, it just stopped turning after a few minutes. So now I have to take it back - at least it has the warranty and is returnable straight… Read more

away... but a bit of a bummer that it stopped after only one time. Didn't expect it to be the best machine, but... Takes up little room, easy to clean, cheap The freezing time and it stopped working!

Basic but effective product – I purchased this not expecting great things due to the price. I have never owned an ice cream maker before but am having a lot of fund with it. Note that it tends to overheat after about 30 minutes - most recipes will only take about 20 minutes to make though, so this is not a problem. Don't try and make two consecutive lots of ice cream - the… Read more

second lot will not freeze as the bowl will be too warm by then. pop it back in the freezer for another few hours - it needs to be cold enough that when you touch the inside you finger sticks to it. This is a good introduction to ice cream making if you have not done it before. Good price - does what it says Only makes about 3 cups of ice cream at a time

Terrible – The price is low enough that some people will not bother to take it back. I'll take mine back it does not do the job it is supposed to do. Easy to use and put together, but only if it works For no reason at all and whilst the medium is nowhere near icy, it just stops after working for 30 minutes. It is a toy and a paddle made of flimsy plastic tells all it is not at all serious, buy your ice cream or pay more for a proper one.

Bad – ice cream takes very long to freeeze. but it may be not bad at all for yoghurts and sorbets. perhaps a different freezing agent may help cheaper, simple the rotor moves slow - icecream takes long to freeze

Excellent – its easy to use and one of my favorite things to make in it is frozen yogurt all you have to do is put a tub of whichever flavor you want and it is really nice it also came with some good recipes in the instructions. its really simple to use and it freezes it pretty fast and if you need to freeze it a bit more you can change the amount of time you… Read more

want to use it for plus it was pretty cheap you have to freeze the inner bowl which takes a while and sometimes the ice cream isn't completely frozen so you have to put that in the freezer for a while

OK – Our ice cream turned out more like sorbet, as we put in frozen berries, instead of fresh, so there was prob.too much water in the bowl. Still, it was delicious, and lovely and cool on our really hot days. would like to see some more recipes,the book only gave out 3, plus sorbets and yoghurt. will try again for real ice cream - this time with… Read more

fresh berries ! easy to use, great for making that special flavour need to plan well ahead, as have to freeze inner before you can use it. (takes up unnecessary space in the freezer as well !!)