Sunbeam Snack Heroes GL5500

Follow the instructions and it works – This is a great machine that will produce fantastic results when used properly. It is unfair for people to post bad reviews unless they have followed the directions exactly. It worked first time for me, making the vanilla ice cream in the recipe book supplied. I have yet to experiment with other recipes but looking forward to experimenting!  Show details

Yes, it Does Work – The first three attempts I made were shocking, they were a sloppy mess, I was on the verge of returning the machine when I decided to give it ONE last shot. First, I understand the recipes provided are vague but follow the video exactly. [link removed] After making the custard, strain the mixture, then allow to cool right down. Put the mixture… Read more ·  1

in the freezer until it begins to freeze (lumps of ice cream will form), it must be cold and on the edge of freezing! The freezer bucket must be in the deep freezer for 2-4 days at least! If your freezer only gets to -10c you probably might not get this to work unless you almost freeze your mixture.

As soon as the mixture in your freezer starts to form solid lumps of ice cream, put the machine together, turn it on, and slowly pour the mixture in! It makes ice cream in less than 15 minutes if the mixture is super cold (if lumps have not formed, it isn't cold enough!)

Like I said before, I was prepared and ready to return the machine until I found this video and I followed it exactly. Once you get that down, you can probably start doing crazy things like adding chocolate or something.

It does work, you just need to near-freeze your mixture, or it is too hot! And don't use egg whites! You must use the yolks only! Caster sugar works fine, I haven't actually tried with regular sugar, I used full-cream milk 1 cup, and 1 1/2 cups thickened cream, 1/2 cup sugar (half in eggs, half in cream), and a tablespoon of vanilla extract. Heat the mixture but do not boil it, use a ladle to temper the eggs, add egg mixture to saucepan, low heat stir constantly until thickens up, strain it, chill it!!

It works. If you cannot get it to work, you're doing something wrong

I am editing this review Dec 6th 2015 - I have been making about 1 batch every month or so since I got it to work, and have YET to fail. After I chill the mixture I place it in the freezer (as I stated earlier) until the lumps form. This can take up to one hour, sometimes more, sometimes less, but the mixture drops to about -2C give or take, I stir the lumps back into the mixture, and let it set further - only until the mixture begins to start to freeze quickly do I churn the mixture. Another review said the machine stopped working after 1 hour - I churn my mixture for 20 minutes MAX but the ice cream is done usually after as little as 10 minutes. Your mixture is TOO HOT if you get a sloppy mess or your freezer bucket is not cold enough - or both! If you get a sloppy mess or fail to make ice cream after just 15 minutes - pour the mixture back out, throw it in the fridge - clean your bucket and put it back into the DEEP FREEZE for a few more days and try it again. I don't bother with salt in my mixture half the time, I do nothing fancy.

I hope I have helped. But this machine DOES WORK, you need to get your mixture COLD for it to work! Just throwing somewhat-cool mixture into the bucket is just going to warm the bucket up!

Great – I bought this item a few days ago and I must admit that after reading all the bad reviews I was wishing that I hadn't bothered. Well I read them all very carefully and took heed of the advice give by someone who mentioned about making everything as cold as possible and embarked on my first effort yesterday. I made sure the bowl was as cold as… Read more

possible (2 full days in the freezer) and I made the egg custard mixture and left it in the fridge all afternoon and overnight. The bowl was so cold it was hard to hold but on my first effort I made the best ice cream I have ever tasted. The only negative I have is that it only makes 1 litre and that is not going to last long so I am off to make another mixture straight away. I think it is kind of expensive and a bit labour intensive but well worth the effort. Top marks from me,Sunbeam.

Don't waste your money!!! – To put it simply: It does not work! Do not bother with this one. Bowl frozen for long enough and even after 40 mins still not working. Sunbeam should be ashamed of themselves putting out this rubbish. I want an ice cream maker that works!

Not worth the time or money! – After carefully following the instructions, freezing the bowl for a couple of days, chilling the mixture, securing the lid on, making sure it was locked in place and starting the machine before pouring in the mixture through the pour hole, the ice cream making was working well for around 45 seconds. Then a couple of loud clunks and the lid lifted… Read more

up and the paddle froze in place. A thick layer of frozen mixture had built up on the inside walls and base of the machine. Frustrated, I tipped all of the mixture out and cleaned the machine, refroze the bowl because I had to use hot water to get the frozen layer off and prepared a new batch of mixture the following day. I followed all of the instructions again and the same thing happened.

I understand that this is a cheap "gimmick" ice-cream maker, but I thought Sunbeam had a good name! I have many Sunbeam appliances at home that work perfectly but this product isn't one of them! I would not recommend buying this one, spend the extra money and buy a better quality product!

very disappointed – I have had an excellent ice cream maker for years & never had a failure. The first batch i made didnt work & i had very disappointed children. decided to make another batch today, completely different recipe & once again it hasn't set. We have a lot of the sunbeam heroes products & all of them work perfectly!

Really disappointed! After being so excited to buy one – I purchased the snack hero ice cream maker so that I could make ice cream for my children and know what was in it. Really unhappy with the machine. I can't seem to get anything to even resemble ice cream, only on the egdes of the freezer bowl. I have followed both 1&2 of the basic vanilla ice cream recipes, the mixed berry sorbet and the vanilla… Read more

frozen yogurt recipe. . . It does not work, it only makes a sloppy mess. I have even tried a recipe with a stabilising powder in it and even that didn't work. I tried taking it to my work and using the blast freezer and it still didn't work. The worst part of this is that I can't return it to the shop that I bought it from as I have misplaced my receipt and I paid cash for it.

It has turned me off sunbeams products as I feel their advertising is somewhat deceiving.

Sadly, after wasting my time and money I am looking for a much better machine.

Not impressed – I've tried twice now to make the vanilla recipe, and I followed instructions precisely. When I put the cold custard mix into the machine it doesn't turn it into icecream, it's still a sloppy custard even after 40 minutes of churning. I have been putting the freezer bowl in the freezer, and have left it there for a few days so it's definitely frozen!! So annoying Doesn't actually make icecream!

How is this meant to work? – I got the Sunbeam Snack Heroes Ice Cream Maker for Christmas- I read over the instructions a couple of times and the preparation of the custard is very intimidating. I finally just decided to make a smoothie of sorts and see if we can get the machine to work- right now it is chugging, shaking and battling away- I'm not sure if it is working the… Read more

way it should, its very noisy- I tried looking online to see a visual demonstration of the machine but couldn't find one. Will see if the ice cream turns out- but so far its been messy, loud and time consuming. it was a Christmas present so it was free!! Sounds like it could be fun. would appreciate a visual aid on you tube to make sure I am using it properly- first time making ice cream is a bit scary.

Fabulous Machine – I used a recipe from my mother as I am a bit lazy. I beat 4 egg whites with half a cup of sugar and half a tsp of vanilla essence and when showing peaks added 300 ml of beaten cream. It is a bit fiddly to get into the machine but I use a spoon and a spatula. Leave to churn 40 minutes and then beautiful icecream. Next time I am going to add some… Read more

fruit (maybe crushed strawberries lightly cooked with a little sugar) just before finishing. This time I have just put in a batch of plain vanilla with my 3 year old grandson who thought it was great fun to make. I had warned him at the start that it would then take a while to churn until ready to eat. We are planning on eating it for dessert tonight. Wonder if it will last that long!! It makes fabulous icecream just like it says. Initially I did not read the instructions carefully and did not realise it might take 40 minutes before being ready., which it did!

Good device – I bought this device a couple of weeks ago and have only just tried it out. I did the original vanilla Ice cream recipe that came with the machine. I put the freezer bowl in the deep freeze that I have for about two days, just to make sure that it was well frozen. I made the mixture and also keep that in the fridge for two days. Everything was… Read more

really cold, which the instructions specify for you to do. I then did the ice cream and found that it made it perfectly. I also made the yogurt ice cream and that was also great. For the money it is a great ice cream maker. Made great Ice cream Could have had a bigger freezer bowl and was a bit noisy

Only ever partially freezes – I received this for a birthday present a few months a go, and was really looking forward to using it, having owned an iceream maker in the past before the freezing disk in it perished making it unuseable. Into the freezer went the bowl for a few days to ensure a complete freeze. I picked a simple recipe and went about preparing it. After… Read more

letting the mixture cool in the fridge for 3-4 hours I poured it in to the machine and started it up. Thirty minutes later I had a look at it and it was still very sloppy, so I let it keep running until it turned itself off aftera total of 40 minutes. The icecream never rose over the beaters. I poured (not spooned!) it into a container and it was full of little ice crystals, but there was still some unfrozen liquid present. It had the consistecy of very sloppy softserve, only not as smooth. After leaving it in the freezer overnight, it had set hard. On eating it, it was evident the freezing was uneven as the ice crystals made the icecream's texture unpleasant.

Other batches yeilded similar unfrozen results, even after cooling the mixture in the freezer for 4 hours before putting it in the machine. I even left out vanilla essence in some batches in case it was the alcohol content effecting the freeze.

The instructions say that the liquid in the bowl should be fully frozen before making icecream. The strange thing is, even shaking the bowl before freezing it, I can't hear any liquid sloshing inside.

It doesn't freeze the mixture

Lame Device – Seriously, I'm very disappointed with this product. I was weighing up whether the Cuisinart alternative was worth the extra money and starting to feel now that it probably was. What made things worse is that I got the last one the store had, so no instruction booklet was supplied. For the most part, all I've done is waste a lot of time and ingredients. I had more success making Ice Cream Before I purchased this....

Is it meant to be so noisy? – My Children received this as a gift for Christmas, and were extremely excited to use it last night, but as I too discovered, the process is quite involved and not as simple as just making them some icecream. I've made a basic vanilla mix, and am currently using it, but the machine is thrashing about, and quite noisy. Is this meant to be the case?… Read more

The mixture does appear to be freezing though. What other icecream makers do you sell sunbeam that perhaps take less time, and are not so loud to use? That I know what is going into my kids icecream. Loud, long process and too much effort for a small result

Terrible – This is a terrible product. for starters it isn't a a maker, all it does is churn the ice cream. There is a huge messy process that goes in before putting it in the machine that gives it a bit of a stir. Then, the final blow is it doesn't even work!. When you turn it on the lid lock isn't strong enough and it clicks out of place every time. Also… Read more

the bowl is to small for the stirrer so it gets wedged in and can't move which adds to the lid problem. nothing everything. cheap useless product.

I don't get it – I was very excited to receive this gift.. but having used it today I don't really understand the difference in using the machine versus just putting the mixture into the freezer without churning it. The machine seems to work correctly but it is a very long process to make normal vanilla icecream, after having made the mixture, the mixture then… Read more

needs to be chilled for 4 ~ 6 hours before it can be put into the freezer canister (which has to be pre-frozen for 22 hours before making the icecream) ! the mixture did seem to grow but did not freeze and therefore is now in the freezer anyway to harden! so I'm just not getting the point. It's cute! seems like a good idea ... We used so many dishes transferring from one to the other - going exactly by the recipe in the instruction booklet that comes with it.