Nostalgia Snow Cone Shaved Ice Machine - Retro Table-Top Slushie Machine Makes 20 Icy Treats - Includes 2 Reusable Plastic Cups & Ice Scoop - White

It works better than I thought it! I thought it would make ice that resembles hail like ice, but the machine actually makes snow like ice. It’s sooo good and fun to eat!☺️ You only need a few ice cubes to fill up a full cup of snow like ice😮‍💨 10/10

The media could not be loaded. It works great. Crushes the ice with no problem. Try not to use to big of pieces of ice but it is definitely a 10/10

Love it, small & easy to use and clean. Kids love it.. Get yours for the summer

As a special treat for my son's third birthday carnival, and because it was reasonably priced, I purchased this snow cone machine as another snack for guests, but not only that, it's got the quaint nostalgic look to it which is so appealing to vintage me.I had high hopes for this unit based on other reviews both on Amazon and other websites, and I am happy to report it did not disappoint me. As you can see in my picture, it's a nice sized unit. At the height of running it, I think we managed six or more snow cones, and that did not even fill the chamber but was merely because I didn't want the ice to melt before all the guests were ready to enjoy it. You could definitely fill it with way more shaved ice if you're entertaining loads of people at the moment. Do not let the shaved ice sit long because it melts so much faster than whole cubes, and you'll be left with a fish tank--that's not really a failure of the unit, but it is more strategy than anything else.You twist the lid off the top of the machine to find the grinder for the cubes of ice. As a safety measure, the grinder can only be operated if the lid is on and locked. Filling the little "fan blades" with several cubes of ice maker ice or chips from a store bought bag yields about two snow cones worth of ice (less if you pack it tight with a nice ball scoop). This is the only part of the machine I have trouble with. Perhaps certain kinds of cubes yield better results, but we used ice maker ice (the half-rounded kind that looks like a little boat) or store bought ice, and in both cases, the first few rounds of the blades carved it up pretty quickly and efficiently, but as the chamber empty and the ice gets sparse, it stops grinding the few cubes left and just spins and makes a loud racket. There's no way to "press" or force the ice against the metal shaver, and you have to either manual remove the leftover cubes from the blades or let it melt onto the shaved ice below. Kind of an inefficient system in that respect. Does it cut what ice it can reach well? Definitely, just like a traditional snow cone stand. Does it get it all? Not on your life. The system is also very loud in operation, which I understand, louder than a blender, but just know it can be disruptive at a party as it was at mine.The unit comes with a flat scoop like you would find at a candy store. I wish it had a round scope to get the beautiful domes pictured in the listing, but it doesn't affect functionality or taste, just a matter of aesthetics.The stand to hold the cones is cute and functional while you're filling the scoop, but you can't easily fill a cone while it's in a stand. It's better to use the stand as an extra pair of hands and then pick it up to fill it.The wheel is stationary, so don't try to turn it or you can damage the unit.All in all, this snow cone maker was an absolute hit of the party and we made dozens and dozens of them throughout the day. It's extremely cute and very nostalgic, and it works great with a few minor issues. I don't regret my purchase one bit. I have used it twice since the party for both family desserts and boozy snow cones for an adult night in.

This thing is great. I bought it while I was in college just for fun, I had a little extra money. I was skeptical at first because it was pretty cheap, I only thought it would last a little bit, but this thing is a TANK. I use it almost every day, it’s super super easy to use, the ice is very consistent and it’s just a cute look! One thing that shocked me is how airtight the cage is. I’ll forget to clean it sometimes and all the ice will melt, but it will never drip out. You take the top part off and throw a towel in it and it’s clean. Super easy. Ive taken it to a few friends grad parties and made snow cones and it just powers through with no problems. You can make about 4-5 snow cones in one go. They recommend not using it for more than 5 minutes consistently but I haven’t hade any issues with that. One issue I continue to run into is the ice won’t push down onto the blades. The first few times it was pretty annoying but I figured out if you just push down on the chamber it works perfectly. But overall the value for the money is amazing. I would’ve guessed it was about $200. Only problem is the ice not pushing down by itself and the fact that it’s a little smaller.

When my son first said he wanted sno cones at 5th birthday party, I thought, "Oh, great!" We have a little hand crank toy/machine that actually works fairly well for what it is, but it takes so long to even make one cone! So, I looked into renting a machine.I could have rented an industrial-sized sno cone maker (the kind you see at fairs) locally for $40, but I'd have had to pick it up and return it during business hours and still get all my own supplies, including syrups from them in gallon quantities. But, I was thinking, I'd do it anyway because it was my son's only birthday request aside from a green lantern cake.But, then I got on Amazon and found that we could own this well-reviewed machine for less than the cost to rent it! So, I bought it.It worked wonders! We served at least 20 large sno cones in the same number of minutes...that includes the time it took each kid to decide on which flavor(s) they wanted. It exceeded my expectations.We used bagged ice and we let the ice melt for a bit to become translucent as suggested. And, in fact, found that pulling ice from the cooler where we'd stored drinks worked exceptionally well. I think when we make them at home next we'll pull ice out of the freezer (ice cube trays) and put a little water over it before using.The machine isn't soundless, but I also didn't think it was too loud. Operation is easy - you only have to turn the plastic cover - kind of like some blenders I've seen that won't operate without the cover on, so it turns it into a safety feature at the same time. Also, the bucket holds a fair amount of ice.The whole white top comes off so it's easy to remove excess water/ice when you're ready to clean up. The little scoop that comes with worked out fine, but I ended up using my hands a lot to pile and shape the sno cones.I didn't really want to store another gadget, but I'd rather have this taking up place than the hand-crank machine that I have to throw all my weight into. This stays, the other one goes!