Bulbs & Fittings Ideas

I'm really in to snow cones. I've had a few snow cone makers over the years, one nice industrial one for a snack bar I did as a kid, and several small residential ones purchased from big box retailers. This one is my favorite, easily worth the extra or over the cheap ones.
1. Ice quality: The ice this one makes is on par with the industrial one, and heads and shoulders above the cheaper household ones from Rival. No big chunks, just fine grains of ice. Not as fine as shaved ice, but probably the best ice you'll get from machines that work with regular ice cubes rather than frozen cylinders. For me, the convenience of using regular ice is worth it.
2. Durability (also see update below): I've had it only for a few months, but it seems pretty durable so far - it survived a fall out of my car just fine. My niece owns the same one and she uses it for a small snack bar, it's been going on heavy use for two years. There is a warning on the top that says "do not use for more than 5 minutes at a time" - but I used it for over an hour at a big party with 60+ people in 110 degree heat and it was the star of the show.
3. Ease of use: My biggest complaint is that locking the lid into place is what turns the machine on and off. I wish I could have it on with the lid off so I could just keep putting ice in it as it turned. This is probably by design to stop people from running it too long and/or slicing their fingers off. Not worth taking off a star.
4. Noise: It's noisy, but no more than I expected. Maybe just a tiny bit noisier than the cheap ones, about on par with other kitchen appliances like a blender or a mixer. Maybe this would be a factor if your kitchen was right by a baby's room, but with our baby's room upstairs I don't hesitate to use it while he's asleep.

It came with two plastic snow cone cups, one was cracked out of the box. I was just going to throw them away anyway. I kind of like the little scooper that comes with it for getting the ice out of the corners. The little snow cone holders on the side seem flimsy, but they've held up so far and they're kind of handy when you need to put one somewhere while you do something else.

I make my own syrup out of kool-aid - it's cheaper and better than store-bought. You just add 2 cups of sugar to one cup of water, bring it to a boil, let it boil for one minute, then add the flavor packet. There's some delicious kool-aid flavors out there - besides the regular orange/lemon lime/grape/cherry/strawberry, I like watermelon cherry, pineapple, peach mango, tropical punch, and watermelon kiwi.

tl;dr - if you're considering this item because you've tried other, cheaper snow cone makers like the ones at Wal-Mart and haven't been satisfied with the quality, this is the machine for you. It's affordable, reliable, and produces great snow cones.

Update: I've had the snow cone maker for just under a year, and the first big issue has come up. There is a locking mechanism that keeps the ice chutes connected to the part with the blades. You can turn a little knob to unlock them and take the two apart, I assume this is to enable easier cleaning. After a year of moderate to heavy usage, this locking mechanism broke or loosened somehow and the two pieces would come apart whenever we tried to shave any ice. I ended up just gluing the locking cap into place with some regular gorilla glue. The unit works great again, although it's no longer possible to clean those two parts individually. I'm tempted to take off a star, but since the fix was easy, the machine made a LOT of snow cones (I'd guess around 500), and I'd still buy it again if this unit goes out completely, I'll keep it at five stars.

I have had this machine for 2 years, you can make enough ice to make about 10-12 snow cones in about 5 minutes. The kids love it! It draws every kid in the neighborhood to our house. easy to use, easy to clean up.

This snow cone machince is the best out there. I use it everyday- multiple times a day! And it works lovely. It grinds large amount in mins! I highly recommend it for large familys and ice lovers! <3