Customer Ratings & Reviews

Full Disclosure: I received this product through Best Buy’s Tech Insider Network in exchange for a fair evaluation and an unbiased review. Without knowing what to expect, I was very excited to finally receive my Ninja CREAMi Ice Cream Maker in the mail a few days ago because homemade ice cream brings back pleasant childhood memories for me. Unboxing the CREAMi was easy. It was well packaged (triple-boxed actually) and secure, yet easy to remove all parts and packaging from box. The box contained the Ninja CREAMi machine, 1-paddle blade, 1-outer bowl with lid, 3-pint containers with lids, safety manual, quick start guide, and a recipe book. The CREAMi has a countertop footprint about the size of an average coffee maker. There is no assembly required, just plug it in and once your ingredients are frozen you are ready to process. It is very heavy for its size. An indication that it is well-built using quality materials. Heft means a lot to me. Ninja CREAMi works differently than the ice cream makers you're probably used to seeing. This is not just a new way to crank creamed ingredients inside salted ice. In fact, it doesn't use ice or even salt for that matter. Basically, you freeze your ingredients ahead of time then use the Ninja CREAMi to process them into ice cream, sorbet, sherbert, and so on. The only downside to this concept is that it takes a little preplanning on your part to freeze the ingredients. For our family that didn't seem to be a big deal and the results are well worth it. Nothing has to be pre-cooked either for it to be creamy as silk. The CREAMi works by using the strong paddle blade and powerful motor to quickly process any pre-frozen, base recipe. The average recipe takes less than five minutes to process once it is frozen completely. Because the CREAMi has settings for ice cream, sorbet, sherbert, gelato, milkshakes, and smoothies the combination of ingredients and textures that you can come up with is virtually limitless. I have made chocolate ice cream, fresh blueberry ice cream, and fresh peach ice cream so far and all have turned out delicious. I have used a combination of milk, cream, half-&-half, and fresh fruit, all of which turned out very creamy and delicious. To make a shake yesterday, I used the ice cream setting first then immediately reprocessed it with the milkshake setting and ended up with the creamiest chocolate shake we've ever tasted. This machine is a lot of fun. If a full pint is not consumed it can be placed back in the freezer with the lid on and eaten another day. It can also be re-leveled with a spoon, re-frozen, and re-processed again making it smoother and creamier every time. I would definitely recommend this workhorse of a machine for many reasons, but the best reasons are that it is easy to use, fun, and so simple to clean. A few thoughts: The Ninja CREAMi is best suited for the small to medium family who would enjoy old-time ice cream flavor without all the work and mess of crank machines. However, you could buy extra pint containers for larger families, groups, parties, or for just having a variety of flavors on hand. This device is going to be a godsend for those with serious dietary restrictions such as dairy free, gluten free, egg free, nut free, etc. It would seem that if you can freeze any safe ingredients (like coconut milk or almond milk) you can make an allergy-free, specialty ice cream for that dietary restricted loved one in your family. All you'd have to do is try it with ingredients you know you can trust. The instructions cautioned against using fresh fruit (just like the old-style, crank, salted-ice machines), but we went ahead anyway and made fresh blueberry ice cream and fresh peach ice cream and both came out even better that perfect. Actually they were both a little bit of heaven in July! If this new concept in making ice cream becomes a success for Ninja, I'm betting we'll see a quart-size version in a year or two. I hope anyway. Because in our family of five, a pint of this ice cream doesn't ever make it back into the freezer. Overall, my family and I found Ninja's CREAMi Ice Cream Maker to be an extremely well-engineered and well-built machine that makes a superior ice cream. We highly recommend it without any reservations whatsoever. For a final stamp of approval my 10-year old granddaughter said, "It's really yummy!" Well, there you go, kid tested and approved!

Ice Cream, Sorbet, Gelato, Milkshakes....the works! We've had a blast making our own flavors and experimenting with our CREAMi Ice Cream Maker. Is it cheaper than store bought? ...probably not, but you have complete control over the ingredients and that makes it well worth it considering our household has persons with a dairy allergy. To date we've made Lite Vanilla Ice Cream w/chocolate chips, Chocolate Ice Cream, Chocolate Milkshakes with mix-ins, Blueberry Pomegranate Sorbet, Cherry Pomegranate Sorbet, Peach Ice Cream, and Vanilla Cookie Dough Ice Cream. Each and every one has been quite tasty and we've stuck with doing dairy free versions of everything. We've used Oat Milk, Coconut Creme, and Vegan Cream Cheese for most recipes. We've used the Agave Nectar in favor of sugar in some cases as well. Even these dairy free alternatives have been good. I would wager the dairy versions would be fantastic!! The process is really quite simple, but don't confuse it for one of those old school ice cream machines that use salt and ice. This is very much something that require a bit of patience as they ask you to mix the ingredients and let it sit in the freezer for 24 hours before mixing. The only real misconception beyond that previously mentioned would be that carrying the Ninja name, you'd expect it to be able to blend things. Truth is they tell you to only use soft fruits as it is not a blender. So it limits you just a bit to canned and soft fruits. But there's still a recipe book of hundreds of choices. I would very much recommend this as it's fun for the whole fam making your own creations and being in control of the finished product. On top of that, it's much healthier too. Only con is that it only comes with 3 pint containers to start. Try it out today, you'll love it!

Commercial ice cream or sherbert are too sweet. Now I am able to eat my own low calorie ice cream. Thank you...

Great job for sorbet, gelato, ice cream, etc. A bit loud but necessary I suppose for the powerful motor.

Unboxing the Ninja CREAMi Ice Cream Maker, you’ll find the actual CREAMi appliance, the Creamerizer paddle, 3 pint containers with lids, the outer bowl and lid, and documentation. The CREAMi appliance itself is attractive but large, standing a full 16” tall. The entirety of the outside of the appliance is gray and black plastic with a membrane-style control panel. The bowls are stated to be BPA-free and are dishwasher safe, along with the paddle (metal construction), outer bowl, and lids, which is a huge plus for clean-up. Overall usage is well documented and easy to follow. Parts fit together well and logically. Included recipes use mostly standard ingredients found in most kitchens and can be put together in just a few minutes. Operation is a little loud, but not any more so than any other mixing appliance. All of this said, my results were a bit of a mixed bag. Treats such as ice cream, milkshakes or sorbet come out generally well, dependent largely on the ingredients you choose and assuming you follow the directions. But then there are issues like the fact that the paddle cannot reach the sides or bottom of the pints so there is always some material left unmixed. And pints that were not consumed immediately and were placed back in the freezer required additional processing but never quite regained that initial consistency. There is also a large, daunting list of DO NOTs to be aware of: ‘Do not’ freeze the pints at an angle, ‘Do not’ process frozen fruit or ice, etc. etc. At the end of the day, the Ninja CREAMi Ice Cream Maker is a niche product, but is fun for those who like to experiment and generally performs as it should.

Give for my wife for her She loves it a lot and she uses it everyday

This is more on me for not fully reading the description but I was expecting an appliance that actually made ice cream not one that churns or fluffs it. That said, the Ninja Creami does produce frozen treats with a very pleasant texture that I was unable to replicate with a blender or mixer. I was concerned at first that it would be just like any other blender but the Creami does make a much more consistent and airy texture compared to other appliances, not to mention it's more convenient and less messy. The build quality and engineering is great and it is kind of fun watching the blade descend and ascend as it mixes everything up. All the components fit together and lock into place nicely. It is also easy to clean as it makes little to no mess to begin with. The included booklet is full of great recipes and well laid out. The inclusion of three containers and lids is nice as you can have multiple flavors or treat types setting at once. Aside from my initial disappointment that this does not actually freeze the ice cream the unit does perform as advertised.

Not what I thought it would be ice cream was not as good as I thought it would be

This is my first Ninja product, and I have to say I am quite impressed. It comes with three empty pints that work with the machine, and a guidebook (since I didn’t know how ice cream is made). Set up is simple: Plug in the machine, load your frozen product into the machine, lock everything down and use the control panel to select what ever it is you froze. I love the milkshake function personally and it does well with texture and consistency. You can also add “mix ins” so almost any candies that would go well with Ice cream for that favorite ice cream treat from your favorite chain restaurant. Cleaning is easy since most of the components are dishwasher safe (I keep it all on the top rack). And it stores quite well on my kitchen counter and makes for an interesting conversation piece when asked about it. Now my only pain point is the noise. This thing is LOUD, so I don’t recommend trying to watch TV or listening to music while the machine is on. But it’s totally worth it when it’s done mixing and you have a cold ice cream treat to enjoy.

I bought this as a gift for my mom. She really likes it and loves the red color!

The new Ninja CREAMi makes some great ice cream and milkshakes. Everyone in my house agrees it makes fantastic ice cream. Using the included recipes I went to town on making some dark chocolate ice cream and now it is all my kids want. It is dead simple to use and easy to clean-up. It has all the hallmarks of a quality Ninja product. Why the 4 stars then? Well, the product leaves me scratching my head. First, once you mix the ingredients they must sit in the small mixing cups for 24 hours in the freezer first. So you need to preplan your ice cream. Generally, I want my ice cream the day I'm thinking about it and not plan for it the day before. When you couple the pre-planning with the fact that it makes 16oz batches at a time I am confounded by who exactly this product is for. It makes great, smooth, and creamy ice cream, but not enough for a family of 5 without making making multiple batches in advance. The milkshake option I get. I can throw some ice cream and milk in one of the mixing cups, throw the CREAMi into milkshake mode, and 'Voila!' an awesome thick milkshake. That said, my blender does a pretty bang up job too so I am not sure one would buy this with the express intent of just making milkshakes. Overall, I like it, but I can't say that I love it no matter how good the end product it makes is. Ninja might consider something scaled up in size a bit with someway to freeze the product on the fly. Maybe I just want my ice cream and eat it too. For a smaller family with patience the Ninja CREAMi is calling you.

We got this item looking into making home-made ice cream, something along the lines of a "pour in, ice cream out" type of experience. Not here! Once we got in to it, I was beginning to think, this not at all what I expected, this is a blender... But boy, was I wrong. Once you get this all set up and learn there is a little set up time involved, the end product is great! It comes with three-pint sized cups where you place all your ice cream "fixings" and freeze them over night or a couple of hours (seemed like 5 hours was enough). Once that was done, you load it into the CREAMi and about two minutes later, out comes very smooth ice cream! It also does milk shakes, sorbets and gelatos (didn't try that!). It has a mix-in feature so you can also build your own "Blizzard"... Easy to setup, easy to clean and simple to use. The only thing is you have to have the patience to plan ahead for what you want, as this is not an "instant" ice cream maker. Really looking forward to lots of great home-made ice cream for the rest of the summer... Now where is the whipped cream!

Me and my kiddos love this ice cream maker. It is so easy to use and the recipe book comes with a lot of different flavors for ice cream, sorbets and milk shakes. What a great idea! It comes with 3 different pint sized containers with lids. Unfortunately the 4 pack that is available on the Ninja website was sold out so we could not order more and the single pint was way to expensive compared to buying the 4 pack with lids. That was the only downfall. The only reason we wanted to buy more, even though it came with 3, is you have to freeze it for 24 hours before you can make the ice cream. You need more containers to hold the ice cream in after its made so you can make more. Not a really big deal, but it is nice to have extra containers. Other than that, the ice cream maker is pretty awesome! We love it. My son wants to make milk shakes all the time.

I'm loving my new Ninja - CREAMi Ice Cream Maker! It is really fun to try out different recipes and my family is loving all the new treats we are making with it! There are separate functions that allow you to make Ice Cream, Lite Ice Cream, Gelato, Sorbet, Smoothie Bowls and Milkshakes, plus there is an additional setting to allow you to add a mix-in to any of the above items. You can pretty much mix in anything, such as candy, cookies, fruit, or really anything you want to mix in. Between all the different flavors of the treats you can make and the variety of mix ins, there are literally hundreds of options, allowing everyone to customize their treats to what suits them. The machine itself is a sleek, modern looking unit, silver and black. The quick start guide made for very easy set-up and operation. There is also a book included with a ton of different recipes in it, and you can also go online to the Ninja Test Kitchen and there are many more recipes out there. There are so many good options to choose from! None of the recipes are difficult to make, but I would suggest reviewing the recipes and planning ahead for what you want to make, as the ingredients for some of the options are not all things you would likely keep around your house on a regular basis. Some recipes are made with common items, but some take unique items. You also need to plan ahead for your treats, as you need to make up your base recipes ahead of time and freeze it for 24 hours prior to making your treats. Once the base recipe has been made in the provided pint containers and frozen for 24 hours, the process of putting it in the machine and making your chosen treat on the day you are ready to eat it is super easy and only takes a matter of minutes, with the machine doing all of the work. If you don't eat the whole pint in one sitting, you can also refreeze the leftovers and then use the respin feature when you are ready to eat the rest. The respin also comes in handy if your freezer is really cold, as I've found some of my pints that are really frozen solid come out creamier if I do an additional respin after initial processing, which only takes a couple minutes. The machine comes with three pint containers that you make up your recipes in, so you can make up three different recipes ahead of time to provide a variety of treat options for guests. I am going to buy more of the pint containers from the Ninja website, so I can make up a variety of options ahead of time to use when I have family in town for a weekend. I'm excited to have a bunch of options available for guests to choose from and having the ability to whip up custom treats of their choice within a couple of minutes! The Ninja CREAMI is a lot of fun! You can really experiment with recipes or use one of the many provided and the treats you can make are really good! I definitely recommend this machine if you like frozen treats!

Ninja Creami makes delicious creamy ice cream and so much more. Along with the machine are (3) pint bowls with lids, a quick start guide, and a recipe book. Basic bases (vanilla, chocolate) use common ingredients such as milk, heavy cream, vanilla extract, sugar, cream cheese, and cocoa. Substitutions can be made and are included in the recipe book to make dairy-free, low carb, or vegan treats instead. Making a base takes only a few minutes, then you freeze it for 24 hours. Install it in the unit, turn it on and let it make delicious, creamy ice cream in minutes. And don't stop there! This is when you add mix-ins... cookies, candies, sprinkles, pretzels, cereal, whatever you like. I've added Oreos to vanilla and chocolate sprinkles to chocolate so far. Wonderful. So many recipes to try still, we've only just started. Past ice cream treats are shakes, gelatos, sorbets, and smoothies. The unit's panel is easy to read and understand, lights up, and has a progress bar. This is fun for the whole family, not just small children. My 17 year old enjoyed making and eating the treats. Count on buying more pint bowls. And a little FYI: On our first base of chocolate, I forgot to add the cocoa before the cream and milk (as directed). We went ahead and whisked it in and froze it to see if it would be okay. It turned out perfect.

This is the first ice cream maker I have used and I was quite skeptical at the products it was able to produce. After trying several of their suggested ingredients from basic ice cream to their smoothie bowl, I am very impress at how well everything blended together and created a creamy consistent texture. One of my main concerns with kitchen appliances is how easy they are to use and maintain. The Ninja CREAMi could not be any simpler. Creating ice cream or sorbet is as easy as mixing in the ingredients in the provided containers, freezing them overnight, and then selecting the correct program in the machine the next day. Cleanup is also very quick and easy, with the only components to clean being the paddle and the container lid that houses the paddle. As mentioned before, the final product is just fantastic. The ingredients you froze are mixed thoroughly and there are no chunks at the end, just smooth creamy goodness like you would expect from buying at the grocery store. I am excited at the prospects of trying all kinds of different flavors and fruits to see what I am able to create. The hardest part now is finishing off what I've created so that I can try out new recipes. I would highly recommend this ice cream maker to anyone interested.

When I selected this, I had a totally different expectation of what it would be. I'd seen ice cream makers in the past, usually with the chambers you freeze and then you put the ingredients in and it does its thing. This is not that at all. They give you three containers. You mix your recipe in them, then freeze them for at least 24 hours, and then all this does is spin a four bladed mixer (reminiscent of a propeller) that "shaves" the frozen contents so make it easier to eat. My first complaint was there wasn't even a quick guide inside. Let's ignore the lack of recipes or anything, but not even a quick start, an owner’s manual, nothing. And I didn't miss it and leave it in the box since I break down my boxes before putting them in the recycle bin so I can fit all my cardboard every week. There simply was nothing in here anywhere. There WAS a QR code sticker though, that takes you to a website with information. It was also triple boxed. One of my annoyances is the "box in a box" thing since it leaves me with more cardboard to break down, but this was a box in a box in a box. Totally overkill shipping. So my son and I like vanilla. Looked on the website, is there a vanilla recipe? No. There's some lactose free vanilla thing, there's some vegan one, but there is not a simple PLAIN VANILLA ICE CREAM recipe to be found. I did end up taking a chocolate chip recipe and adjusting it a bit to try. You ought to be able to use pretty much any recipe out there though, and I found other vanilla recipes elsewhere I may try if we bother using this again down the road. I got the ingredients mixed up, put them in the containers, which DO come with their own very secure lids so that things won't spill. But they caution you to make sure they freeze level, and to never use the machine to shave a container that was tilted and has the frozen treat inside at an angle. Then last night we tried it. Pulled my frozen ice cream concoction out of the freezer, popped the lid, and put in in the machine here. This entire machine serves one purpose - simply a motor and gears to spin the blades inside. It extends and retracts it as it goes so it moves up and down inside the container. So you lock the lid on top of the container, then you lock the container into the base. After you lock the container in the base, as you rotate it further (just grabbing the handle and pushing it counter clockwise), it raises it up on a platform to engage the driveshaft above. The noise level is ATROCIOUS. It's amazing how much noise this makes to shave a frozen ice cream mixer. It's louder than blenders. I took a video but unfortunately we can't post videos with our reviews. I couldn't believe just how much noise this makes. But it does turn that container into something with a consistency you could eat. The normal ice cream setting seems to make it about what I remember as a kid with a container of ice cream in the freezer. My son likes it a bit softer, and there is an option to "re-spin" to mix a bit more to make it a bit softer. That point after the first spin is also where there's an option to mix in other things like candies, nuts, etc, then have it mix that into the container as well. Now, the benefit of something like this, compared to a normal ice cream maker like I had expected, is that you aren't stuck with a single flavor at a time. With this, you can pre-mix three different flavors. Since it only takes about 90 seconds to shave it into something you can scoop with a spoon, that means a quick turnaround before doing another flavor right away. Another thing is that you can really get creative here with your ingredients, and use a lot of things that you may not use in a normal ice cream maker. And this makes it easy to really get things like nuts and candies mixed through as well. It also has settings for those who substitute dairy or sugar, since the consistency can be different otherwise. You can even add some alcohol, but don't add too much otherwise it can impact the freezing process. For me, the noise level really makes this a problem appliance, since with my family, the ice cream would normally be an evening or night treat, and there is no way we'd use this at night since it would probably wake up people. So if I have something mixed up and want it late at night, it's a no-go. Clean up was simple though. The containers themselves are easy to clean up. The blade can be a bit of a pain to remove if you try to do it while it still has ice cream gummed up around it, but if you either rinse it off first to melt the ice cream, or just let the ice cream melt before you go to clean, it comes off easily enough. Looking at this from MY perspective, I'd give it two or three stars. But I can see how this would be a fun thing for people with kids. They would LOVE being involved in making their own treats, being able to be the ones to add something like M&M's or chocolate chips to fold into their snack. A chance for them to learn a bit about how ice cream is made and personalize their own snacks. But for us, it's just not a very useful small appliance. I doubt we'll get much use out of it since it's just so much easier to buy what we want and just scoop it out as needed. We don't eat ice cream all that often, so the cost of this would likely buy us a decade of ice cream at the rate we eat it. But if you have kids, and they like ice cream, this could be a fun kitchen addition.

Love this thing! It makes homemade ice cream and other delicious goodies in seconds, and it comes with a recipe book full of great ideas. I'd recommend one to anybody.

I've had a few ice cream makers in the past, and they all had pretty much the same thing in common - they were a complicated and made a mess. This unit is relatively compact and good looking. If you're wanting to make ice cream pretty regularly, it's certainly worth the storage space and may even find a permanent home on the countertop. The recipes included all make ice cream, but other recipes I've found online have been easily adaptable. I also like the ability to load the container when you want to refresh and re-cream the ice cream. The main and only downside to this device is the volume. The creamerizer is essentially a spinning blade drill that's plunging into frozen cream. It's loud, and it takes several minutes to finish.

I was first surprised by how easy it was to make ice cream from scratch and how Ninja provided many recipes to try. With 3 cups available, I was able to create three different combinations of ice cream flavors to share with my friends during a party. There are other options besides creating ice creams such as smoothie or sorbet. Finally able to make sorbet without grabbing my food processor which now minimized my counter space compared to before. Best Buy College Crew members receive products to write honest, unbiased reviews. Reviewers have been provided products free of charge and may have received nominal compensation.