All reviews of Robert M
Review about: Vevor
Countertop Soft Serve 3-head
I will preface my review with this: I am a retired HVACR technician with 40 years in the field. The machine arrived early, via FedEx, and the shipping container was damaged. The machine itself sustained a bent head-mounting stud (easily straightened, but still...this machine took a good fall to sustain that damage) and a broken, cheap plastic cap for the cone dispenser. I opted to repair the machine instead of going through a return process. The machine itself is attractive, modern styling with solid state controls. The operation manual, as with most Chinese products, is slim. The stainless steel is of thinner gauge than typical "commercial" units, but fit and finish was pretty good. This unit weigs about 145 pounds, a lot less than my countertop single-head Taylor machine which weighs in at 335 pounds, so I expect everything to be of lighter grade. First use took some control adjustments to yield a decent soft serve firmness, but right away I noticed the product was nowhere near as creamy, light and smooth as what the Taylor produces. The quality of a soft serve ice cream is dictated mainly by the construction of the freezing cylinder/augers and the way the machine blends in air to the mix. The more air blended in, the lighter, fluffier the soft serve, and greater the yield. The less air, the heavier and more dense the final product. You'd think that a denser ice cream would be better, but its not. The whole key to a great soft serve is in the amount of air that gets blended in during the freezing process. That said, I could not see where any air could be blended in with the design of this machine. The end product was too dense, almost crystalline. To blend the optimum amount of air into their ice cream, Taylor uses "carburetor tubes" that fit into the hopper outlets. They're basicall stainless steel tubes about a half inch in diameter with a small hole in the side, at the bottom of the hopper level, where mix is metered into the freezing cylinder during each draw out. This naturally draws air in through the top of the tube while the liquid mix flows, regulated, through the side hole. VEVOR does not do this; in fact, they just let the mix flow full volume through a short 3/4 inch hose directly into the freezing cylinder. SO, I made two carburetor tubes for this machine and will see if theres any improvement in the quality of the end product. As designed by the factory, is it good enough for home? I guess. Is it good enough to sell? I don't think so. Hopefully my engineering will improve that. As far as customer service goes, VEVOR folks come across very friendly in emails, but that's where it ends. I tried to get a few of the dispenser tips and a replacement for the broken cone dispenser cap and got nowhere. Sent pictures of what I needed, they just didn't understand or deliberately ran me around, I don't know which. But they were friendly about it haha. This makes me very apprehensive about the time I will eventually need parts for this machine, as there are wear parts you will most certainly need to regularly replace. There are no parts numbers, no parts section on their website, no parts available through any of the traditional soft serve machine parts places, nothing. I dread to think how the interaction with customer service will go, and I honestly don't expect parts to be available. SO BEAR THAT IN MIND BEFORE YOU PURCHASE! I wish I did, but I'm hopeful that with the minimal use my machine will get and the meticulous care I will give it, I should get a few years out of it. I would NOT recommend this machine for any commercial environment simply because the end product quality is not good enough to compete with an ice cream store using a Taylor or Sani-Serv or other known, truly commercial unit, and there's a BIG question mark about parts. And don't expect a great customer service experience -- it'll be friendly, but won't be productive.