S900A Snow Cone and Shaved Ice Machine with 2 Reusable Plastic Ice Mold Cups, Non-slip Mat, Instruction Manual, 1-year Manufacturer’s Warranty, 120V, White

this product is so awesome. i have purchased the shaver singly and in the party pack, two orders of each type. so i have my review of the item posted in both places, shown below: first purchase was in july 2013 for my granddaughter, big hit! then three more at Christmastime, one for me, one for a girlfriend's daughter, and a fourth for some friend's teenage boys. hits all the way around. i love shaved ice, with or without syrup. hawaiian ice sells replacement blades on their website: i have not found them offered for sale anywhere else, and wanted to, because their shipping is exorbitant, so high they should be embarrassed, but their ice shaver is awesome. january 20 2014 update: i got replacement blades (they are not thin like a razor blade, but a thickish piece of metal that tapers to an edge) to have on hand to use in the future, and extra cups to freeze the discs, which, btw, come three to an order. i ordered three and received nine, so that was a pleasant surprise. :) a comment about the leftover ice that cannot be shaved when the frozen disc of ice is used in the machine, a 3" diameter disc of ice that is about 1/4 inch thick. i have read complaints about this being a wasted chunk of ice, but i keep them, put the remaining piece of the disc in the freezer in a bag, and use them to cool down drinks that are in large cups, or to cool down brewed tea for iced tea. i consider having the leftover discs a bonus! i buy snow cone concentrate from Ralph's SnoBall Supply and make cavity/bacteria killing snow cone syrups with xylitol granules, a sugar alcohol sweetener, so every snow cone is a treatment for my teeth. you can even buy some of the concentrates that are clear, eliminating dye, but there are still the preservatives. they also sell syrups pre-made with cane sugar and charge reasonable prices for them, but i buy the concentrates to be able to use different sweeteners. xylitol is also diabetic friendly, and it doesn't taste fake, just good, and i usually HATE artificial sweeteners. i made some syrups with cane sugar this weekend for my grandkids to take home, or you can use stevia or whatever floats your boat. i am not using the xylitol to save on calories, but it does that as well. each 4-ounce bottle of sample concentrate yields a gallon of syrup. i make my syrups about a cup at a time. they are awesome tasting and making them with xylitol keeps cavity-causing bacteria out of my mouth. so fast, so easy, so cost-effective, so good. :)

Honestly, the shaved ice quality that this outputs is perhaps some of the best you'll find anywhere. Don't hesitate to buy this. It is well worth it even as a small tabletop device. And yes, the syrups are absolutely delicious too. (Regular use almost 3 years now and not a single issue)

SEE UPDATE BELOW: But I ended up with the same problem which most of the other 1-star reviewers reported. Right out of the box, the power button didn't want to start. I fiddled with it and got it to work, and got ONE cup of shaved ice out of it. LOVED IT! Great shaved ice. Works quick, and the plastic trays look like it would be easy with a bit of diligence to have lots of extra frozen blocks on hand. HOWEVER... the 2nd time I went to use it, the button would not work AGAIN and NOTHING I could do short of taking it apart, would make it work. I'm pretty handy with stuff, but felt I shouldn't have to do that. I have returned this and tried another model, which also had more 5-star reviewers than 1-star reviewers and AGAIN ended up as a 1-star customer :( That item was the Waring Pro SCM100 Professional Snow Cone Maker from Amazon, and the return has just been processed. Now I have ordered ANOTHER one of THESE and hope to be a happy 5-star customer. Wish me luck! UPDATE: I cannot find the listing for the 2nd Electric Shaved Ice Machine by Hawaiian Shaved Ice, which I have purchased and have been using for a over a month now. THIS ONE IS WORKING!!! hooray. I am being very careful in how I use it, per some reviews that had found that being too rough with it would break internal parts - but couldn't that be said of most machinery?. It shaves the ice quite nicely into a cup or bowl, but it does require a bit of 'rocking' of the top part, which contains the motor and turns the ice block on the bottom mounted blade. The thing is a bit tricky to clean, also. The bottom portion can just be 'hosed off' in the sink, but the top motor portion IS electrical and I am leery of putting too much water on it. I carefully clean it off with a hot soapy sponge - after all under optimum conditions, only the one section touches the ice block and the rest is kept clean. I freeze the blocks two at a time, stick them in the microwave for about 5 seconds and then pop them out, each on a piece of plastic wrap to put in a zip lock bag if I'm not using them right away. I keep half a dozen or more on hand in the fridge now, in various flavors. I have tried juice (mango, lime, apple) and a thick kool-aid syrup. All of these are quite good. I haven't yet tried just pouring flavor over the shaved ice... we like to keep it as "icy" as possible and pouring liquid on it would just melt it, right? So this has changed from a 1 star for the first purchase that wouldn't work, to a four star (which would have been 5).

I'm going to review the product, explain the bad reviews, and tell you how to get perfect shaved ice if you decide to buy this product. I looked around, read a lot of reviews, and did a lot of research before buying this guy. It was the ONLY one I saw producing fine shaved ice in a YT video. Then I came to read the reviews and found a lot of people complaining about crunchy ice. That is because the blade is extremely sharp when you get it and it requires some technique before you break it in. I also saw some bad reviews complaining about it breaking down in a month - but it comes with a 1 year warranty. This product simply spins ice over a blade... the rest is up to the handler. Shaving ice isn't a complicated art but it isn't as easy as pushing a button either. You have to balance pressure with the sharpness of your blade. Here is what you need to know: 1) Chill anything that will come into contact with the shaved ice. Otherwise the first layer will melt, then get frozen by the next layer and you will have a layer of ice chips on the bottom. I suggest freezing a large bowl that barely fits under the motor to catch the fluffy snow, then using a cold spatula or something to pack it into the cone or chilled cup. 2) Instead of waiting for the small puck to sweat, smear the size you 're going to start shaving with ice-cold water over and over until it stops freezing over and remains glossy. The glossiness is important in getting the action started without chips. Waiting too long for it sweat means your snow will melt quicker too. 3) Ideally use pure water like RO, DI, or distilled water for the puck. 4) Don't drop your puck on the blade, set it upside down on the motor and let it stick to the teeth, then slide your stand upside down on the motor, then flip the 2 right-side up together. That way you don't accidentally chip or loosen your blade. 5) When your blade is sharp, pushing the button down is going to put too much force on the ice causing it to get cut into small pieces like a snowcone. For shaved ice, grab the motor housing with both hands and use your thumbs to press the button so you get full control over the amount of pressure you put on the puck. Put very little pressure on the puck and wait for a thin sheet of WHITE snow to come out. You will need to practice, but by being patient you will create white fluffly snow instead of chunky ice. Over time as the blade dulls you can put more and more pressure and produce shaved/snowy ice faster and faster. This is the main ingredient to a fluffy shaved ice as opposed to a crunchy snow cone. 6) You have to pack down your snow to hold the syrup. Keep in mind when packing down the stuff at the top, you're putting pressure and packing down the stuff at the bottom further. So compensate by packing the bottom less and increasing pressure as you go up or prepacking the snow at the top. This takes practice!

I've bought several different shaved ice/snowcone machines, including the Time for Treats VKP1100 and a Cuisinart snow cone maker, and this is my absolute favor. It produces the finest texture of any I've owned yet, with a light consistency not QUITE as soft as freshly fallen snow, but fairly close. It operates very quickly, producing a heaping bowl of shaved ice in just a few seconds. The included ice molds make it easy to turn out a good number of "pucks" of ice to store in the freezer for easy use. The only real drawbacks I'd attribute to it are that it's really meant for bowls, so fitting a cup or cone in might be tricky. It's also fairly loud, though its relatively short running time helps offset that. Lastly, it doesn't support putting a lot of ice in at once, so it is a one-bowl-at-a-time sort of deal. If you're hosting a party you'll want to freeze a lot in advance. I haven't yet tried it with ice cubes but it does supposedly work with those. Altogether, though, this is the best of the bunch that I've tried out of about five or six machines I've had at various points in my life, and for its price point I'd say it's absolutely worthwhile. There are probably more expensive ones that produce a finer shave, but this seems to strike a great price-to-quality balance at time of writing. It's easy to use, it's fast, it produces great soft shaved ice, it's not terribly expensive (unless there's some unexpected future price jump), and it's all around just fantastic. I'd marry this thing if I could. Quick tip: If using the pucks at least, you will end up with a little disc of unusable ice at the end of the process. Be sure to take that out unless you want to let it melt and drip out. As long as you do that, the excess is almost nil.

It works well/ish initially. When using I find that I often have to clean it for it to keep working properly. It now doesn't work anymore. The ice isn't snow consistency it's just like chunks of ice.

Makes Excellent SnowCones! Quick, fast and the texture of the Ice is spot on. So easy to use, clean and cannot beat the price point! Great Value for yummy Snowcones!

Loved this, good party favor snack machine! Recommend freezing and making a lot of ice blocks ahead of time. Smell and taste fine. Very easy to use and install.

Simple operating machines and gives uniform and fine shaved ice to enjoy varieties of desserts

Bought this for my parents who wanted an ice shaver but didn't want the manual use ones where you have to use a hand crank to grind the ice (they're in their 60s). It works well and it is easy to use. Would recommend this to anyone who would like an electric ice shaver that is worth the cost; for a home use one, it is neither expensive or cheap in quality.

It looks like a used product

Very loud, but works well. I ate a bowl of grapefruit flavored ice before bed...it was refreshing. I bought it on discount and it works perfectly.

Got this for a birthday party and you need more ice than you think so it doesn’t melt right away, but it’s still pretty cool