5 Ice Cream Gadgets Tested By Design Expert | Well Equipped | Epicurious

I have an idea let's try this 10 out of 10 I'm Dan and I've been designing kitchen gadgets for 39 years I'm gonna test some ice cream gadgets and see if I can find a way to make them better but I would give this more of a beak I would flatten this out of it typical ice fishing these are the products I am going to test scoop and stack mini ice cream sandwich maker some push ice cream scoop round ice cream sandwich press smart scoop ice cream scoop scoop and the purpose of this gadget is to take core samples out of your carton of ice cream as if you aren't a geological exploration let's see how effective it is so we have a carton of chocolate ice cream here let's try taking a core sample using the gadget let's just try plunging and see how far we get this ice cream is rather frozen I'm not plunging as deep as that would hope well I was imagining this would plunge right into the ice cream and I would lift out a core that is as deep as the depth of the plunger itself the ice cream is not actually lifting unless I really persuade it there's a button here to release it's okay but I'm not sure it's working as it was intended it's kind of hard to get in quite a bit of weight on it it's no real reason for this to come out with with the gadget so I'm a little confused as to what the intention is how this device is expected to work but it's not doing much for me now hmm doesn't even want to come out so definitely not behaving I'm not sure if it's the device or the ice cream of both but someone is not behaving let's see how that compares with the more traditional ice cream scoop [Music] not great but in terms of effectiveness I would give this a 1 out of 5 I just couldn't get it to work now I'm going to try the left handed oil test this is a very simple usability test by making my non-dominant hand more slippery it's going to highlight any deficiencies in the design of the gadget this can help me simulate in a way what it would be like for someone with less dexterity or possibly arthritis or less strength in their hands to use this product let's try this and really I need two hands to press this down so while my left hand is pretty secure on the belly of this it's not really easily digging into the ice cream I would still want to use two hands and some body weight to get in here I'm gonna rock it a little bit to see if I can get a little deeper and when I pull it out the shape is rather conducive to lifting upright having this Flair here is not a bad idea but the problem is the ice cream just is not coming out I think it just has a inherent fault and that there's no reason for that ice cream to move in the way that you would think it wants to move so we don't really get a core sample lefty or righty I'm not loving it in terms of usability on a 1 to 5 scale where the right-handed left-handed or two-handed I'd give this a 1 it's just not working ok let's think about a redesign for the shape of the hand though itself what your hand actually grabs around I'm kind of ok with that because it's got a pretty good flare top and bottom there's a button up here and when this is all the way up the only way to plunge down on it is to press that button so that not only is it difficult to reach but it also seems unnecessary I'm not sure why you'd have to lock it in the up position because as you're putting plunging this into the ice cream it's going to go up anyway for a redesign though I think the real fault of this is the cylinder at the bottom and this would take quite a bit of experimentation one thing maybe I would try is turning this more into a screw mechanism you know screw this into the ice cream right so get like a you know hole into the ice and that would have a reason so hopefully grab the ice cream Jever go ice fishing in terms of a by rating on one to five scale I would give the scoop and stack a one as a matter of fact I'd give it a 1 on a 1 to 100 scale scoop and stack all you did was get between me and my ice cream mini Ice Cream Sandwich as the name suggests it is designed to make mini ice cream sandwiches there's a circle there is a heart and there's a star shape we're going to try the star shape I'm going to see if I can make a star shape out of a round cookie that did work of course you have some leftover cookie but we can figure out something to do with that like eat it I'm going to see if I can scoop directly into the container of ice cream this may or may not work let's see if I can get some ice cream in there let's see if I can straighten things out when I press it now second cookie so I'm gonna waste some of the periphery I'm now gonna press this down let's see how successful this is okay looks pretty good from this side - it's a little crushed on this side let's try it again this time I'm gonna scoop some ice cream into it and let's go with that I got a little excess ice cream that may is out but we'll try it let's push down see if we get a star shape let's squeeze down with this let's pop that one out and here is a pretty successful star shaped mini Ice Cream Sandwich let's see how I do trying to make a star shaped mini ice-cream sandwich by hand need some practice in terms of effectiveness I would give this a 4 pretty successful so it's time for the left-hander oil test step 1 cut the cookie step 2 I'm gonna push this in a little bit that's a two-handed operation and so I have room for the ice cream I'm gonna scoop a little bit in and let's put a cookie number 2 in place and let's try pushing this down this is a twist shape and as you push it down it spins but I don't see a good reason why it has the spin and I'll push the cookie away meet you checked and it's okay I think with a little more practice and being a little more careful I would be a bit more successful in terms of usability I would rate this a 4 there's nothing really about this that's too difficult so let's look at a redesign this spiral as you go down kind of cute but a bit useless at the same time it's not a disadvantage it's just kind of questionable as to why that handle needs to spin as it goes down I think the only redesign I would do on this is because the cookie since it's so breakable I think I would make a star-shaped plunger that has a handle on the back so it would be an added piece but probably worth it so that once the cookie is in here that way you can add ice cream without breaking the cookie and I think that would be most required for the star shape and for the heart shape where these points are most likely to break off maybe a way to do this if I thought it through let's make a piece that just would sit on the table it's got two star shaped and what that would do is push the cookie in a very specific distance maybe it's got a circular base the difference between this and that one is that this can be pushed in as deep as possible so you can make your ice-cream sandwich as thick as possible in terms of a by rating I would give the mini ice-cream sandwich maker or five it could be a fun activity in the kitchen the advantage of making mini ice-cream sandwiches is that you can eat many of them okay I'm into it thumb push ice-cream scoop purpose of this ice cream scoop is to scoop some ice cream and to pop it out with your thumb let's test its effectiveness let's see how it does on this container of strawberry ice cream I'm gonna get a pretty good scoop it's not falling out by itself but I press it comes out so okay it seems to do what it's designed to do that's working pretty effectively let's see how it compares to a more traditional ice cream scoop [Music] in terms of effectiveness on a scale of one to five I would give us a four it's kind of nice thumbs up for the thumbs push ice cream scoop okay it's time for the left-hander oil test let's see how it does I'm gonna go into this ice cream and see how well this functions well I kind of like the three sides to the cross-section of the handle it's a little too round as I'm spinning it around the handler just wants to spin in my hands and the ice cream is not falling out by itself it did that with the traditional scoop and I think the reason is because we really have half a sphere here and again the ice cream is not falling out oh it does fall out eventually it does melt and fall out but if I press on this I'm pressing on a shape that just doesn't want to press it's just a half sphere I'm not too sure I'm thrilled about that CHUM's reusability I would drop it down to a three I think it could be much better with some really subtle changes on the other hand the strawberry ice cream is pretty good I'm messing okay let's give this a redesign so first let's look at the triangle shape of the handle it's got to be sides but it's rather rounds it's a very bulbous triangle and because of that as you're twisting it's harder to control and you need to squeeze much harder this is a cross-section of a handle if I drew a circle around the midpoint of this handle I would flatten this out of it and key still keep it a soft triangle but not nearly as soft so it's less likely to spin around in your hands another thing I would do here is give it more of a beak this is a rather large surface area to start to enter the ice-cream so from this angle I would probably make this edge more pronounced and probably scoop out the sides of it so that there's not as much surface area grabbing on to the scoop of ice cream so that does two things one is making this more of a pointed beak will help get into the ice-cream and scooping this on the sides so you still get a round ball of ice cream but it wouldn't want to stick as tightly the other thing that's making this stick is this is almost a perfect half circle and the ice cream may be light less likely to release another thing I would do is that in this direction of a handle you do want to push into the ice cream sometimes that can be tough so I would the this handle with a bit of a flair so flaring this out we give you a thumb and your index finger something to push against so it could be a continuous shape here it could be just a flair like that that will that would give you something to push against but what you're doing is you're squeezing this you want to push in and what you don't want to do is push against a taper that's working in the reverse direction because your fingers are just gonna slide forward what will eventually happen is your fingers will be up against the scoop itself but by that time your fingers are practically in the ice-cream not sure what to do about the fact that this is so hard to push it's like pushing in on a rubber ball and a round shape like this is something that's really going to resist pushing it's possible there could be some sort of corrugation in here that allow it to flex more or maybe a flatter area here or just something that would want to flex or want to contract would want to accordion in rather than a perfect sphere which is the shape that would be most resistance to deforming in terms of a by rating I would give the thumb push ice-cream scoop of two it's a little more difficult than it needs to be terms of making a strawberry ice cream sundae this is how I would do it may be a bit boom round ice cream sandwich press this is designed to make round ice-cream sandwiches with cookies let's see how effective it is it's going to help to find a cookie that fits perfectly this is a three inch diameter cookie this does come in two sizes you can either use this side of the base for a three inch cookie or you can use this side of the base for a larger cookie we couldn't afford a larger cookie so we're gonna go with the three inch size cookies let's get some ice cream drop it in don't want to overfill it so may take a little practice let's get the top cookie in place okay let's see how the pressed part works squeezing slowly so I don't break anything and once I'm done I'm gonna lift it keep pressing and I think we're okay I would try two or three of these before I got it right on maybe five or six or seven or eight depending on how hungry I am if you had two cookies and simply put a scoop of ice cream in between you squeeze it down gently you're gonna get some excess ice cream on the outside but you can around that with a knife and scrape it off so let's try that in terms of effectiveness I would give this a five I think it worked pretty well sometimes simple is the path to success and this is pretty simple time for the left handed oil test cookies and ice cream appear so I'm ready to go my left hand is slippery I'm going to take the plunge up piece out load the bottom cookie scoop in some ice cream now this part isn't a fair test because we're not looking at usability of the scoop itself and that's probably enough don't forget to put the second cookie on top place the plunger I'm gonna go a little slow because ice cream is just a bit hard I don't want to break the cookie okay out and not too bad there's a bit of ice cream here which I may want to scrape away from the top of a cookie but really there's no disadvantage to using this with a left hand in terms of usability it is what it is I would rate it a 5 because there's not that much to it in terms of redesign this product is so simple and its function is so simple don't think I have a whole lot to say I would suggest because this slipped a little bit this little region here could be a little taller I think it would hold together as you're pressing a little better but man that's such a minor change and it's not horrible as it is I just think it may be behave a little better if that was a little bit taller and it wouldn't affect anything other than the stability actually pressing this is okay as it is if I was really forced to redesign this I think I would suggest rather than a flat top on here I think I would do a bit of a dome I think it would just feel better on the hands and also communicate a little bit better that this is where you plunge but that's a pretty minor suggestion it's not going to really improve the final result I just think it'll look and feel just slightly nicer in terms of a vibrating I would give the round ice-cream sandwich press of four if you do have a high output of ice cream sandwiches then maybe you should think about eating an apple once in a while on the other hand this doesn't look too bad whoa sugar are smart scoop ice cream scoop its purpose in life is the scoop ice cream and automatically release it when you're ready let's see how effective it is okay let's try it on some mint chocolate chip this is my favorite ice cream and I have some high hopes for this it's got a sharp Belleville the edge so she'd be able to get through the ice cream pretty well and it seems like it's gonna be very easy because of the shape of his hand and when it's squeezed it gives a shape that should be easy to get a pretty good grip and twist on so let's give it a go see if that really works out ice creams a little hard but it's okay I've got a scoop I'm twisting okay and that time it just fell out I didn't really need to release it so it's okay not bad I may take back what I said about the handle because we've got an edge here that I can feel as I'm trying to twist it feeling too much pressure more pressure than I would like let's compare it to a more traditional ice cream scoop here's the scoop on this one not great in terms of effectiveness I would give it a three and a half it's got a lot of potential but there is room for improvement but I could imagine this working if the ice cream was a little more gooey time for a left-handed oil test nice and slimy if you're wondering extra virgin olive oil oh man this is now relatively slippery I can feel it not behaving like I would hope the shape is okay it's just the surface is quite slippery yeah the handle is not as easy to manipulate and workaround so as you can see I'm moving the carton around to get it into position Mandy because the scoop itself is a little bit hard to control now it's slipping a bit so I'm a little disappointed I thought this would be a little bit easier to control because of its oval shape in terms of usability unfortunately I'm gonna give this a 2 it had greater promise than it actually delivered on okay time for a redesign there are a couple of things I would suggest doing on this I would eliminate any sharp edges here because as you're squeezing you're gonna feel some pressure points along there also while a large handle is generally good this one in a squeezed position I think maybe a little too large I'll draw both halves of this you've got that half and that half and what you're trying to do with your hand is spin in that direction and because it's so round your hands just gonna slip and spin on it what would be preferred is to give this some sort of shape it's not a perfect circle so actually spin your hand really is going to nest into that and have something to twist against I would give this is maybe a little exaggerated but I would give this more of a beak to make sure that we're digging into the ice cream and this one does feel a bit sharper so it's gonna dig into the ice cream a little better and you don't really need this much of the scoop see the difference how this is cut out it really curves in quite a bit in doing that I think you're gonna have better success once you dig in twisting it around for a buy rating I would give it a three I think it's pretty durable I think it is useful I just don't think this is the only ice cream scoop I would want to have in my kitchen I scream you scream we all scream for well designed ice cream gadgets everyone has the favorite ice cream - chocolate chip or anything with chocolate chips in it mint chocolate chip vanilla chocolate chip chocolate chocolate chip chocolate chip chocolate chip to me a well-designed ice cream gadget is one that gets that ice cream down your throat as quickly as possible Cheers [Music]

Channel: Epicurious

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Keywords: well equipped, ice cream, gadgets, ice cream recipe, kitchen appliance, appliance review, gadget review, ice cream gadgets, kitchen gadget, kitchen gadgets, kitchen appliances, ice cream scoop, ice cream sandwich, epicurious ice cream, ice cream maker, ice cream scooper, best kitchen gadget, funny kitchen gadgets, funny gadget review, gadgets for the kitchen, review kitchen gadget, review ice cream, review gadget, epicurious review, epi ice cream, gadget, epicurious

Id: fHTbST0NUZw

Length: 18min 4sec (1084 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 25 2020