ChefWaveMilkmade Non-Dairy Milk Maker with 6 Plant-Based Programs and Auto-Clea

I saw less expensive models, but chose this because people said I wouldn't need to strain the nut milks to make them palatable and I was excited about the self-cleaning function. NO COMPLAINTS. I use this 2-3 times a day (I have a special needs child who can't have dairy). It is super simple to use and the soy and nut milks are great! My son has been drinking shelf-stable soy milk for more than a decade, and I was worried that he wouldn't like this as much as store-bought. WRONG. He loves the soy milk! FYI: His mom and big brother are quite happy with the almond and pecan milk as well. Having an extra reservoir for the water used in cleaning is so handy. I add all of the ingredients and a short time later the soy milk is done and the machine is all clean and ready to make more! Great product!

This nut milk maker is terrific, and the computerized aspects are very easy to deal with. Never had a problem. Makes hot rich milk that you can make as thick as you want by putting in more or less nuts. (I grind them first.) The self-cleaning, which happens automatically, is great. The only problem with this sophisticated machine is that the lid to the pitcher doesn't stay on. At times, it has even fallen into the pitcher. One hopes they have someone technologically smart enough to fix this problem.

I found this by accident when looking at juicers. My wife is lactose intolerant and lives on bottles and cartons of various nut milks. It’s a lot of bottles and cartons. And often her favorite milks are not in stock. Reading a review on epicurious made me look a bit further into this machine and other nut milk machines - things I had no idea even existed.I chose this one because it seemed very efficient in time and use of materials, and because of its self-cleaning cycle. Other nut milk makers still suggest straining the milk or long soaks. While skeptical of any one review, there are a lot of people in love with this machine, so I went ahead and surprised my wife with it.She is beyond happy.The machine is press the buttons and forget. It couldn’t be easier. It takes about a tablespoon of nuts to make 2 cups of nut milk. It doesn’t need long soaking because it heats the water and blends together. Load the water container in the back, make sure the wastewater container and receptacle pitcher are in place, select which program (almond, oat, soy, cashew, coconut, macadamia) you want and select 10 or 20 oz., press the button, wait about 10 minutes and your nut milk is ready. Let the machine continue its cycle and it self-cleans and dumps the wastewater into a separate container.The milk comes out hot - great for some purposes, not great for others. That’s why there are containers and refrigerators! The milk will separate over time - there’s a very simple solution to that - shake it! While my wife is very happy with the consistency, which usually is very smooth and creamy, sometimes there has been a little bit of “grit” depending on the ingredients. She is never unhappy with the amount, and it is very minimal but maybe some people might want to strain some recipes. I think the different programs will also have an effect on that, which we have yet to explore.One of the best parts is customizing your milk. My wife has settled on a cashew coconut blend with half a date for sweetness as her favorite, but does other blends as her whims take her. I don’t know the differences between the programs, so there will be some experimentation, but the recipe book has lots of suggestions.Homemade nut milks are different from commercial in one important aspect - most commercial products have nutrition supplements added - maybe extra protein or calcium or vitamin D, etc. If you are depending on your nut milk for these, just buy some supplement powders that meet your needs and add them.According to my wife: “This is the best milk I’ve ever had, and it is so quick and easy to use and clean.”‘Nuff said :)

I bought this machine because I prefer to make nut milk at home to avoid the environmental problem of the packaging and transport of store bought nut milk. However, I find nut milk bags a pain in the neck. While the clean up of this machine is great, it has SEVERAL SMALL DRAWBACKS AND ONE MAJOR DEALBREAKER DRAWBACK and nobody should ever buy it: 1. While it is easy to clean and uses a minimal amount of nuts, that’s because it doesn’t actually extract the fiber from the milk. It just blends it for 8 to 12 minutes so the fiber is very fine. However, the milk is still a little gritty and if you have a great blender like a Vitamix, you can do the exact same thing without adding another machine to your countertop (and, eventually, landfills). 2. The machine uses hot water to steam/cook the nuts (probably to make them softer so they can be chopped more finely) so you have to plan ahead the night before if you want cold milk in the morning for a smoothie, cereal, etc. 3. The milk doesn’t taste great. It tastes thin and, like I said, gritty. 4. The machine comes with several removable smaller parts—a steam cap, a glass pitcher for the milk, a plastic water tank, a plastic bin for the cleaning cycle. I accidentally broke the steam cap while cleaning it soon after purchasing this. I contacted ChefWave and Amazon to get a replacement part (it’s a tiny little one-inch plastic and metal cap). ChefWave totally refused to help, saying they do not offer replacement parts and referring me to Amazon. Amazon could only offer a total replacement of the entire machine. Unbelievably wasteful and short-sighted for a company selling a product for which one of its main features is that it can offer people a more environmentally conscious way to get milk. Amazon was great and gave me a full refund but I regret buying this machine and feel terrible that it will be one more hunk of plastic junk persisting for hundreds of years. Feel like a total dumb-dumb. I should know by now that there are no short cuts and nothing you can buy that’s going to save the planet. Total fail on my part!