Don’t give up on the thrift stores – I found a Salton yoghurt maker w/glass jars for $5 and have used it weekly for the past 3 years w/no problems.  It’s plastic, but the containers are glass – that’s important. You don’t want the hot milk mixture coming into contact w/plastic. I’ve seen nearly identical ones online for less than $25 (the ones w/6 or 7 small jars) made by Koolatron, but don’t know how they’d hold up. Obviously, this old Salton just goes and goes, so I think it’s a good brand.  I vaguely remember them as far back as 25 years…

I have a yolife yogurt maker, which I received as a gift.  It works fine.  The jars are glass, but the best feature is an extra-tall dome lid which allows you to use your own mason jars or other containers.  So if (when) I break the original yogurt cups, the machine is just as functional.

However, if I were looking to buy a new one, I’d look for something like this, which is programmable:

http://www.pleasanthillgrain.c…..oofer.aspx

I just think it would earn its keep better, as a multi-purpose appliance. 

Have you tried freecycle?  Lots of kitchen appliances show up there.

Don’t worry about the plastic material, it’s sturdy enough to last for ever. I believe that electronic part will start malfunctioning before the plastic wears out.

I believe that Cuisinart is one of the best brands when it comes to yogurt makers.

An old thread i hope to revive. 

Cuisinart, Salton seems to be plastic. The Koolatron, Euro Cuisine YM100, Cuisinart CYM100 makers use little glass jars. These seem highly annoying given i want to make yogurt on a grand scale. I cant find any makers that use one large container that is made of glass or metal. i can not understand this. 

Are their really no other products? please help. 

i bought a VonChef yoghurt maker second hand on ebay (though boxed and hard to believe it had ever been used), in a bid to start making my own yoghurt and stop buying it in plastic pots… It was all going well for a couple of months until the yoghurt maker broke. I’ve now got a broken (plastic!) yoghurt maker that will have to be thrown away, which is really depressing. It was basically too cheap a bit of a kit. It has a basic LED control panel that has broken after very little use – the ‘function’ button won’t cycle round so it’s can’t be turned on.

I’m now thinking it’s probably only environmentally helpful to switch to homemade yoghurt if you have an airing cupboard or boiler room where you can make it without adding more plastic gadgets to the world…