Sephra Elite Home Chocolate Fountain Machine - Premium Stainless Steel Melting Pot for Parties, Weddings & Dessert Buffets

If your not willing to buy the 23" or the 27" for well over $1,000, this is the machine to buy. I searched all over the internet to find a good sized Chocolate Fountain for a wedding of 120 guests, and not pay the huge cost of the commercial ones. The Sephra brand is made very well with good quality parts. I bought the machine on Amazon.com and and had it shipped last minute for the wedding. It came here as promised in 2 business days. When I opened the box I was expecting to see the fountain tiers and the auger piece all stainless steel, it was not. I was very disappointed because the picture looks like stainless steel (read the info about the machine, if it doesn't say stainless, it's not stainless). Fortunatly is was made of good quality thick plastic. I never had a chance to practice with the machine before the wedding, so I chanced it (something I would normally never do). The machine is very easy to use if you know how to run a simple crock pot. I used just used inexpensive chocolate melting chips and vegetable oil. I heated the chocolate in the kitchen to give it the right viscosity. Poured it into the base of the machine, turned the machine to med heat (this model has low, med, high) and turned the auger on. It worked the first time without a hitch all night. Never had a single problem! We used it for well over 2 hours. Just keep some melted chocolate/oil in a pitcher and pay attention to refill. When you see gaps in the chocolate curtain that means it's time to refill. The larger the wedding the more you need to keep adding the melted chocolate. I beleive I was told plan for a 3/4 to 1 pound of chocolate for every 10 people. You will have left over chocolate in the machine that will go to waste but you just have to get over that. The machine needs the extra chocolate or it will not flow evenly. Clean-up: Clean-up took about 15 minutes (depending on how messy your guests are). All the plastic peices for the three teirs and auger bit come apart and the stainless steel base comes off of the machine and can be rinsed and put in the dishwasher. Considerations: We originally were going to have the fountain outdoors, but it was a windy day and I was told that the chocolate will blow in guests. Plus it had rained and it was still very wet out side and you don't want extra moisture in the chocolate. We moved the fountain inside before the event and had no issues.Super easy machine, and if I cater more events I may decide to purchase the larger one.