Usually, in machines of the prior art the mixer element is operated by a shaft which passes through the rear wall of the container axially with respect to the evaporator cylinder so as to reach a motor unit or speed reducer which is arranged in the rear part of the machine, behind the product container. The rear part of the machine is therefore very deep, in order to contain said speed reducer.
In an attempt to reduce the overall dimensions, machines have been proposed in the prior art where the speed reducer extends substantially vertically (namely in a direction transverse to the axis of rotation of the mixer element), for example with a gear train which displaces the axis of the motor downwards with respect to the axis of the mixer. In some known solutions, the axis is displaced to the point of allowing the motor to be housed underneath the container. This, however, results in the motor occupying the space in the base of the machine where the machine refrigerating circuit is also housed. This results in the need for a larger sized base and constitutes a constraint for the arrangement of the parts of the refrigerating circuit.