5.0 out of 5 stars Very nice, recommended

2026-02-20    -Jeff Block

Been wanting one of these for a long time, and I really like it. Did a bit of comparison research first and this one really fits our need as a family of 3 with casual use for ice in dinner glasses, etc. I've always LOVED crunchin' "Sonic style" ice, and now I can make it myself at home.The freezer was packed very well so it shipped great without any imperfections. It's advised to wait at least 24 hours to use it (I read further online that it's even more advisable to maybe wait a bit longer, 48 hours actually, to assure the compressor oil and liquid refrigerants trickle down to where they belong and protect it for the longest service life (like breaking in a new car properly). After waiting a couple days, we tested it. I'm opting to only put bottled distilled water to also care for it by reducing contaminants and scale.Operation is pretty simple, and boy, the ice is perfect. Nice, neat little nuggets to crunch and keep soda's cold. It doesn't take long to begin to make ice, and while it may take about 10-15 minutes to make a large glass-full (like a tumbler) of ice, it's easy enough to just turn it on ahead of time and let it tick away until the basket's full, and it'll keep refilling it as you grab bits to use. The speed at which it produces ice may be a bit slow for a very large, demanding family, but for us, it's plenty quick/abundant enough.I haven't had it long enough to test the cleaning cycle, but I'm sure it'll do fine. I'm used to the process having a Keurig, which has similar routine upkeep for cleaning, conditioning. I plan to keep the dedicated solutions on hand, and they say it's needed about once every 2 weeks. Easy enough.It's not terribly inexpensive, but it should pay for itself in a few months for me, because I'll be cutting out a lot of drive-thru sodas when I can truly duplicate them at home now with less expensive 2-liters and this ice machine.Anyway, recommended!

4.0 out of 5 stars Fast But Small Storage Capacity

2026-01-15    -J. Adrian Barnes

This is my 4th nugget ice maker. These counter-top nugget ice makers last two years with constant use, and that's it. I've had two Opals (first gen and second gen) and a Mueller.This ice maker is fast, which is good. But it is noisy. Most importantly, it's storage capacity is SMALL. I can fill one beer-pint-sized glass and then it's empty.All of these counter-top nugget ice makers are irritating to care for and clean, this one will be no different. There is no such thing as "auto clean." That just means it has a cleaning button.If you like nugget ice or can't live without it (like me!) and can get away with having a small storage capacity, this one works well and the price is great. It is fast which is also great. However, I think it will go to our camper and I'll get a larger one for the house. It's just too noisy and small for our kitchen.

5.0 out of 5 stars Very nice, recommended

2026-02-03    -Jeff Block

Been wanting one of these for a long time, and I really like it. Did a bit of comparison research first and this one really fits our need as a family of 3 with casual use for ice in dinner glasses, etc. I've always LOVED crunchin' "Sonic style" ice, and now I can make it myself at home.The freezer was packed very well so it shipped great without any imperfections. It's advised to wait at least 24 hours to use it (I read further online that it's even more advisable to maybe wait a bit longer, 48 hours actually, to assure the compressor oil and liquid refrigerants trickle down to where they belong and protect it for the longest service life (like breaking in a new car properly). After waiting a couple days, we tested it. I'm opting to only put bottled distilled water to also care for it by reducing contaminants and scale.Operation is pretty simple, and boy, the ice is perfect. Nice, neat little nuggets to crunch and keep soda's cold. It doesn't take long to begin to make ice, and while it may take about 10-15 minutes to make a large glass-full (like a tumbler) of ice, it's easy enough to just turn it on ahead of time and let it tick away until the basket's full, and it'll keep refilling it as you grab bits to use. The speed at which it produces ice may be a bit slow for a very large, demanding family, but for us, it's plenty quick/abundant enough.I haven't had it long enough to test the cleaning cycle, but I'm sure it'll do fine. I'm used to the process having a Keurig, which has similar routine upkeep for cleaning, conditioning. I plan to keep the dedicated solutions on hand, and they say it's needed about once every 2 weeks. Easy enough.It's not terribly inexpensive, but it should pay for itself in a few months for me, because I'll be cutting out a lot of drive-thru sodas when I can truly duplicate them at home now with less expensive 2-liters and this ice machine.Anyway, recommended!

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid product. No issues after years of use.

2026-03-05    -Shane

High quality product. Really churns away at the cube production. So long as you keep feeding it water, it keeps making ice.

4.0 out of 5 stars Fast But Small Storage Capacity

2026-03-01    -J. Adrian Barnes

This is my 4th nugget ice maker. These counter-top nugget ice makers last two years with constant use, and that's it. I've had two Opals (first gen and second gen) and a Mueller.This ice maker is fast, which is good. But it is noisy. Most importantly, it's storage capacity is SMALL. I can fill one beer-pint-sized glass and then it's empty.All of these counter-top nugget ice makers are irritating to care for and clean, this one will be no different. There is no such thing as "auto clean." That just means it has a cleaning button.If you like nugget ice or can't live without it (like me!) and can get away with having a small storage capacity, this one works well and the price is great. It is fast which is also great. However, I think it will go to our camper and I'll get a larger one for the house. It's just too noisy and small for our kitchen.

5.0 out of 5 stars Best investment For Ice Lovers Everywhere!!!!

2026-02-06    -Samantha

I'm huge on ice. An ice fanatic, if you will. Big fan. HUGE fan of ice. And yes, I have a history of iron deficiency, but even when my iron levels are on point, I just love ice. Any time of year. I bundle up in the winter and lay on heating pads so that I can have ice to my heart's content without perishing of hypothermia. I used to keep a list on my phone of the restaurants with the best ice, or the gas stations that sold my favorite brand of bagged iced. It's truly insane. But I'm otherwise normal, promise.We don't have a fridge with a functioning ice maker, so I was buying bagged ice at least 3-4x per week to have and to munch on. Eventually I realized that if I found a decent ice maker, it would pay for itself eventually. AND BOY HAS IT! If this machine ever dies, I will absolutely repurchase, immediately. I may buy a backup so I never have to go without, truly.PROS:- Such a great product for the price! It paid for itself (by me no longer buying bagged ice) in like 2 months. I believe when I purchased it, it was discounted pretty significantly which was the cherry on top. But even the regular sale price is super fair for the product.- The ice itself is the biggest pro. Oh my god, the ice. It is officially my favorite ice in the world - topping all the restaurants and bagged ice brands and airlines that I once ranked lol. It is soft but not too soft, and shaped my favorite way (bullets/ovals with holes in the middle). It's so good.- Set up and instructions were super easy.- You can choose small or large sized ice (although I always choose large)- The machine is fairly quick to churn it out - the only times it seemed slow was before I had it for long enough to have collected a stockpile in my freezer.- It's pretty quiet (although, if you are nearby and forget you have it on, the sound of the ice dropping may startle you!)- It isn't very imposing, doesn't take up a ton of surface area and doesn't really catch the eye when you enter the kitchen.- It can take about 64 oz of water at a time. I have the machine right beside my Vitamix, so I just fill the vitamix with water, pour it into the ice maker, and then am good for a while.CONS/Room for Improvement - and I'm being detailed with this but personally, these are all things I'm not altogether fussed about given the trade-off but I know it may matter to others!- The piece that holds the collected ice is big enough to completely fill a cup of mine that holds about 32oz of water. Once it is full, it stops producing ice until it is emptied or has melted down enough to make room to produce more. When I forget to turn it off, I come home to a chamber that was definitely once full, but the ice that has now melted down is positioned in such a way that it still registers as being full even though, with a shake, it's really only half-filled by that point. I'd be happy with a bigger chamber, but honestly the fact that it fills the cup I always use is kind of perfect. If I was fighting others for ice, this may be a bigger deal to me.- When it needs more water, it makes a sound where you know it's trying to run to produce more ice but can't draw up water. I think it'd be a nice touch if it powered off or had some sort of sensor to prevent the motor from continuing to try to make ice until you refill it - similar to the 'ice full' sensor.- If you are stocking up your freezer, you do have to empty out the container yourself. Which leads to some drippage on the floor. It takes a large amount of these trips from machine to freezer to fully fill up the freezer's ice box. And because the ice is soft and wet, it often really clumps together in the ice box so my husband and I have to take turns hacking away at it with a knife so that it breaks apart enough to be able to dispense through our fridge's ice dispenser. I've seen others say they bag it, and as it freezes into one big mass they break it up on the ground like you would bagged ice - which is a solid solution, unless you're filling your freezer's ice box so that it can move through the dispenser like we do.- Ice texture is different the first few times it drops after turning it on, or when it fully empties of water and you completely refill it for some reason? Hard to explain, but after a couple cycles it goes back to perfection. Not a huge deal to me.- Once turning it on, it takes probably...45ish mins (give or take) to fully fill the chamber.- The chamber itself is not chilled, however the collection of ice keeps itself cold for a good while before it starts melting. A completely full container will take at least an hour or two before it is noticeably smaller in size.- It's not really the ice's fault but I prefer the ice straight from the machine over the stockpile I keep in my freezer. Once in the freezer, it (obviously) really solidifies and loses the satisfying softness! So my favorite thing to do is have enough in the freezer for if we have company (or if it is the summer time and my ice consumption is faster than the machine), and otherwise use it straight from the machine!- Because there's work involved with manning the ice maker (work I am happy to do for the payoff), if we are going to fill anything aside from a really small cooler, we will still buy bagged ice for that.

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid product. No issues after years of use.

2026-01-11    -Shane

High quality product. Really churns away at the cube production. So long as you keep feeding it water, it keeps making ice.

5.0 out of 5 stars Best investment For Ice Lovers Everywhere!!!!

2026-01-02    -Samantha

I'm huge on ice. An ice fanatic, if you will. Big fan. HUGE fan of ice. And yes, I have a history of iron deficiency, but even when my iron levels are on point, I just love ice. Any time of year. I bundle up in the winter and lay on heating pads so that I can have ice to my heart's content without perishing of hypothermia. I used to keep a list on my phone of the restaurants with the best ice, or the gas stations that sold my favorite brand of bagged iced. It's truly insane. But I'm otherwise normal, promise.We don't have a fridge with a functioning ice maker, so I was buying bagged ice at least 3-4x per week to have and to munch on. Eventually I realized that if I found a decent ice maker, it would pay for itself eventually. AND BOY HAS IT! If this machine ever dies, I will absolutely repurchase, immediately. I may buy a backup so I never have to go without, truly.PROS:- Such a great product for the price! It paid for itself (by me no longer buying bagged ice) in like 2 months. I believe when I purchased it, it was discounted pretty significantly which was the cherry on top. But even the regular sale price is super fair for the product.- The ice itself is the biggest pro. Oh my god, the ice. It is officially my favorite ice in the world - topping all the restaurants and bagged ice brands and airlines that I once ranked lol. It is soft but not too soft, and shaped my favorite way (bullets/ovals with holes in the middle). It's so good.- Set up and instructions were super easy.- You can choose small or large sized ice (although I always choose large)- The machine is fairly quick to churn it out - the only times it seemed slow was before I had it for long enough to have collected a stockpile in my freezer.- It's pretty quiet (although, if you are nearby and forget you have it on, the sound of the ice dropping may startle you!)- It isn't very imposing, doesn't take up a ton of surface area and doesn't really catch the eye when you enter the kitchen.- It can take about 64 oz of water at a time. I have the machine right beside my Vitamix, so I just fill the vitamix with water, pour it into the ice maker, and then am good for a while.CONS/Room for Improvement - and I'm being detailed with this but personally, these are all things I'm not altogether fussed about given the trade-off but I know it may matter to others!- The piece that holds the collected ice is big enough to completely fill a cup of mine that holds about 32oz of water. Once it is full, it stops producing ice until it is emptied or has melted down enough to make room to produce more. When I forget to turn it off, I come home to a chamber that was definitely once full, but the ice that has now melted down is positioned in such a way that it still registers as being full even though, with a shake, it's really only half-filled by that point. I'd be happy with a bigger chamber, but honestly the fact that it fills the cup I always use is kind of perfect. If I was fighting others for ice, this may be a bigger deal to me.- When it needs more water, it makes a sound where you know it's trying to run to produce more ice but can't draw up water. I think it'd be a nice touch if it powered off or had some sort of sensor to prevent the motor from continuing to try to make ice until you refill it - similar to the 'ice full' sensor.- If you are stocking up your freezer, you do have to empty out the container yourself. Which leads to some drippage on the floor. It takes a large amount of these trips from machine to freezer to fully fill up the freezer's ice box. And because the ice is soft and wet, it often really clumps together in the ice box so my husband and I have to take turns hacking away at it with a knife so that it breaks apart enough to be able to dispense through our fridge's ice dispenser. I've seen others say they bag it, and as it freezes into one big mass they break it up on the ground like you would bagged ice - which is a solid solution, unless you're filling your freezer's ice box so that it can move through the dispenser like we do.- Ice texture is different the first few times it drops after turning it on, or when it fully empties of water and you completely refill it for some reason? Hard to explain, but after a couple cycles it goes back to perfection. Not a huge deal to me.- Once turning it on, it takes probably...45ish mins (give or take) to fully fill the chamber.- The chamber itself is not chilled, however the collection of ice keeps itself cold for a good while before it starts melting. A completely full container will take at least an hour or two before it is noticeably smaller in size.- It's not really the ice's fault but I prefer the ice straight from the machine over the stockpile I keep in my freezer. Once in the freezer, it (obviously) really solidifies and loses the satisfying softness! So my favorite thing to do is have enough in the freezer for if we have company (or if it is the summer time and my ice consumption is faster than the machine), and otherwise use it straight from the machine!- Because there's work involved with manning the ice maker (work I am happy to do for the payoff), if we are going to fill anything aside from a really small cooler, we will still buy bagged ice for that.