Product review (5 stars): Paid for itself in the first month
I use this in my basement when having people over and it's a fantastic way to avoid running up and down the stairs all night for ice, or dealing with an ice bucket that melts the ice in no time at all.  True to it's word, you can get the first cubes of ice within 9 minutes of turning it on.  If hosting company, just turn it on an hour before anyone arrives and as long as you check on it periodically to add water (maybe a couple times throughout the course of an afternoon/night) you'll have a continuous supply of ice.  We recently had 12 people over and started the machine roughly 1 hour before anyone got there.  I added water twice during the evening and we never ran out.  I've had this about 6 months and it's just an awesome product.