Product review (4 stars): If you're buying to make ice for parties, please read!
I host a lot of parties at my home each year and subsequently, I end up spend A LOT of money on ice (probably $25ish per party). What a waste of money!!! I figured I'd buy an ice maker, make my own ice, and after probably a year's worth of parties I'd have covered the cost of the ice maker, plus that would be one less thing I'd have to run to the store for at the last minute. After reading the description, I was so excited and purchased this enthusiastically. I received it quickly, washed it out, plugged it in, filled it up, and it started making ice no problem. What I quickly realized was that I GROSSLY misinterpreted the description of this product (I'll blame it on my ADHD). For some reason, I thought this thing was going to be an ice making powerhouse, pushing out ice at warp speed. I was wrong, wrong, wrong. When it says you'll have your first "batch of ice" within minutes, what it really means is you'll have about enough ice to fill up one glass in about 6-8 minutes. Upon speaking with my friends, I apparently have no concept of how ice makers work and this thing is actually pretty fast. Still didn't satisfy me though since I have unrealistic expectations. LOL!

So, if you're planning on using this as a substitute  to purchasing ice for parties, it will certainly do the job, you just need to plan ahead and make sure you have room in your freezer to store all the ice. Obviously depending on how much ice you'll need, I'd recommend beginning about 2 days prior to your party. You'll need to make sure you empty the tray every 2 hours or so when it fills up, and re-fill the water container every 6 hours or so. The description states that it makes up to 28 pounds of ice per day, and it does technically, however you need to take into account emptying the tray every 2 hours, which you can't do while you're sleeping, so realistically, you can't really make 28 pounds per day. I think I made something like 36 pounds of ice in about 2 1/2

All in all though, I'd recommend it. It's really simple and ready to use right out of the box (minus wiping it down and doing a throw away cycle just so your ice doesn't have a plasticy smell).