Product review (5 stars): Why did I wait so long?
After years of lugging those cold, heavy bags of ice around, and trying to make them fit in the freezer, and pushing stuff around any time I needed ice (I live in South Texas - I need ice all the time), I finally broke down and bought this high-rated ice maker.  I did my homework before buying, and this one sounded tops. I bought it at Target for $109.

I absolutely love it!

Mine is not noisy at all.  When it drops the ice, it does sound like ice dropping into a basket (duh) and afterwards, you can hear the splash of the ice tray filling again.  Otherwise, all I hear is a gentle fan noise, which is a noise I like, especially when it's making me some ice.

I got it home, thoroughly cleaned and rinsed the insides and dried it.  Waited half an hour per instructions and began making ice.  The first ice had a little bit of the chlorine-like/new plastic smell to it, but it tasted like frozen water - no bad taste whatsoever.  This is using water from an under-sink water filter system.  It recommends using distilled water - didn't have any.

I put it on the largest size and it spit out 9 tiny little cubes in 11 minutes.  I was worried.

It was just getting started though!  The cubes got steadily bigger and more densely frozen with each batch.  Helpful hint:  Use cold water or put a few cubes of ice in the water well when you add water the first time.  This makes the unit colder faster and therefore more efficient. Do it both ways and you'll see the difference in the ice when you use cold water.

I ran it for about 3.5 hours and got the equivalent of a big ole bag of ice.  I put the ice in quart-size baggies and they go just about anywhere scattered around in my freezer, as opposed to taking up a ton of room like those bags.  It's like getting a new freezer, too!  And I'll never buy ice again, or worry about my kitchen flooding while I'm at work because of refrigerator icemaker has gone awry.

It only stopped once - when the ice basket got full. I used the cute scoop (comes with) to clear the basket into a baggy, and pushed the power button and it started right back up.

The unit will make a LOT of ice before needing more water, but you can top it off at any time at all without disturbing the process.

A wonderful kitchen tool; I now consider it a necessity!

UPDATED JUNE 2012

Still works perfectly.  Use it at least once a week and stockpile ice that is much tastier than nasty old freezer-made ice!

UPDATED MARCH 2013

I've never had one single moment of trouble with this icemaker and I still absolutely love it.  I did misplace the plug once.  Wrote an email to Emerson and got an entire new plug assembly for the cost of shipping ($5).  I can't imagine why so many other reviewers are having trouble with theirs.  Mine is perfect and has been in use for years now.