Product review (5 stars): A lot tougher than you might think.
This is a robust little ice making workhorse.  I have been using it now for nearly a year and it just keeps churning out the ice.  Having read some of the poor reviews on this item, it is obvious that most of those people do not understand this type of machinery. The instructions are clear that you should unpack it and let it sit upright and unused for a full day before plugging it in or attempting to make ice with it.  That lets the lubricant settle back into the right places inside the mechanism.  Fill the water reservoir before plugging it in, then plug it in and turn it on.  It can take 30-40 minutes to produce the first ice when starting the first time, so just be patient.  Throw away the first several drops of ice cubes to eliminate any funny tastes washed from the components.  Once it has fully chilled the freezer tubes, it will churn out batches of about a dozen cubes every 12-15 minutes for as long as you keep refilling the reservoir.  As soon as it stops and shows the red light to say its basket is full, empty out the cubes and replace the basket.  It will quickly recycle and start making ice again.  Mine has paid for itself many times over.  It makes 28lb of ice a day (or more than 2 1/2 10lb bags of ice) and where I live ice sells for about 2.15 per 10lb bag.  It has proven to be much more robust than I originally thought it was, and the only maintenance needed is to run a quart of water with 5 drops of Clorox through it every couple of weeks to re-sterilize it (dump the ice from that exercise, of course).  I love this little machine.