Product review (5 stars): Wonderful
I love our rented home but our freezer does not have an ice maker, nor are there pipes behind the fridge if we wanted to install one. Ice trays are a huge fight for us, because someone always leaves the empty trays on the counter. Bagged ice works for a while, but having to buy ice regularly gets frustrating. Did I mention we live in Florida? Ice is a necessity here, and half the time the gas stations & grocery stores are out of bags. I was fed up with the entire ice situation, until now. This machine is my new best friend. It is a little noisy, but it is a consistent white noise so it drowns out pretty easily. Filling the tank with water yields about 3 full baskets, and 3 full baskets fills about a gallon size zip-lock freezer bag. I run the machine for a couple of hours maybe twice a week, and that seems to be enough to keep us stocked with 3 or 4 full gallon bags. The ice cubes are cute little gumdrop shapes, even the large ones are small, but they work just the same. The machine pauses when the basket of ice is full, if you forget about it the ice will stay frozen for a few hours (it's essentially a cooler), and when the ice melts it just drops back into the water reservoir, and the machine will make new ice from it. When the machine runs out of water it will auto shut off. It looks good on my counter, the black and stainless steel compliment my kitchen. I put it at a diagonal on the counter so as not to block the fan on the side. I would imagine that if the fan is blocked it could potentially over heat, as it does get warm. I would definitely recommend this product to anyone in my situation, or anyone who entertains often. My next home will definitely have a functional ice machine in the freezer, and this will be great addition for a wet or dry bar, or by the pool!