Product review (3 stars): Once you get started, it's great.
Update: 8/23/2011

I have now had this ice maker for over three years.  I have discovered several problems with it that I have had to deal with.  My unit stopped working after about a year and a half.  I could hear the machine working, but the plastic tray that moved to collect water for ice to form stopped moving.  I tried to find something online to assist me in getting it to work, but couldn't find anything.  No customer service, no parts information, nothing.

Fortunately, I did find a three part video someone made who had taken their unit apart to make repairs.  Since I didn't want to spend a couple hundred dollars to buy another one and since mine wasn't working, I took it apart to try to figure out what the problem was.  I found out that a small pin inside the electric motor that pushes the plastic tray had broken so the motor would spin but it wouldn't push the tray to move.  I looked everywhere I could online to try to find another motor or some sort of replacement part to fix it.  When I couldn't find anything, I ended up messing around with the motor and was able to get the leftover piece of the pin out of the motor.  It was a small metal pin I was able to find at a local Menards.  I couldn't quite find the right size pin so I had to expand the hole with a drill.  But the pin I got worked.  I was able to get the unit back together and have it start moving the plastic tray again, hold it in place and make ice.

The other main problem I have had is that the plastic tray sticks and catches when it's supposed to move so the ice cubes can fall of the metal coils and then get pushed into the basket.  I don't know why it sticks.  But when the tray moves forward, the piece that pushes the cubes out of the way after they fell twists and gets stuck on the unit.  The motor reverses and keeps trying to push the tray forward but it keeps getting stuck so the machine eventually shuts off.  I have not found a solution for that other than to manually make sure the tray doesn't stick.

It's a pain to have to be present every ten minutes so that the next batch of cubes can get started.  But the machine still makes ice cubes and does so very quickly so I have endured this hassle.  What other choice do I have?  Buy another product that may have a similar issue?  The point for me was to be able to make ice quickly.  It still makes ice.  Other than the white color I noted during the initial review, I have never had any problems with the cubes.  No strange smell or odor.  I use tape water filtered through a Brita filter and have never had a problem with the cubes.

There are a few more issues with the unit stopping itself, shutting down and displaying some sort of an error message.  Usually I have to turn it off, move the plastic tray from whatever position it got stuck in and that seems to reset the motor and the unit works again.  Since there is no customer support or service whatsoever, I have a very low opinion of the company that makes the product.  However, I have still, with these few modifications, been able to enjoy rapid ice production for three years now.  So I have lowered my recommendation to somewhere between 2 1/2 to 3 stars.  When the unit worked like it was supposed to, it was fantastic.  Now, I have to put more effort in to overcome the unit's shortcomings but I still get my desired outcome, rapid production of ice.  So I still like the product.  Would I recommend it to someone else?  Maybe.  But I would definitely explain to them all the difficulties I have had.  I don't know if there is another product out there in the same price range that would work better or not.  So I will keep using mine until it stops working completely.

And if you decide to try to fix your unit on your own, remember this.  There are some plastic pieces inside you're not aware of.  You have to pull the outer casing a little bit to get the plastic tray out.  One side of the tray sticks in the electric motor.  The other side is connected by a removable plastic piece.  My removable piece broke because I didn't know it could be removed until I got it apart.  Check online to see if there's an updated video on how to do it.  Good luck.

Original review:

When I first bought this ice maker, I had problems getting the pump to start pumping water up from the reservoir to the freezing tray.  I was worried mine was a lemon.  I kid you not, I was frustrated so I hit the silly thing on the side.  Not real hard and just out of frustration.  I have no idea what happened but the next time I tried it, the pump worked and it started making ice.

And it has kept making ice ever since.  It works great.  I make ice every couple days.  I'm an iced tea drinker and I must have fresh brewed.  So I make a couple of pounds of ice every few days and I haven't had a problem with the machine running since I hit it.

The only reasons I gave it four instead of five stars are for the previously mentioned delay in getting the thing to work and because the cubes are a funny while color and not clear.  That doesn't really bother me but some people have a problem with it.  I only make the big cubes because the medium and little ones are really small.

I highly recommend this to anyone looking to make ice on a small scale.  I have no basis for an opinion of how it works if you try to crank out pounds and pounds at a time.  But for me, and my two to four pounds at a time, it has worked beautifully.