Product review (5 stars): Our guests can scoop up their own ice and never have to go into my kitchen. LOVE THIS!!!
It is difficult for me to explain just how very much I LOVE the Gourmia GI500 Digital Electric Compact Ice Maker. Difficult  because it not only works better than I ever thought possible but it fulfilled a secret dream of mine which was to make almost "instant" ice for my grandkids.

The first night I tried this ice maker out, only my husband & I were here. Every time we heard what became a familiar sound of the ice maker preparing to "drop" the ice into the basket, we rushed to the machine to watch it. This weekend most of my grandchildren were here and they, too, rushed to the machine to watch it make ice.

It was amazing that when I put it on SMALL ice, it took less than 8 min. for the first set of 6 ice "bullets" to plunk into the basket. (Bullets is what my grandkids call them because of their shape).

The first night my g'kids were here, I didn't tell them what this machine would do. I had them add the water & wait by the machine to see what happened. In less than 8 min. the ice machine made ice. That's faster than my refrigerator ice machine makes ice. They all grabbed a piece of the ice straight out of the machine and that's all it took for them to fall in love with it as much as my husband & I had a few days before.

It makes 3 different "sizes" of ice. Basically they are all the same OUTWARD size... it is how thick they are that is the difference between the small, medium & large size. We let the machine continue all day. Each time the basket was full, it made a little beeping sound. Then, we would either use the scoop that was enclosed or the basket that goes on the inside of the machine to empty the ice into bowls. We put the bowls in my outside freezer.

Every now & then, one or two of the g'kids would go to the big freezer and get a piece of ice to crunch on. PLUS our daughter was here with a sore throat and she LOVED the ice as well. It's totally different than the ice that you get from your refrigerator ice machine. It is somehow cruncher & cools a drink down faster.

I have only made it with the machine on my counter top in my kitchen so far but I totally love the fact that it is portable (a bit heavy but portable none the less). All you need is an outlet and some water and pretty soon you will have ice. My son-in-law loves a ton of ice in his drinks. They go camping all the time and this would be perfect for them out on the camp site. All he has to do is add water, plug it in and with in minutes, he will have ice for his drink.

As for me, in the summer time when we have one of our parties, I plan to put this on our back porch and let it make ice during the entire party. Our guests can scoop up their own ice and never have to go into my kitchen. LOVE THIS!!!

I was fortunate to receive this product at a discount in exchange for my HONEST and UNBIASED opinion. I ALWAYS pretest every product prior to writing a review. I am free to write whatever I believe to be true, whether negative or positive. This is my true story and my honest review.