Product review (5 stars): Love it - love it - love it.  If you want ice in a non-kitchen setting, this ice maker will provide it.
As I've only had this ice maker two weeks, I cannot attest to it's longevity, but I'll update this review if it doesn't last as long as I think it should.

I first heard of these a few years ago and my skeptical button was immediately pushed. Countertop ice maker. Pshaw!.  Then the prices began to come down, and I really wanted to have ice at work without having to haul it from home every day or two. My kids gave me Amazon gift cards for Christmas and my birthday and I just decided - after reading a hundred reviews of several models - to purchase this ice maker.

Still skeptical, but hopeful, (and confident in Amazon if it didn't work) I unpacked the beautiful appliance and set it up. Really the set up consisted of removing the packing tape that held the basket in place and plugging it in. I did rinse the basket out.  I poured cold water in the reservoir and in minutes, literally less than 10 minutes the first ice cubes tumbled into the basket. I had meant to throw out the first few ice cubes but couldn't resist popping one in my mouth. If you are an ice eater/chewer (that sounds pretty disgusting actually) you will love this ice. At least with my water (filtered) the ice is white and soft. Not crystalline. And faster than you can imagine, you've got a basket full of ice. I dumped it on a cookie sheet which I put in the freezer (spreading the cubes out a little bit) and then dumped them into a basket in the freezer.

You don't have to do this. you can serve from the basket. But I like lots and lots of ice, so I wanted a bucket of it in the freezer. The cabinet of the icemaker is not refrigerated, so the ice will begin to melt as soon as it is made. For some people this will be a negative; it doesn't matter to me because I want to freeze it anyway. (I don't dump it into to basket in the freezer immediately because it is wet ice and it will freeze into a huge lump instead of individual cubes.)

The machine looks like a bread machine, but a little taller. It's a beautiful red color, kind of new car metal flake color. It's quiet. You hear the water trickle into the "ice tray" and then hear the ice cubes fall into the basket. I have it in my office and it doesn't bother me or clients a bit. When the reservoir runs dry, it stops making ice and a light comes on to let you know to refill the water if you want more ice. If you turn it off with ice in the basket, it simply melts back into the reservoir to be reincarnated into ice the next time you use is.

So far I couldn't be happier. I love having ice - especially this kind of ice - at my office.