Portable Countertop Clear Ice Maker Electric Maker Machine 48 lbs Per Day, Make Real Clear Ice Cubes

I did a tremendous amount of research before purchasing this Sentern CLEAR ICE maker. I was prepared for the many things others have complained about. What you need to know...Portable ice makers will NOT make ice like a full size refrigerator ice maker. Portable ice makers have a storage section, but is NOT a freezer. This makes clear ice cubes, not white bullet shaped ice. Clear ice is harder, and has a lot less air in it, therefore, it melts much slower. It does take 20-30 minutes (for the largest size of ice) per batch, but the quality is a lot better than the ice makers that make bullet ice. The largest size is about 1" square and does general have a small dip in it at one end. The ice does come out wet as part of the process (all clear ice from a portable/countertop ice maker will come out this way). It also comes out in a "sheet", but it does break apart easily if you do it before putting in the freezer. We go through a ton of ice in our home, so we make ice every 3 days for a few hours at a time. We freeze it in zip lock freezer bags and then transfer it to our ice maker bin in the freezer. It generally needs to be broken apart again, but if you break the sheets apart before freezing, it takes very little effort (I use a butter knife). I should probably mention that the machine is very quiet. The loudest part is when the ice drops into the basket, which is plastic, so it's not all that loud. I will say that the ice scoop is plastic as well, so it's not very functional. All of the pre-purchase research that I did certainly paid off and I am extremely pleased that this is the one I chose. BTW, I did not receive any compensation in any way for writing this review, I only wish to save anyone looking into ice makers a little bit of time and confusion.

I was very hesitant to buy any portable ice maker I have a tendency to over evaluate things, so after reading the review of many others and growing increasingly skeptical of any brand I chose this one. I am glad I did, It work exactly as advertised and makes great ice. It makes clearer ice than if I use the same water and place ice trays in my freezer. Although they say it will not keep ice frozen in the tray. We made 3 batches of ice ( Broken up ) and ran to town for a few hours and cam back with hey little melt loss. Cycle time is around 9 min

It's amazing how much ice this thing makes, even with the longer freeze cycle for larger cubes. For the first time we've had to store extra ice in the freezer. It's very strange to watch it make ice, and you have to ask "how could that ever work?" But it does, and works well. This replaces a cheaper bullet-style ice maker that broke down after only a year. The quality difference in the ice produced by the two machines is quite significant. Pros - hard, clear, large ice cubes - quiet (most of the time) - lots of ice for family of 6 - easy operation, I think I've only ever changed the ice size and pushed the on button Cons - it's slower than bullet-style ice makers (but worth the slightly longer wait) - the ice scoop and ice bin feel very flimsy, the ice scoop can be replaced with a metal one easily, but I worry about the ice tray breaking over time due to fatigue. The tray is flimsy enough that I worry about cracking it just digging around in the ice with the (equally flimsy) scoop. I hope it's easy to replace the tray if needed - when first starting up and when it stops making ice (due to low water or full ice bin) it can get a little noisy as the condenser (?) spins up/down. - it's a little tall, tall enough that you have to consider convenient access to the water filling hole on the top if you place it on a counter with cabinets above. We have to open the cabinet door above to have enough room to reach the filling hole, but we could probably find somewhere else to put it. So it's early days, but so far very impressed with this machine. Worth every extra penny. Would have been five stars if the ice scoop and tray were a little more hefty.

*Review update* The ice it makes is great. It requires a lot of cleaning to keep bacteria out of the ice maker. After owning it for 8 months, it had a compressor fault, which makes it not functional at all (basically cheaper to replace than to fix). We tossed it and are trying a different route to get great ice instead. __________________________________ New Star Foodservice 34660 One-Piece Cast Aluminum Flat Bottom Bar Ice Flour Utility Scoop, 4-Ounce, SIlver New Star Foodservice 34660 One-Piece Cast Aluminum Flat Bottom Bar Ice Flour Utility Scoop, 4-Ounce, SIlver This ice maker was difficult until I bought the metal ice scoop above. With this, the sheets of ice break apart easily. I do occasionally have run run a little bleach through the system to keep it clean, but it makes great ice and keeps up with a big family in the summer.

UPDATE: I've been using this almost daily for nearly three years and I can honestly say I have no complaints. Easy to clean, quiet, and it reliably just keeps on chugging out ice, day in and day out. One of the best purchases I've ever made. I love this machine! ~~~~~original post: I've been using this for about 10 days now and couldn't be happier with it. It looks good on the counter, was easy to set up, and has been churning out little hard cubes of clear ice consistently. And it is surprisingly quiet, with only a low hum and the sound of tinkling water. We've already made and used the equivalent of four or five commercial bags of ice. The ice is "wet" and the cubes freeze together in the freezer, but a whack or two easily breaks it up into individual cubes. I would buy again or gift it.

I just received this ice machine yesterday so this review may be a bit early. I'll update as needed. The machine arrived a day early; love when this happens. After seting it up, I've been trying out different features. The description says that it can make 3 different sizes of ice but I beg to differ. It can actually make 12 different sizes (ice thicknesses). There are instructions included on how to make the different sizes so I won't go into that. The largest ice, or thickness, is just about a perfect cub leaving just a small dimple. No bother there. The smallest ice, thinnest, makes great ice for munching on. The machine is quiet enough for me. Seems to make more ice than I can use. I just store the ice in my ice-ben in the freezer. I've had a few ice machines and this one is by far the best. Ice is almost clear and use tap water. Now to see how long this machine will hold up.

It worked very well at first when I got it in Feb 2109. I sold several friends on buying one. But as summer months got here it started making a horrible grinding noise like a bearing or something was going. It started occasionally and now does it the whole time while the water is running to make ice. I have looked to find who to contact for warranty or ideas to fix it but nothing comes up with Google. I made sure it was level and cleaned it so now i'm at a loss. I can't even find the manual on line but that could be lack of searching skills on my part. Any advise on how to contact them? Update: I sent an email to them through amazon and they responded very quickly. They gave me suggestions as to how to fix the noise and it improved a lot but didn’t go away so they gave me a refund. I really like the machine and would recommend it as a buy knowing that if u happen to get one that goes bad they will make it right. There are very few actual clear ice machines out there that are portable.

This product generates harder ice than most of its competition, which is generally a good thing because it lasts longer in drinks and doesn't require constant recycling (thus using less energy). However, it's not so good if you only use a little ice each day, since the mechanism can get blocked up with ice if it stays filled up too long. It's also much quieter than our previous machine - the only thing you hear is the clunk as new cubes fall. And it generates less heat. It seems well made, and we haven't had any problems with it in the 2 months we've had it.