This makes plenty of ice for our wants. It's not going to make it super fast, but it'll be faster than filling an ice tray or waiting for your fridge ice maker to get some ice. It makes tiny pellets, and makes roughly two cups of ice at a time. Perfect for us. We simply fill a two gallon freezer bag for some ready made ice and break it up with a rubber mallet when we want some. it does break up really well and doesn't stay in huge chunks. Whether it's for soda, water or an iced coffee, this has been fantastic ice. The machine did make some funky noises once. I turned it off, unplugged it for a little bit, then plugged it back in and started it back up. No issues since. Don't let it run constantly. It is a small machine and needs breaks. It does not keep the ice in the basket frozen forever. Hence the reason why we bag and store some, and make more as we need it. Having ready made pellet ice that isn't costing us a lot by the bag is fantastic and saves us a trip across town to grab more. I've had zero issues thus far, and filter water before I fill it. I do expect I will have to run a descaling cycle on it to clean, but it does have a self cleaning cycle I can run with descaler, then follow up with a couple rinse cycles. Much like I do with my single cup coffee maker. The ice comes out tasting great and doesn't leave anything behind in my drinks. It doesn't melt too fast and is a little more solid than some popular ice providers, which I love. I might have to get these as holiday gifts for my offspring, as they love pellet ice as well. For the price, portability and size, I'm really digging on this ice maker. Time will tell on lifetime of this machine, but if I get a good couple years out of it, it will have easily paid for itself in that time. Perfect on a budget. Edit: We're in September now, and it's still running like a champ. My husband and I enjoy cold, icy drinks every day. No running problems at all, and the ice doesn't come out tasting or smelling funky. I have yet to run a descale because I put filtered water through it. We run it long enough to fill a two gallon freezer bag, then let it sit and rest while we use the current supply. The bag goes in the deep freeze, and when we want some we smack it a little with a rubber mallet to break up the chunks that freeze together so we have a cup full of good ice.

Purchased for the wife. I really had no idea about what was a good design or bad, only the ice size seemed to matter to the better half. What I got was a really cool designed ice maker that works. Getting into the weeds now: there are two types of ice, wet and dry. Dry is similar to what you get from an ice tray made at home. Wet is what you get from this machine. That is not a bad thing. The water reservoir also holds the ice basket. You can pour the water through the empty basket or pull the basket to add water if it holds ice. The water is pumped into the freezing tube built into the back side of the unit, where it is pushed up by water pressure as it freezes and as it exits the tube, a steal pin breaks the ice off which then slides into the basket for use. As it sits there, it will melt a little bit which allows that water to the be returned to the freezing unit. As it does that it also pre-chills the water which makes freezing more efficient and slightly faster. If all the water put in the unit is allowed to be made into ice it will begin backing up the little chute until it blocks that little steal pin that breaks off the formed ice. This stops the unit. Once enough of the ice has melted to clear that chute, it will start up again and reform the ice. Cons: if you keep making ice for use later by removing the ice to a freezer and refilling the machine to make more it will just keep churning and you will be happy. Until you discover that the ice you moved into the freezer has turned into a block of ice, because as I said in the beginning, this ice is WET. As far as I can tell, my wife has given up on trying this and just turns it on or calls me to do so if she is out. She uses what she wants and either lets it do its thing or turns it off. I filter my own water so I will not have any buildup issues. If you (or I) were to use tap water, I can see all kinds of issues with buildup over time. The unit is really easy to clean and use. The ease of use is simple if you follow the manual, it needs access to air along the sides and back to dissipate heat. You cannot jam this into a tight spot blocking airflow nor can you run it while it is covered or enclosed. If you do, it will be destroyed or at least dramatically decreasing the lifespan. As built, it should last long enough to get out the value placed into it with purchase. It could last even longer but in today’s day and age, that is not so likely.

I’ve been looking for nugget ice cube maker for some time and finally decided to try this machine. The advertisement is incorrect from the seller. Everything on the page said “nugget”. The machine was well packaged. The instructions are very simple to follow for cleaning, washing, and installing. It takes about 5 min for the first few almost solid forms of ice cubes to come out. This is a “pebble” ice maker. It makes small pebbles, not nuggets. I was extremely disappointed. The machine does make noises when it goes into making ice cycles, but not overly noisy where it interferes with conversation at the dinner table. The pebbles are small enough that they seem to be chewable without too much stress on my teeth. I’ve already shattered a molar last year from chewing ice :( but this doesn’t seem to give too much resistance on the bite so I decided to just keep it. I like to make various syrup drinks and it’s quick and easy settlement when I don’t want to use my blender to make smoothies. I don’t drink alcohol - but because the ice is small and it’s made quickly, it melts fast. So I assume that if you like iced alcohol beverage this might not be the perfect ice for it as it will dilute the drink quicker than usual